simonandCursor
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Safety snapshot of mobile work before merging upstream chat-v2: - Qortino AI: QDN pack discovery/download (Q-Share ids), external app storage, install validation, teach/report Q-Mail, PDF thumbs+zoom - Android share target "Quitter" with native ShareReceiver plugin - Categorized device saves (Images/Videos/Audio/Documents/Apps/GO state) - createNamedFile helper: cordova-plugin-file clobbers global File Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
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Grid-Down Communication and Information
Educational information. Transmitting on amateur (HAM) bands requires a license in nearly all countries; licence-free bands have power limits. Listening is legal almost everywhere.
The layered comms plan
When mobile networks and internet fail, information flows in layers:
- Receive-only baseline (everyone): a battery/hand-crank/solar AM-FM radio with shortwave coverage. Official emergency broadcasts, foreign broadcasters on shortwave, and (with SSB capability) even amateur traffic. Cost is trivial; keep one in the kit and one in the Faraday bin.
- Family short-range: licence-free handheld radios — PMR446 in Europe (0.5 W, ~1-5 km real-world terrain-dependent), FRS in North America. Agree on a channel + backup channel and check-in times in advance. Real-world range is line-of-sight: hilltops help enormously, forests and buildings eat signal.
- Regional (licensed): an amateur radio licence unlocks VHF/UHF handhelds through local repeaters (tens of km) and HF rigs that reach across countries with no infrastructure at all. Repeaters may run on backup power; simplex works when they don't. The licence exam is modest and the community actively trains newcomers — this is the single biggest capability jump available in comms.
- Data meshes (the new layer): LoRa mesh networks — Meshtastic devices and Reticulum (RNS)-based systems — pass short text messages device-to- device over kilometres on licence-free bands at milliwatt power, with no towers, no internet, and optional encryption. Nodes are cheap (ESP32+LoRa boards), run for days on small batteries, solar-repeat from rooftops and hills, and the mesh heals itself as nodes appear. Reticulum in particular is transport-agnostic: the same network stack runs over LoRa, packet radio, WiFi, or serial links — infrastructure that individuals, not carriers, own. (Qortal-Hub mobile ships with RNS support, so a phone can participate in such a mesh.)
Local-first information
Assume no search engines: keep printed and offline copies of the knowledge you'd need — maps of your region (paper + offline map app with downloaded areas), manuals for your gear, first-aid references, this handbook itself stored offline, contact lists on paper. A cheap USB stick with scanned documents in the Faraday bin, plus printouts in a waterproof folder, covers both digital and analog failure modes.
Family communication plan
Agree in writing, before anything happens: where to meet if home is unreachable (a primary and a backup rally point), an out-of-area contact everyone reports to (long-distance links often work when local ones jam), radio channels and check-in schedule ("every odd hour on the hour, channel 4, listen 5 minutes"), and who picks up which family member. Text messages often pass when calls fail — send texts, keep them short, and put phones in low-power mode immediately in a blackout.
Powering and protecting comms
Radios and phones are the highest-value, lowest-consumption electronics you own — a 20 Wh power bank recharges a handheld radio several times. Standard batteries across devices (AA/AAA with adapters, or USB-C everything) simplify logistics. Keep spares of the cheap critical items: antennas, cables, chargers — and duplicates of the receive-only radio, because one is none when it breaks.