[pct-l] cellphone (and ham radio link)

[Lon Cooper]

What do you think about something like this?

http://www.pctmap.net/cell.html



On Jan 22, 2008 9:20 PM, AsABat <AsABat at 4jeffrey.net> wrote:
> I remember we talked about it last year but it didn't go very far. At
> first glance it would seem that a list of databook waypoints with
> columns for each carrier would be a start. A second look and the
> complications that while coverage may not be available at a datapoint,
> it may be available a short distance away, and it's not the variety of
> carriers but the unlimited number of potential waypoints that make it
> difficult. I'd suggest that rather than just checking where coverage
> worked, the date of the report might be helpful, especially in the case
> of "no coverage" reports, as cell towers are always being added. Still,
> I'd be willing to _help_ with that if someone wanted to do it.
>
> The cell phone companies do have maps of their coverage areas, although
> not to a high resolution. Still, one can overlay those maps on the
> guidebook pages and get a reasonable estimation of where coverage may
> and may not be available. I did this last year from Truckee to Quincy,
> just penciling in where coverage ended and began, and it was fairly
> accurate, thankfully as I had to call for a ride out.
>
> If long distance hikers are crazy and ham radio operators are geeks, I
> have a website for crazy geeks - a ham radio repeater guide for the PCT
> at http://www.qsl.net/aa6j/pct/ . It is far from complete, but there
> aren't many crazy geeks to provide the data. I have some info on the
> how-to as well, as well as a dialogue I had with a thruhiking ham who is
> sometimes on this list.
>
> AsABat - AA6J
>
>