Neil, I had a moment of inspiration on this and think I have a
possible solution... Ham Radio. It's very easy to transmit slow-scan
video and packet data (i.e., da-da-da, telemetry) bidirectionally using
hardware that's not only cheap, but widely available on the used market
even cheaper.
A license takes all of about a week of studying and $8 to pass a test (I'm
KC0CSO by the way, any others here?), and seems ideal for this
application. Ham's only limitation is that it cannot be used for
commercial radio communication - this is most definitely NOT commercial,
LSR is about as much of a mainstream, hobby/amateur sport as they come.
You will have no trouble finding a willing Ham operator (including myself)
to assist you in setting it all up since that hobby is a lot like this one
- everyone shares info just because they like to see something really cool
in the end.
I'm envisioning two dual-band radios, a lot of which nowadays can transmit
on one frequency and receive on the other. Even on low power you'll be
fine on 2m/70cm bands, but those radios will typically put out up to 50w,
which means they'll be reading you 5/5's in SLC if you want. Anyway, have
one radio set to transmit on 2m and receive on 70cm, the other radio
exactly the opposite. You now have full duplex voice channels at all
times, over which you can also send data with about $50 in stuff you plug
into your laptop. Cheap, easy, reliable, and something I've been thinking
about a lot over the past few days.
I'd be happy to help anyone with something like this, including getting
your tech-class license, which is required before you can transmit on an
amateur radio frequency. I even have all the equipment I need at home to
try something like this out, which I'm planning on doing in the next 2-3
weeks, just for pure geek factor. I'd be happy to send details to the
list or anyone else who wants to know how I set it up.
- Ralph
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