[pct-l] Going hi-tech...Pocketmail Questions

[kdpo at gottawalk.com (Ken Powers)]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chuckie V" <rubberchuckie@yahoo.com>
To: "PCT-List" <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 9:34 AM
Subject: [pct-l] Going hi-tech...Pocketmail Questions


  Hi gang,
  I'm considering going a little more hi-tech during this year's thru-hike 
attempt. In 2002, I shunned the digital age and didn't carry so much as a 
timepiece, but this time around I'm hoping to carry a pocketmail device. 
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone here could tell me about the unit and its 
service plans. I've been to their website, but would like to know the 
following from someone with experience:

  Is (was) it worth its weight?
We both have aging mothers so the weight was a requirement. Actually we 
enjoyed being connected to our friends and family while on the trail.
  How much actual writing might it take before its (the fancier model) 
memory is full?
since it only uses text you can get quite a bit on it. Marcia likes to save 
all her email so we filled ours up after a month or so. One solution is to 
forward copies of emails to your "other" email account and erase them from 
Pockemail.
  How is (was) its battery life?
battery life was really good.  think it lasted well over a month. Since I 
used AA batteries in my GPS I would move the Pocketmail batteries to the GPS 
after awhile and put new ones in the Pocketmail. I couldn't find a battery 
indicator on the Pocketmail so I was probably conservative on moving 
batteries to soon.
  How did you protect the device en route?
We started with it in a gallon ziplock. After getting drenched in a severe 
thunderstorm in Illinois ours got soaked. We bought (from Pocketmail) a 
better waterproof bag. We used ziplocks for the CDT, AT and 2000 miles of 
the ADT before we had a failure. The failure was a combination of a small 
hole in the tent floor, large rainstorm, small hole in the ziplock, 
unfortunate placement of the Pocketmail in a low spot in the tent.
  Do (did) they work with most phones?
Yes, they work with most phones. But some pay phones do not work. For those 
instances Pocketmail advises to turn down the volume on the phone. If it 
still doesn't work you can call pocketmail support and they will work with 
you to get it to work on that phone. (We found that we just go on to the 
next phone in those cases.) Cell phones must be set to analog.
  How did you transfer the information to trailjournals.com if indeed you 
did so?
We had several people offering to post our journal entries. We had backups 
for the backups. :) You just email the journal entries to them and they cut 
and paste the entries into trailjournals.

  Thanks! My apologies for the plethora of questions...

  -Chuckie

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