[pct-l] smartphone as two-way, also?

Mon Oct 25 18:29:46 CDT 2010

My "smartphone" is not so smart. It turns itself on inside my pack and 
drains the battery unless I pull the battery at the trailhead. It even 
unlocks itself and makes calls to who knows where, all by itself! Pain in 
the arse, really.

So, now that phones are becoming so "smart," with GPS as you're saying, do 
we, now, have a lighter pack because we no longer need to carry our phones 
and GPS units (by investing in these "smartphones")? Such a deal! Or is it 
still better to carry both?

Can a smartphone also communicate two-way if there are no towers around? The 
Garmin we used this Spring, the Rino 530HCx, had a wonderful two-way radio 
that kept us all connected through the woods on the snow so we could help 
each other find the way. Are the phones able to do this yet?

Ned Tibbits, Director
Mountain Education
1106A Ski Run Blvd
South Lake Tahoe, Ca. 96150
    P: 888-996-8333
    F: 530-541-1456
    C: 530-721-1551
    http://www.mountaineducation.org
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Halfmile" <list at lon.net>
To: "John Abela" <pacificcresttrail2011 at gmail.com>
Cc: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 11:10 AM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] smartphone as GPS

John,
For the iphone I think the two best apps are Topomaps and Basic GPS.

http://topomapsapp.com/
http://www.basicgps.net/Basic_GPS/Main.html

Both work well in areas without cell service and are accurate to
better than 50 feet in my testing. You need to preload maps into
Topomaps (best to use wifi) and it can download waypoints directly
from my site at www.pctmap.net. Basic GPS only displays your location
in UTM coordinates, so you would use this app with maps that have UTM
grids printed on them. This is simple and works well and you can
easily plot your location on a map with 25 meter or better accuracy.
Basic GPS saves your phone battery too since you turn the phone on,
wait a minute or two for the GPS fix, plot location, then turn the
phone off. An iPhone will only run a few hours with the GPS on before
it drains the battery.

Last time I tried to use Motion X, I didn't find it very useful
because it didn't work well preloading maps for areas without cell
service and had limited waypoint storage capability. Maybe that's
changed.

-Halfmile
www.pctmap.net

On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 10:37 AM, John Abela
<pacificcresttrail2011 at gmail.com> wrote:
> @Jim K,
>
> Did you just use the pdf formats, or did you use the gpx waypoints and 
> load
> them up into MotionX, or some other method?
>
> Thanks,
> John
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 10:27 AM, Jim Keener ( J J ) <
> pct2010 at ridgetrailhiker.com> wrote:
>
>> Greetings,
>>
>> If a device is marketed as having "GPS", it will have satellite location
>> capability. Smartphone GPS is typically not as accurate as dedicated GPS
>> devices.
>>
>> Many, many hikers have completed the PCT without any GPS capability. I
>> carried an iPhone 3Gs this year and, using Halfmile's waypoints, located
>> myself any time I wanted. There is some really good GPS software 
>> available
>> for almost all smartphones.
>>
>> Walk well,
>> Jim Keener ( J J )
>>
>> On Oct 25, 2010, at 10:11 AM, "greg mushial" <gmushial at gmdr.com> wrote:
>>
>> >> Message: 2
>> >> Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:44:13 -0700
>> >> From: Austin Williams <austinwilliams123 at gmail.com>
>> >> Subject: Re: [pct-l] smartphone as GPS
>> >> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
>> >> Message-ID:
>> >> <AANLkTinOvNfuQPZHGGwxJk2BCWN9RR=DTjKCx7wJ9yr6 at mail.gmail.com>
>> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>> >>
>> >> Be careful. Most of the time the 'GPS' in smart phones is based on
>> >> cell-tower triangulation, NOT gps-satellite triangulation. That means
>> >> when
>> >> there are now cell towers around, the "GPS" on the phone won't work.
>> Make
>> >> sure you buy one that uses *real* gps, not the kind that uses cell 
>> >> tower
>> >> triangulation.
>> >>
>> >> Just a heads up.
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> Austin Williams
>> >>
>> >
>> > Is there any (published) indication of accuracy difference? Seems that
>> since
>> > generally towers don't jump around, they should be as good as
>> satellites...
>> > no?
>> > TheDuck
>> >
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