Digital Calendar Setup.

If you're looking to use our digital calendar this year, you're in the right spot. The simplest explanation is that you will be setting this up on your own Google calendar, and this, in turn, will allow you to pretty much carry on your smartphone a copy of the RF Schedule, or at least receive a text message telling you wen your panel is.

So, why do this? It's simple:

  • The schedule is on your mobile device, where you probably already have everything
  • Set alarms for impending events you wish to see with the greatest of ease - either receive a text message, an alarm popup, email, or whatever your phone lets you do in that regard.
  • Schedule updates as they happen - if they happen - within minutes. (We certainly hope they don't happen!)

This is possibly going to take a little bit of your time, so don't worry if it seems like it's taking longer than it should. Figure around fifteen minutes, tops.

Before we start, a few reminders:

  • We aren't responsible for service failures. This includes Google, your mobile carrier, or your mobile phone doing ANYTHING that would cause this to fail to operate. Remember, we just put the data up there. See the terms of service for details.
  • We aren't responsible for excess charges to your account. If you're coming in from out of the country or might be charged for use of this (be it by data charges or by SMS charges for text messages), then be prepared for this: either have your carrier get you onto a plan, or prepare to use wifi if possible to avoid heartache in the form of a very high phone bill.
  • Phones have different requirements depending on what they do. We'll try and help you as best as we can, but we can't guarantee complete success here.
  • You need to back your phone up if you plan on following these instructions. In fact, it's just a really good idea to do that anyway. Check the documentation that came with your phone for details; if you're not sure, contact your carrier for information on this, and they can point you in the right direction.
  • We don't care what kind of phone you do this with. In fact, we're pretty familiar with how about any phone ticks, and there will be a panel, in fact, if you need help getting this set up. It'll be at the start of the con - check the calendar, or even check your own Google calendar.

First thing's first: you will want a Google account for this; this is necessary to make this work in just this way. If you don't want this, then you can probably use a calendar sync method on your program or service of choice - the URLs are below, at the end of this page.

Second, you will want to subscribe to the calendars. To do this, simply click on any (or all) of the links below, and follow the on screen instructions:

And with that, it's time to set up your device.

Android/Google - You shouldn't need to do anything else from here; if the calendars don't show up after five minutes, clear the data on your calendar (Home screen -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage Apps -> All, locate "Calendar Storage", and select "Clear Data") and let your phone resync everything.

Windows Mobile/Windows Phone - Locate Activesync or Sync Center on your device, open it, and under the menu, you'll have an option for setting up a server source. DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT BACKING UP YOUR DATA, AS YOU MAY LOSE DATA. (You can do this in Outlook if it's installed; if it isn't, go to Microsoft and locate a trial copy of Microsoft Outlook so that you may back up your contacts and calendar from your mobile phone. You can find these instructions at Google.; unfortunately, you will only be able to sync your primary calendar, so what we advise here is to copy events you're interested in attending to your main calendar (click on the event, select "Copy", select your calendar), and allow that to sync to your phone. We wish we had better news about this.

iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad - You're in for a three-step process: backup in iTunes, configure the server, and select your calendars. backing up in iTunes is simple - plug in and select Backup. Configuration options are on Home -> Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendar; configure accordingly. To set up the sync, you'll follow your way on your iOS device to a particular web page, and make your selections on what you want synced. All these instructions are located at Google. Don't forget to follow the ta for Calendar setup, and make sure you read the Known Issues as well.

Blackberry - this requires you to download an application, which you can find at http://m.google.com/sync. Once you do that, run it, sign in, and after a moment you should be able to obtain the listing of all of your calendars in the app's Settings option. Alternatively, you can browse there from here, and you'll be prompted for your mobile number; Google will send you the link to your phone in a text message, and you can browse from that. Nothing is really required for this.

PalmOS (old) - There is no support for this; however, you can always import the data sets. See the links below to download the data files, and refer to this Palm KB article to import these files on Palm Desktop; once you import, hotsync your device.

HP (formerly Palm) WebOS - Palm had engineered WebOS to easily sync over the air with service such as Google, so you won't have to do much other than add an account under your Contacts - under the Application menu, go to Preferences & Accounts, and add the account. Information can be found at HP Palm; it looks pretty simple.

Nokia Symbian S60 (most E- and N series Nokia devices) - just like iPhone and Windows, it's basically about setting up an exchange server on your device. This may require you to install an application using the Nokia Ovi or PC suite. In short, under MfE, you'll find your configuration options - follow the prompts. Complete instructions are at Google.

If you're not using a smartphone and you still want this, don't worry - you can still use it! (In fact, for those using a smartphone, this is still pretty useful. The trick is to set up text message notifications. To set this up, in Google Calendar, go to Settings, select Mobile Setup, and follow the on-screen instructions. After this, there are two things you'll want to do once we publish the schedule:

  • Under Settings, go to Calendars, and select the Notifications option. You can turn on SMS for each item in there; we recommend New, Changed, and Canceled for the purpose. (Yes, it says "Invitations" - for the purpose, this will work.) This way, if we add something or change it, you'll get a heads up.
  • Browse through the events; for those you're interested in, select that event, select Edit Details if necessary, and add a reminder (at the bottom of the screen). Use SMS to get the text - this works on all phones; email will do just that, and Pop-up will send a pop-up on your computer's screen, as well as on Android phones. (I haven't tested this on non-Android devices.)

Please note that, because the schedule is not published; if you turn these events on before this happens, you're going to be barraged with text messages for the "dummy" events being removed, and then you'll be bombarded again with text messages as we upload the event schedules. This will pose a problem, because you only get a limited number of messages per day. Information can be found at Google Calendar SMS Settings.