Hi. In a few months, I’ll be embarking on a train trip across Asia and Europe.
Before I leave, I’d really like to rent (or possibly buy a “one time use”) global cell phone. There are many, many communications companies out there offering these phones, but I’d though I’d ask at the SDMB to see if anyone has any experiences, tales, or warnings to share.
Similarly, I need to buy a new alarm clock for the trip. At a few travel stores, I’ve seen clocks that pick up radio signals and automatically adjust to the local time. They sound too good to be true. Anyone have any experience with these? Are they reliable?
For Europe and Asia you’d need a phone which can work at least with the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands in the GSM standards. The 1900 MHz band would be a bonus as you’d be able to use it in the US too.
In Europe the network coverage is virtually everywhere, but I wouldn’t rely on that in Asia of course.
As you mention that it’s a train trip you will probably not stay long enough in any one country to become a customer of the local company, right?
Roaming charges for countries other than the country where the phone company is based are usually serious money. The roaming charges for the relevant counties will probably be the most important considerations for your choice of phone company. As the international roaming charges also apply to incoming calls long chats are expensive.
One thing that you might want to impress on the people at home that you give your mobile number to: if they call you and they get the automatic answering service because the phone is off: the message that they leave should be short and to the point.
Reason for that: if the phone company is in the same country as they (which I assume) they only pay for a national call but you call for three international calls:
at the time of the call: international call from originating country to country you are in, and international call back to the automatic answering service
when you retrieve the message. another international call.
The “radio clocks” I’m familiar with seem to tune into the radio signals from WWVB (see http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/stations/wwvb.htm). That works OK for people in North America, but I think you’re going to have less luck in Asia.
There are similar time signal transmissions in Europe (see http://www.ntp-time-server.com/atomic-clock/atomic-clock.htm), but I have serious doubts about getting good reception on these throughout Asia, even if you could buy a clock in the U.S. that used these signals.
And, of course, the real problem with all of these clocks is that they can’t tell when you’ve crossed a timezone boundary.
Why not buy a small GPS unit? With one of those, you’ll have an extremely accurate time signal and it will let you know where you are so you can figure out what time zone you’re in. (Although even that may not be a perfect solution. I have a Garmin eTrex which, disappointingly, can’t be set to display Nepali Standard Time [GMT+5:45].)
On the matter of a radio-synchronized alarm clock: what exactly do you have your eye on? Most importantly, what does the manufacturer state as to its geographical range?
I use a system that probably isn’t of interest to you because of its geographical range, but I’ll describe it as an illustration of what such systems are capable of:
The system is very widely used in Germany and based on a 77.5 kHz (yes that’s kHz not MHz) transmitter near Frankfurt, Germany. My wristwatch and alarm clock try to synchronize themselves with that transmitter every night.
The geographical range is quoted as a few 100 km; in practice I have found my alarm clock not to be able to synchronize itself from East Anglia, England, while my wristwatch’s synchronization worked from as far away as Cádiz, Spain. Apparently capabilities vary much between products.
There are probably similar systems based in most industrialized countries, but I’d be surprised if any one terrestrial system covers all of Europe and Asia.
What I’d recommend for your trip:
[ul]
[li]buy a handheld GPS receiver, one of the cheaper models that doesn’t support maps. You’ll get a precise UTC (=GMT) time from this, and as a bonus you will be sure to be able to find your way back to the railway station/to the hotel in an unfamiliar city.[/li]
[li]use a common or garden alarm clock and set it by the GPS time. An error of a few seconds shouldn’t matter much…[/li][/ul]
While we are at the subject of time: One thing that is important on a long train journey is to be aware of
[ul]
[li]what time you are in (obviously), but also:[/li]
[li]what time zone the train schedules refer to. In Western and Central Europe it’s generally the local time AFAIK (as you’d expect), but when I used the Trans-Siberian railway back in '86 the train schedules all used Moscow time. I don’t know if this is still the case.[/li][/ul]
Thanks for the suggestions! I really appreciate it! I’m going to look into GPS’s, and more into phones with 900/1800 MHz cell phones.
chukhung, you’re happy with your Garmin eTrex? Any complaints at all?
tschild, I think your suggestion about the just getting a small little alarm clock, and setting it to GMT.
Also, could you tell me about your experiences on the Trans-Siberian railway? That’s what I’m taking this summer. I’d love to hear and stories or advice you’re willing to share. Thanks!
BTW, the Europe/US-compatible phones are known as “Tri-band” over here.
I don’t know why you’d want your clock to be atomic (though I’m sure you have your reasons!), but I’d recommend a Sony worldband radio. I have an ICF-SW100 digital shortwave radio, the clock on which I set manually to the BBC World Service hourly time signal. It’s got an alarm on it too, but I gather the more modern ICF-SW07 has even more features. They’re not cheap, but they’re awesome pieces of miniaturization.
Mine has given me no real problems. The contrast seems to slowly readjust itself for some reason; but, other than that, I can’t really complain. This unit doesn’t have very good reception under heavy tree cover, but that seems to be pretty common for all handhelds I’ve tried.
I bought my eTrex almost 2 1/2 years ago, though, and there are definitely fancier models available now that do a lot more for the same price that I originally paid. Take a look on the Garmin and Magellan websites and see what’s out there before you buy–this is an area where new and better models are coming out every six months or so.