+rusty_tlc Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 Once again there is probably a thread about this already. But, it wouldn't be mine would it? And I'm not feeling like looking for it. We are avid RV'ers. Geocaching compliments this activity really well. Any body else feel this way? I know at least one very proficient cacher who does. Got stories? Got hints or suggestions? Post 'em here. For instance, I was wondering how full timer's access the internet to get thier cache pages and downloads? Who do you use for an ISP? What about caches you own? I mean you can't place caches on vacation and by definition full timers are on vacation all the time, so how can you be a full timer and own a cache? Quote Link to comment
+Team GPSaxophone Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 If you travel to an area often and have found caches there, it is not considered a 'vacation cache'. That term is reserved for things like a one-time trip to Hawaii or Europe where you are not likely to visit it anytime soon, if ever again. Quote Link to comment
vagabond Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 As for the internet a lot of rv parks have hookups in the office, just ask. Or go to the public library most have internet available, or even look for an internet cafe, all kinds of possiblities Quote Link to comment
+MissJenn Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 We RV'd thru Alaska in 2002 and had a blast! I loved driving that BIG thing (it was only a 24'). We had a bunch of cache printouts from home since we were only going to do it for 2 weeks. But, once we scored our first cache (including travel bug activity), we were so excited that we just had to find internet access somewhere. The thought of waiting two entire weeks to log the activity was unbearable. I am grateful to the system of public libraries that had internet access available to anyone who came in. Quote Link to comment
+woodsters Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 Glad to see this thread as it really goes hand in hand with my website. Yes there are RVers out there that Geocache. Matter of fact it's almost how I became to know geocaching. Someone( a camper) on my message board told me about it back early in the year. It was actually a suggestion for a forum on my board, which I did, not knowing anything about it. I never really looked into it at all then. Then in spring, my in laws who own an RV went to Myrtle Beach for a rally and met some others that geocached. Heck maybe they are reading this now! Anyway, my MIL was telling my wife about it and that it sounded neat. My wife told me and I told her yeah I had heard of it. I checked into in June and here I am. As far as accessing the internet. Well many RV Parks (usually private) have telelphone access at the sites. While others may have internet access at the office. Just about any major ISP (AOL, MSN, etc) can be accessed that way. Places like KOA are moving forward with wireless internet connection and even have their own ISP . As far as placing caches. I would say it's not a good idea if you do a lot of traveling and only go back to an area once a year or so. Quote Link to comment
+sodajerk Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 We found out about geocaching because we got lost while RVing. (Actually you can't get lost while you have your kitchen sink with you, but that is another topic for another forum. ) Anyway, back to the story, we were unsure of where we were and which direction to go, we never did find the campground we were looking for. The road was not well marked, it was dark, etc. After the vacation, I was researching those GPS things to see if we could have used one to help find our way and I discovered this web site. I sounded like fun. There happened to be a thread about Flying J having the Sport Trac Pro on sale, I got lucky. I have a laptop, got a Palm, joined as a preium member, and for our Christmas trip to Minnesota, I have started mapping potential caches to try to find. We will be staying with inlaws, so I will have internet access. As others have said, many private campgrounds have a phone line to connect your laptop. Look at theRV Forum under tech issues in the forum for several discussions about connecting while on the road. Works for us. Texas Geocaching Jim Quote Link to comment
+rusty_tlc Posted December 10, 2003 Author Share Posted December 10, 2003 Hey this is great! The one thing I was really hoping for was to find a more mobile solution to internet access. Here is my tale of woe. We were in N. Cal on the coast this fall visiting My Uncle. There was an unexpected change of plans and we took a totaly different route home than I had expected. We left one town on Sat morning before the libarary opened. Got to the next town after the libarary closed. Sun. morning dawned, the library was closed, the internet cafe was closed. I still haven't had the heart to go back and see how many caches we missed out on. I guess I could use my cell phone and a laptop, but I doubt the band width would be that great. Quote Link to comment
Off Pavement Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 We're new to geocaching, but are full time RVers, and avid Jeepers. We happend to find out about the sport from a TV show, it looked like fun, and now we seem to be hooked. We have a satellite internet hookup which is fast and works just about everywhere we've been EXCEPT... northern Washington State, and according to our ISP, areas of northern Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnisota. This service is pricy $100 a month, and the mobile antenna arrangement is around 5K installed. I am aware of only one company that makes the antenna...motosat, but there may be more by now. The system automatically alligns itself with the satellite and away ya go! It will not work while in motion. For us, this was a must have as we often are out of cell phone range in remote locations for weeks at a time. It just happens to work out for geocaching extremely well, and we've gotten 2 first finds this week alone near Quartzsite AZ. It's not that we looked for first finds, we were looking for anything in the area and there they were. We feel that geocaching is the best activity we could have possibly come up with to go along with our full time RV/Jeepin' lifestyle. Quote Link to comment
+rusty_tlc Posted December 10, 2003 Author Share Posted December 10, 2003 We're new to geocaching, but are full time RVers, and avid Jeepers. We happend to find out about the sport from a TV show, it looked like fun, and now we seem to be hooked. We have a satellite internet hookup which is fast and works just about everywhere we've been EXCEPT... northern Washington State, and according to our ISP, areas of northern Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnisota. This service is pricy $100 a month, and the mobile antenna arrangement is around 5K installed. I am aware of only one company that makes the antenna...motosat, but there may be more by now. The system automatically alligns itself with the satellite and away ya go! It will not work while in motion. For us, this was a must have as we often are out of cell phone range in remote locations for weeks at a time. It just happens to work out for geocaching extremely well, and we've gotten 2 first finds this week alone near Quartzsite AZ. It's not that we looked for first finds, we were looking for anything in the area and there they were. We feel that geocaching is the best activity we could have possibly come up with to go along with our full time RV/Jeepin' lifestyle. Thats what I was thinking of, just wasen't thinking of the price tag! Hummm guess there will be a plan B. I gotta agree geocaching goes with RV'ing and Wheelin. (I won't hold the Heep thing against you , not every one can have a FJ40.) Geocaching and Four wheeling have a lot in common, it's a constant battle to keep trails open even when it's the Jeep and Cruiser clubs that do the most to protect the areas they cross. Why can't the official see that it's the people that actualy use the outdoors that care the most about preserving them. Opps <crash>, sorry I just fell off my soapbox, I'm Okay, nothing to see here move along. Quote Link to comment
Clown Knife Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 For internet access in an RV, what about Wi-Fi? I have a laptop computer and I find access points all over the place. Lots of Free sites too! Wi-Fi adapters are inexpensive and can come in handy when on the road. Happy Hunting! Quote Link to comment
+woodsters Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 You could check with DirecTv on their Direcway. Equipment is around $500-600 and the normal monthly cost is like $60-70. It's high speed. They have some other payment plans where you pay like $99 for a year or two and it pays for hte equipment and the service, then after that, it's the normal price. I know when the installer put our DirecTv in I specifically asked him about taking the satellite with us in our camper we had. I asked because there were questions about it in a forum. He stated that you could, that you just need the clear path to the sky at the proper alignment. He even gave me an extra pole to make a stand out of or to attach to the camper. I would check with the company and see if it can be used like that as well. If I could afford it, I would have it now as we can't get anything but dial up where we live. Not even DSL. Quote Link to comment
Grimmy Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 I work in the Wireless industry and I will be traveling some in the years to come. I'm also a avid off road nut but my trail truck will have to stay home for now. I'm currenty outfitting a tow rig for our 1959 Airstream we are restoring. It will be equipped with a laptop for navigation and that was the final justification for getting my GPS in the first place. It will also be plugged int o the ASDL port on the tow rig so I can real time the engine managment system and hopefully catch problems when they are small. Anyway back to the on the road internet. All of the major carriers are headed towards data avialablitlity on their systems. I happen to work for Cingular but AT&T as well as T-Mobile run simular technology. What will be avalable is a PCMIC card that will function as a modem. Right now you can get 56K reliably in most coverage areas. A new Data protocall called "EDGE". Depending on system use and distance from the towers you could run at 100k speeds. There are also phones that can be hooked to your laptop by cable, Inferred or Bluetooth already on the market. THe Nokia 6800 being Edge equipped. There are also many things like the Treo, Nokia 9000 series etc that have full internet access. The sweet thing about these products is you only have to have a single acct with your carrier. In the case of the PCMIC card you would take the SIM out of your phone and put it in the card to be in buisness on the computer. Hit some of the manufacture web pages like www.nokiausa.com and check out some of the stuff available. Here is the 9290 Nokia. This is a full blown computer capable of running CE programs and Smart cards for storage. Full internet access. It's a little bulky but it does it all. Quote Link to comment
Swagger Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Verizon Wireless offers something called BroadbandAccess, which I think used to be called Express Network. It lets you use your cellular phone (or a PCMCIA card) as a modem (or network adaptor - not sure which) with speeds comparable to DSL. I currently have a PalmOS based phone that also acts as a modem, so I can browse directly from the phone (I've logged a few caches with it) or plug it into my laptop and use it as a 14.4kbps modem. It's slow, and the added latency from having to go across the cellular network sucks, but it does work. I used it for a week while on vacation - it worked very well, despite the speed. Quote Link to comment
Grimmy Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Verizon Wireless offers something called BroadbandAccess, which I think used to be called Express Network. It lets you use your cellular phone (or a PCMCIA card) as a modem (or network adaptor - not sure which) with speeds comparable to DSL. Might want to read the fine print. Verizon slanted their speeds. the DOWNLOAD speed are about 100k in a good coverage area near a major city but the uploads are around 14.4k. Edge is supose to run around 100k down load and 60k upload. Currnet platform that most companies will kick back to is what you have now on GSM. In rural areas expect 56K max down load on a good day. 24k on average. It will get better and do it in a hurry. Quote Link to comment
+oneeyesquare Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 (edited) STOP!!!! I don't want to hear anymore about fulltime campin, jeepin and cachin!!!! I've got too many years to go til I can retire!!! When I do get the chance to actually use the toys, I like to do some caches. My Dad and I had a fun trip in early Sept.. Went to the UP and rode to all the caches on our ATV's. I was amazed that we could get cell phone coverage where we were, approx. 8 miles of the nearest paved and 30 some from the nearest town. Someday.... (Mutters and kicks the cat as he heads out the door to work.....) Edited December 11, 2003 by oneeyesquare Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.