Blog

by Nick Baker

George backflips from a plane at Skydive Spaceland, Houston, Texas. Photo credit: Kristopher Kai Calicott

George Ure II is a skydiver, amateur radio operator, and goTenna user. He also happens to be the current goTenna range record holder, having successfully messaged another user nearly 15 miles away during a jump in which he put our device’s range to the test. We spoke to George about his love of skydiving, his interest in ham radio, and how goTenna fits in with his hobbies.

When did you take your first dive, and what made you want to go for it?

George: I started skydiving three years ago. I was actually a student pilot —aviation runs in my family, and my dad has a small plane — and I had my student certificate and medical certificate, and was actively taking lessons. I thought it was a good idea to look into emergency parachutes.

I looked them up online, and watched this YouTube video from a company that makes emergency parachutes. I clicked that video and it was a skydiving video. I realized quickly, “Hey, those parachutes they use for skydiving, those aren’t round parachutes. They’re inflatable wings!” 

Right then and there, I thought, “I don’t think flying a plane is gonna do it for me.”

How do you prepare for a dive? Do you get nervous?

Not anymore. For my first jump — I’ve never gone tandem, though it’s very common for people to go tandem and love it — I went right into the student course, called static line. You take a 4- or 5-hour course, and then you just go for it.

Anybody who tells you they were not absolutely terrified on the first jump is lying to you. I remember getting out on that wing, and holding onto that strut, and I look over at the instructor and he give me the thumbs-up to go. I’m thinking to myself, “What the hell am I doing? I could be inside that plane right now.”

Did you ever think, even for a second, about not jumping and getting back into the plane?

No, because once you’re out there, if you try to get back in, there’s a lot that could go wrong. And I was like, “Well, you got this far, so remember your training and you should be OK. You bought the ticket — it’s time to take the ride.”

I let go, the parachute opened fine and pretty much right away. I got to the ground, and I was like, “OK, that was cool. Let’s do it again!”

The more you do it, the less you have to prepare mentally. As far as preparing physically, the hardest physical activity of skydiving is packing your parachute, and getting 170 square feet of nylon into a bag the size of shoebox. [Laughs]

George performing the ‘horny gorilla’ stunt with a friend at Skydive Snohomish, Snohomish, Wash. Photo credit: Justin Hooper

That’s awesome. Watching your video, and seeing you step out of the plane, I’m not sure  I could ever take those steps.

You could.

Hah, maybe (note: DEFINITELY NOT). In regards to training, what requirements are there for certification, and what does the training involve?

Well, there are four different licenses for skydiving in the United States. There’s an “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” license, and I’m a C-level license holder, which is an advanced-level license. The A license is what everybody gets when they first become a skydiver. All you have to do to get your A license is do 25 jumps, but there’s more to it than that.

You need to show stability. There are certain waypoints along the way, certain objectives that you need to complete, and certain aerial maneuvers you need to perform. The A license progression program is all about showing that you can do basic in-air maneuvers, land safely, and knowing the rules of the skydiving road. There are a lot of parallels that skydiving has to being a pilot. Our landing patterns are the same, and we always want to land into the wind. We also don’t want to hit anything. The first rule of skydiving is, “Don’t hit any object at a high rate of speed.”

That’s a pretty good rule! What are your favorite places to skydive?

In Washington we’re lucky, because we have a lot of awesome drop zones here. But my all-time favorite place to go is actually in Texas. Texas is home to Skydive Spaceland, which is Skydive Mecca in the United States. It’s a huge drop zone, they have seven huge planes to hold a ton of people, and they’re open everyday but Christmas. It’s an awesome place. That’s my favorite drop zone in the U.S. I’ve jumped in Texas, California, Oregon and Washington.

George, post-landing, at Skydive Snohomish, Snohomish, Wash. Photo credit: Lark Ballinger

Do you have a best-ever skydive?

There are three that stick out in my mind. The first one was when my altimeter failed. As soon as I exited the plane my altimeter failed, and that will always stick with me because it was the first time that something went really wrong. But, I just held my cool, just did everything I was supposed to do, and everything worked out fine.

The second one is when I landed in somebody’s backyard. That sucked. But the house was for sale, so there was nobody there. I landed in the middle of a sticker bush the size of a small apartment. That also sucked.

The third is my goTenna skydive. I’m a ham radio operator also, and ham radio and skydiving have absolutely nothing to do with each other. But, those are my two main hobbies. When you can put skydiving and radio together, I think that’s beautiful. I get to test out equipment — that’s my radio element. And then I get to jump out of a plane, which I’d be doing anyway. How cool is that?

A breathtaking goPro video from George’s first goTenna skydive.

That’s pretty cool. How did you get into ham radio?

Like aviation, ham radio runs in the family. My dad is an amateur radio operator, and I actually started getting into ham radio because I got into emergency preparedness and disaster preparedness. I was doing some volunteering with the local health department, and I just wanted to be more prepared. Communication, of course, is extremely important in any disaster or any emergency. I just wanted to learn about radio and different forms of communication that didn’t require the mainstream cell phone/telephone/internet route, and that’s how I got into ham radio.

I went from being a basic license holder when I first started doing ham radio to having the advanced, can’t-go-any-higher license, and actually becoming an instructor and teaching classes for the health department.

It’s the same with skydiving. Whatever I do, I tend to take it all the way, to the extreme.

George receiving an award for Compassion in Action for his volunteer efforts and dedication to emergency preparedness from American Red Cross at Washington State Convention Center, Seattle, Wash.

Can you tell us a little more about your emergency volunteer work, and how you got started?

I got into volunteering as an emergency worker six years ago because I wanted to be more prepared in case of a disaster. About a year into volunteering I got the opportunity to be deployed to Joplin, Missouri, right after a tornado destroyed about half of the city, including their hospital. To this day I still volunteer with the Seattle/King County Public Health Medical Reserve Corps.

How did you first hear about goTenna?

I’ve been following goTenna since my buddy told me about it right when it was in the preorder phase. It was one of those things where I was like, “Whoa, that’s a game-changer.”

It’s a game-changer because it makes its own network, and it doesn’t require any classes like amateur radio does. Yeah, I could essentially do the same thing goTenna does with my laptop, a radio, and an antenna, but that’s ridiculously cumbersome and requires a lot of training and practice to get it right. Something that is as small as goTenna and does the same thing, with something that you already have and know how to use [i.e. your smartphone], that’s amazing.

Do you have any plans for another jump?

There’s a group of four of us that, once the weather gets better, we’re going to really put this thing through the paces and see what we can do. We had a really good test run from full altitude – the first goTenna jump I did was from 5000 feet – and we got 14.4 miles on that. That’s only because the person farthest away was 14.4 miles away [so we didn’t max out]. The second jump, it was so cold at altitude because you lose 3 degrees per thousand feet, so it was in the negatives with wind chill, and my phone actually just shut off. But the goTenna didn’t!

by goTenna Product & Engineering

We’ve released our latest apps for both iOS (v 3.0.0) and Android (v 1.23). This update brings the release of end-to-end 384-bit elliptic encryption that will make all 1-to-1 and group chats even more private.

This app & firmware update is required because it breaks compatibility between users who have encryption and those who don't.

We promise these kinds of required updates will be a rare occurrence. But in the meantime, make sure you and every goTenna user you know updates ASAP so you can all enjoy the latest features — and communicate out in the field!

After you’ve downloaded the new app, the firmware upgrade only takes 10 minutes on iOS and up to 20 minutes on Android.

First time doing a goTenna firmware update?

It’s easy! Download the new app, open it, and follow the instructions. You’ll want your goTenna to be charged or charging and paired to your iOS or Android device so the firmware update doesn’t fail and need to restart. (You can keep using other apps during the upgrade.)

Haven’t yet used your goTennas?

No problem! Download the new app, and go through the standard setup which includes pairing to your goTenna for the first time. After onboarding, each new user will be prompted to upgrade the firmware, at which point the process is the same as described above.

Trade off a goTenna device with other users?

All of you need to download the new app, but the firmware update only needs to be completed once.

How does encryption work?

When sending one-to-one and group messages, the messages are encrypted with a 384-bit key. The end result is that only the people you want to see the message will see it. Shouts and emergency messages will remain unencrypted because those are designed to be broadcast to anyone that’s listening.

Essentially, encryption is based on public and private keys. A message encrypted with a public key can only be decrypted with the matching private key. For example, when sending a one-to-one message to a friend, if your goTenna does not have your friend’s public key, it will automatically request it. It then encrypts the message with your friend’s public key and sends it. Only your friend has the matching private key, so only they can decrypt the message. This happens in both directions, so each time a message is sent in any direction it can only be decrypted by the receiver. This happens automagically.

Group encryption is a bit more complicated, because you don’t want to be sending lots of messages encrypted with different public keys. As a result, the goTenna automatically creates a common secret for groups known to the devices in the group you create. The end result is everyone in the group can encrypt and decrypt any message sent within the group.

Check out the complete list of updates and fixes below. And just before we get to those, here’s a #pro-tip: We encourage all users to set their phones to enable auto-updating of apps in the background while they are on WiFi. This will make it easier for all users to ensure they’re always on the latest and greatest software without having to manually update.

iOS (v 3.0.0)

What’s new:

Various UI improvements based on user feedback

End-to-end encryption of 1-to-1 and group messaging

Added messaging timestamps

Protocol performance improvements in areas with high RF congestion

1-to-1 messages now retry for up to a minute in congested areas

Reduced phone power consumption by disabling previous “always-on” GPS data

Introduced new backend protocol enhancements to better manage future feature upgrades with less firmware updates or compatibility issues

Bug Fixes:

Various other minor bugs and fixes.

Resolved issue where maps successfully downloaded but sometimes disappeared from the available & downloaded lists

Resolved issue that prevented app from performing firmware updates on multiple goTennas without having to force close the app

Resolved issue that sometimes resulted in duplicate messages displayed to users

Will no longer attempt to show distance to a point on the map if location services are not enabled by user

Resolved an issue with permissioning where if a user did not grant contact permissions during on-boarding it would not be possible to do so in the future without reinstalling the app.

Android (v 1.23)

What’s new:

Various UI improvements based on user feedback

End-to-end encryption of 1-to-1 and group messaging

Added messaging timestamps

Protocol performance improvements in areas with high RF congestion

1-to-1 messages now retry for up to a minute in congested areas

Introduced new backend protocol enhancements to better manage future feature upgrades with less firmware updates or compatibility issues

Latitude and Longitude of shared locations are now displayed on the pin detail screen

Bug Fixes:

Various other minor bugs and fixes.

Resolved issue where maps successfully downloaded but sometimes disappeared from the available & downloaded lists

Resolved issue that prevented app from performing firmware updates on multiple goTennas without having to force close the app

Fixed bug where previously downloaded maps could not be deleted

Push notification icons now show up on Marshmallow devices

Resolved issue that sometimes resulted in duplicate messages displayed to users

Fixed bug where character limits were not properly enforced during on-boarding

Fixed bug where pins on maps could not be properly deleted

When the keyboard appears, chat messages are now correctly scrolled to the latest message

Fixed a rare bug where the download of maps could cause the app to crash

Fixed a bug where the confirmation checkmarks on 1-to-1 messages disappeared after an app close

Logging out of the app now deletes all user info, including conversations

Fixed a bug where having a country code (like +1…) saved into a contact before their phone number would make the contact not show up as an available contact in goTenna

by Raphael Abrams

“What’s hot?” is one of the most crucial pieces of information for debugging electronics. Poking around with a finger works fine when the parts are at least a few fractions of an inch in size, and spaced reasonably far apart. Despite inevitable burns, this is an effective technique.

An enlarged, prototype circuit board used for testing functionality in goTenna’s smaller internal board

But things got small! goTenna uses incredibly tiny surface-mount parts, some as small as one-hundredth of an inch. Attempts to feel for the hot ones are confused by feeling dozens of parts simultaneously. Non-contact thermometers are no good, as the focus area is several times larger than the parts we’re looking for. Probes are also too big and too slow – our only option is to use thermal cameras.

Prototype circuit board as seen through thermal camera.

Look at that! We can see what’s happening on the board now. The trouble parts are glowing like hotel carpet under ultraviolet light; we now have total visibility into a bad situation.

But I find myself somewhat dissatisfied. Even this amazing power might not be enough. What if, instead of whole parts, we want to look at which pin on a given part is heating up? Or just something crazy small? We have a problem. Most low-end thermal cameras are fixed-focus, and the closest you can hope to get is about three feet away. Unless you want to spend a ton of money for a variable-focus model, you’re out of luck. But there’s a cheap way around his limitation: lenses! (Not normal glass ones, those are completely opaque to infrared.)

Special lenses! Ebay has them for about $20. Just look for “laser cutter lens” on the internet and you’ll find them. They’re made of Zinc Selenide, and are a deep yellow color. I use a two-inch focal length, but that’s just because it’s what I have on hand most of the time.

Mount one to a piece of cardboard and stick that on the front of your thermal camera and…

Heat emitting from the circuit board

Closeup shot of the “hot spot” on the circuit board

You now have a microscope that sees heat. Welcome to the future!

I would love to have my thermal camera macro mode without modification, and this blog entry is me asking the industry to do that. How about it, industry? Can we have a nice, cheap thermal camera with close focus? There’s a real need for it, especially in the booming Maker community.

Chuck and Kristy Stanton at the Temple of Poseidon, Cape Sounion, Greece

Chuck and Kristy Stanton are world-travelers and goTenna users. Chuck is a retired naval aviator and airline pilot who now writes medieval military history with Kristy assisting on research. Together, they’ve traveled to more than 50 countries on nearly every continent. They recently returned from a trip through Southeast Asia, during which they brought their goTennas to communicate with each other and remain appraised of each other’s locations. We talked to them about their excursions, and how they plan and prepare for traveling abroad.

Which locations did you have a chance to visit while you were in Southeast Asia?

CHUCK: Well, for some background, I’m a Cambridge [University] alumnus, and the trip we were on was a Cambridge alumni trip. Part of the trip was a cruise down the Mekong [River in Vietnam] from Siem Reap in Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City — or as we know it, Saigon — and we added on the exploration of the rest of Vietnam, mostly by air and by ground transportation.

Kristy handles all the transportation arrangements, so we decided to start the trip on our own in Shanghai. On our way back out, we went through Hong Kong. The formal excursion itself started in Siem Reap, which is in the northern part of Cambodia near Angkor Wat. The scholar that guided the journey was Charles Higham. He’s a famous archaeologist from New Zealand. He, along with a government-sponsored guide, took us all through the temples of the Angkor civilization.

Kristy at Angkor Wat in Northern Cambodia

Any particularly memorable moments?

CHUCK: I think that both of us were looking forward to exploring Angkor Wat. We knew that it was going to be a remote locale, and we were also a little anxious because Kristy suffers from fibromyalgia, which occasionally causes her bouts of disorientation, particularly in unfamiliar environments and in the heat. So, if we got separated, we wanted her to be able to contact me, and we wanted to be able to find each other very quickly. [goTenna] proved to do that terrifically while we were in Angkor Wat.

As it turns out, it was a very hot day, and some members of our party had already showed signs of heat stroke. We got separated in the temple complex, which is the largest religious complex in the world. It has an outer-wall gallery and an inner-wall gallery, plus a central sanctuary, and it covers a fair amount of acreage. I was in the central sanctuary at the top, when I got a message from her wanting me. She had sent me her position. There was nothing wrong, but the incident gave us a great deal of confidence that we could travel anywhere, whether we have cell phone coverage or not, and keep that connection for safety reasons, if nothing else.

KRISTY: In addition to Angkor Wat, there are many different temples in the Angkor area. We also enjoyed Hanoi and Saigon and exploring different cities. A favorite place of mine was Shanghai. There were many different kinds of environments we explored. But I would say it was the Angkor sites in Cambodia. I was in awe of the temples and especially enjoyed the Bayon Temple with the many stone faces of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and Ta Prohm Temple with the huge trees and other growth throughout. And, of course Angkor Wat!

Chuck in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

How do you usually prepare for your excursions? Do you have any tips for international travel?

KRISTY: We travel light. So essentially, we each carry a backpack. All we need are a passport, a toothbrush, an iPhone, and goTenna. Oh, and a change of clothes.

The goTenna is a very reliable tool for planning when you’re going off-grid, or when you’re going to visit a new city. When we were going to visit Saigon for the first time, I wasn’t sure where our hotel was. I found where the hotel was and marked it on the map. When we got there, I could use it to find where we needed to go. It’s an excellent planning tool, which was a bonus that I hadn’t anticipated.

Pins created by the Stantons on goTenna’s offline maps of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi

CHUCK: We plan well in advance, using guidebooks and recommended accounts which emphasize the history and cultural of the nation or region we intend to visit.  We also study the mass transportation systems and devise an itinerary which allows us to walk as much as possible to visit what sights we wish to see.

I think the most important travel tip I could offer is to prepare in advance. Sit down and read about the country or city you’re going to, plan out using mass transportation, plan out what you what you want to see, and have reservations where you want to stay, at least for the first night. I would say that would be the most important thing to do.

Most of our travel is independent, so we rely on the guidebooks and good maps, we pretty much plan on walking everywhere, so good walking shoes are important, and our safety outlook is maintaining situational awareness through teamwork. In other words, we try to keep communication with each other, and maintain our awareness of where we are within a given environment, and we feel like we’re pretty safe.

Kristy at a marketplace in Vietnam

What are your most memorable international adventures?

CHUCK: For the last 25 years, we’ve traveled a great deal, particularly in Europe, but also in Asia, South America and Central America. We’ve been to pretty much every country in Europe and the northern Mediterranean. A favorite travel of ours was to Greece and Turkey that we did a few years ago. We loved Istanbul. We’ve been to Brazil and Argentina. We’ve gone to Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, which is a special favorite of ours. As we travel to more conventional places, we find that we’re more interested in more remote, outlying locales, like Angkor Wat or Machu Picchu.

KRISTY: It’s hard to pick a favorite travel adventure, but I would have to say our photo safari in Kenya and Tanzania in 2003 is at the top of the list. It was just a fantastic experience to travel through the Masai Mara, to Lake Nakuru, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara and see lions, giraffes, elephants, experience a part of the wildebeest migration, and lots more. Plus, to top it off — a balloon ride floating over the Serengeti! All so very special. It was a magical two weeks.

Which were the best, most off-the-grid destinations you’ve been to, and what makes them special to you?

KRISTY: Honestly, it’s impossible to pick one favorite. As to “why?” — I never thought of the “why” before - there is so much beauty and diversity in our world, I’d like to experience as much of it as I safely can. A few off-grid favorites we enjoyed hiking and exploring include The Serengeti, Iguaçu Falls in Argentina and Brazil, Cinque Terre in Italy, the southern coast of Australia, Torres del Paine in Chile, Lion Gate in Mycenae, Greece, Mt. Fuji in Japan, and Denali, Alaska.

Chuck at Lion Gate, Mycenae, Greece

The Stantons on the Appian Way, an ancient Roman road in southeast Italy

How does goTenna fit in with your travel needs?

KRISTY: I pre-ordered well in advance, kept an eye out, and I was able to sign up to be a beta tester. We had beta devices for a weekend here around Princeton [New Jersey], and we were so impressed. What we didn’t anticipate was that it would enhance the pleasure of our travel. On several occasions during the trip [to Southeast Asia], we were able to break away from the group with confidence. We had the goTenna system. It has wonderfully detailed maps that are easy to manipulate. We were able to find where our hotel was, certain sites we were interested in seeing, and we were able to plan our independent travel from the group in advance.

CHUCK: We would turn on our systems, and keep them on pretty much all day going down the Mekong. We always knew where we were. At the end of the day, we would have over 50 percent battery life left, so we had to charge it every other day. goTenna was a tremendous tool for us.

by Nick Baker

Winter crept up slowly this year in many parts of the country — here in NYC we had an odd 75-degree Christmas! — but there’s no denying the coldest season has finally arrived. No need to go into hibernation, however! We think a little snow and cold weather is no reason to slow you down. Some of us even look forward to braving the wintry conditions.

Here are some tips on how to be prepared for — and stay safe during — any outdoor winter excursion.

1. Warm up to warm up

Cold weather will cause muscles to tighten up, so keep loose and do simple exercises or activities to keep blood flowing. It also helps to warm up in a warm environment before heading out — a few stretches and mild cardio indoors before venturing out can make the transition to a colder temperature much less unpleasant. A hot shower helps too!

2. Layer up, but not too much

Your body will eventually adjust to the cold weather after exposure, so while you may be cold at first, once you get moving you will warm up. As a result, it’s important not to overdress, as you definitely don’t want to find yourself sweating in the frigid air. It helps to have a wind-and-weatherproof outer layer, an insulating mid-layer, and a breathable bottom layer to help prevent perspiration. Also, it should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: be sure to wear warm socks, gloves and a hat.

3. Make a smart snack pack

Your body will burn calories trying to maintain a warm temperature, and hiking with the added weight of winter clothes will cause your body to expend energy at a higher rate. It’s important to eat foods that will give you fuel and not weigh you down. Eat light and in shorter intervals, and try to focus on foods that will provide your body with efficient energy. Carbohydrates will provide bursts of energy, but sugar crashes can leave you feeling both exhausted and cold. Simple carbs, like those found in fruits, will provide high energy bursts, while complex carbs (breads) take longer to digest, but will provide longer-lasting energy. Additionally, snacks like nuts and granola bars will provide quick fuel that won’t slow you down.

4. Study the terrain and check the weather

You don’t need to memorize topographic maps, but you should have a foundational knowledge of what to expect while exploring any wintry environment. Know which trails to stick to, and be sure to check for any advisories or warnings before beginning your excursion. If the terrain is mountainous, check on avalanche conditions. If you think you’re walking across a wide-open field, only to suddenly realize you’re actually in the middle of a frozen lake, you haven’t done your homework.

goTenna users braving heavy snowfall in Colorado

5. Know when the sun will set

We all know it gets dark early in winter months, but knowing exactly when nightfall will occur can be crucial on your excursion. The darkness can sneak up quickly, so it helps to know when the sun will set, and roughly where you can expect to be when it does. You don’t want to find yourself in the middle of a trail at sunset with a long way to go – visibility is more limited in the dark, and the temperature will drop. It doesn’t hurt to bring a flashlight or headlamp, either.

6. Leave the caffeine & alcohol for later

We’re fans of both, so writing that sentence was a bit of a bummer. However, it doesn’t compare to being uncomfortably cold when exposed to the elements, and both caffeine and alcohol can leave you feeling chilly. A cup of piping-hot coffee in freezing cold weather is a beautiful thing, but caffeine restricts blood flow and cools your extremities. Conversely, a little alcohol may get you feeling warm and fuzzy, but as alcohol increases your blood flow, it also cools your core temperature. Hot beverages that include neither coffee nor alcohol, like herbal tea, can warm you up without the unwanted side-effects.

7. Be prepared to build a fire

You should know how to start one in the event of an emergency. Not only can a fire keep you warm if you’re stranded, it can help search-and-rescue teams locate you and seek you out if you’re lost.

8. Plan for a reliable means of communication

Going off-grid can be a refreshing way to decompress, but you never want to venture out into the wilderness without a reliable method of communication. Make sure your phone is adequately charged, and note that cold weather can drain battery life and have an effect on the functions of the LCD screen. Turn your phone into Airplane Mode when you don’t have service to conserve battery, as searching for cell towers and wifi signals will quickly drain your battery. Additionally, it never hurts to make plans in advance, so setting up rendezvous points and meeting times before dispersing from your group is a good way to prepare before beginning your excursion. With goTenna, it’s as easy as dropping a pin on the map and sharing the location with your group!

We’ve tested goTenna under several different temperature-controlled scenarios, and the device has the ability to endure very low temperatures, down to -30C, or -22F. Even if your phone dies in the cold, don’t turn off your goTenna! It will continue to receive and store messages, and those messages will be available to you once you’ve powered your phone back on and restored the Bluetooth connection.

by goTenna Product & Engineering

We’ve released our latest round of updates for both iOS (v 2.0.1) and Android (v 1.15). 

One call-out is we’ve updated instructions regarding how to pair new goTennas to a phone that was previously paired to another goTenna. These instructions will make “forgetting” a device in order to pair with another much easier.

Check out the complete list of updates and fixes below.

iOS (v 2.0.1)

Download here at the App Store. What’s new: 

Added clearer instructions for pairing & re-pairing to a goTenna

Put U.S. on top of map downloads list (#usa)

Rearranged and clarified how to use Logout button

Fixed bug that sometimes caused duplicate pins on the map

Fixed bug that prevented some users from deleting downloaded maps

Fixed bug that didn't auto-scroll to the bottom of a chat upon entering a conversation

Fixed bug a minor side menu scroll bug

Android (v 1.15)

Download here at the Play Store. What’s new:

Moved logout button from nav drawer to settings

Put U.S. on top of map downloads list (#usa)

Added clearer instructions for pairing & re-pairing to a goTenna

by Nick Baker

At goTenna, we work to develop off-grid communications technology, so you can easily connect even when you don’t have access to cell service or wifi. But long before there was a grid to go off of and before the advent of radio, humans developed inventive ways to communicate beyond the strength of their own voices.

SMOKE SIGNALS

Believe it or not, smoke signals are one of the most ubiquitous means of communication throughout human history. In China, guards along the Great Wall would relay messages about impending threats from guard tower to guard tower, communicating over hundreds of miles in a matter of hours. Native American tribes developed unique smoke signal coding to send messages that could not be deciphered by enemies. The Ancient Greeks used a torch-and-smoke signal system that correlated to their alphabet, and Australian Aborigines used smoke signals to identify locations to others nearby.

Today, the Boy Scouts of America are still trained to use a three-puff smoke signal to call for help in the wilderness. The Vatican still uses a smoke signal to indicate the selection of a new pope.

Modern re-creation of a smoke signal emanating from the Great Wall. Copyright: China Photos / Getty Images

PERCUSSION AND WIND INSTRUMENTS

Horns and drums have long been used for everything from telling stories to signaling attacks, both from an offensive and defensive perspective. One of the oldest mentions of horns being used as by an attacking force is in the Old Testament’s Book of Joshua, when the Israelites are said to have brought down the walls of Jericho by blowing their trumpets.

While drums of war have long been used in conflict, there’s also a peaceful side to drum communication history. In many central and west African cultures, traveling drummers have long acted as troubadour storytellers. Their drums are commonly referred to as “talking drums” because of the rising and falling sounds that resemble vocal incantation.

A talking drum demonstration

One similar modern use is the military’s ongoing tradition of playing “Reveille” in the morning. More commonly, civil defense sirens are still used for tornado warnings, announcing times of day, and, in some areas, signaling the beginning of a religious event.

PIGEONS

Whether they’re referred to as homing pigeons, carrier pigeons, or messenger pigeons, these birds have been sending messages for a very long time. While humans have never fully understood pigeons’ unique navigational abilities, modern theories suggest that pigeons use low-frequency sound waves to map their surroundings. 

The earliest recorded instance of humans utilizing homing pigeons is in ancient Egypt, when pigeons were used to relay information on the flood state of the Nile between cities along the river. A more formal “pigeon post” was developed in Baghdad in the 11th century, and Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire used pigeons to relay messages across the Eurasian Steppe. Homing pigeons have been used in combat as recently as World War I, as more than 100,000 birds were used in the conflict, and some were even celebrated as decorated veterans.

SEMAPHORE

Aeneas Tacticus, an ancient Greek writer on the art of war, is credited with developing a semaphore system (sema meaning “sign” and phero meaning “to bear”) that worked as a hydraulic telegraph. His system involved containers filled with water on hilltops, wherein a rod inscribed with codes was raised or lowered by adding or releasing fluid. 

Flags have long been used on ships and aquatic vessels to convey messages, particularly when radio silence is necessary, or when radio broadcast is unavailable. In 18th century France, Claude Chappe developed a semaphore network under Napoleon that comprised 534 stations with flags on tall posts, and covered more than 3,000 miles.

A well-known modern by-product of semaphore use is the peace sign, which was initially designed as an abstract representation of the letters “N” and “D” for “nuclear disarmament”.

Abstraction of “N” and “D” in semaphore combine to create peace symbol. Copyright: The New York Times

SIGNAL LAMPS

Paul Revere’s famous “one if by land, two if by sea” phrase was actually coined by poet Henry W. Longfellow, but the secret warning system was developed by Revere to warn patriots in Charlestown, across the river from Boston, in the event of the British attack. 

Long before Paul Revere’s ride, the ancient Greeks were using coastal lighthouses, with the first known reference coming from Homer’s Iliad. The British would later develop a system of using lamps for coded communication in the 1800s, when Royal Navy Lieutenant Philip Colomb implemented a method of sending coded messages (similar to, but pre-dating Morse code) by flashing bright lights. Later, a similar operation was applied with the introduction of the heliograph, which utilized sunlight reflected by mirrors with shutters.

Marines using a heliograph, circa 1915

by Nick Baker

Gon Sanchez (above) is a goTenna user and orthopedic surgeon from South Dakota. He’s an avid sportsman with a penchant for falconry; he also regularly bowhunts from his boat on the Missouri River with his three sons. We talked to Gon about his birds, where he hunts, and his gear.

We must ask — how did you get into falconry?

I’ve actually been a falconer since I was 15. We always grew up hunting, in the outdoors, camping, fishing, that kind of stuff. I read a book called A Sporting Chance that was written in the Sixties, and it was basically a book about primitive hunting methods.

I went on a trip to Mexico, and one of my relatives down there had a bird that he had bought at a pet store. It was actually a Harris’s Hawk. I spent a month there with him, we tried to train it.

Later, I went to Boise State University, and I got my master’s in raptor biology. I didn’t know what I wanted to do at the time, so I did field research on wild falcons. 

What’s the training process for your birds?

You start with handling them, so they tolerate your presence. With a wild bird that’s pretty important. It sometimes takes a couple of weeks for them to feel [you] out. And then you have to be able to get them back, so you have to have a way to recall them. You can have them land on a lure — a little dummy that you swing around on a string —and they’ll come back to that. Once you get them coming back to you, you start with the hunting routine. 

I pretty much fly grouse, so it’s an air-to-air thing. You train the bird progressively to climb higher and higher for more and more speed advantage. Once you get them flying really high, you have to try to find setups where you can get grouse flushed out underneath them.

Gon with his falcon, Bizzy.

Can you take us through an outing with the falcons?

The grouse don’t like [the falcons flying above them] at all, so you have to try to find grouse where they’re [under] some kind of cover. Where I live, we don’t really have much for trees, it’s open prairie grassland and intermixed farm fields. [The grouse] come like clockwork at about the same time every day; they’ll come out of the grass where they’re hanging out and land in the crops to feed. You let them eat for 5 or 10 minutes, then put the falcon up, and once they see the falcon they’ll hide immediately. I let the falcon get up really high, then I’ll go in there and try to get a well-timed flush. 

It’s a pretty fair fight. I would say that most of the time we don’t catch anything. Maybe 25 percent of the time will you catch a grouse with a falcon. They’re hard to catch.

When I fly the birds, they do what they want. I’ll walk out 400-500 yards and get a flush, and the bird will hit a grouse and, of course, [will often fly away] from me. I’ll see [my falcon] go over the rise, and I’ll sit there for a couple minutes. If he doesn’t come back, I have two choices: I either go back to the car and try to find a way to get over where I think the bird might be, or I keep going after him. There are a lot of predators out there. Golden eagles and coyotes [can] kill your bird very quickly.

You also bowhunt from your boat. What is the terrain like where you hunt?

We live on the Missouri River, so there are a lot of river breaks. The Missouri River used to be a free-flowing river, but now it’s dammed, so it’s a reservoir, and there are places where it’s a couple miles across. 

We hunt deer out of the boat. We have bows, we go out in the boat and cruise along looking for deer up in the breaks. When you find one you want to take a sneak on, you go out of sight, drop somebody off, then go back out and sit on the reservoir — 300, 400, 500 yards out — and watch.

When you look up into the breaks, you can say, ‘Okay, there it is.’ But it’s a lot different than when you get up in there. You can’t hear anybody yell, it’s windy out, there are no lights, it’s the middle of nowhere, really. From down to the water up to the breaks, it’s rough, broken country, and if you don’t know where somebody is, you’re never going to find them.

Gon’s son disembarking from their boat along the Missouri River

What gear is essential to your outings?

We always have a pair of binoculars. We bring our phones with us, basically thinking if there’s an emergency, someone can climb to the top of a hill and try to get a signal. The goTenna, as soon as I got it and started using it, I thought, ‘This is exactly what I need.’ It was perfect. When we’re off the boat and in the breaks, we tried just having radios, but you’re talking, you’re making noise, and you’re trying to be quiet. 

We always have our bows and our range finders. I make my boys take matches and stuff to start a fire in case somebody gets lost out there. I actually had a buddy get lost in the river breaks one time. He spent the night out there, so I always try to keep survival stuff for the cold.

A view from Gon’s boat on the Missouri River; goTenna perched by the dash.

How does goTenna fit into your needs?

Everybody carries a smartphone with them now. Even without a signal, I carry the phone to take pictures. It’s not like having to carry another big radio, or a big GPS or something. It’s sort of this little, unobtrusive thing that snaps onto your gear, and you can use the [phone] you already have with you. 

We don’t have good cell service in a lot of places out here, it’s pretty rural. So I was looking for some way to be able to communicate. Otherwise, you’re sitting there, and you see the guy jumping up and down waving and you’re trying to figure out what’s going on. And of course, [there’s] the worry of getting lost up there. It’s pretty rugged country.

by goTenna Product & Engineering

We’ve released updates for both iOS (2.0) and Android (1.12)! Accessing all the new upgrades, tweaks, and fixes requires a quick firmware upgrade. On iOS this takes about 10 minutes when you’re on wifi; on Android it can take a little bit longer, depending on your smartphone.

Full lists at the end of this post, but first we wanted to call out two that involve UI changes:

New compose button

Now there’s a floating blue compose button, which is your one-stop-shop for composing all kinds of messages. You’ll find it in the lower-right corner of the app. Press it and you’ll be able to select the kind of message you want to send: 1-to-1, Group, or a publicly broadcasted Shout.

GPS accuracy improvement

Now when you want to send your location, after you tap “Attach My Location” (accessible under the compass icon on the left of the area where you type out messages), you may see a “Determining your location…” notice that alerts you to the fact that goTenna is trying to get a more accurate read of your position. 

You won’t be able to send your message until your GPS coordinates are determined. You can tell it’s still in process because the ellipsis will animate until it’s done; this may take up to 1 minute depending on where you are — a clearer view to GPS satellites overhead (e.g. outdoors) will result in a shorter process. Once the goTenna app has locked onto your coordinates, it will read “Your location attached.” and you can proceed in sending your location (and appending an optional text message) to your intended recipient(s).

Below is a screenshot of how this looks on iOS; we couldn’t reproduce it on Android because those smartphones tend to lock onto very accurate GPS more quickly, but the UI is identical on Android:

iOS (v 2.0)

Download here at the App Store. What’s new:

UI upgrades & other minor fixes

Greatly improved Bluetooth connectivity via a new system architecture for both app and hardware (requires an automatic firmware update upon updating and connecting to the goTenna device)

Enhanced battery life on the goTenna device

More accurate GPS

Fixed an edge-case bug that delayed the delivery of certain messages

Fixed battery display bug where 0% battery incorrectly displayed

Fixed bug where contacts would not immediately appear for certain users upon install

Added new troubleshooting alerts for map downloads and Bluetooth

Added ability to report Bluetooth connection issue logs

Enhanced crash reporting

Updated FAQs

Android (v 1.12)

Download here at the Play Store. What’s new:

Greatly improved Bluetooth connectivity via a new system architecture for both app and hardware (this requires an automatic firmware update upon updating and connecting to the goTenna device)

Enhanced battery life on the goTenna device

Greatly enhanced GPS verification/lock-on

Fixed an edge-case bug that delayed the delivery of certain messages

Fixed battery display bug where 0% battery incorrectly displayed

Fixed bug where contacts would not immediately appear for consumers upon install

Fixed a bug where having contacts without phone numbers could crash the app

Added new troubleshooting alerts for map downloads and Bluetooth

Added ability to report Bluetooth connection issue logs

Enhanced crash reporting

Updated FAQs

by Nick Baker

MultiCam rider Jeff Benrud’s bike during practice runs for Baja 1000. Check out the goTenna decal! (Photo credit: Ernesto Rodriguez, courtesy of MultiCam)

We love hearing from users about their off-grid communication needs, and how they put their goTennas to work for them. While we hear about everything from recreational outings to emergency preparedness, occasionally we come across a use-case that really catches our eye. One such case is a race that is considered the most dangerous in the world: the Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000.

We found out that Ernesto Rodriguez, brand manager for Brooklyn camo designer MultiCam, was a goTenna pre-order customer interested in using goTennas during the race. MultiCam supported a Baja 1000 team in 2014, and the crew faced difficulty maintaining reliable communication during both training and the race itself. Sounded like a good fit for goTenna so we partnered with Ernesto to support MultiCam’s team this year.

Video of Team DS6 & MultiCam at 2014 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000

The race runs all day today (November 20) and into tomorrow. We outfitted the team with four goTennas — one for rider Jeff Benrud, and one for each of his support vehicles.

Leading up to the race, the goTennas were effective communication tools for the team, Ernesto reports. During a practice run earlier this week, Benrud experienced rear-wheel damage, and was able to send his location and a list of necessary supplies to his support crews.

goTenna will come in handy for intra-squad comms during the actual race because the team reports the Baja desert has unreliable cell service — at best — for most of the race. They’ll also utilize Benrud’s goTenna to keep track of his location. In the event of a crash, mechanical issue, or emergency, he’ll be able to immediately communicate with his squad, and share his exact location with goTenna’s offline maps.

Rider Jeff Benrud tearing through practice runs for Baja 1000. (Photo credit: Ernesto Rodriguez, courtesy of MultiCam)

Team MultiCam rider Jeff Benrud is a, you know, somewhat impressive human. He’s a retired Sergeant Major with the Army’s Special Operations Command (SOCOM) who received three Bronze Stars for valor and a Purple Heart.

Benrud was part of MultiCam’s 2014 team, which was planned as a three-shift run, with two other riders running large portions of the circuit. However, by the time race day arrived last year, the MultiCam team was down one rider after a practice-run crash resulted in a broken leg and torn Achilles’ tendon, so the two remaining riders split the entirety of the race. After running half the race on his own, Benrud was confident he could face the challenge of conquering the course on a solo run.

Team MultiCam using goTenna during practice. (Photo credit: Ernesto Rodriguez, courtesy of MultiCam)

The race, which started in 1967, is a roughly 840-mile loop around Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, starting and ending in the city of Ensenada.

The race includes divisions for motorcycles, four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles, and off-road cars and trucks, and runs continuously over the course of two days. This year, Benrud is competing in the Ironman solo class, which means that he will endure roughly 24-straight grueling hours of dusty desert, rocky terrain, and varying altitudes on his Honda CRF 450x.

Benrud’s run began today around 6 a.m., and he hopes to finish within 24 hours. We’ll be sure to share photos and more from the race as we get dispatches from the team. But you know, it probably won’t be in real-time with all that poor service down there. 

Best of luck to Jeff Benrud and Team MultiCam! goTenna is honored to be a part of your adventure.

by Daniela Perdomo

Our first public partnership

I’m excited to share that goTenna was recently awarded a grant funded by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) and administered by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) that will provide goTennas to 10,000 small businesses in our hometown, New York City.

The award comes to us via a grant competition called RISE : NYC which sought to identify technologies that will make cities like New York more resilient in the face of climate change. More than 20,000 people associated with over 10,000 small businesses located throughout coastal Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and Brooklyn — encompassing some of the city’s most diverse and economically disadvantaged communities — will receive free goTennas​ so they can coordinate with other community members in the face of future natural (or manmade) disasters.

goTenna was born out of Hurricane Sandy

During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, 25 percent of cell towers were downed and 6.2 million people were additionally left without power in the 10-state area affected by the storm. That meant that 1 out of 4 people impacted by Sandy had no cell service, and all those people without power had no internet either — disconnecting them completely from each other and emergency services. New York City, of course, was in many ways the face of Sandy and it’s little wonder why. According to the NYCEDC, 2 million New Yorkers lost power and 35,800 buildings saw telecomm system outages.  

I started goTenna in part due to my own experience during Sandy. My cofounder and I wanted to empower people to communicate no matter whether centralized communications infrastructure was available (or affordable), using the very same smartphones all of us already carry around in our pockets anyway. The result, of course, is goTenna.

Ideal for any off­-grid situation — planned or unplanned — g​oTennas communicate on a peer-­to-­peer basis via long-­range radio waves (151­-154 MHz) and offer consumers a private, subscription-­free way to communicate up to one mile in urban areas and up to 5 miles in outdoor scenarios. Our sleek yet rugged device is smaller than a Snickers bar and allows users to send and receive text messages and share GPS locations via a smartphone app that pairs to goTenna over Bluetooth­-LE. goTenna is powered by proprietary networking protocols that make each unit a cognitive, autonomous node that can reconfigure in an ad hoc manner. Users can chat one-­to-­one, in private groups, or broadcast publicly to anyone nearby.

goTenna makes RF accessible to anyone

Public safety and military personnel depend on radio frequency (RF) technology, but what they use requires training, and are very heavy and expensive. By marrying smartphones’ ease­-of-­use and computing power to tried­-and-­true RF technology we’ve made goTenna a low-­power, low-­cost, deceptively intelligent device that feels like any messaging app — except it’ll work when no other can.

Through the RISE : NYC grant, which is made possible by federal funding allocated to communities like ours which were so deeply impacted by Hurricane Sandy, our little startup will be able to provide goTennas to the kinds of small businesses that are the backbone of New York City’s economy. The vast majority of our grant’s beneficiaries are mom-and-pop businesses like corner stores, pharmacies, restaurants, and the like. Our grant also ensures we can benefit communities that predominantly speak Spanish, Chinese, and Russian.

The image in my mind of Sandy remains New York’s cover of a darkened lower Manhattan, where the only lights came from the Goldman Sachs complex and similar Wall Street firms. The financial behemoths can afford resiliency in their comms and power, but small businesses (and even medium-sized businesses) usually can’t — even though the opportunity cost due to downtime is relatively greater. 

“You’re not lost until you’ve lost the ability to communicate.”

While goTenna can’t keep the lights on, we can keep essential comms going, so that the next time NYC goes dark, coordination and resource allocation among colleagues, friends, family, and even strangers nearby can be more efficient. We’re very grateful to NYCEDC, HUD, and our community partners for the opportunity to execute on this grant in our hometown — our team is based in Brooklyn — and are eager to roll the program out in 2016, and explore how we might replicate it with other municipalities down the line.

by Julie Yaunches

We’re excited to release an iOS logging library specifically designed for real-time logging and log viewing that I built as we developed goTenna. This library is ideal for development of and integration with a Bluetooth peripheral.

The library is called JiffyLogger and can be installed via CocoaPods or downloaded directly from its GitHub repository.

Why is JiffyLogger useful?

JiffyLogger isn’t something that you'd release your app with — it's more of a development/field testing tool. At goTenna, we found the need for this type of logging in the following situations: 

Firmware development

goTenna's firmware engineers used these logs to review Bluetooth-LE (BTLE) packet and connection information while developing our device's firmware.

Hardware development

Our hardware engineers used these logs to recover real-time information regarding various hardware metrics — temperature, chip settings, etc.

iOS app/peripheral integration

While developing the mobile applications, these logs were integral to implementing the communication protocol agreed upon between the device and app.

Field testing

Super valuable. Anyone who’s worked with BTLE knows field-testing can reveal results quite different from what’s observed in the lab — and what’s supposed to happen, according to spec sheets! — for a seemingly infinite number of reasons. We often used these logs to try to understand what was happening during and after the conclusion of a real-world test.

What does JiffyLogger do?

JiffyLogger allows you to capture custom events and look at them immediately inside your iOS application.

Logs are stored on the filesystem and writing to the log is buffered and happens on a background thread. Event logging is set up in the standard way and is explained further in the 'Quick Start' section on GitHub.

Where JiffyLogger goes beyond your normal logging is its in-app viewing and log exporting functionality.

View it in-app:

Easily export if you want to dig in or share with others:

Exporting will attach a .txt file:

Future

JiffyLogger is still in its infancy and we plan to make it even better going forward. We’d like to add custom event types and filtering of these from the view screen; we also plan to provide more granular logging options closer to CoreBluetooth integration points. Finally, I’m currently working on a Swift version! 

By Nick Baker

In honor of Veterans’ Day, we look back at military radio technology. At goTenna, radio frequency technology — or RF — is at the core of our device, which enables communication on regular smartphones when centralized comms like cell and internet networks fail. Since World War I, RF has been developed and used by the armed forces for everything, including live combat, reconnaissance, and intelligence.

1. Prior to the United States entering World War I  in 1917, military field communication was already starting to go wireless. Engineers developed mobile radio equipment that could be moved and set up quickly. Wireless operators were not only employed in combat situations, but were essential to troop movements and strategy. As a 1917 article in Popular Science Monthly stated: 

“If a gas attack is coming, it is [the operator] who sends the warning to the men behind to put their gas helmets on...If the aeronaut can be called the eyes of the army, the wireless man is its ears.”

2. After World War I, civilian radio technology surged, and military radio tech saw some major developments. In 1922, a team at the U.S. Navy Aircraft Radio Laboratory learned that ships in motion would temporarily interrupt transmission of radio signals, allowing operators to identify the ship’s location. In 1935, Scottish physicist Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt received a patent from the British government for a radio system intended to help airmen locate and avoid thunderstorms.

Watson-Watt with his radar apparatus (Getty)

3. The British referred to the technology as Range and Direction Finding. The U.S. Navy would later coin the acronym RADAR, short for RAdio Detection And Ranging.

As a result of the British government’s interest in Watson-Watt’s research, Great Britain was equipped with radar installations along the English Channel and North Sea coasts -- a network called Chain Home -- at the outbreak of World War II.

British map showing radar coverage of Chain Home

4. The technology developed under Watson-Watt would lead to the first radio frequency identification technology, or RFID. While radar would detect aircraft, there was no way to identify an aircraft as an ally or an enemy. The British developed the first active identify friend or foe (IFF) system, and placed transmitters on British planes.

5. In 1940, an American company called Galvin Manufacturing Corporation developed the Handie Talkie SCR536 AM portable two-way radio. Galvin Manufacturing would later brand its two-way radios “Motorola”, and would change the name of the company to match. Advertisements aimed at civilians depicting radios in use by troops said the radios weighed “slightly more than five pounds” and was “no larger than a cookie carton and [was] designed and built with the precision of a fine pocket watch.”

Galvin Manufacturing ad for Motorola Handie Talkie, circa 1945

6. When the Korean War began in 1950, the U.S. military was using radio much the same as it had during World War II. Airstrikes in particular were conducted in a dangerously outdated manner, which left spotting radio teams exposed to enemy fire. The military introduced aerial recon crews consisting of a pilot, a radio operator, a radio mechanic, and jeep teams. These Tactical Air Control Parties (TACP) served as the communication link between airborne forward air controllers, ground commanders, and strike aircraft.

7. During the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese forces developed sophisticated air-defense systems, which were causing difficulty for U.S. airborne forces. Anti-radar missiles and bombs were developed, and a tactic known as Wild Weasel was implemented.

8. Away from the battlefields of the Cold War, radio broadcasts were used to communicate with field agents who were located in hostile territory. Secret radio stations were established to broadcast coded messages to operatives, and some of these stations are still in operation today.

9. Cognitive, software-defined radio has been in use by the military for decades. The U.S. Department of Defense developed the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program. While the goal was to develop a system of radios that would reduce the number of necessary radios and could communicate universally with other technology already in use, the project was scaled down significantly after several years of development.

10. In the wake of the JTRS program, private companies are working to further develop cognitive radio for military use. New radios transmit voice and data simultaneously using the Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW). SRW is a self-healing network that works by re-establishing connectivity between individual troops when communication is obstructed by leveraging other squad radios to transmit broadcasts. 

This technology operates similarly to goTenna’s cognitive radio, which explores all available channels to find an open channel. This means a goTenna user doesn’t need to coordinate channels with other users, and users can choose to broadcast to individuals, defined groups, or to all goTennas in range — goTenna’s ad hoc reconfigurable networking protocols do all of this automatically behind the scenes!

By Nick Baker

For those of us looking to escape and get off the grid, the vast swaths of wilderness comprising the United States’s national parks offer 84 million acres in which to get lost.

But for others who are just looking for a fun outing or day trip in the Great Outdoors, the lack of wifi and cell coverage is a hindrance to an otherwise enjoyable wilderness experience.

As we approach 2016, debates about the role of mobile communication technology in national parks loom larger than ever. What’s so significant about 2016? It happens to be the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service (NPS). As part of its centennial plans, the agency launched its “Go Digital” initiative. The campaign is focused on guiding national parks, their staffs, and millions of annual visitors into a new frontier of user experience by implementing more interactivity.

You can see the plan unfolding in various ways. Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park, the oldest and largest national military park in the United States, launched an Instagram page as part of Go Digital. Lake Mead National Recreation Area created a virtual museum showcasing historic images and artifacts.

While such initiatives have met little resistance, the call to add cell towers, fiber optic cables, and 4G hotspots has raised questions on the effect increased central connectivity would have on the national park experience.

Cell tower near Old Faithful. (Photo: Ryan Turner / The Wall Street Journal)

Some ideas are very practical. For instance, proposals include “coded signs [visitors] can scan with their cellphones to access online information about park features to text messages with weather and traffic information.”

But many feel the national park “user experience” is fine the way it’s been for the NPS’ first 100 years. As someone evocatively declared in a Wall Street Journal article: “It’s hard to commune with nature when somebody is able within earshot to make stock orders or conduct a business meeting.”

And here’s a similarly strong opinion, from a Chicago Tribune op-ed:

“People who can’t live without their cellphones aren’t just the wrong demographic for Yellowstone. They’re the very demographic the rest of us go to Yellowstone to escape. Let’s not encourage them. The call of the wild doesn’t need a ring tone.”

The decision to install cell towers throughout parks is currently left up to management at each of the 408 locations under the NPS’ purview. However, the comms heavyweights are weighing in and it isn’t hard to see what they envision.

Take Yellowstone as an example. In addition to a Verizon proposal for a 100-foot tower in the park, a public watchdog group reported last year that CenturyLink was was recruiting partners to finance a $30 million fiber-optic cable network buried along existing roads in the park, AT&T was seeking approval for a cell-on-a-light truck (COLT) in the Old Faithful area, and that Verizon had installed LTE antennae and a microwave path to support 4G at Mammoth Hot Springs.

But before anyone gets outraged at the idea of huge cell towers mangling natural views and stunting outdoor adventures, we might also consider that towers in national parks would likely improve service for people living in rural areas just outside the boundaries of those parks. And how connectivity can support public safety.

At goTenna, we like to think our device straddles the line between technology and off-grid freedom so as to offer the best of both worlds. With goTenna, you’re still disconnected from email, social media, and the news, but you get to maintain a basic but essential level of connectivity with the group you’re out adventuring with. Keep each other appraised of your locations, coordinate plans, and even offer (or receive) assistance in an emergency from others nearby with public broadcasts. But, you know, no Facebook… and you can #latergram that beautiful view after you’ve enjoyed it.

By Jorge Perdomo

At goTenna, we worry about battery usage not only for our app, but for our hardware as well. This week, several news outlets suggested Facebook’s app is the worst-offender when it comes to draining iPhone batteries, and we wanted to figure out whether that was true. And we also thought it’d be interesting to do a little hands-on research into exactly what goes on inside your iPhone that affects its battery life to help us (and others) understand what you can do to get some more juice out of your phone. Here’s what we found.

Testing methodology

All tests were performed on an iPhone 5, which has a 1,440 mAh battery. We conducted all the tests with the iPhone in Airplane Mode. We did this to remove large variables related to poor or inconsistent signal strength (more on that in the Airplane Mode section of our results below).

First, we disassembled the iPhone and tapped directly into the battery lines of the device:

Then we put the iPhone back together, running the wires out through a drill-hole. The wires were then hooked up to a current probe and multimeter:

Results

Bluetooth

The difference between Bluetooth on-and-paired versus totally off was so small our instruments couldn’t even read it. With the advent of Bluetooth Low-Energy (Bluetooth 4.0) — which is what goTenna uses — people really don’t have to worry about Bluetooth-related battery drain. (Totally different story, of course, with Classic Bluetooth, which is what you use stream to external speakers and similar devices. In those cases, more power is required.)

Screen brightness

The difference between a maximum-brightness setting and the lowest setting is huge. On our test iPhone, the difference was 84mA to 220mA — a 3X increase in power consumption! Put another way, that’s the difference between 17 hours of battery life and 6.5 hours!

We then took it a step further and turned off the screen entirely. This brought us down to 21mA, or about a 68-hour lifetime (again, remember, on Airplane Mode).

Futzing with your screen (a.k.a. doing stuff)

This was undoubtedly the largest draw on the battery, but also the hardest to quantify as it’s difficult to control for this test. We ran it as similarly as possible on apps like Facebook, Instagram, Uber, Google Maps, Twitter, and our own.

We found that average basic manipulation of the screen “costs” you about 200mA, so it easily can more than double your operating current at any one time. Actions like turning on your camera or flashlight makes things worse, with a top-out observed at 700-800mA, which is a rate that can easily kill your battery life in under 2 hours.

Location v. No location

Using a location-based app like Google Maps, Uber, or even goTenna’s mapping functions requires roughly 75mA in power above baseline. This isn’t zero, of course, but it isn’t a huge dent in an iPhone 5’s 1,440 mAh battery (or in an iPhone 6’s 1,810 mAh battery for that matter). To help put this into context, if you were able to run something at precisely the 75mA rate, it would take 19.2 hours to drain an iPhone 5’s battery.

Airplane Mode

In our lab tests, with nothing else running, on Airplane Mode, and with the screen off, your iPhone consumes almost no power — indeed, many times as little as single digit milliamps which can last forever on a 1440mAh battery (and of course, on an iPhone 6’s even bigger 1,810 mAh battery).

However, if your phone is searching for a signal, like when you’re off-grid or underground in the subway, it jumps up to 80mA every 5 seconds, as it struggles to find a tower — and sometimes goes all the way up to 250mA! The lesson here? Keep your iPhone on Airplane Mode when you think you’re not likely to have reliable service — it makes a huge difference! (And consider buying some of these for when you’re off-grid.)

Conclusion

In conclusion, most of your iPhone’s battery life is really under your control. The less time you have your screen on, the less bright your screen is, the less your phone is trying to connect to wifi or a tower, and — shocker! — the less you mess with it, the likelier you’ll be able to count long-lasting battery juice. Of course, we all have implicit understandings of this, but we thought it’d be interesting to put some numbers behind it.

Also, in defense of Facebook, we can confirm their app is not tracking location non-stop, as some reports have suggested. Our tests today definitely aren’t the end-all-be-all, but we do feel we’ve isolated the fingerprints of apps that do use location (as goTenna does), and Facebook’s power draw doesn’t have that Worst-Ever-Battery-Killer effect you may have read about recently.

In fact, among our sampling, Facebook’s power draw is rather average. In our tests, Uber and Google Maps drained a lot more power. Here’s some raw data on apps’ average current consumption while on standby with the screen on at full brightness on an iPhone 5:

Uber = 320mA (uses location)

Google Maps = 302mA (uses location)

goTenna = 290mA (uses location)

Facebook = 217mA

Twitter = 217mA

Snapchat = 210mA

Instagram = 210mA (camera usage takes you to 600-700mA!)

Do some tests of your own and let us know what you learn:

You can do exactly what we did, and try different apps (or even the same ones) as well as some other variables.

Use the lab results we shared here to make some educated guesses. Divide the current draw from the full capacity of the battery to get the hours your phone will last doing what it’s doing.

by goTenna Team

It's happening! The first goTennas are on their way to pre-order customers. You can see some of them all packed up and ready to go in the below photo: 

Meanwhile, our manufacturing line is fired up and we're working hard to get all pre-orders shipped out by Thanksgiving. You’ll know when yours is on its way via an automated shipping notification that will include tracking info. 

IMPORTANT: If your shipping address has changed since you placed your pre-order, please email us ASAP at support[at]gotenna[dot]com. Help us ensure your goTennas won't get lost or enjoyed by someone else!

(New orders, placed from here on out will be fulfilled Thanksgiving onwards. There may be a slight backlog at first, but we hope to be fulfilling orders in-real-time by the December holidays.)

Any time before or after you receive your goTennas, please feel free to reach out to us with any questions or suggestions. Once you have them, send us photos and videos of how and where you've adventured with goTenna! Some of the first goTenna Stories are viewable here, as part of our website relaunch.

Stay tuned for awesome features we'll be launching via firmware and software updates. In a way, this is just the beginning for goTenna!

It's hard to express how much we appreciate your rallying behind our idea early on and — of course — for sticking with us. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

by Daniela Perdomo

Testing & development updates

We've been very busy since our last update. Thanks to beta testers' feedback, we've made lots of smart tweaks we think everyone's going to love: we brightened the LED lights, moved around buttons and rewrote copy in the apps, changed the location of our charging port, and so much more.

In the past month alone, goTenna beta devices have...

... attended music festivals, 

... gone fishing for salmon in the rain, 

A video posted by GoTenna (@gotenna) on Sep 21, 2015 at 2:25pm PDT

... hiked trails in the deep woods, 

... overlooked high bluffs,

... been strapped in novel ways,

... soaked in some culture on vacation,

... and they’re currently on a Caribbean cruise getaway, a Glacier Park camping trip, and in an isolated community in Hawaii — to name but a few of the places goTenna betas are right now. We’ll share photos and videos when those testers send them our way.

The latest on manufacturing & shipping pre-orders

How's manufacturing? We started volume production of our circuit boards today. (To be clear, volume = pre-orders!) Mechanical assembly starts mid-next week, and our team will be on-site at the manufacturer for that. Make sure to follow us on social media for real-time videos & photos from the line! (Fb, Tw, Ig)

As the hardware goes into production, we continue to test, incorporating further feedback into our firmware & software, and we still want beta testers. You can sign up to test as soon as this weekend, by clicking here. (If you’ve filled this out previously, please do so again, with updated information on where/when you’d be available to test in the next few weeks.)

You'll receive an email as soon as your goTennas ship. If you haven't received the email 7-10 days before a specific off-grid adventure, please email us at support[at]gotenna[dot]com and we'll do everything possible to send you betas to take with you.

As always, pre-orders will be fulfilled in the order in which we received them. We expect that every pre-order will be fulfilled by Thanksgiving.