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New Attribute : No cell phone reception


AKStafford

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This may have already been suggested...

A lot people are caching with their smart phones these days... Some people may head out, assuming they'll be able to do their caching with the phone, but then realize when they get there that they do not get reception...

Here in Alaska, I know most places do not get reception, and I preload the caches into the GPS and phone.

And I know that there are CO's out there that do not list attributes, but having the option would be nice.

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This may have already been suggested...

A lot people are caching with their smart phones these days... Some people may head out, assuming they'll be able to do their caching with the phone, but then realize when they get there that they do not get reception...

Here in Alaska, I know most places do not get reception, and I preload the caches into the GPS and phone.

And I know that there are CO's out there that do not list attributes, but having the option would be nice.

 

Some ares are not covered by one carrier but are covered by another carrier. How would that work ?

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And there are different degrees of 'no cell reception'.

 

I might not get a data connection, but I could still make an emergency call if needed.

 

Personally, I think the people heading off into the bush expecting to use their cell phones need the really rude wake-up call so they can learn the lesson that cell phones don't work everywhere.

 

What's next...an attribute for 'No Starbucks Nearby'? :P

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Even if I used a phone to cache, I wouldn't just head out into the wilderness expecting to pull up a nearby cache when I get there, without doing a bit of pre-planning. I would probably do like I do now, for the most part; have an offline database of all local caches in my device. I would expect that I might have a reception issue sometimes.

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Okay, so if I don't preload cache data on my phone, then I get there, notice that I have no cell phone reception, and decide to do something else since I can't get cache data. I never see the attribute.

 

Or if I do preload cache data on my phone, then I get there, notice that I have no cell phone reception (or maybe I notice the attribute), and decide to do something else because I can't go geocaching without maps. Or maybe I find the cache anyway (either using the phone without maps or using cached offline maps), and save a field note. Later, when I have a network connection (cell data or wifi), I upload the field note to the server. If I had had a cell phone connection, then I might have uploaded the field note to the server immediately.

 

I'm having a tough time seeing how the attribute would have a significant effect either way.

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And there are different degrees of 'no cell reception'.

 

I might not get a data connection, but I could still make an emergency call if needed.

 

Personally, I think the people heading off into the bush expecting to use their cell phones need the really rude wake-up call so they can learn the lesson that cell phones don't work everywhere.

 

What's next...an attribute for 'No Starbucks Nearby'? :P

 

I agree, if you go somewhere remote you have to accept that you can't be assured a data signal.

 

People who assume their shiny phone works absolutely everywhere will get a wake-up call sooner or later, and maybe it's better they get that call when trying to find a cache rather than only ever coming to realise cellphones don't work everywhere when they actually need to make an emergency call.

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A couple more speedbumps:

1. Reception seems to change each day. There have been locations that I've been to on multiple days and gotten different levels of cell reception on each day. One day I might not get reception at all, another I might get half-decent and usable reception.

2. What about roaming? I live near the US border. In some parts of this region, I can be well outside of any Canadian cell reception, but still pick up US carriers from across the border. Does this count?

 

Cell reception is simply too variable and too complex to make an attribute useful.

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Heck...it's not even limited to back-country caching. There's a mixed-use shopping center near my home, only a couple miles from downtown Atlanta, that is a notorious cell-phone dead zone. What I find ironic is that there is actually a Sprint store there, but walk outside the door and my reception drops to roaming.

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