Manitoba Geocaching Association

1Queenand4Jokers · Joined: 07 Mar 2005 Posts: 268 Location: Manitoba

Okay we don't have a foggy clue how you guys get the instant message on your (is it a cellphone or PDA?) from geocaching that a new cache is listed but we are curious. Can one of you who has invested in this please let us know the simplest and cheapest way to be online in one's vehicle at any given time besides having the bulk of a laptop. Or does one have to have a laptop? I can just see us can shopping now for a van (ahem) we need seats for humans and one for our laptop and other electronic gadgetry...My husband has a Ipaq with Bluetooth technology that is not enabled.

FoodNinja · Joined: 28 Jun 2006 Posts: 109 Location: Winnipeg

foodninja caches with pen and paper... that is it! oh yeah gbs too.. Lizardo, ertyu, and turdleggs would be the top of my list of people to ask on this one.

ertyu · Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 547 Location: Winnipeg

I have the notifications sent to my phone's email address. I have to stop by a computer terminal and phone a friend for details :( Lizard has the full data package and can surf the www on his blackberry at reasonable rates.

TurdleEggs · Joined: 31 Jul 2005 Posts: 686 Location: Ste Genevieve

You can have the new cache notifications sent to your cell phone. There’s usually an additional cost – I think 3T’s just priced it out. The new cache notification includes the name and GC waypoint – and that’s it. You can then “WAP” to the gc.com web site from your cell phone and enter in the waypoint to get the coordinates, cache description and hint. It’s slow, and there’s an additional charge to have your cell phone browse the internet (I think JayPeg looked into the browsing fee).

With the Blackberry, you’re truly online but there’s a BIG monthly cost – Lizardo might be able to tell you how much.

Or, you can have the new cache notifications sent to your cell phone, then use it to call a friend that’s sitting in front of a computer and have them read out the cache page to you :)

-- Edited by TurdleEggs at 11:43, 2006-10-10

lizardo · Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 497 Location: Winnipeg

If you want the cache notifications, you can do as ertyu and Turdle have done and have them sent to your cell phone's e-mail address. You will be incurring data charges, and you don't get the coordinates, just the notification.

With Blackberry, I still get the notifications, but am able to use the built in Web browser to look up the cache page, get a hint, log my find, etc. The cost would be significant, but I am using an unlimited data transfer plan. Even so, that is costing me about 150.00 monthly. I use it mostly for work, so it is worth it for me. Average over the past 3 months has been only about 10 % of my data usage allocated to Geocaching.

Another option is the reliable 3T's network. You can have the e-mail notifications sent to your cell, and give her a call for the cache details. I have used this service in the past and have found it to be quite reasonable, although you may have to put up with some abuse from time to time. ;)

Before I got the Blackberry, and previous to the launch of the 3T's network, I would use my PDA to tap in to an unsecured wireless network. There are tons of them in the city, I don't know about Morris. But when I was in Beausejour, I had not trouble finding a hotspot there.

TurdleEggs · Joined: 31 Jul 2005 Posts: 686 Location: Ste Genevieve

I should probably explain a little better about WAP. Essentially it’s a web site designed to run on a little cell phone screen. GeoCaching.com’s WAP site is at:

http://wap.geocaching.com/

Many cell phones come with a mini web browser now, but you will be charged at data rates over and above whatever plan you have. It’s not as expensive as the Blackberry though; you pay by-the-minute charges, and it’s too slow to do much more than looking up coordinates on GC.com so you likely won’t rack up a bunch of usage time. Now that GC includes the waypoint in the new cache notification, you can look up the coordinates fairly quickly via WAP. You can also login and log your find via WAP.

WAP also lets you lookup Travel Bugs. You can quickly lookup the TB tag and see its origin and goal and view it’s recent travel history.

-- Edited by TurdleEggs at 08:07, 2006-10-11

JayPeg · Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 131 Location: Winnipeg

I have the notification sent to my phone. All incoming text messages are free. I did try the WAP and it cost $.03/kb. on the MTS setup. I believe if you pay the extra $5/mth the downloads are unlimited. The WAP does not provide a lot of details so I usually get the notification then phone a friend for the coords.

If you need more details on setting up the phone notification, let me know.