Good Ancestor / Emergency Communications
Pick a layer, help build it

Built from parts ordinary people can work on.

Open code, open designs, open libraries. Below, each project lists the help it can actually use right now — specific asks, not vague enthusiasm. All of it is useful in normal times; that's the point.

The most contributable project we have

Comms Station

Everything happens in the open at github.com/GoodAncestor/comms-station. It's early and documentation-first, so small contributions land with outsized effect.

Software developers

Python for the orchestrator and tooling; SDR/DSP experience welcome but not required. The profile validator and the local-sky map are the current on-ramps.

Licensed amateur operators

Review the safety and authorization model against real operating practice, and eventually test stations on the air under your own license.

Mesh networkers

People running Meshtastic, Reticulum, or Wi-Fi HaLow networks who can ground the "form networks" work in reality.

Builders & writers

Replicate a station from the docs and report what they got wrong — and help make the documentation followable by a stressed non-expert.

Librarians wanted, no building required

The Archive

Curators & reviewers

Help select, organize, and prune the tiers. Subject-matter reviewers for medical, agricultural, and engineering content are especially valuable.

Translators

The short-term emergency tier is small enough that complete, careful translations are achievable — and hugely leveraged.

Node hosts

Run an Archive node at a school, library, boat, or off-grid site, and tell us what people actually use.

Offline-AI tinkerers

Help make the local librarian genuinely good on small, cheap, low-power hardware.

The quiet one

The Satellite

If you would like to collaborate on the next generation of open source satellites, drop us a note.

Money is a fine way to help

Donate

The Good Ancestor Foundation is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit; donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.  To donate, or to talk about larger support, start at goodancestor.com.