2 years without a mobile phone Bliss

[vestlenning]

Getting a "mobile" phone and then leaving it as home as much as possible. Hmmm makes sense.

I miss my land line. I'm planning to tie the mobile to the wall, but haven't decided in which room yet...

 

[Swallow]

Post Withdrawn

 

[Swallow]

I can make telephone calls on mine. That and send/receive text messages. Anything else is irrelevant.

For me it is the telephone calls and texts that are irrelevant.

That's too much like being on a leash.

Airplane Mode means you can switch this "feature" on when you want.

Getting my brother's 2nd hand iphone was weight reduction. I no longer had to carry an ipod touch and nokia dumb phone.

 

[Macaroon]

No it can play actual LPs as these are Long Plays. It can also play Albums. But I need to do some ripping for it to play a "CD" or "Tape" or "Vinyl".

I'm off to do my hoovering.

Is there not an app. for that?

 

[santaman2000]

For me it is the telephone calls and texts that are irrelevant.

That's too much like being on a leash.......

There's a lot of truth in that.

 

[Swallow]

Is there not an app. for that?

There are a few and they are free, but the attachment for the phone is quite expensive.

 

[ADz-1983]

I'm curious too about coverage in W Norway..

Here while I just might get a Garmin64 to play with, gps on a phone would be suicidal. With no cell signal out of town, I guess I could write up my last wishes more neatly on the phone, in case of an accident in the bush. Seriously it's pointless to carry the phone rather than leave it in the truck where it won't get dropped or wet.

I'm sorry bout you're confused or ill-informed. You have ZERO need for a cell signal when using GPS, same as you don't on a standalone (and quite frankly inferior unit).

Same as on standalones you simply need offline mapping which is easily available, even through Google maps as you can download map for offline. However you can use OS mapping through apps like Viewranger. There is NO need for a mobile data signal at all, the map and GPS signal are completely independent. Having wifi/3g/4g near by can improve things but they're not needed for simple GPS navigation/mapping.

 

[OldJimbo]

W Norway is all fjords and mountains, so even with a lot of oil money the coverage is good only in towns and villages.

I always hear about how great cell coverage works there compared to here - but I thought that would be the case...

I'm sorry bout you're confused or ill-informed. You have ZERO need for a cell signal when using GPS, same as you don't on a standalone (and quite frankly inferior unit).

No, it's the conditions around here which can cause issues with tiny gps receivers in phones. That must be hard to believe if yours has always worked where you are, but nevertheless current advice here seems to be to pony up the bucks and go for a proper unit. I love my vehicle gps which works great in cities, but in the bush it's only useful for direction and elevation - and loses signal(older unit). I was a bit horrified at the price of pre-loaded specific maps for the advanced units - and around here I'm going to have get some mapping utilities and make my own to add to what others have come up with.
Let's see if I can make sense of the above. Large scale topographical maps for this area are out of date, so in glacial U shaped valleys rivers have changed course. I have detailed logging road maps from 30 years ago which don't show topography, just roads. Google maps, openstreetmap etc, show some logging roads, but not where they are washed out. Trails aren't shown, nor is topography, so a person could get into issues if their gps stops working, or even with a compass if you don't know exactly where you are in times of poor visibility where triangulation is impossible - which frankly is all too often.

I'm sure not against tech, and I'm even looking into sat tracking and emergency devices, since by the time the next batch of great grand-kids come out I'd like to have one. Apparently one of those saved the life of a guy who had a heart attack while fishing down channel, because the emergency team knew just where to go. That being said, even those only work in some places here and you better know where those places are, and be able to get to them...

 

[Swallow]

I'm sorry bout you're confused or ill-informed. You have ZERO need for a cell signal when using GPS, same as you don't on a standalone (and quite frankly inferior unit).

Same as on standalones you simply need offline mapping which is easily available, even through Google maps as you can download map for offline. However you can use OS mapping through apps like Viewranger. There is NO need for a mobile data signal at all, the map and GPS signal are completely independent. Having wifi/3g/4g near by can improve things but they're not needed for simple GPS navigation/mapping.

Presumably you can also work without a preloaded map and just get a numbers based reading as well? (like the cheap wrist versions).

 

[pysen78]

There are a few and they are free, but the attachment for the phone is quite expensive.

Are you talking about apps for online dating services?

 

[Teepee]

I miss my land line. I'm planning to tie the mobile to the wall, but haven't decided in which room yet...

Tie the mobile to a carabiner? A phone in every room then as you move about the house.

 

[pysen78]

I use an app called "GPS Status". It will list your position without any maps whatsoever. Also very useful to see how many satellites I have connection with in order to judge the precision.
It will only serve to tell you you can't get a fix on any satellites if you're in low terrain in the northern parts of Sweden, though, much like OldJimbo describes. If all satellites are below the horizon you're out of luck.

Regarding having data connection, my smartphone takes ages to get a fix if I haven't got recent GPS Assistance data, sometimes it won't get a fix at all. That is a big problem if I'm without either 3g or wifi...


Link to the app wits some screenshots:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2&hl=sv

 

[OldJimbo]

I use an app called "GPS Status". It will list your position without any maps whatsoever. Also very useful to see how many satellites I have connection with in order to judge the precision.
It will only serve to tell you you can't get a fix on any satellites if you're in low terrain in the northern parts of Sweden, though, much like OldJimbo describes. If all satellites are below the horizon you're out of luck.

How accurate do you find a phone GPS to be? I have to admit that I'd put anomalies with my vehicle GPS down to having an older cheaper unit. Apparently even heavy tree cover will cause large deviations, though.

 

[OldJimbo]

I'd forgotten to say that I'd considered a sweet deal on a satellite phone - a Globalstar, for use when transporting younger grandkids between Alberta and here. Luckily I did some research and found out that it wouldn't work on the route due to travelling E-W and mountains on the south side or in trees due to line of sight issues.

Just to add to the hilarity of what doen't work around here, well I do have an honors degree in geology, so I am familiar with mapping. When I first arrived I thought that I had lost my skills. Then I found out about the big "Iron Mountain" in the middle of the valley - magnetite...

 

[Swallow]

Are you talking about apps for online dating services?

ummm........ummmm.........I have no idea what you are talking about....honest.

 

[rik_uk3]

How accurate do you find a phone GPS to be? I have to admit that I'd put anomalies with my vehicle GPS down to having an older cheaper unit. Apparently even heavy tree cover will cause large deviations, though.

Down here its accurate to a few metres, thats around town or in the garden. Its down to sat coverage so heavy tree cover will have some effect.

 

[pysen78]

How accurate do you find a phone GPS to be? I have to admit that I'd put anomalies with my vehicle GPS down to having an older cheaper unit. Apparently even heavy tree cover will cause large deviations, though.

Sorry, I left you hanging. Busy weekend.
My experience is about what rik_uk said. With a good number of satellites fixed it gives accuracy in the 0-5m range. I know this since I often try to compare my position with site survey maps, or zoning maps, which are very accurate. This is valid for most of where I work around Stockholm, which is around 60deg North, (about the same as the northern shore of the Gulf of Alaska if my map skills serve me right)
Built up areas with lots of high rise buildings makes it behave really weird. On a trip to Tokyo a while back, my position on the map would jump around very sporadically as if the signals bounce off the walls or something. I suppose it could give similar errors in deep valleys with lined with vertical rock faces.

Occasionally, I've done work in northern Sweden (around 65deg North) and there it gets harder to get a good fix. Good enough for navigating around a town or on roads, but not much more.
I've gone completely without cell coverage for days too, and that works fine, as long as you have offline maps. (On a trip to Iceland. No cellphone service, but updated GPS data every morning with the hotel wifi)

 

[OldJimbo]

Thanks for the help!

While I'm only at 54 North, I'm now starting to see the issues around here with steep terrain and trees.

I have to admit that I had thought that someone else here would already have added logging roads and tracks to topographical maps, using something like Openstreetmap, but apparently not. In that case I could have borrowed a cell with GPS and quickly determined where it does and does not work - off the main highway. To be honest while I've used a vehicle GPS it was to find addresses in strange cities and generally worked well. Only now when I'm considering using a GPS in the forest am I finding out that GPS can be very inaccurate in too many places - at least my vehicle GPS is.

My plan now is pick up a Garmin 62st and use digital maps showing topography from QLandkarteGT:
http://www.qlandkarte.org/
and map on logging roads and tracks.
A bit of research has shown that this might be a bit complicated, since I use a 64 bit Linux OS on my computer so I'm interested to see how it will all work out.
Then I can check the accuracy of cellphone GPS around here.
For sure in cities I can see where having a cellphone with GPS and maps could really be an advantage, so the advice was really worthwhile!

 

[badoosh]

Just seen this thread and thought it was only me lol.
When people ask why I haven't got a phone my reply is
"I didn't have one as a kid and I did alright then and if its really important someone will come and find you"
Plus I still owe Vodafone a quid when I borrowed one.��

 

[Robson Valley]

OldJimbo, you can relax. Cell phones and GPS are crap where I live in the mountains, as well.
Highway 16 crosses British Columbia. If you stop, turn left or right, please use your own senses to find the highway again.
We don't help the stupidos. I have a map and two extremely good compasses. They trump any fried apps.