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TornadoXtreme Live Chase Cam - [10 Apr 2008] of this is in the works. They have patents approved and are currently waiting on FCC.
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I have added live streaming chase video to my website. I plan on chasing today as well. Look for more updates and features to Live Chase Cam soon. I will also be updating my site for latest chase pics and maybe some video.
http://www.tornadoxtreme.com/Live_Chase_Cam/live_chase_cam.html
I have also added myself to Spotternetwork at www.spotternetwork.org. Not sure how much I will use it yet, but all these new toys are kind of fun.
Hey Bill, sounds pretty cool buddy, congrats on the addition to your site :)
Willie
Millenicom may be switching providers from Sprint to Verizon but there is no way they are going to have there own network and there is nothing filed with the FCC so don't believe what the sales person told you.
Well, I hope it is not a switch from Sprint's towers to Verizon's towers. However the guy did tell me that Sprint and Verizon don't own the towers. These are owned by 3rd parties I believe is what he said. He also mentioned they had filed with FCC and were rating approval.
Maybe I need to follow up on this...
Ok, I just called and spoke with Dennis again. I think he's the same guy. He said that no, it was not a change from Sprint to Verizon. He said there is something called MVNO's (Multiple Virtual Network Operators - or something like that). He said there are 18 different ones and apparently you can contractually agree in a bit of a smorgasbord for connectivity with different towers, regions, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MVNO
Wow! You know what is weird? I just Googled 'Millenicom Changes May' a few moments after making this post. Google already had it spidered in their database within minutes for retrieval and viewing. Check this out: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS212US213&q=millenicom+changes+May
Man, I wish it was that instantaneous on my web store.
TornadoXtreme Storm Chase Live Chase Cam http://www.tornadoxtreme.com
Bill, I must have misunderstood you. Is millenicom going to sell their own hardware for use on their own network? If thats the case, I wonder if I can just purches from the card I am currently leasing since it's all set up and everything.
Would imagine it depends on how many towers they contract to get.
It's possible, too, that when the TV spectrum frees up in '09, there will be a LOT more opportunity for mobile internet. This is likely why they mention "new equipment needed" after they migrate from Sprint.
My apologies to any trying to check it out. I am in the process of getting a better cell solution - hopefully in the next few days before the next chase.
Data card all the way Bill. I used to use the cell phone system and the 2 main drawbacks are you cant use your phone while getting data and the cards have a much better reception (with antenna). Since Steve and I have switched to data cards (sprint) we have cell connetion and streaming about 95% of the time. Even better than my regular cell phone.
Over-het-weer - over-het-weer.linkplein.net::
Sam Barricklow s Storm Chase · Storm Chaser · Tornado Video Clips · Tornados and Severe Storms · azstormstudio · brisbane storm · chaseday · cyclonejim
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Just a suggestion.
Thanks. Turns out no cell coverage yesterday except briefly on I20 right as I was getting on the storm. Streamed for a few minutes racing west and then when I was on the wallcloud headed north the connect died.
My apologies to any trying to check it out. I am in the process of getting a better cell solution - hopefully in the next few days before the next chase.
Just as a reminder for those who do not want to get locked into the 2 year contract..which I didn't either. But I found that at least AT&T allows you to turn the service off (temporarily suspend) up to six months at a time. For me this is perfect as I use the service more than 6 months each year as we have two distinct tornado seasons here in AL and then the hurricane season to add to that.
I would guess if one major carrier does this, the others would also. The time the service is turned off does not count toward the 2 year contract, but continues once it is turned back on. No big deal as far as I am concerned.
When I figure the cost of my aircard with a contract versus buying without a contract and the locked in rate that cannot go up for the contract length, it is beneficial to me. If the prices go down, so does mine. But with my contract, which will probably take 3 years to fulfill, I will be good. The total cancellation fee before prorating is only $200.00 I think, should I decide to cancel.
Live Chase Cam::
Tornado Xtreme Chase is a storm chaser severe weather site and includes images, photos, videos, and accounts of tornadoes, hail, lightning, wind, floods,
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I know this has all been discussed before, but some may not have seen it, and to me, it is worth checking on and really comparing,
Sprint allows you to turn your coverage off and on as well.
Update: I was able to stream probably 80% to 90% of my chase yesterday with my new SW 595U and Millenicom service. It worked really well. There were some areas that were very slow even though I remained connected such as south on I20 near Cross Plains. That's too bad because I was going through some somewhat 'harrowing' experiences there, which might have made interesting viewing.
I'd like to thank David Drummond for his recommendations on Sprint, card, etc. I probably need to get his external antenna - the Wilson Trucker, or go with Gorden Spencer's antenna and amplifier. I can imagine I'll have extremely good connects then. I started my cell service in Austin and had a solid connect almost the whole way up into the Abilene and north area.
Anyway, I hope those of you that managed to catch the cam off my website or on the severe streaming site saw something interesting off my cam. I regret I was often running from the storm so the dashcam was pointed away, plus the road was often parallel to the storm making it difficult to point to the storm at times.
Bill
Bill, this is interesting news. While not totally thrilled about buying a card the only negative is laying out the cash. It sounds like once that initial expenditure is made the service gets better and cheaper. I was already impressed with their service (Sprint service). Let's hope they don't back off their implementation goal. I took the first week of May off of work so I wouldn't have any conflicts and I don't want to be surprised.
You'll most definitely want to get an antenna and booster. Your cam looked great last night! Here's one of the quotes from our chat room last night:
"tabor's cam looks like the apocolypse"
:D...that's funny. They should have seen it when I was running from the giant hail core closing over me and dodging driving into a developing tornado / gustnado down by Cross Cut. Unfortunately I didn't have a good cell signal there.
Bill, I must have misunderstood you. Is millenicom going to sell their own hardware for use on their own network? If thats the case, I wonder if I can just purches from the card I am currently leasing since it's all set up and everything.
Not sure what you mean by 'just purchase from the card' you are currently using. Do you mean purchase the card, or swap the card? But, yes they are going to explicitly use only their hardware they are building. Previous hardware will not work - or so the guy told me. I asked because I was wondering if I could just purchase a 595U now and use it on the new system. But he said no existing cards are incompatible. He also said the new cards would only cost $60 though. So really that's pretty cheap. No big deal IMO. Since I'm purchasing a new 595u card for only $99. I think I can resale for about the same price on Ebay. So little usage I may just claim it is new - which it basically would be. So, as it stands according to this guys current understanding of Millenicom's plans in May they will switch over requiring users to have a new account and purchase new equipment. The equipment cost is $60. There may be a very small sign up or activation fee (not sure), and then the plans are for the flat rate data plan to cost $39 / month.
Millenicom may be switching providers from Sprint to Verizon but there is no way they are going to have there own network and there is nothing filed with the FCC so don't believe what the sales person told you.
I might add that my website is now mostly up to date for all chases until my last April 23rd. I still need to go through my video of possible tornadoes from previous chases. I plan on grabbing some stills, and maybe some small clips.
I also now need to update for the chase on the 23rd. Before now, all my chase pics and accounts for 2008 were on Stormtrack and some on Wxchase.
I didn't chase the 24th or 25th - I wasn't that crazy about the set up plus I've been meaning to turkey hunt with my Dad. That's what I've been up to the last 2 days. I shot a turkey, but he ran off....oh well.
Just chilling in west Tx currently. The weather's been very nice and pleasant. If tomorrow looks decent I will be chasing.
I hear ya Jay, and you are absolutely right. I want to switch to Sprint but man that's a lot of cash. Just the data portion on 2 year contract would be $1440. A one year would be $179 card plus $960 or $1139 for first year.
The Alltel plan is more attractive price wise but I'm not convinced yet I'll have the quality reliable data I want and if not I might as well stay with Verizon.
Not sure about AT&T. Gene's had pretty good luck with it. I don't hear many people recommending it though.
Bill, I used Millenicom chasing on April 7th and it worked great for me. It's $60 plus a one time fee of $60 (guessing each time one sets it up each season) with not contract length. I used an external antenna and never dropped a connection except for the Kansas Turnpike between the south terminal and OK line. I also have Verizon for voice and tried tethering and was unable to. Hence the switch to somebody else.
Yes Chris, I recently (last night) heard about Millenicom and am (was) very excited. I just couldn't pull the trigger on that crazy 2 year Sprint contract. Millenicom has all the pluses of Sprint that I can tell without the minuses - no contracts and only $59/mo. They were providing a leased aircard too along with that - which is amazing.
However I went to their site to sign up, https://www.millenicom.com/ and they have a big red paragraph stating how they are currently out of the CDU680 cards, but will allow people with their own equipment to still sign up. They provide a number and state that they hope to have the situation resolved by May 1st.
I just called them this morning to get the specifics and it turns out the world is changing. The guy said they will be getting away from the Sprint reseller situation (Sprint is apparently losing 10 billion a month) and instead will have their own network and their own equipment for accessing. It will not only be nationwide but also Mexico and Canada. Their new system will be faster (though still EVDO) with better coverage footprint. The subscribers will own (purchase) their own equipment (aircard) for accessing. They expect the cost of that to be $60 which they will provide. They then plan on returning to the $39 / month rate which they used to apparently have, and subscribers will still own their equipment. All of this is in the works. They have patents approved and are currently waiting on FCC approval (hopefully by May) to begin the rollout. He also mentioned there is something huge called 'The Grid' which is supposed to be '10,000 times' faster with wide coverage targeted for the end of the year.
I asked the guy what I should do. He said that if I signed up now even with my own equipment (which they still allow) that by the first of middle of May I would likely need to kill the old plan, and sign up with the new one with new equipment. He did mention that Sprint offers a 30 day return policy that might act as a buffer while I am waiting for their rollout to the new system.
So, now I have to figure out what I will do in the interim.
(NOTE: For all of you that I linked here from other threads the reason I did so, was because it really sounds like Millenicom has the best, least inexpensive, and flexible chase data solution out there. Many of the other threads were about tethering, or cell service, or the new Autonet gadget. I think this beats them all as far as I can tell. Plus, apparently with Millenicom you can get a wireless router that will interface with the usb aircard for possible broadband access for your home environment allowing multiple users. This could also be used similarly to the way Autonet has their system - creating a hot spot and allowing other nearby chasers to join in the data via wifi.)
So, are they still going to run this on a month-by-month plan with no contract? If they are rolling out in May, and it's their own network, I can't imagine how their coverage is going to be very big.
I was about ready to sign up for this after hearing about all the Alltel difficulties. Now, I'm not so sure. Too many questions and not enough answers.
Would imagine it depends on how many towers they contract to get.
You'll most definitely want to get an antenna and booster. Your cam looked great last night! Here's one of the quotes from our chat room last night:
"tabor's cam looks like the apocolypse"
Data card all the way Bill. I used to use the cell phone system and the 2 main drawbacks are you cant use your phone while getting data and the cards have a much better reception (with antenna). Since Steve and I have switched to data cards (sprint) we have cell connetion and streaming about 95% of the time. Even better than my regular cell phone.
Just a suggestion.
You guys are welcome. ;)
Sure enough this coverage hole shows up on the Sprint data coverage map:
http://coverage.sprintpcs.com/IMPACT.jsp
There's an even bigger one further sw toward Del Rio and just south of I10.
As I mostly tether with Verizon, I have been trying to understand my options. If you get a dedicated data card and activate it thru sprint, verizon, etc...it is possible to deactivate it for a time and then reactivate it, but be very careful about doing this as they can and will EXTEND your contract for the time it is essentially deactivated.
This is not the case for me, as I tether and turn it off and on at different times, they only pro-rate my time for anything under a month at a time.
This seems to differ form what others have said, so I would specifically check with your provider. They seem to treat a tether as a "non-dedicated" service vs a dedicated data card which actually has its own number and is billed just like a phone.
I am drawn toward millenicon as they do not require a contract. I despise them (contracts) and watch my phone account like a hawk.
If anyone has anymore direct experience and/or background with them, please post...
I hear ya Jay, and you are absolutely right. I want to switch to Sprint but man that's a lot of cash. Just the data portion on 2 year contract would be $1440. A one year would be $179 card plus $960 or $1139 for first year.
The Alltel plan is more attractive price wise but I'm not convinced yet I'll have the quality reliable data I want and if not I might as well stay with Verizon.
Not sure about AT&T. Gene's had pretty good luck with it. I don't hear many people recommending it though.
So, are they still going to run this on a month-by-month plan with no contract? If they are rolling out in May, and it's their own network, I can't imagine how their coverage is going to be very big.
I was about ready to sign up for this after hearing about all the Alltel difficulties. Now, I'm not so sure. Too many questions and not enough answers.
I just ordered a Sierra Wireless 595U card. It should be here in a few days - hopefully before the next chase next Wed, Thu, Fri timeframe. Now I need to get an antenna. When it comes in I plan on signing up with Millenicom until their new system and hardware is available sometime likely in May. At that point I'll switch over and sell the 595U card on Ebay. So I think I am set and hopefully no more bad days like Wed for live chase cam.
It's really a shame too, because Wed I was driving into some really cool stuff on the backside of the hook. It was hella fun being in there.
Not sure what you mean by 'just purchase from the card' you are currently using. Do you mean purchase the card, or swap the card? But, yes they are going to explicitly use only their hardware they are building. Previous hardware will not work - or so the guy told me. I asked because I was wondering if I could just purchase a 595U now and use it on the new system. But he said no existing cards are incompatible. He also said the new cards would only cost $60 though. So really that's pretty cheap. No big deal IMO. Since I'm purchasing a new 595u card for only $99. I think I can resale for about the same price on Ebay. So little usage I may just claim it is new - which it basically would be. So, as it stands according to this guys current understanding of Millenicom's plans in May they will switch over requiring users to have a new account and purchase new equipment. The equipment cost is $60. There may be a very small sign up or activation fee (not sure), and then the plans are for the flat rate data plan to cost $39 / month.
Sorry about that. I didn't go back and proofread what I wrote. :o What I meant was if I can purchase the card I am leasing now from them. But you understood what I was asking and answered my question. Looks like I'll have to turn in my equipment and buy their new stuff. Thanks for clarifying and gathering the information from them. Should save me time and confusion in the future.
Just as a reminder for those who do not want to get locked into the 2 year contract..which I didn't either. But I found that at least AT&T allows you to turn the service off (temporarily suspend) up to six months at a time. For me this is perfect as I use the service more than 6 months each year as we have two distinct tornado seasons here in AL and then the hurricane season to add to that.
I would guess if one major carrier does this, the others would also. The time the service is turned off does not count toward the 2 year contract, but continues once it is turned back on. No big deal as far as I am concerned.
When I figure the cost of my aircard with a contract versus buying without a contract and the locked in rate that cannot go up for the contract length, it is beneficial to me. If the prices go down, so does mine. But with my contract, which will probably take 3 years to fulfill, I will be good. The total cancellation fee before prorating is only $200.00 I think, should I decide to cancel.
I know this has all been discussed before, but some may not have seen it, and to me, it is worth checking on and really comparing,
Let me add on my chase yesterday toward San Angelo and Brady to Brownwood Tx I found another cell phone data hole. I had zero service on Verizon or Sprint for this area. The area northwest of Brownwood toward Cross Cut / Cross Plains is poor also - although I have a weak signal as I recall (data wise) near Cross Plains. Probably a better antenna / amp would help - but I don't think it would in the SJT/BBD/BWD triangle.
Next time any of you are in this triangle chasing...please give us a report with your service and see if you have anything. I suspect there are just no cell towers anywhere nearby as it is extremely rural.
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