Using Laptops to get Wx

[Squawk 2650]

Hey Everyone!

Just wondering if anyone uses a laptop to check weather etc.

I also wondered how expensive it is to get internet access through a mobile phone either using bluetooth or some other means??

.... basically I’m looking for an excuse to buy one!!

Cheers everyone,

S
:cool:

[AerBabe]

I use a laptop to check the weather, but I think you have mis-worded your question. My laptop sits on my desk 90% of the time, plugged into broadband.

I suspect you're asking if anyone uses a laptop as a mobile device to check weather... in which case my answer is no. I would like to, but for some reason my infra-red port doesn't recognise my mobile phone.

[Gertrude the Wombat]

for some reason my infra-red port doesn't recognise my mobile phone Yes, well, having some idea of how these infra red thingies don't work, I actually spent the extra and bought the serial cable for my phone, which gives me reliable internet access on the laptop when I want it.

But not for checking flying weather; I do that before I leave home, and if I think it's going to have changed by the time I get to the airport I use the club's PC to check again.

[Squawk 2650]

Yes sorry it was to be used as a ‘mobile’ device to check the Wx.

:cool:
S

[Blinkz]

perhaps consider a PDA? they can access the internet with the help of a mobile and are far smaller.

[Squawk 2650]

Didnt think of that! Are they able to get the NOTAMS too?

S
:cool:

[flyingfemme]

My beloved uses a Sony P900 to get the weather via Avbrief. Works well and costs pennies (most pay monthly tariffs seem to get a little free data download anyway).

[bar shaker]

I also have a P900 and use it for posting on here, getting weather and general googling (such as finding numbers for PPR when wanting to drop in somewhere).

It saves carrying a few kg of laptop around too.

My fav for weather on the phone is TAFs and Metars from www.activitae.com/airbase/mirror.htm

[dublinpilot]

You can get tafs & metars on any wap enabled phone at "wapmx.com"

Doesn't help you justify buying a laptop though :rolleyes:

Data can be expensive to download over a mobile phone. It's something like €7 per mb here in Ireland. It can be slow too. It's certainly cheaper to talk to a forecaster here!

dp

[Squawk 2650]

Can you get NOTAMS on the P900?? How does it connect with the phone does it use bluetooth?

S
:cool:

[BEagle]

Yes! I use a Dell laptop for absolutely everything! Weather from http://secure.metoffice.com/aviation/index.jsp is fine, also NOTAMs from http://www.ais.org.uk as well as everything else from the Internet. I connect at home through a wireless router to Virgin.Net 1Mbps broadband and anywhere else through 802.11b wi-fi. Or, as a last resort, through a Vodafone Mobile Connnect GPRS PC card.

Also use GPRS on my Nokia 6310i for TAFs and METARs, or GSM to Heathrow FBU to file flight plans.

[Chilli Monster]

Can you get NOTAMS on the P900?? How does it connect with the phone does it use bluetooth?

It IS the phone. The 900 has been superceded by the P910i (http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=gb&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pp1_loader&php=php1_10183&zone=pp&lm=pp1&pid=10183) . NOTAM and Weather access is available, I have a subscription to Avbrief (http://www.avbrief.com) which does the job nicely.

[angelacr]

I have a Sony Ericsson P910i; it's the bees knees. It can do almost anything a laptop can as far as the internet goes, but it is limited by its small screen. Use sites that particularly tailor their output to PDAs. I also recommend getting the Opera browser for any small screen PDA - it can format for the small screen.

I bought my P910i cheaply off Ebay (Useful if you already have a phone contract)

Access TAFs and METARS via YAWS (Yet Another Weather Service) at http://activitae.com/airbase/mirror.htm as well as the Met Office's Form 215/214. (Activitae makes the login and page selection faster and saves wading through the numerous Met Office login screens directly.)

Also a graphic depiction of winds aloft for Europe, Africa and USA suited to the PDA is available.

World Notams too are accessible for a PDA from activitae.com. However, Notam data is by its very nature voluminous - expect to scroll down quite a lot!

A WAP version - without graphics - is available for readers with a plain vanilla phone. Also the WAP version has an ICAO code and decode function - useful if away and unsure of a destination code - at http://activitae.com/wx.wml - this is a WAP address and will not work in most web browsers - so bookmark it to your phone.

I created YAWS for my own use, especially when away from home, after being somewhat less than satisfied by other web offerings.

Why anyone would want to pay subscriptions for data that is freely available is beyond me! But I suppose there will always be people who think paying £2 for a 20p cabbage makes it a better cabbage.

Angela
Got YAWS yet?
http://activitae.com

[nouseforaname]

i use a vodafone gprs and 3g data card which plugs into my laptop. when you have 3g coverage it transferres data real quick nearly as fast as broadband. worth getting if you have the real use for it.

[BRL]

Ahh, angelacr I had lost your details and the link to your website, great to see you post. Brilliant website. :)

[angelacr]

I have an Orange 3G/GPRS data card but the data charges outside of the UK are prohibitive. Orange charge £10 per Mb in France for example. And that's on top of my 65Mb/month data allowance in the UK. Vodaphone will be much the same.

Low bandwidth PDA sites are the best bet in this situation IMHO.

Ahh, angelacr I had lost your details and the link to your website, great to see you post. Brilliant website.

Thank you, kind Sir! But you lost the link to my website!!!! What on earth came over you? ;)


Angela
______________
if it's not on YAWS
it won't be on
anyone else's!
______________
http://activitae.com

[justsomepilot]

Also note that a lot of "GPRS" access isn't open internet. It is often just WAP, and a lot of it allows access only to the network provider's POP server for email so basically useless when on the move.

The one PAYG GPRS network I know is wide open is Voda, but it's expensive and when roaming abroad there is still no knowing what limitations one will get; e.g. in the channel islands on C&W one gets WAP only.

There's a long way to go before we have a really reliable solution to all this that works through Europe, and that's forgetting 3G completely (poor coverage).

The other basic thing is that one cannot do useful WWW browsing (for weather charts and notams) with less than 640x480 and that rules out most PDAs.

[angelacr]

I use my own POP3 email server on my phone - so avoiding the problems justsomepilot speaks off. You can do the same just setup your mobile to collect email from your home PC's ISP. Alternatively, you could also access hotmail or Yahoo for web based mail.

I agree about 3G coverage - I have been completely conned by Orange for buying into a fledgling service!

As for 640x480 screen size - I too thought PDA screens would be useless and actually posted elsewhere saying so - I changed my mind after actually trying one out. On my Sony Ericsson P910i the screen resolution is brilliant. O2's XDA screens are also excellent. I wouldn't use my smartphone as my web browser of choice BUT for being connected on the move without having to carry 3.5Kg of laptop around, it suffices well enough.

Flexible polymer roll-up screens are just around the corner! I personally can't wait.


Angela
________
You found
YAWS
yet?
________
http://activitae.com

[EESDL]

Angela
Trying to find mine but keep getting Error 500 message!

[PH-UKU]

I use an XDA2i - it is a superb piece of equipment. I can access weather websites using GPRS connection (costs about £1 for every 1meg downloaded).

Website I use is www.avbrief.co.uk where I can get TAFs, METARs and F214/215.

To get METARs and TAFs and F214/215 takes about 80k of bandwidth in total.

In contrast and using the fancy cumbersome Met Office site it takes about 250k to get the same data !

I've had an XDA/XDA2/XDA2i in it's different guises for about 4 years now and swear by it.

O2 used to be dreadful, but I stayed with them on the strength of the XDA ! I have to say their customer service is getting better.

You would probably need a minimum 12 month contract, £30 a month would get you 200 free minutes of airtime, and you could probably get an XDA2i for about £200 - if you haggle you might get more.

Or ....if you are already with O2, ask to speak to the 'retention' team - play hard to get and say you are changing provider ... see what you can squeeze out of them by way of an upgrade.

Or ..... you could buy an unlatched XDA2 off eBay for about £110 and stick with your current provider ..... (ps might have unlatched XDA2 going cheap in next two weeks :8 )

[Aim Far]

My firm made the mistake of requiring me to use a Blackberry which they provide and pay for.

Weather from met office works nicely, as does Angelacr's very useful wap site (I didn't know about the website - will try that out now). Prune and Flyer also work nicely, from anywhere.

The only one which doesn't seem to work is the ais notam site which is a pity.

[S-Works]

I use my blackberry when travelling light and my laptop with GPRS/3G the rest of the time.

The blackberry is the best of all worlds as it gives me email, as well as web and has amazing battery life.

[Squawk 2650]

Cheers everyone for your input! :ok:

Getting the NOTAMS seems to be the biggest problem then....looks like a Laptop it might have to be!

S
:cool:

[angelacr]

Angela Trying to find mine but keep getting Error 500 message!

EESDL

I am not at home an so am unable to look at the logs to see what you have been up to. But generally 500 errors are caused by either slow networks and users clicking on a link again, or by incorrect (perhaps misssing) data entered into a form

Make sure you use the correct link to suit your type of mobile phone - see http://activitae.com/airbase/phone.htm for details of which links you need to bookmark.

Then if you are trying to access data make sure that all the fields are filled in correctly.

If you still have trouble then feel free to PM me.

Angela
_________________
YAWS is FREE
but there will alway
be people who prefer
buying cabbages!
http://activitae.com
_________________

[EESDL]

Couldn't spell, that's all!
Great facility!!

[ShyTorque]

I would like to resurrect this thread, please folks.

Because:

a) it's over a year out of date and
b) because I am about to need a roaming weather update service myself.

Can anyone update me on what is the best way to find stuff on the roam, away from a wi-fi link (such as when I'm waiting in a field)?

Thanks! :)

[IO540]

If you want a really portable solution then you better get yourself a seriously slick lightweight laptop, and a PCMCIA GPRS card for it.

Any half decent laptop will have wifi anyway so if you are within an open access point, or you pay for it ;) , you will get access that way.

But IME a lot of the time you won't have that option (at this point a lot of people will jump in saying how they been to such and such European city and found wifi everywhere, but IME it does vary hugely) in which case you plug in the GPRS card and off you go.

An Ebay.co.uk search on "Sierra 750" turns up item # 110023226204 which shows the sort of thing. It should be about £50. You then need a SIM card. Personally I use Vodafone; you have to call Voda to get them to enable data access.

Voda is unique AFAIK in allowing fax on PAYG, so if you get Winfax sorted as well you can fax airports for PPR (essential on a European holiday).

The Sierra 750 is tri-band and works in the USA too (I have tested it). PM me if you need more info.

A more modern thingy is GPRS/3G e.g. Ebay # 230019699834 which also does wifi. I had one of these and found to my amazement it didn't do GSM fax so I gave it away. 3G is wonderful when in coverage but once away from the M25 etc the coverage is usually poor.

There are a few laptops which have GPRS built-in but they are rare. Look at the Dialogue Flybook, e.g. Ebay # 270021140366. New about £1800. http://www.dialogue.com.tw/ I think

[ShyTorque]

IO540,

Thanks for the very quick and useful response!
I will come back to this as reference.