Mobile coverage- Scotland west coast

[Ceejay]

Up a creek

"It would seem fairly predictable that at Port Appin, where you are pretty much up a creek"

That's told me

 

[Bilgediver]

Tough one that.
On no account try this, it's obviously a con:
www.o2.co.uk/coveragechecker [/QUOT...xpense of installations off the beaten track!

 

[macd]

I wouldn t say it is a con....It honestly shows that not even a phone works in most places...

It's not ferrous but it may have been irony.

 

[NormanS]

"It would seem fairly predictable that at Port Appin, where you are pretty much up a creek"

That's told me

Sorry, it wasn't meant to be rude.

 

[rob2]

... it's much better than some rural areas of England.

Around Basingstoke we go to village pubs because there is no mobile reception at all there - and some of our "villages" make Scottish towns look small!

Rob.

 

[Ceejay]

No offence taken

Norman S
I probably didn't explain my thoughts very clearly.
I think I meant to convey that there will be lots of places between the Mull of Kintyre and Ardnamurchan that are sheltered or otherwise, and will have their own micro climate on the go. It's impossible for the Inshore Waters forecast to generalise for all of these, which is fine for locals, as they can interpret for their own area, but not of much use to visitors as they move around from place to place. Perhaps the forecast should come with some sort of warning like chartplotters, "not to be used for navigational purposes"......
CJ

 

[awol]

Chust follow yin o' Davy's navy - they have wifi going a' the time.

 

[ctva]

Like most, I've found that Vodafone is streets ahead of the others. At Crinan you have to go to the flagpole at the hotel for reception. 3G, no idea. All I know is that we can get the synoptic charts on the phone most of the time, just takes a bit of time. There are enough wi-fi hotspots around the ports, harbours and hostelries that full PC bsed internet access is not a problem most of the time.

As for the Met Office Shipping, Inshore and Costal Waters forecasts broadcst by the Coastguard every 3 hours, they are excellent. BUT (and this is where experience and knowledge come in to play) it is up to the user to rationalise the given information to the local situation which usually is better than the forecast due to shelter and obstructions.

To be honest, up until a couple of years ago when the Coastguard went on strike, I only used their 4 hourly forecasts. It is only since then I've started to use internet services and even then it is usually only to look at the synoptic charts and to get the written text of the Met Office forecasts.

 

[agurney]

Like most, I've found that Vodafone is streets ahead of the others. At Crinan you have to go to the flagpole at the hotel for reception.

That's because the base station is at Bellanoch, and there's a big lump of rock between there and the hotel.

<dejavu>
I've regularly been anchored in Baigh nam Muc and swung in and out of reception of the Bellanoch mast every couple of minutes ... it plays havoc with the batteries as the phone continually renegotiates.
</dejavu>

Alisdair

 

[lenseman]

OK.

1) Pick the area you are likely to moor up (marina), sail or anchor.

2) Go to http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/ and look at the area by zooming in on the map until little blue isosceles appear.

3) Click on the blue triangle and a small window will open telling you the service provider or providers on that mast.

4) Buy a PAYG dongle to suit your needs based on the above.

If you don't find any little blue triangles in the area of your choice, you are not doing it correctly or there are no masts. Try playing Cards, Chess or Scrabble.

 

[lenseman]

That's because the base station is at Bellanoch, and there's a big lump of rock between there and the hotel.

<dejavu>
I've regularly been anchored in Baigh nam Muc and swung in and out of reception of the Bellanoch mast every couple of minutes ... it plays havoc with the batteries as the phone continually renegotiates.
</dejavu>

Alisdair

Using the above "Sitefinder" web page, there are only three operators in Bellanoch Vodafone, O2 and Orange. [location: 56° 04.204'N 05° 31.859'W]

Vodafone and O2, both using old 900MHz technology and Orange using GSM technology at 1800MHz. The other mast is Airwave which is a police radio circuit at 400MHz.

The Vodafone and O2 circuits at 900MHz (1G) are not very good for data or internet use. You need to look for radio circuits which operate on 1800MHz (2G) or better still 2100MHz (3G). Only these will start to give you the bandwidth required to handle half-decent web browsing.

 

[agurney]

Using the above "Sitefinder" web page, there are only three operators in Bellanoch Vodafone, O2 and Orange. [location: 56° 04.204'N 05° 31.859'W]

Vodafone and O2, both using old 900MHz technology and Orange using GSM technology at 1800MHz. The other mast is Airwave which is a police radio circuit at 400MHz.

The Vodafone and O2 circuits at 900MHz (1G) are not very good for data or internet use. You need to look for radio circuits which operate on 1800MHz (2G) or better still 2100MHz (3G). Only these will start to give you the bandwidth required to handle half-decent web browsing.

No. BOTH 900MHz and 1800 MHz are used to provide 2.5G (GPRS) and EDGE.