Cell phone use

[Klish304]

When your camping, hunting, fishing or hiking do you use your cell phone.

In reference to the high fatalities from the Texas hill country floods I suspect that the reasons are lack of reception and spotty service and the desire to disconnect from the habit of the phone dictating what we do.

The finger pointing began with a jab at the national weather service.

What do you suppose

 

[TandKHunting]

People at the national weather service are humans. As humans, we can do our best to predict Mother Nature, but Mother Nature does unpredictable things.

If I'm not mistaken, much of the flooding occurred early in the morning. Much like a Tornado hitting a town while folks are asleep. I don't think anyone is to blame, and we may never know if having service or being on a phone would have prevented anything.

 

[Billy Goat]

Depends.

Lots of areas I don’t have service, in areas I do I still am usually on it some. Some responsibilities I need to be available.

Tree stand hunting in the east I'm on it way too much if in service, gotta keep the mememachine going.

 

[HairyScandinavian]

I'm always in DND and have all alerts always disabled on my phone. I'd never get any sort of warning short of a family member I have in the exception list calling me.

Having said that, I use the heck out of my phone for weather and navigation and tide charts and things like that during the day, but won't find me on social media or killing time on my phone while I'm out there, only for the tools it provides to enhance the outdoors.

 

[Mangata]

Usually do not have connection to cell service when out. Use my Inreach weather almost daily, and as well I have solid contacts that give me weather updates.
Used my Apple satellite feature this last weekend for the first time and although clunky I was able to communicate with it (gives me a sense of backup if Inreach goes down in the field!!!).

 

[RBell24]

It depends on what exactly I'm doing and where, but I generally try to avoid using my phone as much as possible when I'm hunting. I'm accessible by phone and email so much that I need the disconnect. I use the weather and mapping features quite a bit when hunting (if I have service) but my phone is most likely on DND and zipped up in a pocket.

 

[TaperPin]

I turn it off unless making a call while hunting. The rest of the time it’s on normally.

The Texas flood is a tragic situation. Using the Swiss cheese model, it is true a federal position was empty that coordinated weather warnings to local governments, but warnings were issued multiple times of increasing importance that night. It was known bad weather was coming by everyone and it was assumed to not be anything extreme. This is flash flood country so there’s a base of knowledge of what could happen. At 4:00 in the morning few eyes were looking for worst case warnings. The area lacked an audible warning system that other nearby areas have. Camp leadership didn’t act as decisively as they could have. Local government didn’t react and warn folks as quick as it could have. By 4:30 water levels crested and the damage was done.

It’s unfortunate so many holes lined up to cause the tragedy, but there is definitely not a single place to point a finger.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Unless I am hunting with my brothers, I try to pretend I don’t have a phone most of the time while I am hunting. My brothers and I will send each other text messages if we see something or get something. For instance, a couple of years ago, we did a mini-drive where he sat at a chokepoint and his wife and I walked diagonally across the farm. When we scared up a deer, we sent him a quick text. “Buck coming.” He shot it. Then we sent him another text before we crested the ridge where he would be able to see us. On the way down, we split up again. I scared up six more deer and was 90% sure there was a buck with them. I sent him a quick text, “six deer headed your way, probable buck with them.” He stopped dragging the other buck and got ready. Sure enough, he shot that one too.

I can’t just leave it at the house because I work 100% remotely and my best friend/boss calls me every morning to discuss work, life, the universe, and everything while he walks his dog at 5:30 PST and I walk myself at 8:30 EST. Even when I am hunting, I maintain this routine. I have usually already been hunting for two hours by that point, so it’s simple to take a break and talk quietly for 20 minutes or so. Our conversations are pretty one-sided since he is far more talkative than me.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

 

[Marlin7955]

imo.. always good to have comms with you.

 

[tx_basser]

Yea.. if it appears to be bad weather my wife will text me updates if signal is limited.

 

[BadDogPSD]

I use my phone for OnX having downloaded the maps for the area I'll be hunting. It's in airplane mode most of the time, but will occasionally check for service when taking a break.

 

[justinspicher]

I have pretty good service where I hunt, but like it’s been said before, my phone is another tool I have with me. I don’t use it much for navigation, mostly to keep in contact with the fam as needed.

 

[nm.otter]

I spend ~50% of my week working on remote rural telecommunications infrastructure or stuff that connects to it.

My phone is a tool. The cellular network is just one of several legs connected to that tool.

 

[Oakman]

Ditching the cell phone while hunting, easier said than done

I don’t know about you guys, but leaving my phone behind when I head out hunting is tough. It’s such a big part of the daily life now. I try to keep my phone use to a minimum during the hunt and really focus on my goal, this is a goal in progress.
When I’m out of cell service, I’ll check it occasionally, mostly to see if there’s an InReach message or any high priority alerts. But the hardest part is putting it away during whitetail season. Usually, I’m in my stand or blind early in the morning or late afternoon, and there’s a lot of downtime just scanning the woods. In those moments, I’m often scrolling through my phone, reading. I try to avoid audio or YouTube

 

[Charlie-NY]

When sitting in an elevated deer blind an hour before light, I'll either listen to music/news or read the digital newspaper. I may occasionally send or receive a text from my one of my hunting companions or send an image of wildlife that strolls by. I have taken some video with my phone that I've sent back home in real time. One year I took video of two bear cubs climbing in & out of the bait pail. I sent it to my kids and they loved it.

As I age, I see the cell phone as an important tool to have in case of an emergency. I never hunt without it. Sometimes I don't have cell service and I feel a bit more vulnerable. I guess I'm cell service spoiled.

 

[mt terry d]

My phone isn't worth the plastic it's made of when I'm hunting.
I only carry it in hopes it'll work for taking a kill photo.

Amazing how we ever survived without them.
Maybe it's because we learned self-reliance and didn't expect someone else
to be responsible for our safety.

 

[Boarmaster]

Well if all alerts come thru a cell phone and you don't have one, have the one you have turned on or don't have cell service then there is an impact.
Also if you don't heed and take action on a warning or alert there isn't a system in the universe that will save a life. I live in hurricane country. We get alerted quite frequently. Some heed the warning others don't.
Some just get tired of preparing and then no event. Human nature. In SWFL we cant run everytime we are in the cone or are warned everytime there is a possibility. We would be gone every other week from August thru December. We live on a peninsula. The reality is by the time we know we know going yo get hit its too late and very unsafe to evacuate. The answer for myself is to live far enough of the coast to avoid much of a risk of flooding. So far that worked out. I lived here in this house 20 minutes from the Gulf for 21 years only lost power once and not one penny in storm damage. Not building in risk areas is key.

Texas had a 1000 year event. I doubt anyone is to blame or anything could have been done to avoid it.
Other than not be building or camping in any sort of flood zone. I am not familiar with that area so I cant say. It would seem a system of sirens along the rivers flood zones like tornado sirens would be low tech and effective and probably cost effective. It would at least wake you up in the middle of the night.
I grew up in a small town with a volunteer fire department. When that siren went off it woke you up for miles in every direction. Heck there is a lighting alarm at a school across near me I can hear that thing going off a dozen times a day during our monsoon season.

 

[Boarmaster]

I use my cell phone while hunting. I run a business and need to stay connected. Being able to do this makes it possible for me to be out of town and enjoy it without worrying about whats going on back home. It doesnt bother me at all to work a little while hunting. I go on at least two 3 week and 2 week hunting trips every year. Never miss a beat. It helps to enjoy what you do as a business. I don't feel the need to disconnect or even have any desire do so.
My hunting might be different than others. I’m a eastern white hunter , old to boot. I sit in a climber stand during hunts and sleep in a comfortable cabin at night. I might think different if I was walking around out in the wilderness for a week.

 

[Boarmaster]

When sitting in an elevated deer blind an hour before light, I'll either listen to music/news or read the digital newspaper. I may occasionally send or receive a text from my one of my hunting companions or send an image of wildlife that strolls by. I have taken some video with my phone that I've sent back home in real time. One year I took video of two bear cubs climbing in & out of the bait pail. I sent it to my kids and they loved it.

As I age, I see the cell phone as an important tool to have in case of an emergency. I never hunt without it. Sometimes I don't have cell service and I feel a bit more vulnerable. I guess I'm cell service spoiled.

This. My cell is just another hunting gizmo in my pocket.

 

[Poser]

Usually on airplane mode even if I'm in an area where I have service. If I have service, I'll switch it on and off airplane mode if I need to send/check messages or feel like killing some time scrolling. Otherwise, I try to avoid the distraction/temptation to check out of the moment.