RANETChattyBeetle

RANET is an international collaboration of National Meteorological-Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and related entities working together to improve rural and remote community access to observations, forecasts, and warning information. The program originally began in Africa, but currently operates in parts of Asia, the Pacific, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean.

In 2003 RANET invited representatives from the Pacific to attend a meeting in Niamey, Niger. The simple purpose was for two very different regions (both culturally and geographically) to share experience about rural communication. With a favorable response to RANET philiosophies and approaches, the Pacific community invited RANET to visit and eventually work in the region.

A direct benefit of this inter-regional collaboration is the RANET Chatty Beetle. Early on Pacific partners, in particular from the University of Guam, emphasized the need for a 'heads up' box. In the remote Pacific, it is not feasible to run communication systems 24/7/365. Simply many HF rigs or satellite systems are powered through solar arrays or generators, which do not hold enough energy or are too expensive to run during the night.

But what do you do if a tsunami, cyclone or other warning message needs to get out? RANET partners in the Pacific highlighted a need for a device that could 1) receive warning messages anywhere in the world independent of terrestrial infrastructure, 2) operate independently from external power supplies in a stand-by mode for at least 24 hours, and 3) received messages would trigger a visual and audible warning cue. In addition to these three core requirements, the system needed to be portable, easy to use, and weather / environment resistent.