- re: Fax and RTTY for 5MX

- Phone advice

- RE: Phone advice

Date: 5 Aug 2008 22:59:30 +0000
From: John Spillett <address truncated>
Subject: re: Fax and RTTY for 5MX

Thanks Itamar for the advice on business fax. I am ok for this and use either my mobile or the Psion infra red modem. I am more interested in decoding weather charts and telex weather reports from HF radio . There are programs for Windows ME and Linux but I cannot find one for EPOC.

Regards 

John

Date: 6 Aug 2008 00:01:39 +0000
From: Studio 70 <address truncated>
Subject: Phone advice

Dear Itamar and all,
With all of the collective traveling around Europe that the members of this
list seem to do I hope you are the best people to ask this question. We soon
head off to Zurich to attend a teddy bear show, then we will spend a week or
so down in Northern Italy. Then after dropping the hire car back at Zurich
we will make our way by train to Amsterdam (to collect a pair of Strida
Bikes) then over to London to attend the Hugglets Teddy bear show in
Kensington Town Hall on Sunday 14th September. After this we are meeting up
with friends and heading to France in the Bordeaux area and a barge on the
Midi Canal for approx 3 weeks before flying back home to Aus. (After 2
months absence.) Now to the point after all this preamble.
1 Can anyone suggest a prepaid sim card or cards that will best serve my
purpose while traveling in these different countries  i.e. CH, IT NL, UK and
F .  I will change my Aussie Vodafone sim card to "Global Roaming" and
install it in my wife's nokia  to receive calls and TXT messages from home.
But for tracking down accommodation, calling friends in EU GPS, Wi Fi  etc
I'll use the E90 with a new prepaid sim card. (Hopefully recommended by you)

2. Free WiFi hot spots seem to becoming less of a feature "down under" than
when first started, now in Aus and NZ there are WiFi hot spots but you need
to be a subscriber to the National Internet Service Provider ie Telstra or
Bigpond. To gain access with your pass word. Can you recommend an ISP that
one can subscribe to for only a couple of months that will cover all the
above countries?  (Most time will be spent in Northern Italy and Southern
France.) 
My wife Loris is a Teddy Bear Artist  and makes "Miniature Collector
Creations" or when some of my friends ask, I explain that she is an "Adults
Only Soft Sculpturess for Collectors"  ;-)  that at least gets them to look
at her web site.<G
If any one is interested in attending the Hugglets Teddy Bear Show in
Kensington Town Hall please send me your details and I will forward on a
couple of the free passes that we have been given. 

Regards

Bob and Loris Hancock
beside beautiful Currumbin Beach
On the sunny Gold Coast of Queensland
you are welcome to visit Loris' home page at
www.lorishancock.com 

Date: 6 Aug 2008 19:36:55 +0000
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: RE: Phone advice

Hi Loris and Bob,

I am afraid that although Europe would like to be called "one Europe" by the politicians in fact this is not the case. AFAIK there does not exist an european  SIM card that will work in all these European countries as if it is one country. Each country has got their own providers and even if for examples you use Vodaphone UK any calls made outside the UK on a Vodaphone network in another country will still be classified as "roaming" and you pay high costs per minute. However, Wifi is quite well organised in Europe and for example a lot of hotels have wifi either for a fixed fee per day or for free. There are also mobile networks like T-Mobile for example that will allow you to buy wifi time for a fixed fee per month but again I am not sure whether this will work between countries as well.  I think wifi will be your best option, try and install Skype (or a similar program) on your E90. Any mobile phone calls from one country to another, even if you bought a SIM card for the country you are in, will be expensive. As an example, with my T-Mobile contract I pay 39 pence per minute for any call I make outside the UK.

I hope this helps and maybe someone else will have some more or better information for you.

Enjoy your trip,

Itamar

  _____ 

From: Bob & Loris [mailto:<address truncated>
Sent: 06 August 2008 01:02
To:<address truncated>
Cc:<address truncated>
Subject: Phone advice

Dear Itamar and all,

With all of the collective traveling around Europe that the members of this list seem to do I hope you are the best people to ask this question. We soon head off to Zurich to attend a teddy bear show, then we will spend a week or so down in Northern Italy. Then after dropping the hire car back at Zurich we will make our way by train to Amsterdam (to collect a pair of Strida Bikes) then over to London to attend the Hugglets Teddy bear show in Kensington Town Hall on Sunday 14th September. After this we are meeting up with friends and heading to France in the Bordeaux area and a barge on the Midi Canal for approx 3 weeks before flying back home to Aus. (After 2 months absence.) Now to the point after all this preamble.

1 Can anyone suggest a prepaid sim card or cards that will best serve my purpose while traveling in these different countries  i.e. CH, IT NL, UK and F .  I will change my Aussie Vodafone sim card to "Global Roaming" and install it in my wife's nokia  to receive calls and TXT messages from home. But for tracking down accommodation, calling friends in EU GPS, Wi Fi  etc I'll use the E90 with a new prepaid sim card. (Hopefully recommended by you)

2. Free WiFi hot spots seem to becoming less of a feature "down under" than when first started, now in Aus and NZ there are WiFi hot spots but you need to be a subscriber to the National Internet Service Provider ie Telstra or Bigpond. To gain access with your pass word. Can you recommend an ISP that one can subscribe to for only a couple of months that will cover all the above countries?  (Most time will be spent in Northern Italy and Southern France.) 

My wife Loris is a Teddy Bear Artist  and makes "Miniature Collector Creations" or when some of my friends ask, I explain that she is an "Adults Only Soft Sculpturess for Collectors"  ;-)  that at least gets them to look at her web site.<G

If any one is interested in attending the Hugglets Teddy Bear Show in Kensington Town Hall please send me your details and I will forward on a couple of the free passes that we have been given. 

Regards

Bob and Loris Hancock

beside beautiful Currumbin Beach

On the sunny Gold Coast of Queensland

you are welcome to visit Loris' home page at

www.lorishancock.com