Ten percent of the world has cell phone coverage. Obviously, that also means that 90% of the world is outside cell phone range. That includes a lot of places where RVs (recreational vehicles) travel.
Most interstate highways have excellent cell phone coverage, as do most metropolitan areas. While RVs do spend a lot of time on the highways, they also appear in rural areas more often than in cities. I have stayed at more than one RV resort where the cell phone coverage was either spotty or non-existent.
How about data coverage? Can an RV owner surf the web or send and receive e-mail? The answer is... "sometimes." Some campgrounds provide wi-fi coverage while others do not. Many RV owners purchase "air cards" to connect laptop computers to the Internet via a local cell tower; but, air cards have the same limitations as cell phones: they don't work too well in rural areas beyond the reach of the nearest cell tower. Air cards are useless in 90% of the world.
A reader asked me a question about my recent article describing computerized phone systems for home use at http://eogn.com/wp/?p=19020 (user name and password required). I mentioned that a cell phone has always worked well for me and for my neighbors during power outages. Indeed, a cell phone is the only phone service that has proven to be reliable during power outages in our area.
My correspondent asked, "How did you keep your cell phone charged during the hurricane and snowstorm outages?" I thought I would share my answer here with everyone.
Charging a cell phone is easy. Plug it into the cigarette lighter socket in the automobile. An auto battery will power and charge a cell phone for weeks.
The rearview mirror in the middle of the windshield in my Winnebago is nearly useless. All I can see is the hallway and a bit of the bedroom, not too handy for checking traffic. I can also see a bit of the back window that is 31 feet behind me and sometimes I can even look through the back window to see a truck behind me. It doesn't work too well for seeing automobiles, as most of them are too low to be seen easily through the rear window that is about six feet off the ground. I use the outside rearview mirrors most of the time.
Now a Chinese company has announced a kit that replaces any standard rearview mirror with a GPS and Bluetooth 2.1-enabled unit featuring a 4.3-inch touchscreen for multimedia playback and even playing touchscreen games (!), while DVR capabilities let you record what goes on inside and outside the car. And, yes, it even functions as a rearview mirror as it displays video from a tiny video camera mounted on the back of the vehicle. This thing has more gadgets than a Swiss Army Knife!
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