On 30/09/2010 21:34, andy wrote:
On 30 Sep, 15:10, Mizter wrote:
On Sep 30, 2:46 pm, wrote:

[snip]
Dover-Calais, even inside the restaurant, there's always some coverage
by UK or French networks on the passenger decks. Outside on top, it's
usually though not always possible to select one's UK network from
just outside Calais

You can pick up the French networks when walking along the cliffs near
Dover.


Of course, but I didn't mention it because as this is mainly British
readers we'd be less interested in doing so

I was once surprised to get 14 networks shown on a search from the top
of the ferry, on an old phone with 1800 MHz only. It wouldn't actually
log in to the Dutch ones though.

Wouldn't the Netherlands still be too far to pick up any networks from
the Channel, however?

On Sep 30, 11:32*pm, Basil Jet wrote:

On 2010\09\30 22:02, Mizter T wrote:

On Sep 30, 9:34 pm, *wrote:

I was once surprised to get 14 networks shown on a search from the top
of the ferry, on an old phone with 1800 MHz only. It wouldn't actually
log in to the Dutch ones though.

I shall try and remember to do that next time. ISTR that the network
of the country you're coming from hangs onto you for much of the sea
crossing (putting aside manual selection).

How do you know all of this? My phone just makes calls without giving me
any info about whether foreign networks are visible.

?

All I was saying was that my impression when on Dover-Calais ferries
(maybe other routes too) is that my mobile stayed locked to the
network of the country I had just left (whether the UK or France) for
much of the crossing, before eventually changing over to the network
of the country I was about to arrive in at a point not that far from
the port.

It was a completely unscientific observation, as I have not spent my
time closely observing my mobile when on-board - however on a recent
trip I recall checking it a few times because I think I wanted to make
a couple of calls and perhaps check something on the mobile internet,
all of which were cheaper (or rather included in my deal) if I held on
until my handset latched on to the UK network. I suppose I could have
manually tried to select my UK network, but I don't think anything was
urgent, and I possibly didn't think of that or indeed I was quite
possibly just been curious as to at what point my mobile was going to
switch to the UK network on its own, i.e. without my intervention.

On Oct 1, 12:27*am, "
wrote:

On 30/09/2010 21:34, andy wrote:

On 30 Sep, 15:10, Mizter *wrote:

On Sep 30, 2:46 pm, *wrote:

[snip]
Dover-Calais, even inside the restaurant, there's always some coverage
by UK or French networks on the passenger decks. Outside on top, it's
usually though not always possible to select one's UK network from
just outside Calais

You can pick up the French networks when walking along the cliffs near
Dover.

Of course, but I didn't mention it because as this is mainly British
readers we'd be less interested in doing so

I was once surprised to get 14 networks shown on a search from the top
of the ferry, on an old phone with 1800 MHz only. It wouldn't actually
log in to the Dutch ones though.

I don't think that you can log onto the French ones from the English
side as well.

It can be done - not only that but you can get those automatic
'Welcome to France - call charges are as follows...' type texts quite
inadvertently when ambling along the white cliffs as your mobile locks
on to a French network for a short period.

On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 08:04:18PM +0100, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 19:16:56 on Thu, 30
Sep 2010, " remarked:
You can already pick up French networks at high points in Dover.
From the beach below the cliffs, you can *only* pick up French networks!

Same at a couple of places in Sussex, which is a *lot* further from
France.

And I was quite discombobulated to get a "welcome to France" SMS while
having a pint at the Golden Galleon at Exceat a few years ago. And
that's over a mile inland.

--
David Cantrell | A machine for turning tea into grumpiness

Repent through spending

On 01/10/2010 11:16, David Cantrell wrote:
On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 08:04:18PM +0100, Roland Perry wrote:
In , at 19:16:56 on Thu, 30
Sep 2010, remarked:
You can already pick up French networks at high points in Dover.
From the beach below the cliffs, you can *only* pick up French networks!

Same at a couple of places in Sussex, which is a *lot* further from
France.

And I was quite discombobulated to get a "welcome to France" SMS while
having a pint at the Golden Galleon at Exceat a few years ago. And
that's over a mile inland.


Like I said, I picked up signals from the Republic of Ireland when I was
once in northern Wales.

I've also picked up signals from Jersey when I was in Guernsey.

In article ,
scribeth thus
On 30/09/2010 14:46, andy wrote:

Dover-Calais, even inside the restaurant, there's always some coverage
by UK or French networks on the passenger decks. Outside on top, it's
usually though not always possible to select one's UK network from
just outside Calais

You can already pick up French networks at high points in Dover.

Interestingly enough, I was in north Wales once and my mobile phone
started to pick up signals from Meteor, in the Republic of Ireland.


We had a Two-way mobile radio service of the TV Tx site at Winter hill
in Lancs once around 165 odd MHz. Irish contractor company was using it.
Sometimes they took their vans home and were quite surprised to be able
to chat with their work mates in and around Dublin!...


--
Tony Sayer

In article , Steve Terry
scribeth thus
"Mizter T" wrote in message
...
On Sep 29, 11:59 pm, Tom Anderson wrote:
On Wed, 29 Sep 2010, Steve Terry wrote:

"Rupert Moss-Eccardt" wrote:

I believe Orange's PTT ran over GPRS data which is left running
near enough continuously.

Skype on Three i leave running continuously whilst minimised, sometimes
for weeks on end.

Presumably, providing universal 3G coverage to the emergency services
would be an entirely different kettle of fish. Very expensive fish.

Depends how it's implemented. One could suggest ditching TETRA and
running emergency service comms over Skype on Three, and perhaps such
a 'self-evident saving' might even taken seriously by an aspirant,
desperate to be noticed wonk in a right-leaning think-tank eager to
earn their spending-cut spurs...


Even Skype themselves say they should not be used for emergency calls.

The billions already spent on Tetra in the UK means it's years too late
for change to a GSM PTT system.

I can see 3g PTT Android apps being taken up big time in the near future
by commercial users with a closed group use for PTT.
Especially when Android phones get cheaper


PTT is available now, companies such as Youpc etc do it but the take up
is very low,. Any idea why?..

Steve Terry

--
Tony Sayer

On 1 Oct, 00:28, "
wrote:
On 30/09/2010 21:34, andy wrote:





On 30 Sep, 15:10, Mizter *wrote:
On Sep 30, 2:46 pm, *wrote:

[snip]
Dover-Calais, even inside the restaurant, there's always some coverage
by UK or French networks on the passenger decks. Outside on top, it's
usually though not always possible to select one's UK network from
just outside Calais

You can pick up the French networks when walking along the cliffs near
Dover.

Of course, but I didn't mention it because as this is mainly British
readers we'd be less interested in doing so

I was once surprised to get 14 networks shown on a search from the top
of the ferry, on an old phone with 1800 MHz only. It wouldn't actually
log in to the Dutch ones though.

Wouldn't the Netherlands still be too far to pick up any networks from
the Channel, however?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Normally yes, but sometimes the signal can be received further away
than simple line of sight, which from the top of a ferry would be 10
or 15 miles to sea level, or from a 400 cliff or mast would be about
25 miles, and obviously Holland is lower than Dover

In certain weather conditions, vhf and uhf radio waves can go a lot
further. In areas of high pressure the atmoshere will have a
temperature inversion at a few thousand feet, where the air for a
while gets a bit warmer rather than cooler with a rise in height. In
the same way as a mirage in visible light, where you might look at hot
ground in the distance and see the sky shimmering in its place,
because the light has been bent slightly, the radio wave is refracted
at the inversion and bent slightly towards the earth again.

But even though TV viewers get co-channel interference and radio
amateurs might get contacts hundreds of kilometres away, a hand radio
with only about one watt transmitting power won't log in a long way
away however sensitive its receiver, and Steve Terry mentions timing
issues as well, which I don't know enough about.

Meanwhile, at the uk.telecom.mobile Job Justification Hearings, andy chose
the tried and tested strategy of:

But even though TV viewers get co-channel interference and radio
amateurs might get contacts hundreds of kilometres away, a hand radio
with only about one watt transmitting power won't log in a long way
away however sensitive its receiver, and Steve Terry mentions timing
issues as well, which I don't know enough about.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_division_multiple_access#2G_systems
particularly the paragraph starting "Initial synchronization...". I did a
bit of googling for more detail on how it works and perhaps some diagrams,
and what I found tends to be in one of two camps: the overly-simplistic 'GSM
uses timeslots' or the rather more complicated "solving for brillig, we find
that the slithy toves matrix eliminator 1/phi has a remainder ... blah ...
blah ... limit of 35km".

--
http://ale.cx/ (AIM:troffasky) )
10:35:45 up 8 days, 16:55, 8 users, load average: 0.04, 0.04, 0.07
"I am utterly appalled at how I have been treated like a criminal"
-- Andrew Crossley, ACS:Law, 13 August 2010

"andy" wrote in message
...
On 1 Oct, 00:28, "
wrote:
On 30/09/2010 21:34, andy wrote:

On 30 Sep, 15:10, Mizter wrote:
On Sep 30, 2:46 pm, wrote:

[snip]
and Steve Terry mentions timing issues as well, which I don't know enough
about.

Standard 2g timing slot error will stop a GSM phone working
at 35km from the cell.

Some cells in the wilds of northern Scandinavia have double slots
giving a range of over 100km

Steve Terry
--
"I would like to plead for my right to investigate natural phenomena
without having guns pointed at me.
I also ask for the right to be wrong without being hanged for it."
- Wilhelm Reich, November 1947