How can you access radar data while on the road

[Greg Johnson]

My name is Greg Johnson and I am a professional photographer from Regina, Saskatchewan Canada. I have been chasing for 10 years and have always relied on my wifes weather reports over the phone and my ability (and sometimes very extreme lack of ability) to eyeball storms.

This May I am spending a few weeks in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and since I am not familiar with the region I would like to be able to access internet and radar data while on the road. I notice that on various chasing websites that chasers are accessing what seems to be real time radar data...is this possible and if so how do I do it.

I apologize if this seems like a ridiculously simple question but I need some advice.

Greg Johnson www.gjphoto.com

[Connor McCrorey]

Get a data card. I use Sprint, and it has worked great. Data plans can be expensive though. For the radar program itself, there's no beating GRLevel3. http://www.grlevelx.com/grlevel3

[Greg Johnson]

Thanks,

What is the coverage like in these areas? OK, KS, NB

[Jason Boggs]

I second the recommendation of a Sprint data card. As far as coverage, it really can't be beat. I used it last year and had a connection 98% of the time. Get the card, you won't be disappointed. I also recommend an external antenna for better signal strength.

[Greg Johnson]

Excellent advice, thanks, any idea if a guy can do a one month data package with the card, I am only going to be around for a few weeks.

[Connor McCrorey]

I don't honestly know if Sprint has anything like that. I'm not sure if it would be worth it to go in on a data plan if you're only going to use it for a few weeks a month, one month a year. There's a $200 termination fee if you try to cancel early.

[Greg Johnson]

That sucks. maybe I can try ebay!

[Connor McCrorey]

Lol I don't know if eBay is big on selling data plans, but feel free to give it a shot!

[Ben Holcomb]

Verizon will let you activate aircards month to month. You'd just have to either pay their outrageous no contract equipment price, or get something off eBay.

[cedwards]

An option for short term chasing is to rent a card.

http://www.rovair.com/

You can rent for as little as $5.95 a day

[Patrick Romans]

I purchased an Alltel data card on Ebay and activated it on a month to month basis. No contract that way and I can deactivate it whenever I please. I have had no problem with the Alltel service around here so far, plus it is an unlimited data plan.

[Greg Johnson]

Thanks, this is all great advice, I will look into these options immediately.

Cheers.

[Jeff Snyder]

Excellent advice, thanks, any idea if a guy can do a one month data package with the card, I am only going to be around for a few weeks.

Millenicom.com (http://www.millenicom.com) ... Unlimited data via a USB broadband cell data card for $60 / month, a one-time $50 set-up fee, no equipment fee (they'll mail you a data card for no charge as long as you mail the data card back at the end of your service), and no contract. So, for $110, you can get unlimited broadband data (EVDO Rev A near cities and interstates, largely, and 1x most elsewhere) for a month, no contract, no having to buy a data card. Look in the "Equipment" section for two recent threads about this. Apparently, from what I've gathered on different websites, they are switching over to Verizon, but they'll put you on Sprint if your billing address isn't a native (i.e. non-roaming) Verizon area. This is my 1st year with them, so I can't endorse them per-say. However, they've gotten generally very good reviews online, and they're prices are good (for being month-by-month service with no equipment charges).

[T Melton]

An option for short term chasing is to rent a card.

http://www.rovair.com/

You can rent for as little as $5.95 a day

I am guessing to recommend this you have actually tried it out, Sounds like a good option though rather than fool with Month to month or any of the other politics of cell companies.

[Robert Edmonds]

In the equipment forum slingshot mobile was recently mentioned. While I don't know of any one using it, they do seem to have monthly plans worth looking into. I'll be likely looking for something like this after this year because alltel is getting eaten by verizon (and I am not a big fan of verizon).

[Doug Everett]

Sprint does have a thirty day return policy, no questions asked, to get out of contract. I am wondering how Sprint's new 5 Gigabyte limit is going to effect chasers. It is $50 for every Gig you use once you exceed 5 Gigs in a month. One has to keep track of the usage for themselves. The only indication of an overage is your next big bill you get. You can monitor usage on the sprint.com user's acct page.

[Scott Weberpal]

Sprint does have a thirty day return policy, no questions asked, to get out of contract. I am wondering how Sprint's new 5 Gigabyte limit is going to effect chasers. It is $50 for every Gig you use once you exceed 5 Gigs in a month. One has to keep track of the usage for themselves. The only indication of an overage is your next big bill you get. You can monitor usage on the sprint.com user's acct page.

Last year chasing for 3 straights weeks I used roughly 4 GB of data. That included normal browsing practices plus what I used for chasing. Personally, the 5 GB cap is not that big of a deal.

[Roy Keeris]

We (2 chasers from Holland) are also considering to use a datacard from Rovair this year. The only thing we are not sure about is which datacard to choose:
http://www.rovair.com/data-card-rental/

Having looked at the coverage maps, we think Sprint is better than Verizon, but Verizon allows more choice in product. Does anyone know which datacard is the best for stormchasing? We are also considering using an external antenna, like this one:
https://www.maximumsignal.net/store/product.php?productid=16172&cat=0&page=1&featured

...but we don't know which datacard is suitable for this antenna. I see that the Verizon USB-cards have an external antenna connector, but I don’t know if this is compatible with the antenna. Or is chasing without an extra antenna also possible? (the coverage maps apear positive about this). Anyone got expertise or experience on this?

Thanks!
Roy