can anyone recommend a good mobile phone for sota activations (spots/alerts)in the respect of ease of use,good battery life,robustness or a phone to avoid ?
Thanks
Alister
In reply to M0BKQ:
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to M0BKQ:
Ya…A satellite phone.
73
K6CMG
In reply to K6CMG:
You don’t need a satellite phone, far too expensive. But if you want satellite based M2M then it’s working and supported. Just send me your Iridium IMEI and I’ll tell you where you send the messages so they appear on SOTAwatch.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to K6CMG:
Well, I dont know about where your from,
But here in W6, If your on a summit, your not likely to get cell service.
So, the approach i would take is to use a Android Phone running APRSDroid with a Bluetooth enabled TNC and your 2m radio to spot yourself.
At least that is the discussion we are having here in SOCaL W6.
73
K6CMG
In reply to M0BKQ:
My first choice, for convenience, is my iPhone. My iPhone gets poor coverage. Dunno whether it is the phone or the provider. I get discounted service from this provider, so that helps motivate its use.
I carry a Motorolla W755 flip phone on a Verizon 3G reseller’s network. I use it when I can’t get service on my iPhone. It frequently gets SMS service when my iPhone doesn’t. I hate the user interface (because it does not have a QWERTY keyboard.)
I’m trialing an LG VS700. Same 3G reseller network (pagePlus Cellular). I’d like to use it because it has a QWERTY keyboard (both a physical one and an on-screen one). It shows no-signal more often than the W755. However, the times it shows no-signal are times that the W755 can’t get an SMS out, despite showing 2 bars. i.e. Every time the LG VS700 can’t get out, the W755 can’t get out. This leads me to suspect that the cell tower is a bigger determinant of success than the phone.
So if you don’t mind triple-clicking the 2 button to get the letter C, the Moto W755 is cheap, seems to work pretty well, and is small.
My “goto” device is my Yaesu VX-8GR APRS HT. I hate the user interface (all that triple-pressing of digits to spell out my text), but it gets out reliably. I did buy an extended capacity battery for it.
With a 3rd party reseller, getting coverage from a second cell provider is surprisingly cheap – less than $10 a month.
So the short form of my answer is: Get a cheap phone on AT&T, get another cheap phone on VZN, and get an APRS HT. And get a waterproof case!
Kevin / K4KPK
In reply to M0BKQ:
Hi Alister,
I use an unlocked, quad band, DUAL SIM, Android 4 Phone (cost about A$170) and the free Rucksack Radio Tool application.
I have used this without issues in Australia and Europe. As mentioned by others, cell coverage is critical as without that you’re not going to have any advantage of taking the phone with you. Having two SIMs (both Pay as you go in my case) on different cell networks, does give you a “second chance” if one cell network isn’t reachable, the other may be. You need to look at the individual mobile phone companies stated coverage, however my experience has been that the ex government owned company normally gives the better coverage albeit at a higher price. Make sure the second company you use is not simply a reseller of the ex-state owned company rather one with it’s own cell infrastructure.
Don’t forget that as well as posting (and receiving) spots via a cell phone Internet connection, you can also submit spots to SOTAWatch via SMS through Andy’s server. There are occasions where the cell signal isn’t strong enough to provide an Internet connection but SMS still works.
The Android Radio Rucksack Tool, has the option to spot by either Internet or SMS built-in.
73 Ed.
In reply to DD5LP:
As suggested by Andy MM0FMF - I have a Moto G by Motorola. Bought one outright from Amazon last February for £150. They are still that price. Phone is on Vodafone network. I use the RRT free Android app for self spotting. Memory on phone is 16 Gb (I wish for more!) and it is not expandable via and SD card - no provision for a card in this phone. Phone contains an FM radio which is handy. Battery life overall is reasonable - two days with fairly heavy use, but I tend to keep it charged over 50% so tend to top it up on the mains charger every day. Phone doesn’t come with mains charger - you can purchase the proper Motorola one for a few pounds more on e-bay. The Moto G is far superior to what I had before, which was the Android based Sony Xperia which is on contract until November. I sold that phone for £30 and Vodafone sent me out a free micro sim card for the new Moto G. I will likely go PAYG in November, although the service I get from Vodafone for £10.50 per month is pretty good. The EU roaming package means I can use this phone to self spot and make calls home in mainland EU when I go there in about 10 days time and that only costs me £2 a day as the service uses my inclusive UK minutes. There are probably cheaper ways of doing it…
PS A cheaper case from Amazon makes the phone quite robust - £2.50 including a screen protector.
73 Phil
Same here, but without the TNC; I feed the 2m handheld directly from the APRSdroid phone with an audio cable. Less battery, less weight.
Pre-requirements are a Mic input and the possibility to enable Vox, my 50$ UV-3R does all that.
Only drawback I can think of is that it goes on TX not knowing if the aprs frequency is busy or not, which isn’t really a problem in my region (few signals); workaround would be to connect the RX audio as well, I guess APRSdroid honors Data Carrier Detect functionality.
Marco HB9CAT
In reply to K6CMG:
In reply to K6CMG:
Well, I dont know about where your from,
But here in W6, If your on a summit, your not likely to get cell
service.
So, the approach i would take is to use a Android Phone running
APRSDroid with a Bluetooth enabled TNC and your 2m radio to spot
yourself.At least that is the discussion we are having here in SOCaL W6.
73
K6CMG
In reply to M0BKQ:
I use an iPhone with SOTA Goat for alerts and self spotting together with HAMLOG for SOTA logging…both running under IOS. I sometimes use my iPhone as a GSM to wireless hotspot and use my iPAD over wireless with same apps installed.
SOTA Goat is easy to use, gives summit info as well as the possibilities to monitor alerts and self spot. HAMLOG has specific SOTA export function so you do not have to manipulate any CSV files. Just upload to the SOTA database.
Hope this gives you an alternative to evaluate.
Douglas ON4ROS/ G1NZB
In reply to M0BKQ:
Hang all this smart stuff - I use PAYG and keep a 'phone until it dies. Smart would be very expensive for the facilities I would have any use for. I have an ancient Nokia on 3G Vodafone which usually works for self-spotting - and accept multiple keying for some letters and the numbers. I also have an old Samsung on 3G T-Mobile (or whatever they are now) which, while it won’t work on Sotawatch spotlite, is set up for SMSBot. Whatever you use, on some summits you will have to wander around a bit to find a useable signal. I don’t do radio abroad on our annual February (wedding aniversary) trips to EA8 (or proposed trip to 9H in the autumn), so cannot comment on useability abroad. Mobile phones don’t run my life - I just make sure both phones are charged and topped-up with credit a few days before I plan to go out.
Good luck, Dave, G6DTN
In reply to G4OBK:
it is not expandable via an SD card
It is now. There is a new Moto-G that is LTE enabled. That has an SD card slot. The older models are still available. You’d like to think the price would drop on those. Maybe it will.
Probably the best bang-per-buck smartphone on sale at present.
Back to the original question. In the UK you can expect considerable coverage on 2G at 900MHz. 3G coverage is really quite spectacular if you are “in the near” of a major road. But once you start out getting to the more remote parts then coverage is a gamble. You can use the OFCOM Sitefinder database service to see where mobile towers are in relation to summits. The info is accurate for 3, Vodaphone and O2. EE don’t provide info anymore, but as they are generally rubbish as providers, you won’t miss much ignoring them.
If you are happy to spot yourself with an SMS, a £15 handset with a cheap PAYG SIM is the best you can do. Having a choice of SIMs helps.
If you want to post alerts when mobile you need mobile net coverage and a smartphone.
Everyone has their own opinions on smartphones. They are mostly wrong ( although G4OBK has made the correct choice here), as the only smartphone you should buy is one which uses technology my employers provide to the semiconductor companies and thus keeps me employed! 
As for other suggestions which the OP didn’t ask about:
APRS in Scotland doesn’t exist where the mountains are. It’s a non-starter. I can’t comment on England or Wales other than there may be places near the borders between the hilly ground and flatter lands where APRS is more viable.
Self spotting via the Iridium satellite network is available if you want to guarantee the ability to spot yourself.
You could just learn and use Morse and let RBNgate spot you for almost zero effort!
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
APRS in Scotland doesn’t exist where the mountains are. It’s a
non-starter. I can’t comment on England or Wales other than there may
In special propagation conditions the packets could travel quite far away. It would be interesting to experiment with this in my opinion.
I can not recommend a phone since I do not use the self spotting myself. Usually CQ on the HF bands is enough.
73, Jaakko OH7BF/F5VGL
In reply to M0BKQ:
Avoid HTC, I have one and the battery life is terrible. OK for normal phone use but once you enable data roaming plus other aps such as Rucksack radio tool etc you can literally watch the battery life icon diminishing.