Just a few notes on communications and navigation..

Tracker

The tracker is provided by Dave and the satellite time is for testing. We are eternally grateful. It uses reverse gps so is accurate to within a km. Placing the track on googlemaps is automated, with occasional tweaking.

GPS and Maps

Igo8 4.3 inch screen purchased from eBay (Hong Kong). The important bit was the maps. Checked with seller on what was meant by "world maps". Some have more than others.

Second hand Garmin purchased in Morocco. With open street map of Morocco and Garmin Europe maps. Strangely we prefer the Igo.

We also have Oziexplorer (and bought a USB GPS Mouse while in UK). An old copy of Garmin nRoute (2.7.6) from before Garmin software licencing got complicated with Franson GPSGate (2.6) which allows nRoute to read the gps mouse. The gps mouse would have been useful in Mongolia and was magic in Morocco. We bought Reisemap Oziexplorer version digital map of Morocco and also had Olaf's map (free for Garmin) which was usable in nRoute but for some reason was never visible in our Garmin gps.

The Reisemap digital maps have been up to a few km out and have been very inaccurate at times. Adequate comes to mind.

Navigation in Kazakhstan and Kyrgizstan was initially difficult due to the scale of the Reise Maps and limited Garmin gps coverage (main roads only and up to 6km out). Used Franson GPSGate with the gps dongle and own web page (a simple page written on the road) with googlemaps. There's probably an app for tablets with built in gps. This would have helped enormously in Mongolia. The refresh frequency (seconds) can be set. Two minutes was often sufficient. Very useful for navigating through large towns as well as out of the way places. Thepage could be kept open zoomed out when little or no internet. The same page was used to capture coordinates for some tracks which were only visible on the satellite view. Also for checking coordinates that were provided by other people's web pages and other sources which were often very wrong.

In the UK we got tangled up with Ordnance Survey licensing and Memory Map. The free from OS 1:100,000 maps have countours and footpaths removed. We had some full digital topographic maps and also some borrowed paper maps.

We purchased a book of road maps for Europe. We also had paper maps for most countries. Its useful to see the overview which the gps doesn't provide very well. The computer software seems to zoom well. Igo8 is better for at least the general direction than the Garmin.

Its difficult with both Igo and Garmin to reliably find the by-passes around towns. Invariably they take us through the middle. France is wonderful with those "toutes directions" and "toutes autres directions" road signs.

Here's a complicated diagram of the maps and how we used them.

Mobile Phone

We purchased a travelsim card from the local Australia Post outlet before leaving Australia. This is an Estonian sim card with a callback method for making calls from anywhere (except Laos). It also has an 1800 number for people calling us from Aus (costs us A$0.35 / minute) and a web page for people to send us sms for free. Instructions are comprehensive. Help was available. Topup is a simple menu option once set up. Very useful. A minor blot, making it work with one of those automated answering things that says "press 1 for ..., press 2 for ....." took a little bit of fiddling.

Satellite Phone

We have a Thuraya Sat Phone. Purchased the phone of eBay from Aus seller. The sim card came from Abu Dhabi. Topup will be through a UK eBayer with an Abu Dhabi connection.

We avoided purchasing the phone through an Aus network (like Optus) as they bundle it with a normal mobile plan with a monthly fee.

We used the sat phone a couple of times to send sms saying "we are ok" when we were otherwise out of touch for a few days.

The satphone has built in gps, latlong can be included in an sms.

VOIP

The Nokia (below) is wi-fi enabled. Its how it acts as an wi-fi hub to connect netbooks through to mobile phone internet.

That also means it can work as a wi-fi phone. Connect through any available wi-fi network.

Just in case we have a VOIP account. Not Skype, which would work, but Pennytel. Simply because we used Pennytel while at home. Pennytel also provide a local Brisbane phone number for calls to us.

I'm writing this as we have free wi-fi at a camping ground in Hungary. Thus we have VOIP phone connection and will phone the relies.

Why? Cost of international mobile phone call is more than $0.50 / minute. Cost of VOIP to Aus is A$0.10 untimed, to NZ etc. about A$0.03 / minute.

Mobile Phone Internet
 
We have an ex Telstra unlocked Nokia E51 phone. It is an all band mobile phone - GSM and 3G on all frequencies necessary for Australasia / Asia / Europe. It is also wi-fi enabled so can be used as a wi-fi phone (sip / skype / etc.). The wi-fi can be used to create a wi-fi connection for our netbooks through the phone internet connection. An iPhone has similar functions.

We aimed to purchase a pre-paid sim card in each country. Not always easy to explain we needed internet with the pre-paid though it was included anyway.

The differences in the countries were simply in coverage, speed, initial purchase and setup, and topup.

We realised very early on that finding an office of the service provider was easier than trying to buy a sim card on the street or from a mobile phone shop. However, that wasn't always possible.

We tried to purchase sufficient internet in the first purchase but failed and had to learn how to top up. Most countries used a scratch card readily available at many outlets - scratch the card and feed the numbers into the phone. Russia has vending machines on the street that accept cash.

Generally inserting the sim also set up the phone for internet connection.

We didn't have the patience or inclination to check prices of plans. We simply accepted what was on offer. A strange phenomenon seems to be that the developed nations have more complex phone plans. There was no pattern to how well the networks performed for us. It really doesn't matter whether it doesn't work because of congestion in Mongolia, because something was blocked like in Ukraine or Spain, or simply because it's too difficult. The outcome of no email is the same.

There are different versions of the Nokia E51 for different countries. On one occasion we were told quite dogmatically that our phone wouldn't work with 3G. Computer says no. Despite me showing the little 3G symbol on the network connection on the phone.

When looking at the cost in each country don't forget that we spent 60 days in China but only 30 in Russia and fewer elsewhere.

We purchased Jokiuspot Premium software to allow the phone to work as a wi-fi hub for internet. Its been reliable. The Sip (Voip) set up was built into the phone. 

If using a usb modem there is software available that helps them become unlocked!

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Radio and TV

We don't watch a lot of tv. We have a Kogan 12v led tv purchased in Australia.

Digital or analogue tv worked in most countries until Europe. Purchased a digital set top box from Currys in UK. Supply of 12v set top boxes is difficult tp find as most tvs now have digital tuners built in. Fortunately we had a 12v to 5v power supply already and found a suitable stb after much messing around. The UK stb works well in most of Europe.

We have an all band radio made by Degen purchased off eBay. Heavy on batteries (rechargeable work). In UK bought a LW/MW/FM battery radio. The FM is better (Degen switches between stereo and mono with marginal signal plus has a crackle). The LW gave us BBC Radio 4 through most of France and northern Spain. Just nice to have an English language station. If only they had something other than cricket overnight.