Well, we’re back from our AK cruise. However, as (bad) luck would have it, my cell phone (an LG G3 from AT&T), which had been working very reliably since I got it, starting acting-up on the 2nd day of our 13-day trip, before we even boarded the ship.
I ended up suffering from what I’ve since learned has been a somewhat common problem with the G3, known as the “flickering” or “blacked-out” screen. It would take multiple tries to get it powered-up, and the screen would become all “staticy” then just go black. Other times it would start to power-up, then shut down then re-start by itself. Sometimes it would eventually get to a point where I could actually use the app, and in those few instances it did work on the ship, sometimes even with 2 or 3 decks between devices. (There were 10 decks on the ship). The “longest” reach I can recall was when I was in our stateroom on deck 4 near the rear third of the ship and my spouse was in an enclosed area of deck 9 about mid-ship.
After a couple of days of repeated and lengthy attempts, it got so frustrating I eventually gave up on using the phone at all. I did send out a shout to find out if there were any other goTennas on board, but got no reply. Unfortunately, I can’t say for sure if that was because of my phone’s bad behavior, or if there weren’t any others on board.
So, apologies for not sending any pix, as I was left to work with a GoPro and a small pocket HD camera, which I was able to work with a little by using a wi-fi only tablet and OTG accessories, but because the goTenna app is meant for phones, I didn’t try using it from the tablet.
I’ve since replaced the phone with a “Samsung S8 Active”. We have another trip planned in November for the Sedona area of AZ and will be taking the goTennas with us. It won’t be the same as being on a ship, but we may end up having occasion to use them then. Meanwhile, I have mine constantly powered-up/connected to a USB power source and turned on at home, so does that qualify me as a “static” site? If so, I’m hesitant to “put it on the mesh map” because we may take them with us when going out from time-to-time.
Again, a big THANK YOU for getting me the devices before we departed. I was really looking forward to using them more but fate (and LG) spoiled my plans.
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