[NammaTBHP]

Came across a news article with details of the trekkers who passed away in this unfortunate incident.

https://indianexpress.com/article/ci...aluru-9379809/


Most of these were extremely experienced trekkers. So any doubts around lack of preparation, knowledge or acclimitization should hopefully be answered.

[trippytragopan]

Originally Posted by am1m

Finally, some mishaps are inevitable and going to happen, simply because of the inherent nature of these activities. Blaming and banning doesn't help. Analysis and corrective action will.

Some accidents are indeed inevitable, and they can be reduced. Here are a few tips from a blog (written by a friend):

1. Check the weather forecast.
2. Invest In Quality Gear
3. Read and Research
4. Inform someone who should know about your plans
5. Trek with the locals
6. Discuss experiences of the trails with friends/locals who have an extensive experience of the route.

Source: https://raachotrekkers.com/deadliest...ble-accidents/

As the weather is becoming erratic due to climate change induced factors, more such events are likely to increase if comprehensive safety protocols are not formulated and followed.

[wocanak]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Intercepting low power dedicated, aimed, radio signals from ground to satelite is next to impossible. Unless you happen to be very near. In which case you a likely to visually spot it too! Picking up a dedicated encrypted packet of data from a satellite to a specific satellite phone is just about impossible.

Nothing secret about it, just how these radiowaves behave. Nobody, not even the Idian authorities, can change the laws of physics

Look up the communication protocol for satellite phones. Its all detaillled what is sent back and forth between phone and satellite. Down to the last bit!
Without it being specified you can't get vendors producing phones and satellites.

Jeroen

First detection is far more easy, most popular satellite phones (like Thuraya) work with GEO satellites and are not really low power, they transmit up to 2W. Any other GEO satellite over India can receive the uplink signal (at least the initial registration) from phone, just like the intended satellite. As you said the standards are well know (and many are just terrestrial cellular standards adapted for satcom), it is easy to detect the uplink transmit from the phone and with multiple receivers work out the precise location of the transmitter using triangulation. This is how the police can be quickly sent when the phone is powered on. This does not require any violation of physics or even much advanced technology.

Coming to interception (other than by sending the police ), for uplink encryption is the only barrier, as you can receive all the data from the phone (using other GEO satellites). My guess is satcom systems use the older insecure encryption standards of terrestrial cellular, many of which are publicly known to be broken. Possibly the government has the technology to break even the later versions. Intercepting the downlink (i.e. satellite to phone), is a bigger problem as modern systems use very narrow spot beams, covering very small area, you would need a receiver inside this narrow beam/cone and it is not practical to have enough of them to cover the entire country. But I am sure they will have enough receivers in major cities and populated regions.

But Satcom is moving to LEO networks with direct communication with regular 4G mobiles (SpaceX demonstrated Starlink call), this is going to be far more difficult for the government to ban/detect/intercept. They will have to depend on the LEO service providers to enforce the ban. The direct to 4G phone method uses advanced MIMO on the satellite to make it look like a normal 4G basestation to the phone, LEO being only few hundred kilometers make this feasible (GEO is ~36,000 kms).

[Fuldagap]

Originally Posted by wocanak

Intercepting the downlink (i.e. satellite to phone), is a bigger problem as modern systems use very narrow spot beams,

I am not sure of what goes now. Few years back it was indeed a problem. I wish I were able to add more info here, it being the internet.
This problem poses an inherent flaw in intercepted conversations that the end users used to be utterly disappointed with.