I installed Data Usage Monitor as suggested to notify me when I lost the
internet signal. It didn't seem to install or work, but just now when I
was about to delete it, it did seem to start, Help worked, and it let me
choose the alarm sound, none of which worked before. So I will keep it
and run it and see if it works. (this isn't because I removed the VPN
apps. It had failed to work before I installed t hem. )

However the need for it is weaker, mostly because unlike previous trips,
I'm not in better shape than when I started, and I'm disinclined to go
hiking very far. .

I wanted to know when hiking if the data disappeared so a friend could
no longer know where I was. it turns out even on main highways in very
rural areas and a little bit in semi-urban the signal disappears. I can
tell because the web radio stops (and s ince that is buffered, the
signal must have disappeared 10 or 20 or more seconds earlier. it can be
gone for 20 seconds before it starts again.

Meanwhile OSM open street maps can be really annoying, saying over and
over that it lost the GPS signal and htne it got it again, sometimes 6
secodns later. I think it only does this when I've asked for
directions. But google maps doesn't do it at all. Maybe there is a
setting to shut it up, but I don't see it.