Background

By mobile data for Ham Radio, I am referring to mostly accessing the DX Cluster with a laptop. The DX Cluster network used to be entirely connected by amateur Packet Radio and as such uses very little data. In some countries the Packet Cluster still exists but unfortunately this has ceased in the UK and attempts to source suitable software to link to my own internet connection at home, while out portable, have come to nothing.

The next best option was to use one of the many mobile phone mobile "pay as you go" data packages. The mobile phone charges in the UK are excessive to say the least and for amateur radio purposes it's not good value to use a monthly contract package. At the time of writing (August 2009) there are various deals on a pay as you go basis of between 50p and £1 for one day of "unlimited" access or for as little as £5 for 90 days access with a bundled data package of 150 MB. It is not strictly necessary to use one of the USB "dongles", but see further down for the issues of various phones and dongles.

Software applications

Several Ham friends use web access to view DX Cluster style applications, while there is nothing wrong with that approach web page access tends to use greater amounts of data than is necessary and may not provide a "spotting" facility. My own current favourite programs are G7RAU's "Live MUF" program (mainly for VHF and above) which draws a scaleable map showing different coloured lines between stations for different bands, for example red lines for 6m and yellow lines for 2m. The program is free and utilises any of the DX Cluster nodes. For HF, VE7CC's CC CLuster program works very well and is again mobile data friendly.

Live MUF from G7RAU
CC Cluster Software from VE7CC

Both of the above programs are written for Microsoft Windows and are intended to run on laptop or home PC sized screens.

Most of the internet uses bandwidth like it's going out of fashion, for example an enquiry via the Maplin web site will hit you with a 1 MB opening page. A few sites are friendly towards access via a mobile phone or PDA, however if you browse via a laptop connected to a phone the page switching feature will not normally recognise the fact as it works on the browser ID. There are some low bandwidth pages, but they are few and far between. Exceptions to this include my own weather site which will auto switch if a mobile is used, but equally the low bandwidth version can be directly accessed from a normal browser, try http://www.astromag.co.uk/wxm.html for the mobile version as opposed to the "wx.html" full version. The BBC provide news pages in a low graphics version, but other than that you will pretty much find your bandwidth being eaten at an alarming rate.

My own pages are hosted on a Linux server and utilise PHP server side coding for both the menu and to auto switch mobiles and PDAs to reduced bandwidth pages. The PHP code to switch to a mobile friendly page is beyond the scope of this page, but a Google search will provide several free sources for suitable code if you want to add mobile access to your own pages.

Suitable mobiles/dongles

Until recently hooking up a mobile phone for mobile data use was a real chore, often involving contacting the service provider and trying to find someone "technical" at the provider to re-configure your SIM card by remote for mobile data. You also often had to hand configure a Windows "dialer" in order to access the service and may still have had problems with the service provider getting upset that you were accessing mobile data via a laptop hooked to a phone. On top of that, the deal might involve specifically dialing a number to request mobile access for the day! One of these deals is the Orange World "unlimited access for one day for £1", while it does work it's tedious to set up and only offers slow but adequate GPRS access.

There are some very interesting deals and packages around at the moment, Vodafone UK offer a dongle on pay as you go that comes with 1 GB of data that doesn't expire at the end of 30 days and 3 UK offer 150 MB top ups that last for 90 days for as little as £5, which is included as part of the standard pay as you go package. There is at least one supplier offering a 3 dongle for free that will also work with an ordinary phone SIM from 3 - all you pay for is the cost of postage/packing (http://www.3dongle4free.co.uk/), this offer was still current in August 2009 with a post and packing cost of £4.95. Beware that some of the data bundles are only for access via a mobile phone browser and may incur a higher charge if you access data via a laptop connected to a phone, being a cynic suggests to me that these " unlimited" bundles are there to tempt the unwary into thinking they can use the phone with a laptop - it's not necessarily the case.

Many modern phones will work as modems without too much trouble, however some are easier to use than others. Older Nokia phones, such as the 6310i, will work on GPRS at a similar speed to the dial-up modems of the pre-broadband era and are perfectly adequate for access to the DX Cluster, the one shown at the top of the page has been used many times via the Orange World feature for £1 per day. More up to date Nokia phones may need the Nokia PC Suite installing on your laptop and will mostly work via 3G or HSDPA access for speeds around 3.6 Mb/s. Most Nokia phones need separate power and seem to need a manually installed dialer application, while some of the Nokia phones are among the very best mobile phones to use for normal phone use their use as a modem is not as good as some others. The cheap and cheerful S2 Skype phone from 3, currently retailing in 3 shops at £39.99, is a "plug and play" modem with built-in drivers for a Windows laptop and is powered and charged via the mini USB connector, together with the £5 for 150 MB over 90 day top up it makes a very useful and economical package, which in addition to working as a modem it will also receive Skype and mobile calls at the same time. Note that making a Skype call with one requires the data connection to not be tied up with use as an external modem - it won't make an outgoing Skype call while being used as a modem.

A typical mobile phone running as a modem and accessing the internet via 3G or HSDPA will run it's battery flat in as little as 3 hours (and that's with a brand new battery), so you need to consider additional power if you plan on operating all day and your phone isn't powered by the USB connection.

The coverage of the mobile phone networks is mostly along main roads and in town/city centres... Not the usual locations for ham radio operation. In addition, 3G and HSDPA data coverage may differ from that provided for normal voice calls. Check the predicted coverage (for 3G/HSDPA) where you plan to operate from before spending money on a new phone or dongle only to find it doesn't work from your favourite location.

The current best value deal for low data use is the S2 Skype phone from 3, who also happen to have the best data coverage in the UK based on a recent OFCOM survey, or if you can operate within their patchy data coverage the Vodafone 1 GB dongle is good mainly because the data doesn't run out after 30 or 90 days. As they say your mileage may vary!