• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

Cell Phone Net Connection?

On Sunday's chase, my friend Tom from Charleston tagged along with us and brought his laptop with a Cingular internet card. This is the first time I've used cellular internet on a chase so I thought I'd post a review.

Tom's Cingular card was a pcmcia card with no external antenna, just the small flip-out antenna on the card. Tom pays $60/month for the unlimited data plan. The Cingular card roams at no charge, that is it will still connect to any carrier it finds with no extra charge.

We used the connection to get SPC outlooks, MDs, mesoanalysis data, hires satellite imagery, and even read ST on the way back. We also were able to upload live updates of our GPS position and a few photo updates to the web.

The card worked in all but the most rural areas. We had connection problems along I-64 in eastern Kentucky, a few spots in southern Indiana, and several stretches between St. Charles and Hannibal in Missouri. But for the most part, we had a signal more often than not. When we were in motion, the connection speeds were very slow, most of the time slower than dialup. But it worked and we could still access the web just fine. When we were stopped, the connection seemed to be faster.

Now it wasn't reliable enough for me to rely on it over WxWorx, but this all really sold me on cellular internet. Especially being able to broadcast our position and up-to-date photos for the web site which was really cool. I know the coverage in the Plains will not be as good as what we had in MO/IL, but I'm going to look into this more in the coming weeks.
 
I have just changed from analog to gsm service. I had unlimted access on the analog system but the speed was 4800 at best. The new gms conection gets me a much faster connection but I can not get a unlimted account. :angry: I got a 10meg account for about $15. but the next level is $40 for 30 megs. I normely use Swiftwx to get the info I need and I think 10 megs will be ok but only time will tell. It works well most places. I am useing a nokia 6800 phone and usb cable.
 
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