Dorking & District Radio Society

DDRS Mobile Broadband ("MiFi")

Colin Berry, M0GXV

The club has a Vodafone 3G MiFi unit and a SIM card on a "Pay As You Go 1" arrangement, which costs £1 per day for 50MB of data. If it is not turned on then it doesn't cost anything. 50MB is adequate for logging and QRZ lookups when operating portable, and limited browsing at club meetings by a visiting speaker. However it is not intended as an alternative to members' own mobile phone data allowances.

Colin Berry M0GXV handles the administration of the account and top-ups as needed, and will endeavour to make it available for club meetings and activities. Other club members can borrow the MiFi unit for their own use, as long as they bring it to meetings, and eventually return it with no less credit than they started with.

There is a top-up facility which doesn't need any registration. Simply enter the phone number and follow the instructions to select an amount (minimum £5) and enter your payment card details. Any unused credit will remain on the account for your or future club use.

The MiFi unit can also receive texts, which can be seen by connecting to the MiFi then browsing http://VodafoneMobile.wifi. Messages from Vodafone about remaining credit or running out of data may be sent in this way.

Due to the daily data cap, the tariff is not suitable for larger data requirements such as a video or application; these would need to be downloaded over a broadband connection. Some precautions should be taken to avoid unintentional use of data by mobile phones and computers downloading updates and other background tasks. There is often a setting on a mobile phone to control this.

The unit can also be used with a member's own standard-sized Vodafone SIM card. This could enable you to use more data.

Please contact Colin via the club if you wish to borrow the unit.