Same wavelength Michael...
I was running the one you posted: */10 * * * * /usr/bin/wget --spider
http://www.***.com/***/sendnotice.php
I had the cron output emailed to me. Here is the last one before the manual run:
--16:15:00--
http://www.****.com/***/sendnotice.php
=> `sendnotice.php'
Resolving
www.***.com... done.
Connecting to
www.***.com[***.***.***.***]:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/html]
200 OK