Is SkyCache free Starlink / satellite internet?

No. SkyCache is receive-only store-and-forward. It caches public free-to-air signals and offline education packs for a local WiFi portal. It does not provide bidirectional broadband or decrypt commercial services.

What hardware do I need?

A starter kit is roughly $90-200: RTL-SDR, a small single-board computer or used laptop, storage, and a simple antenna. Solar is optional for first demos.

SkyCache only targets unencrypted free-to-air or openly licensed content. Operators must check national spectrum and WiFi hotspot rules. Never use it to access paid encrypted constellations.

Can I try it without a satellite?

Yes. Simulation mode loads sample packages so teachers and NGOs can evaluate the portal with zero RF hardware.

Software 1.35.0 live - Village DTN store-and-forward

From orbit to offline knowledge - then across the village mesh for communities left behind

SkyCache 1.35.0 Village DTN: store-and-forward over village mesh or USB mule with payload SHA-256, TTL, hop-limit, and custody, plus 78 curated public-domain works. Browse online, pack offline, or load a zero-network phone kit. Not Starlink. Not RFC 9171. Open content only. Zero commercial satellite decryption. Not a complete archive. Not medical advice.

Honest scope: store-and-forward knowledge + community mesh + open archives - not free Starlink-style internet. Not a complete archive of every text.

Hover the planet · open letter to orbit

Click to retweet Open full letter on X

Orbital transmission

Open letter · receive-only plea

To @SpaceX · free unencrypted multicast on Starlink

If @SpaceX opened free unencrypted multicast channels on Starlink and published open reception protocols, SkyCache could add a simple decoder module to pull and cache the streams offline on compatible hardware for local mesh sharing.

Continuously broadcasting an expansive openly licensed digital corpus would then let the same system preserve and distribute essentially all of human written history via local storage worldwide.

You know.. so.. books can't disappear forever.

Honest scope: open protocols and openly licensed corpus only. Not commercial decrypt. Not free broadband claims. A store-and-forward library of books that cannot disappear forever.

Retweet and next steps appear below the planet

Resilience Fabric | 1.0.0

Village golden path

Stand up a village node without claiming free Starlink or commercial broadband. First-boot wizard, simulation mode, the v1.0 Resilience Fabric release, dual-access library, and multi-node open works federation - receive-only knowledge + local mesh.

First-boot wizard

Follow the golden path on Debian / Raspberry Pi OS: install, set admin PIN, pick a legal RF mode, load curated Skybrary content - portal up in under two hours.

Simulate before RF

Run `skycache serve --sim` on a laptop to demo the portal and public-domain packs with zero antenna hardware.

GitHub v1.0.0

Grab Resilience Fabric software: dual-access portal, works federation sim, bit-rot schedule, local ops metrics, curated corpus - open source on GitHub.

Browse + pack docs

Online catalog with search, facets, license passports, and starter kit downloads. Same works offline via USB/mesh packs.

Field ops

Operator boards and kits

Same legal rails everywhere: open content, receive-only RF, unlicensed mesh. Pick a surface, download the kit, run the doctor.

Honest scope: store-and-forward knowledge, free-to-air receive, unlicensed mesh - never free commercial satellite broadband.

The problem

Connectivity is not the same as information access

Hundreds of millions of people still face expensive or unreliable data, intermittent power, and few local libraries. Commercial satellite broadband can transform some regions - but it is not free, not available everywhere, and not always the right tool for a school that needs textbooks and health flyers more than video streaming.

Data is costly or absent

Where mobile data is metered or towers are far, a shared offline cache can serve an entire classroom from one hub.

Commercial satellite is not universal

Paid constellations require kits, subscriptions, and policy access. Many communities simply cannot start there.

Knowledge packs already exist

Kiwix, Internet-in-a-Box, and RACHEL prove offline education works. SkyCache adds a lawful satellite + prioritization path on top.

We avoid fabricated statistics. The digital information divide is real; SkyCache addresses a practical slice of it.

The solution

SkyCache Nexus: knowledge hub + community fabric

Receive open satellite products (and USB education packages), organize them with humanitarian priorities, replicate across a village mesh, and serve ordinary phones over local Wi-Fi - resilient, solar-friendly, and community-owned.

Offline-first knowledge

Phones connect to a local WiFi portal - no mobile data required to read cached education, health, weather, and emergency guides.

Ultra-low-cost hardware

Built around RTL-SDR dongles, Raspberry Pi-class boards, and simple antennas. Starter kits target roughly $90-200 before solar.

Open source by design

MIT software, modular decoder plugins, and documentation written for technical volunteers and trained local maintainers.

Legal & ethical rails

Receive-only. Unencrypted free-to-air and openly licensed content only. No commercial constellation decryption - ever.

Community-owned

Designed so a village school or clinic can operate the hub after training - not a black-box service that vanishes with a subscription.

Honest about limits

Store-and-forward information access. Not free Starlink. Not bidirectional broadband. Useful where that honesty matters most.

How it works

From sky signal to classroom phone

A modular pipeline - not a black box. Simulation mode lets you demo the entire portal before a single antenna is raised.

Public satellite signal

Free-to-air weather imagery and open amateur telemetry - never encrypted commercial broadband.

↓

Low-cost SDR receiver

RTL-SDR or SoapySDR-compatible hardware with a simple antenna or modified FTA dish.

↓

Decode & prioritize

Wrap mature tools (SatDump, gr-satellites). Rank emergency, health, and education first when storage is tight.

↓

Local content cache

SQLite catalog + filesystem packages. Simulation mode works with sample content before any live pass.

↓

Wi-Fi mesh fabric (Nexus)

hostapd hotspot plus multi-node batman-adv / sim mesh, DTN queues, and opportunistic open gateway pulls.

↓

Phones in the community

Mobile-first PWA with large icons, multi-language UI, mesh status, and clear freshness stamps on every item.

Content prioritization

When storage or power is scarce, SkyCache keeps what matters most:

1. Emergency2. Health3. Education4. Agriculture5. Weather6. Maps7. General8. Raw telemetry

Technology

Architecture at a glance

Python core, FastAPI portal, SQLite catalog, decoder plugins wrapping SatDump and gr-satellites - built to extend as open signal sources evolve.

Loading architecture diagram...

Modular decoders

Plugin contract for FTA weather, open amateur telemetry, and file/ZIM import. Forbidden commercial decrypt sources are rejected in config.

Offline-first portal

Mobile PWA with multi-language UI, captive-portal redirects, and admin views for storage, power mode, and content status.

Simulation day-one

skycache serve --sim loads sample packages so NGOs and teachers can evaluate the experience without RF gear.

Hardware & cost

Starter kits in the $90-200 range

Approximate 2026 street prices - verify locally. Solar is optional for first demos; LiFePO4 kits enable night operation for village hubs.

RTL-SDR dongle

$25-40

Blog V3/V4 or quality clone; SoapySDR-friendly

SBC or used mini PC

$35-80

Raspberry Pi 4/5, Orange Pi, or a used laptop

Storage

$10-25

64-128 GB microSD or USB SSD

VHF antenna (DIY OK)

$5-30

V-dipole or QFH for ~137 MHz weather paths

WiFi AP (if needed)

$10-20

USB adapter when onboard AP is unreliable

Solar kit (optional)

$150-300

40-100 W panel, LiFePO4, controller - village nights

Advanced L-band weather (e.g. GOES HRIT) needs dish + LNA and is Phase 2+ only. VHF weather or pure USB/Kiwix content already delivers value.

Progress tracker

Software mission complete

Software v1.35.0 cuts village DTN store-and-forward (SHA-256, TTL, hop-limit, custody, USB mule v2, mesh hop-forward sim) on top of the v1.34 software mission seal: dual-access Skybrary (78 curated PD works), BLE GATT sim, power Wh calibration, soak protocols, partner tabletop, village node, Nexus fabric, dual-radio ops, partner kits, and the rest of the software tracks. The 100% meter is software only. Field residuals stay operator-owned: physical dongle/dual-radio soak, live BLE radios, on-radio batman-adv DTN, institutional pilots, operator-hosted .img.xz, continuing legal corpus growth, and a lawful FTA content broadcast path if one appears. Not Starlink. Not RFC 9171. Not free commercial broadband. Not a complete archive.

100%

software mission (field residuals listed separately)

Software v1.35.0 | 2026-09-18

Done / live core Partial field work Next priorities

Simulation / demo (no RF)
skycache serve --sim + sample packs
Done
Track completion100%
File ingest + local portal
USB drop watch, packages, PWA
Done
Track completion100%
Live FTA satellite RX ops
Pass Autopilot + soak protocol shipped. Physical dongle soak is a field residual.
Done
Track completion100%
Prioritization, power, maintainer ops
1.9 village-day + 1.13 power + 1.34 calibration
Done
Track completion100%
Solar / battery power ops
Doctor/status/sheet/kit + persistable Wh calibration (lab default or site bank)
Done
Track completion100%
Village day weekend stand-up
1.9 go_weekend_sim + kit. Real multi-village weekends stay operator-owned.
Done
Track completion100%
Nexus mesh / DTN / gateway
1.35.0 village DTN (SHA-256/TTL/hop/custody, sim hop-forward). On-radio batman-adv is residual.
Done
Track completion100%
Phone handoff (QR + mule + BLE sim)
Join-card QR, mule export/import, GATT ATT sim. Live phone radio is residual.
Done
Track completion100%

Release timeline

Recent MVP phases

Chronological ships. Full list with progress bars lives on the roadmap tracker. Full roadmap tracker

Phase 1.30Live (1.30.0)

Clinic Pack Kits

pack-kits default now includes emergency-health and health-priority USB zips for clinic/disaster demos (educational historical samples only - not medical advice). library status lists pack profiles + download URLs. Still not free commercial broadband.

Phase 1.31Live (1.31.0)

Health Corpus Expand

Ten curated educational public-domain health/emergency literacy samples (hand hygiene, water/sanitation, ORS framing, germ theory history, quarantine literacy, heat/cold, food hygiene, mosquito literacy, wound literacy, helper stress). Clinic packs grow to ~13 packages; dual-access catalog 58 to 68 works. Not medical advice. Still not free commercial broadband; still not a complete archive.

Phase 1.32Live (1.32.0)

Zero-Network 68 Parity

Zero-network phone kit rebuilt to match all 68 curated samples (library doctor score 100). Zip packaging hardened so kit/ self-include bomb cannot recur. Still not free commercial broadband; still not a complete archive.

Phase 1.33Live (1.33.0)

Open Resilience Wave

Four workstreams: STEM/civics corpus expand (68 to 78 works), disaster/power-critical prioritizer protecting emergency+health, open_fta_sim plugin + extension docs, archive-100mb/1gb pack budgets and library pack-budgets CLI. Still not free commercial broadband; still not a complete archive. Not medical advice.

Phase 1.34Live (1.34.0)

Software Mission Seal

Honest 100% software mission: BLE GATT sim, power Wh calibration, field-soak protocols, partner tabletop, skycache mission doctor/seal. Field residuals (physical soak, institutional pilots, operator-hosted .img.xz, live BLE radio, corpus growth) stay listed and are not deducted. Still not free commercial broadband; still not a complete archive.

Phase 1.35Live (1.35.0)

Village DTN store-and-forward

Nexus DTN bundles now carry payload SHA-256, TTL, hop-limit, and custody. USB mule v2 rejects tamper. Mesh hop-forward sim plus skycache dtn CLI/API. Store-and-forward over village mesh or USB only - not Starlink, not RFC 9171, not free commercial broadband.

Legal, ethical & open principles

Trust through transparency

SkyCache is a humanitarian technology project. Capability without ethics is not a feature.

Receive-only by default - no satellite uplink in the core product.
Unencrypted free-to-air, public, or openly licensed content only.
Never reverse-engineer or decrypt commercial satellite internet (Starlink, OneWeb, paid VSAT, etc.).
Operators must verify local spectrum and WiFi hotspot regulations before deployment.
Health content is educational - not diagnosis or prescription.
Prefer local capacity building, repairable hardware, and solar-aware power modes.

Get involved

Three doors - same mission.

Developers

Python pipelines, plugins, PWA UX, deploy scripts. Start with the deep dive and the full software scaffold prompt.

Communities & NGOs

Interested in a pilot school or clinic hub? Tell us your region, power situation, and training capacity - we are early and collaborative.

Supporters

Fund open-source development time and future hardware kits for pilot communities.

FAQ

Is SkyCache free Starlink / satellite internet?: No. SkyCache is receive-only store-and-forward knowledge plus optional unlicensed community mesh. It caches public free-to-air signals and offline education packs for a local Wi-Fi portal. It does not provide bidirectional commercial broadband or decrypt paid services.
What hardware do I need?: A starter kit is roughly $90-200: RTL-SDR, a small single-board computer or used laptop, storage, and a simple antenna. Multi-node Nexus fabrics add cheap APs or extra Pis. Solar is optional for first demos.
Is it legal?: SkyCache only targets unencrypted free-to-air or openly licensed content. Mesh transmit is unlicensed/ISM Wi-Fi only. Operators must check national spectrum and hotspot rules. Never use it to access paid encrypted constellations.
Can I try it without a satellite?: Yes. Simulation mode loads sample packages; `skycache nexus sim` exercises multi-node fabric with zero RF hardware.

Support SkyCache

Support open-source development and future hardware kits for pilot communities. Every contribution helps keep the project independent and honest about its scope.

Opens cash.app in a new tab. No account required on this site.

Contact

Questions, contribution ideas, partnership notes, or deployment interest - mail skycache@jonbailey.xyz (forwarded to the maintainers) or use the form. skycache@jonbailey.xyz

Contribute - code, docs, translations, field testing
Deploy - NGO or community pilot interest
Partner - aligned offline-education or open-radio projects

From orbit to offline knowledge - then across the village mesh for communities left behind

Village golden path

First-boot wizard

Simulate before RF

GitHub v1.0.0

Browse + pack docs

Operator boards and kits

Connectivity is not the same as information access

Data is costly or absent

Commercial satellite is not universal

Knowledge packs already exist

SkyCache Nexus: knowledge hub + community fabric

Offline-first knowledge

Ultra-low-cost hardware

Open source by design

Legal & ethical rails

Community-owned

Honest about limits

From sky signal to classroom phone

Public satellite signal

Low-cost SDR receiver

Decode & prioritize

Local content cache

Wi-Fi mesh fabric (Nexus)

Phones in the community

Content prioritization

Architecture at a glance

Modular decoders

Offline-first portal

Simulation day-one

Starter kits in the $90-200 range

RTL-SDR dongle

SBC or used mini PC

Storage

VHF antenna (DIY OK)

WiFi AP (if needed)

Solar kit (optional)

Software mission complete

Simulation / demo (no RF)

File ingest + local portal

Live FTA satellite RX ops

Prioritization, power, maintainer ops

Solar / battery power ops

Village day weekend stand-up

Nexus mesh / DTN / gateway

Phone handoff (QR + mule + BLE sim)

Recent MVP phases

Clinic Pack Kits

Health Corpus Expand

Zero-Network 68 Parity

Open Resilience Wave

Software Mission Seal

Village DTN store-and-forward

Trust through transparency

Get involved

Developers

Communities & NGOs

Supporters

FAQ

Support SkyCache

Contact

Village golden path

First-boot wizard

Simulate before RF

GitHub v1.0.0

Browse + pack docs

Operator boards and kits

Connectivity is not the same as information access

Data is costly or absent

Commercial satellite is not universal

Knowledge packs already exist

SkyCache Nexus: knowledge hub + community fabric

Offline-first knowledge

Ultra-low-cost hardware

Open source by design

Legal & ethical rails

Community-owned

Honest about limits

From sky signal to classroom phone

Public satellite signal