Kevin wrote:

> I live in Southern Oregon and I'm amazed you got any kind of signal at all
> at the Caves or Lake of The Woods.

At Oregon Caves, I had digital coverage outside by the lodge, as well as
on the trail to the "Big Tree" which is partially in the park, partially
in the surrounding National Forest. Inside our 2nd floor room at the
lodge I did not have coverage, either AMPS or digital. There was no GSM
coverage at all. BTW, the lodge has a very good restaurant for dinner,
especially the wild salmon and trout. The kids loved the "Caveman
Burger" in the 1950's style lunch counter.

No coverage inside the caves of course, though the guide said there was
Extended GSM, LOL.

At Lake of the Woods I had good coverage at our cabin at the resort, as
well as along the trail from Lake of the Woods to Fish Lake (we mountain
biked). Since the latter is mostly close to 140 this is not surprising.
No GSM at the resort, but I didn't bring the GSM phone when I went
bicycling, and I suspect that since I was close to 140 that there would
be GSM coverage.

The maps of the carriers for Crater Lake National Park show a lot of
AMPS, CDMA on the north and east sides, GSM near the northwest corner
(but mostly no GSM coverage and none at the major park visitor areas).
We went hiking for a couple of hours, and were on AMPS and the batteries
quickly went down.

http://i14.tinypic.com/4yaf89h.jpg
http://i17.tinypic.com/67ex5x5.jpg

I also had a lot of CDMA coverage on Forest Service land, including the
trail to Umqua Hot Springs off 138 (the bridge near the springs is out,
and you have to hike about two miles to the spring from the Forest
Service road).

Along the waterfall route I had coverage the whole way to Roseburg,
though I wasn't checking much.

I had good CDMA coverage along the Rogue River (we went on the
recreation section to Galice (Galice Road and BLM 34836) but the
Cingular map shows no GSM coverage in that area once you get west of
Merlin. As you go southwest the coverage changes to AMPS through the
Siskiyou National Forest.

I hadn't spent much time in Southern Oregon, and I was very impressed
with it. I really liked the canoe trail on the northern part of Klamath
Lake, and rafting in the Rouge River.

> I'm not too surprised about coverage at
> Crater Lake National Park as there are cell towers on several local ridges
> and peaks around the perimeter of the park and over at Diamond Lake. I use
> a Motorola V551 phone, which could certainly be much better with reception
> and blue tooth clarity, but I still get generally great service all around
> the Rogue Valley. But, as soon as my current contract is up, I'm getting a
> different phone. Only a couple of months after I bought my V551, I was
> informed that it was having reception issues and the entire line of V551
> phones was being discontinued immediately. Just my luck.

V325i.