using your iPhone geocaching overseas..

[E_ZIG_A]

We are planning a trip to Scotland later this year and we are keen to go geocaching whilst we are there! Would anyone recommend how successful we might be doing this with our iPhone? What sim card/carrier/dataplan should we get whilst there? (we'll be there approx 2 weeks) The data roaming charges using our Aussie sim card would be a killer I have no doubt.

To back up this option, we are also thinking about a good GPS (something that allows paperless geocaching) but not sure what will be the best for such a trip. We will be going quite random in our travels, so can't necessarily decide what caches we will do before we go and load them up; rather, we will just end up somewhere and then look around for what is in the area.

We would also be caching in any stopovers we might have on the way (ie. Hong Kong, London, Dubai, etc) so being able to see what's in the local area when on a multi hour stopover would be an awesome way to stretch the legs and unwind the mind!

Any ideas and experiences would be most appreciated.

[juc_cacher]

Really, the only way you're going to be able t that kind of spontaneous caching is with some local SIMM, but I have no idea what's available there and what mobile data coverage is like over there. You might get away with hotel/Stabucks/Maccas wi-fi if you can be a trifle more organised.

You should be able to download and store Pocket Queries with the iPhone app, which will give you some off-line capability too, but again, unless you know where you're going, that's something you will need to do periodically when you get in wi-fi range.

I doubt you could download every cache in scotland and store it for offline use !

[Renroc]

Hi there,
I found 22 caches with my iphone in 2010 when I was over there. I got an orange prepaid sim card and data package. DON'T use the satelite image maps as they chew through data really really quickly. The orange deal was about the best I could find. BUT it gave me a set amount (can't remember how much) of data download and once that was used I was NOT ABLE to add any more. I was over there for about 5 weeks. I topped up the phone credit quite a bit and I think that some of that was going to data (at a more expensive rate) Be wary of coverage though as that is often worse than here in Aus even though there are MILLIONS more people.
What I did to supplement my iphone was go with my nuvi 500 and download caches at free/cheap places (like the youth hostels) It doesn't have wi fi so it needed a real connection but those are not too hard to find. That lets you do paperless caching (*but I have never been able to upload logs from it) It downloads caches and logs and hints and other stuff so works well from the finding side... Logging though you could use the phone.

If you want have a look at my GC profile and see for May/June 2010 which caches I found and where and what I thought of them. There are some great ones in Scotland and a few quite good earth caches too. Have fun. PM me if you want more info.

The previous time I went to UK I didn't have an iphone and I got an orange sim without data and that was brilliant.

[Zalgariath]

I am currently caching with my Garmin A50 Droid phone in the UK and its a snap

Simply pop into any mobile phone dealer (Im with O2) and for 10 quid you get a prepaid SIM with 300 free text and 30 days of Internet (500MB) of data. Other dealers offer similar pacakges but O2 has one of the best networks.

Now your only issue is going to be the iphone has a rubbish GPS chip... and in Scotland even the best networks struggle. Using the Groundspeak App and semi accurate GPS function is only possible in coverage areas, so you will struggle.

I use Geobeagle, a free app you can load pocket queries onto and currently I have every single UK cache (all 80,000+ of them) loaded into MEMORY on my A50, so Im not using data hardly ever. While you can do this on the iphone too (ok you wont need the entire UK, that takes ages to organise) with pocket queries for the areas you are visiting, my advantage is the A50 is actually a REAL GPS unit... and super accurate, where as outside of coverage your iphone will start to suck the proverbials. However, for a few days to a few weeks, reading the hints, and taking the info above, your should be able to cache on the fly cheap and easy

Good Luck!

[fluffyfish]

I used a telstra phone in the USA caching in late 2009. If you avoid the sat images I would not think you would use much data. Plus with wifi connection you can do most of your d/l data on a free connection. For the minimal hassle, I found it quite ok to use data services. You probably would like a navigation device since you would not be using "maps" on your phone.

Especially if you have to pay an unlocking fee, it might be ok just to roam on the overseas network with your australian carrier. Just don't make any phone calls!

[fluffyfish]

Further to my post above, if you are a premium member on gc.com, I would highly recommend GeoSphere. A great app. It allows you to load gc.com PQs into your phone. Not sure of the limit but I would think it is pretty large amount of caches you could load. Using wifi, it would be free to get gpx files onto your phone (i load them via my gmail acct). Plus geosphere supports GCA! So it will be extra useful when you are back in Oz.

[Black Bunny]

.........Not sure of the limit .......

4000 active caches displayed.

To get around this while doing road trips, I have different groups for each region/listing site and cahe types so I can turn them on/off at will. It is no good trying a 2 hr walk if you are on a time limit to get to a wedding....

[garnercx]

Last year in the UK I just grabbed a vodafone sim for about 10 pounds and that gave me 500 MB of data which I didn't come close to using with heavy use of the geocaching app, maps, and turn by turn GPS over three weeks. Just make sure you have an unlocked iPhone.

The iPhone gps chip will serve you well and you don't need to bring and load up a gps unit on the off chance you might be in a certain area. Just fire up the iPhone when you need to know what caches are nearby and grab them.

If you are going into the areas that vodafone doesn't cover, you can load up geosphere before you head into the wilderness. Look at the vodafone coverage map of Scotland on their web site.

[E_ZIG_A]

some great responses there thanks very much everyone! I will take a look at some of the ideas and work out what might work best!

[garnercx]

Last year in the UK I just grabbed a vodafone sim for about 10 pounds and that gave me 500 MB of data which I didn't come close to using with heavy use of the geocaching app, maps, and turn by turn GPS over three weeks. Just make sure you have an unlocked iPhone.

Crap, I nearly forgot. Orange in France, (and other providers in Europe) will not count mail traffic in your block of data, but will charge extra for it - usually from the few pounds/euros of pre-paid calls you have. If you use this money up (which you will in about 60 seconds of mail usage), you can't use the included data as you need a balance of at least 15 pence/eurocents.

To be more specific, the carriers change differently for IP traffic on port 25 (SMTP or 'outbound' mail), ports 119 and 443 (POP3 or IMAP 'incoming' mail), and the secure versions of these three ports, which are 465, 995 and 993.

The best option is to remove the passwords from your mail client on your phone, or just don't use the mail app. You can happily access your mail via whatever web mail services you might have access to, or if you run your own mail server, just change the port numbers they run on and you'll get round the charging.