Bouncing a LoRa message off the moon • Hacker News Board

Re: Bouncing a LoRa message off the moon

#21

Post by gh02t » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 7:01 PM UTC

jmole wrote: post #2

of all the things to bounce off the moon, why a consumer IoT protocol? Alien 1: The humans are talking again. Alien 2: What did they say? Alien 1: The front door is locked.

LoRa isn't really a consumer protocol, more of an industrial one. It's mostly intended for widely distributed sensor networks.

Re: Bouncing a LoRa message off the moon

#22

Post by imoverclocked » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 7:03 PM UTC

numlock86 wrote: post #13

giantg2 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A consumer protocol, but also way over consumer power level (350W). No wonder it's the furthest LoRa message sent. Let's bump it up to 1kW and break the record again...

1kW? Are you crazy??? Let's see 25mW, which is the maximum you are allowed to use in Germany for 868 MHz ...

I agree, if we are doing this, go big. 1MW would be far more exciting and the experiment definitely wouldn't go unnoticed.

Re: Bouncing a LoRa message off the moon

#23

Post by bartkappenburg » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 7:04 PM UTC

Cool! Dwingeloo is like 40km (25 miles) from here. They're doing interesting stuff over there (eg. being a test site for LOFAR [0]).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwingeloo_Radio_Observatory

Re: Bouncing a LoRa message off the moon

#24

Post by Rebelgecko » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 7:06 PM UTC

gh02t wrote: post #21

jmole wrote: post #2

of all the things to bounce off the moon, why a consumer IoT protocol? Alien 1: The humans are talking again. Alien 2: What did they say? Alien 1: The front door is locked.

LoRa isn't really a consumer protocol, more of an industrial one. It's mostly intended for widely distributed sensor networks.

I think Amazon Sidewalk (included w/ every Alexa now) is built on top of LoRa

Re: Bouncing a LoRa message off the moon

#25

Post by marcodiego » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 7:08 PM UTC

LoRa has some ridiculous range with minimal use of power. Being able to bounce it off the moon may allow communication between a whole Earth hemisphere. At the least, this allows beyond-horizon communication.

Re: Bouncing a LoRa message off the moon

#26

Post by YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 7:13 PM UTC

-

Re: Bouncing a LoRa message off the moon

#27

Post by sneak » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 7:13 PM UTC

metal_am wrote: post #8

I’m having a hard time seeing what’s special about this. This has been a HAM radio thing for a long time. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth–Moon–Earth_communicati...

They did it with a data modulation mode (LoRa) which has the following properties:

- it is very resistant to noise

- it is low power

- it is popular

- it is patented/proprietary

Re: Bouncing a LoRa message off the moon

#28

Post by ineedasername » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 7:26 PM UTC

jmole wrote: post #2

of all the things to bounce off the moon, why a consumer IoT protocol? Alien 1: The humans are talking again. Alien 2: What did they say? Alien 1: The front door is locked.

Alien 3: We need to find this Alexa person

Re: Bouncing a LoRa message off the moon

#29

Post by walrus01 » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 7:32 PM UTC

jmole wrote: post #2

of all the things to bounce off the moon, why a consumer IoT protocol? Alien 1: The humans are talking again. Alien 2: What did they say? Alien 1: The front door is locked.

lora is used for more than just consumer iot control - it's one of the most effective ways to bridge a serial connection across a very low bandwidth/RF difficult or weak link.

Re: Bouncing a LoRa message off the moon

#30

Post by __MatrixMan__ » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 7:32 PM UTC

noman-land wrote: post #20

jmole wrote: post #2

of all the things to bounce off the moon, why a consumer IoT protocol? Alien 1: The humans are talking again. Alien 2: What did they say? Alien 1: The front door is locked.

I think it would be extremely neat to have a fully citizen run global p2p infrastructure that is nearly free, resilient to electrical and internet outages, and able to reach remote and distant places.

I'd crowdfund the maintenance of LoRa repeaters on nearby mountaintops. I'd also do the hiking to maintain them, sounds like as good a premise for adventure as any.