docj

I've had Starlink (round dish) for several months.  It performs exceptionally well.  Can't understand why the OP says he is anxious.

21 minutes ago, GlennWest said:

Actually from what i researched Skylink is sorta mobile. At home when set up you look for open (sat/sattelite) for service. Understand it is a grouping service. What you log on to looks for open sat. If one open you good. If not look for different location. Repeat until you find one. When you travel to new location one would just have to go thru all the set ups again. So yes you can take it with you. Play video just a few posts down. Explains it good.

With all due respect, Starlink does not work by looking for an open satellite.  Unlike geosynchronous satellite systems, there aren't any fixed satellites above you; they are constantly moving into and out of your field of view.  The dish doesn't focus a satellite in the traditional sense; it is a phased array that steers its beam electronically.

If anyone has more of an interest in what the Starlink constellation and its ground stations looks like, I suggest starting here:  Starlink satellite position real-time  Find your current location and expand the map so you can see the details of which satellites are near you and watch them move in and out of position.  When you're using the system there's no way to know which satellite you're connected to at any particular moment.

Since I actually have a Starlink system, let me explain how the issue of changing locations works.  Initially, your system is assigned to your home location.  There is no "searching about for an open satellite"; it simply will work when you plug it in that process typically takes <15 minutes.  If you stay at your home location that's all there is to it.

If you choose to move about with it, your effective radius will be about 20 miles around your home site; beyond that it will stop working.  If you want to take it with you on a trip you can go to a webpage where you can request a relocation.  Your new location can be input by street address or coordinates.   You input the proposed new location and the system will tell you if there is a "slot" for you in that area.  If there isn't you can try somewhere else.  Some RVers that I am aware of are essentially planning their trips by where they can get approved locations.

There is one small caveat to this, however.  If you have a home base and choose to come back to it, there is no guarantee that a slot will exist for you to return to.  You could find that others have entered the area and have used up the available slots.  Apparently in FL at the moment this is a serious issue.

19 hours ago, Blues said:

And just a reminder--it's Medicare Supplement plans that cover emergency care in a foreign country if it's incurred in the first 60 days of a trip, and subject to a $50,000 lifetime limit.  And they pay only 80% of expenses.

A couple of years ago we spent nearly 90 days in Canada and we drove back to the US on our ~59th day so we could restart the "first 60 days of a trip" clock.  I had called Medicare and the person I spoke with said that the clock would restart by just returning to the US no matter how long we stayed there.  So we drove from PEI to Maine, got some Rx from Walgreens and drove back!

5 hours ago, Dutch_12078 said:

The ZTE Mobley hotspot modem supports 4G/LTE and should not be affected by the 3G shutdown. Many of us have switched the Mobley SIM to newer hotspots with more advanced features though.

As I said in my previous post, the fact that a device support 4G/LTE is not a basis for stating that it will be Ok after the 3G shutdown. 

From the below-referenced FCC document: This will affect 3G mobile phones and certain older 4G mobile phones that do not support Voice over LTE (VoLTE or HD Voice).   (emphasis added)

[NOTE: even though a device is data only doesn't mean that the limitation relative to VoLTE doesn't apply!]

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/plan-ahead-phase-out-3g-cellular-networks-and-service

A discussion of this issue with specific reference to the Mobley can be found here:

https://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1894167-Stand-alone-AT-amp-T-Unlimited-ZTE-Mobley-Hotspot-now-only-20!!!!!/page493

12 hours ago, Blues said:

But what does it actually mean?  I assume being discharged from the hospital definitely means the "emergency" is over.  But what if the patient needs more treatment but won't deteriorate during the time it takes for an ambulance to get him to another facility--is the emergency over once he's at that point?  Is the emergency over if he's at that point and isn't actually transferred but instead stays in the same hospital where he got emergency treatment?

I think/fear that all of these situations mean the emergency is over, which is bad news for the insured.  But who knows.  I assume the insurance companies decide this on a case-by-case basis and it's up to the insured to fight it if they don't like it.

You raise some excellent points.  I'll add to the mix  the fact that Medicare only covers $50k of emergency treatment outside the US (per lifetime) and $50k is an amount that can be spent in far less time than one might imagine.

A few years ago my wife had a surgical stay in the hospital for a relatively minor condition.  When I was reading through her EOBs a few months later I noticed that the hospital had billed Medicare ~$75k for the surgery and the couple of day stay and Medicare had allowed and paid ~$55k of the charge.  That's an example of how little $50k really covers.

1 hour ago, Dutch_12078 said:

Mobley devices will not be affected. Like most 4G/LTE hotspots, the Mobley is 3G capable as a fall back when 4G is not available, but lacking a 3G signal, that feature won't work of course.

Although it may or may not be true that the Mobley isn't affected, what you stated as the reason isn't accurate.

The Mobley contains a cellular modem as do all devices that connect to the network.  Modems are classified as voice-centric or data-centric.  This distinction has nothing to do with whether they are being used for phones or data-only devices.  Some voice-centric modems are affected by the 3G shutdown because they use the 3G network as part of the authentication process when they sign onto the 4G network.

As an example, WiFiRanger designs and markets routers that contain Quectel modems.  Quectel is a major modem manufacturer whose products are sold world-wide.  The modems WiFiRanger uses are, most definitely, 4G modems but they are affected by the 4G shutdown.  If we did not create a work-around, they would not function after the 3G shutdown.

38 minutes ago, LindaH said:

100 watts over what period of time?  It's not something we would leave on when we're not actively using it

It's only based on what I've read that it's ~100W continuous.

48 minutes ago, LindaH said:

I know Starlink says they're going to go mobile at some point, but what kind of equipment would you have to carry and how difficult would it be to set up?  We had HughesNet many years ago and it was a pain in the ___ to set up.  What's the monthly GB limit, and how fast is it?

Starlink is nothing like Hughesnet to set up.   You aren't pointing a dish at a point in the sky.  You put the dish on the ground or on a pole and it points itself.  Our speeds are typically 200-400 Mbps download and 30-50 Mbps upload.  

It does consume ~100 watts pretty continuously, so if you boondock this could be a concern.

The service costs $100/mo and I paid $500 for the hardware.

At present you can request an address change on your account.  From what I read if you are the kind of person who is willing let their destination be determined by whether or not you can get a Starlink "cell" then this might work for you.  It wouldn't work well for us.  Furthermore, you do need a ~60 degree clear sky aperture for it to work, so don't stay on heavily treed sites.

One other issue that isn't talked about as much is that if you take your Starlink away from your homebase there may or may not be a "slot" available for you when you want to return.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Starlink but if we go on travel later this year I'll leave it in place.  It's worth it to me to pay the $100/mo for a couple of months just to make sure I have it again when we return.

10 minutes ago, LindaH said:

Well, at this point, I'm not seeing ANYTHING from Visible because I cannot download apps at this time, so have not been able to run any speed tests.  As of right now, I have no idea whether the results will be the same as my Verizon phone, worse, or better.  It's an unknown.

I know you haven't been able to run speed tests using Visible but you did mention that you were getting rebuffering delays.  That implies that the speeds aren't consistently high enough.  Measuring the speed isn't going to tell you anything you can't determine by watching the video stream. 

IMO adding an amplifier isn't going to do anything for that problem.  Streaming video is analogous to a "bucket filling" problem.  Water pours into a bucket from one or more sources and flows out through a hole in the bottom.  If the water level in the bucket stays above the bottom you have a stable video stream.  Otherwise there will be rebuffering pauses.  From my experience with Visible it wasn't overall speed that was the issue, but, rather, the erratic nature of the speed.

On February 22, 2022 AT&T is going to be the first US cellular carrier to disable its 3G network. The other carriers will follow suit later in the year.

Many people are probably assuming that this will not affect them because they don't own any 3G hardware. That's not necessarily the case. It turns out that lots of so-called 4G hardware actually accesses the 3G network as part of the authentication process when it connects to the cellular network.

Yes, you read that right! Many 4G devices actually need the 3G network in order to make a connection. So what happens when the 3G network is no longer there? Well, they don't connect unless a "work around" is implemented.

This can happen to older phones, but, these days, most people are probably already using phones that are true 4G devices and don't rely on the 3G network. But it will affect lots of devices that contain cellular modems including routers, tablets, IoT devices and even automobiles.

For example, many cars contain emergency reporting capabilities (think OnStar and others) that use cellular networks for accident reporting and assistance. Quite a few of those will be effected by the 3G shutdown and, for some of them, the loss of connectivity will be permanent--there will be no plans to update the firmware.

The technical explanation for this is complicated and it involves discussion of exotic topics such as voice centric and data centric modems. Suffice it to say that the problem is real and, in the case of AT&T, very time-sensitive.

The reason I'm positing this is to make people aware that they may be using devices that will be affected by the 3G shutdown. The best way to find out if this is the case is to go to the manufacturer's website for the particular device.

WiFiRanger has already implemented a firmware fix to this problem for those routers it sells that contain integrated cellular modems. How to implement their fix is explained in a blog post on the WiFiRanger website. Other hardware vendors are probably making similar posts.

40 minutes ago, LindaH said:

Assuming that when I get the app download problem solved on the S20+ and the speeds are about the same as the TCL, what's causing the buffering -- and how do I get rid of it?

I hate to sound catty, but what you're seeing is pretty typical for Visible.  I spend lots of time on RV forums and Visible is a mixed bag for many people.  At some locations and some days it can be super and at others it is atrocious.  I had it for a couple of months using a relatively new iPhone and the results were not satisfactory.   

At home I now have Starlink, so my streaming problems are no more.  If and when we hit the road again I'll use my grandfathered unlimited Verizon prepaid hotspot as my primary internet connection.

1 hour ago, LindaH said:

I actually have this app on my Verizon phone, but none of what it shows means anything to me.  I assume by dBm you're talking about the two "gauges" shown when the app is first opened up.  If so, then as I'm sitting here the top one has ranged from -108 to -112 and the bottom one has ranged from -113 to -116.  The speed test has ranged from 11.6 Mb/s to 18.0 Mb/s down and 2.5 Mb/s to 3.4 Mb/s up.  However, the other day after I first downloaded the app, my speed was 1.9 Mb/s down, 35.0 Kb/s up.  As you can see everything ranges up and down, sometimes by quite a bit.  This is the reason I thought an amplifier would help -- to get a more consistent  signal so it's not hopping all over the place.  I'll have to run all these tests again once the phone switches over to 5G -- I can't get a consistent 5G signal where I live.  Mostly it's 4G with an occasional 5G.  

Note that these tests were done on my Verizon phone NOT the Visible phone which is the one I'm using as a hotspot to stream.  I'm having an issue with downloading apps which I'm working on with Visible, so -- hopefully -- the issue will be resolved soon and I can download this app and get some numbers on the phone I'm actually using.

Where do I find the "signal quality measurement" on this app?  And what numbers should I be looking for?

Well, that's nice, but I'm not about to spend $600 - $1000 just to test it out.

The signal you are seeing is similar to what I get at home and your speeds are typical.    I seriously doubt that amplifying it will change things appreciably (or at all).  Since I don't know what model of phone you have I can't comment on it, but many times I tell people that their money is better invested in a newer (and more advanced) phone.  Some phones cost more than others and the cost covers some real technical advances not just "fluff."  Some of the phones that were either free or close to it on Visible, for example, had category 4 modems which is the most basic 4G modem.  

As for 5G, don't expect it will produce any miracles, in most places.  Ultra-fast millimeter wave 5G is limited to a select set of major cities and only a small number of phones (or hotspots) can actually receive it.  Most of the 5G we've all been seeing around the US is 5G that shares the 4G frequency spectrum and it is only modestly faster, in most cases, than 4G.  The new 5G being talked about on the news for the past couple of days is brand new and only a small group of phones will be able to receive it, at first.  It will be significantly faster than 4G but for a while it will be very limited in availability.  

With today's modern digital cellular technology, the speed you obtain from your cell phone is only somewhat related to the signal strength.  Digital cellular telephony can work quite well over >50 dBm of difference in signal strength.  That's a factor of 100,000.

With all due respect you can't make any quantitative assumptions about signal strength by using the "bar" indicator on your phone.  At best, that indicator is a qualitative assessment and a not very reliable one.  

If you want to tell what your signal strength really is, then, if you have an Android phone, run the Network Cell Signal Lite app.  It's free and it will provide you the signal strength in dBm as well as providing the signal quality measurement which is just as important.

At my home location my Verizon signal strength is absolutely horrible, measuring -105 to -110 dBm yet my measured speed is quite good because the signal quality is good.  Signal strength alone is not a determinative measure.

Furthermore, signal amplifiers such as the ones you are discussing actually can reduce your measured speed because they negate important technology features such as carrier aggregation and MIMO.  I always tell people to test their speeds with and without such amplifiers because you may find that the amplifier actually reduces your speed!

Winnebago Reveals All-Electric Motorhome Concept at Florida RV SuperShow

1 minute ago, sandsys said:

And turn signals required sticking your arm out that cranked down window no matter what the weather was doing.

My 1954 Ford had turn signals because my father paid $12 extra for them!  😀

51 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

I don't know that it will be electric cars that replace what we use today, but I am confident that my grandchildren will one day believe what we are driving today to be primitive. Cars are changing, no matter what we believe to be impossible.

Because few people these days do any significant maintenance on their own cars, most are unaware of the enormous changes that have occurred over the past ~50years.  Electric vehicles may herald a major technology evolution but it's not as if vehicle technology has stayed static.  Very few of today's drivers would be willing to put up with my 1954 Ford that had to have oil changes and its chassis lubed every couple of thousand miles and whose only creature comforts were an AM radio, a heater and crank-down windows.   Compared to it even the least expensive of today's vehicles is a technology marvel.

2 minutes ago, sandsys said:

To date, that hasn't meant the engine is electric. It has meant there is no propane system so all appliances are electric or run off the fuel tank. My last van was considered to be all electric but my furnace ran off the van's diesel fuel tank.

Those kind of "all electric RVs" are common enough these days that you wouldn't think they would warrant such a press release.  I'll wager this is an electric propulsion RV.

I have one of the most complex insurance arrangements that I can envision and, with the assistance of Roxanne at Miller insurance, all is well with our coverage by Progressive.

We have a motorhome owned by a MT LLC which is "garaged" at the address of our MT registered agent.  We have two personal vehicles, both registered in SD with one listed as garaged in SD and one garaged in TX at our RV lot.  Roxanne arranged all this and was able to "defend" it to Progressive when it got audited last year.  

FWIW no one cared about the use of "convenience addresses"; that wasn't the concern.  In fact, Progressive's biggest concern was why do you need the SD address?  The fact that the address was a PMB was never an issue.  I think sometimes we overthink these issues. JMO.

We've done the TC in pieces from BC all the way to PEI.  The road varies is quality but we've never had any serious concerns.  To answer your question, there really is a "a lot" in the middle of the country--lots of canola fields!  LOL

25 minutes ago, mptjelgin said:

Same for us. People like to throw that "Keep on Adding" line into these conversations, but we've never run into that in our many years of RV'ing. Do they charge different rates for different types of hook-ups? You bet. But so do most other places. 

We, also, have had many good experiences at KOA's.  They may cost a few percent more but that provides a consistency and uniformity that is nice when you're in a unfamiliar area.  It's the same reason that my family used to stop for lunch at Howard Johnson's.  They were never "great" restaurants, but they were clean and you knew you probably would be safe to eat their food.  FWIW if you save KOA points you can get back enough free stays to offset the slightly higher daily rate they charge,  

On 12/28/2021 at 7:24 AM, Kirk W said:

If you have not been following it, there is a NASA blog with a great deal of information and they also have a NASA/Webb Facebook page. The first course correction was successful and Webb has now passed the moon!

This NASA site provides a day by day timeline of all the steps the telescope will be going through:  https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

4 hours ago, Kirk W said:

Having grown up in the late 40's & 50's, I am beginning to understand more fully what Ollie was experiencing. There are even threads on these forums that some a lot like the skeptics of Ollie's youth.

In 1998 I had a large dish mounted on my home in order to get any sort of internet beyond 19kbps dialup.  The dish was heavy and difficult to point.  Download speeds were better than dialup but rarely at 100 kbps.  I was content to read email; streaming video wasn't even on the horizon.

Last month I set up my Starlink Dishy which without human pointing routinely provides 200-400 Mbps download speeds.  My video is all streaming now and comes in at full TV resolution (1080p). 

So in <20 years my satellite download speed has increased  from a couple of hundred kilobits per second to several hundred megabits per second.  And, of course, the computer I'm using to connect to the internet is also more than a thousand times faster, also.  In fact, my new phone is a far more capable computer than what I had available in 1998.

Even as a "techie" the rate of change is almost too much to keep up with.

1 hour ago, Kirk W said:

For the short time that we are out of the US, $1000-$2000 premium is more than we choose to pay. 

That's precisely why we didn't buy insurance in 2019 when we were in Canada for ~80 days.  We needed to refill a prescription anyway so we drove from PEI back to Maine so we could do that and restart the 60 day clock with respect to Plan F benefits.   I called Medicare and the people I spoke with were confident that coming back to the US for even a moment would give us another 60 days of coverage.  

11 minutes ago, hankfolk said:

We have exceptional BC/BS coverage and I was told it would not cover us outside of the USA. Thus my quest to find some form of emergency medical insurance. Enough to cover costs until you can be evacuated to the USA.

On our last trip to Canada I explored short-term medical plans for visitors.  Although I didn't purchase one that time, I think I might on future trips.  As I recall we could get acceptable coverage for 90 days and the costs I was looking at were ~$500-1000 each depending on which specific plan was selected.

One important advantage of buying a plan like that is that it pays "upfront" whereas Medicare Plan F or G would work only as reimbursement for your expenses.  I much prefer not to have to pay out of pocket and then have to fight to get my money back.

2 hours ago, Kirk W said:

If you are covered by Medicare, supplements of either plan F or plan G cover medical issues when outside of the US. 

The coverage exists but it's not as broad as some might think from your statement.  Plus it's limited to a $50k lifetime maximum and you have coverage for only ~60 days.  The summer when we spent 3 months in Canada we came back to Maine and documented that fact to make sure that we could restart the "60 day clock."

This is from a Medicare document:

Medigap plans C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, M, and N pay 80% of the billed charges for certain medically necessary emergency care outside the U.S. after you meet a $250 deductible for the year. These Medigap policies cover foreign travel emergency care if it begins during the first 60 days of your trip, and if Medicare doesn’t otherwise cover the care. Foreign travel emergency coverage with Medigap policies has a lifetime limit of $50,000.