Replicated from the GGA EZBoard:

Brad Webb
Registered Geocacher
(10/17/01 6:31:46 am)
Cell Phones - A tip

I recently learned how easy it is for a cell phone to "escape" from my belt while in a wooded area.

I also learned that having the phone set to vibrate mode makes a lost phone very hard to find. I went back with another phone and called the one that was missing, but of course could not hear the slight noise made by the vibration.

Lessons learned:

1. Don't rely on belt-clip devices while caching.
2. Set the phone to ring loudly, just in case.
3. There are good people out there. An eight year old, walking with mom and siblings, found my phone after I had spend an hour and a half fruitlessly searching. They took the phone to their home, checked the speed dial entries, found one labeled "home" and called me to let me know they had it!
4. Verizon will turn off your phone's activation for you if your phone is lost, and will turn it back on if you are lucky enough to find it.

-Brad

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Gossamyrrh
Registered Geocacher
(10/17/01 11:55:14 pm)
Re: Cell Phones - A tip

My cell phone, without fail, drops it's signal as soon as I am near any geocache site.

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Brad Webb
gpsfun
(10/18/01 9:01:24 pm)

Re: Cell Phones - A tip

Sounds like one of Murphy's new laws, keeping pace with technology!

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LoCache
Administrator
(10/20/01 7:59:16 am)
Re: Cell Phones - A tip

Get Verizon service and a Kyocera Smartphone. It kicks ass.

I am not a big advocate for Verizon, in fact I am not impressed with any of the cell companies, BUT of the ones I have used (powertel/voicestream, bellsouth and Verizon) they are the best. I ALWAYS have signal while hiking...in fact I think you commented on one of my other posts where I was saying I can make calls, surf the web and email from my cell when caching.

Good example...I was at the Yellow River Cache and I checked the notes on the cache page right from my phone at 50 feet from the cache. I also remembered a friends birthday while on that same trail and stepped off to the side of the trail and called her in Auburn Al.!

The above is regarding Metro Atlanta of course....remote regions without cell towers screw us all! ;-)

Geo

PS - Another tip I figured out recently is that if you have a digital/cellular phone that uses digital mostly, you can change it to ONLY use cellular (analog) and at times when a digital signal isn't available, a cellular one is. It's supposed to switch automatically but doesn't. (at least with Verizon)

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Ramness570
Registered Geocacher
(11/2/01 4:30:17 am)
yellow river signal

I have powertel/voicestream and I know I don't get a signal in the parking area of this location but going down the road back home I do... weird how these things work.

[This message was edited by gpsfun on November 04, 2002 at 04:00 PM.]