HF-email is a combination of an HF-radio which links to an HF-modem, which links to a laptop via serial cable. THEN the server has an hf-radio which scans frequencies waiting for a SEL call from another (client) hf-radio which then establishes a connection over the two modems.
The modems alone cost $1000 each.
Once the connection is made, bytes pass over the radio waves from a very long distance, and eventually form an email. The software that handles this rather tenuous communication link is called UUplus.
Once the email arrives, it acts as its own pop server and then you can suck the email down into your favorite mail reader application.
Along the way, you have to navigate weather, bad signal, interruptions, power outages, usb adaptors, serial cables, and ants.
IF you're among the fortunate, you will get the whopping HIGH speeds of 80 CPS. What is CPS?
CPS = Characters Per Second.
IT is such a slow connection, that you can't measure it in BAUD.
That is hundreds of times slower than the slowest modem you can buy today.
So you can imagine, you only use this technology if you have to.
You don't want anyone to send you large emails (anything over 50k would take 30 minutes to download).
It's prone to failure.
It is expensive.
It requires daily maintenance (by me and my team).
SO WHY do we do it?
Because in the village there is no electricity unless you have a solar system, there is no communications of any kind. There is no contact with the outside world. So you're willing to pay more per year than a high speed DSL link, for the benefit of getting 3-4 emails a day.
Today I pulled off a tiny miracle, in that we have a couple out in the village who want it all to work, not knowing themselves how many small variables need to come into play to get it to work, and not knowing the odds of getting it to work remotely are VERY VERY slim. We have to set it up here, get it working then transport it there and hope nothing fails in transit.
Today I built the software side of it, compressed it, uploaded it, and then a guy is downloading it, will put it on a dinghy which will go to a boat which will sail for 8 hours to get to the village, which will then be handed off to the translators, in the hopes that they can make it all work.
I'm pretty excited to find out if it worked... the odds are really against it, but we'll see what God does.
