Using a radio to browse the web.

How do you get information over the radio? When all else has failed, how do you browse the web? get emergency information? Where is there power and fuel? What's the status of that forest fire?
Let's see if we can use the DigiPi radio BBS to browse the web over RF/AX.25 radio networks.
craiger.org/digipi/
github.com/pe1rrr/packet-scri...
github.com/craigerl/digipi/bl...

[@daviddrakes5498]

Very nice tutorial Richard.

[@heatherryan9820]

People might laugh, but I've always been fascinated by making things so things that they weren't built to do (i.e. looking at websites over radio). And just a heads up, I'm not sure if you know it or not, but Google actually has s text-based search engine. I thought that was pretty cool too.

[@yv6eda]

Great video! I'll be waiting for the show where you go into the other digipi... on the other side of the room and help me to run the bbs...

[@KM6LYW]

Great question, I could have explained that. On the remote DigiPi, you simply click on "Linux Node AX.25" link on its web management interface, it fires up ax.25 networking, and starts the BBS.

[@streets814]

This was exactly the type of thing I have been thinking about recently! Thank you for all you do and sharing with the community!

[@solidhyrax]

Real cool stuff. I'm enjoying the modern implementation of RF in the modern day.

[@iMelxis]

Your channel quickly became one of my favorite HAM Radio related channels on youtube. Thanks! 73 de KQ4FIF

[@RedHeat]

Thats very cool to see it running under Linux Node, indeed bash its hackable and totally open for hamming it up. I created it when an old gent had a hard time getting info during the early stages of Covid, no internet access or contact with anyone weeks at a time, he only had a 2M packet link to an ancient local BBS in Coventry UK and just through chance, saw one of my bulletins, and managed to get in touch about his difficulties, which is what I ended up writing it for. Also, nice guitar :-)

[@radiotests]

Dude, I've watched you for a while and love all this digital stuff.... but really. I got into Ham radio again to escape the web! Still trying to get my 2980r to packet but as you know no Raspberry Pi t bought cheap or many little KISS devices to be found.

[@IndependentNewsMedia]

Great video, keep up the good work 👍

[@brianjester123]

Love your energy!

[@GigaBrand]

I was wondering why Craig looked so happy in his videos… now I know.

[@astonite3488]

In the 90s there was a system where everybody had the same CD rom With html colour and codes html called the codes

[@jeff-73]

So darn cool. Couple questions/concerns... If someone ran this publicly, anyone could browse any website they want using your internet. Potentially reeeeeally bad. Another concern is if there a possibility of https/ssl. In Canada, encrypted communications are not permitted. (in ham land) Also, I would be concerned for those who run these services on their home network outside of a dmz. Exploits / root-kits are extremely easy to find for older software which also might not get updated quickly. If you just listen on the wire at your wan egress, scanners are constantly probing for things like these. I haven't deployed a bbs since the 90's so maybe I am missing security components that are embedded today. Thanks for another awesome vid.

[@KM6LYW]

Yah, ideally there would be a fixed set of bookmarks RF users could use. There is no encryption on the RF links. You would also limit the web sites to those without ads, which, by today's standards is increasingly impossible. I don't see a reason to run this outside NAT firewall. If you like this video checkout my IP-over-ax25 stuff kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKCrn4B6nc5_m7M -- even more cool!

[@juanjocastillo]

really cool!!!! (very usefull too)

[@seanedwards569]

Lynx and Links are a couple of text web browsers. There are others too.

[@Eightbitswide]

I could easily picture a python/php script which would fetch the relevant data from the source webpage to transmit a shorter version of the desired data without the risk of ads.

[@RKingis]

You can find script based proxies all over the web! I thought about writing a ham proxy in VB6, but like all my projects I never finished.

[@daomingjin]

i have a system where i use Python to interface with FLDIGi, and i've setup a Python Proxy server so that i can just directly use HTTP data fetches. So effectively it's a Wifi to RF gateway.

[@JeffHochberg]

We have the same taste in music! I expect the Rush song you play is Xanadu!

[@KM6LYW]

Is that a dare? I spent most of my high-school years practicing the entire Rush catalog, instead of studying school stuff. :)

[@JeffHochberg]

I don’t know…is it a dare??? 😂

[@GunFanactic]

Very cool

[@skyl4rk]

Create your own local web page for amateur use by pulling in data from other sites and sanitizing it. Have you seen JS8Call WX_Server?

[@bradgreenwood2588]

What model is the video game cabinet? Love the videos.

[@KM6LYW]

Vilros makes the cab, it really is nice, heavy. Just add a Pi.

[@vampirelordredfang]

I have a question if you have a ad blocker can you watch KZbin videos over this or have a sever with survival videos

[@holotape]

That would be neat, but unfortunately the data transfer speed is far too slow. At 1200 bits per second, it would take almost two hours to download one megabyte, the size of one medium jpeg image. That’s assuming there are no connection issues. Text works because each letter is about 8 bits, so you get up to about 150 characters per second.

[@cybersean3000]

Use RSS or ATOM feeds instead of web.

[@robertbower9862]

readability-cli is a command line version of Mozilla's Readability. It is a great way to strip out all the extras before viewing a web page or a great way to strip out all the extra before transmitting a web page.

[@DumbledoreMcCracken]

No encryption on FRS nor GMRS nor CB. Only limited data on GMRS and FRS (no packet interaction). Only 22 channels

[@daomingjin]

the difference is that on FRS and CB you aren't required callsigns or even to identify yourself. so the FCC has no idea where to send a mean letter to. Sure they can send someone out to foxhunt your station, but most FRS gear they know is probably coming from a cheap baofeng, so it's likely not in the same location all the time - or it's moving.