Take a $40 computer on a board, a $60 display screen, a $60 Terminal Network Controller board and a bit of free software and your own ham radio equipment and you have PiGate:
PiGate
EMERGENCY EMAIL GATEWAY
When disaster strikes, communication is the most important missing service. Amateur radio operators have a long history of helping in disaster situations and this new device was created to assist in that effort.
The PiGate is a small piece of hardware that can be brought into a disaster area, connected to an already existing VHF or HF amateur radio and antenna (like in your car or truck), and used to send e-mail to the global Winlink2000 system through a Radio Message Server (RMS) station.
Users connect to the PiGate thru a WiFi port either using a web browser, or an e-mail application, on their smartphone, tablet, or laptop. From there they can compose and send e-mail to their family and friends.
The Winlink2000 global e-mail radio service then routes the e-mail to any address in the world.
The PiGate is very small and has a very low power requirement, allowing it to be used in disaster situations without relying on any other services. Except for an external power requirement and a connection to a HF or VHF radio, It is completely self-contained.
Very cool - already have a couple RaspberryPi computers here for other stuff - it will be nice to add one to my go-kit. E-mail without the Internet. It piggy-backs onto existing ham radio protocols. Slow but bullet-proof which in the coming zombie apocalypse is a good thing.
