docj

They weren't doing you any favors. That's a pretty standard Verizon= rate for adding hotspot capability (or even for adding a standalone hotspot). The problem for many, however, is that they couldn't last more than a couple of days with 15GB.

If the OP decides to come to SD to claim residency let me suggest that he open a mail service account in advance of actually coming to the State. You're going to need a paid contract with a mail service in lieu of recent mail items sent to your address in order to get a license. Things will go a lot smoother if he establishes the address in advance.

I've been using Millenicom for the past year; the rumors of its demise were unfounded. I had absolutely no complaints Like other cellular resellers their plans go in and out of favor with the cellular carriers. I had good luck with Millenicom and only cancelled them when I received my Starlink system.

The light blue is clear sky, the small red spot is obstruction.

I agree that the location app is fairly useless when you're looking to find a spot to use for siting the dish, but once you have sited it, you can get a reasonable perspective for how much obscuration you are getting. I've attached a screenshot showing where I have a small blockage in one particular direction.

From what I've read, on the Gen 1 Starlink terminal they're pushing ~100 watts down the 100' cable using a 56V POE. I can understand why they are reluctant to let you add cable to that run.

Even when mobile Starlink is available it should be understood that it requires a fairly large angle of open sky. It's not the same as pointing a traditional satellite dish and being able to find a path between the trees. The size of the required clear aperature will get smaller once more satellite are in orbit, but there are plenty of tree-covered campgrounds where Starlink may never work. I understand that some of today's RVers don't like trees because they reduce the available sunlight for their solar panels. Personally, I prefer trees to camping in open fields, but that's JMO.

At present Starlink isn't authorized for true "mobile" use. If you take it to a new location you have to submit a "change of location" and you may or may not have service at that location. My assumption is that we'll be at our home base location ~8 months a year or more. I will get plenty of service out of my system. It is so much better than the alternatives for us that I don't care if I have to pay to keep it operational for a couple of months when we're not here.

Here's my Dishy happily mounted at its new home. I now plan on trenching from the dish to our shed. I'll run some 1" conduit to put in the trench and will keep the POE adapter and router in the shed. As for the conduit, its clear that the Starlink Ethernet cable has to be rated for outdoor use, but there's no indicaiton that it is approved for direct burial. FWIW given the number of live oak trees in our park, it was a just a matter of luck that we have a clear shot at the correct part of the sky without having to use a large tower. We're getting no dropouts from obstructions.

Tomorrow I'm going to put the Dishy on a more permanent mount which will involve moving it a bit. Do I need to get it to start over and look for obstructions, etc? If so, how to I do that? Answered my own question--Put it into Stow position and then disconnect. When re-connected the dish will automatically regain it's position.

All I can say is WOW! Dishy arrived today (it's the "old" round style). Assembly was virtually nothing and the initial "survey" of obstacles took ~30 minutes. I lucked out in that the best view is nearly free of trees and other obstacles. Initial speed tests have been in the 150-250 Mbps ranger (using FAST.com). Streaming video has very clearly been at 1080p with no rebuffering. So far I haven't experienced any dropouts.

I hadn't used my older laptop in a couple of months but this discussion caused me to boot it back up. What I discovered was that its Windows Insider copy of Win 11 had expired and I was prompted to immediately update it. However, it updated to a current Windows Insider build rather than to a released version of Windows 11. It will be interesting to see if it ever is permitted to update to a stable Windows 11 version. During the update process, once again I was warned that this device is not on the list of "approved Win 11 computers" and that issues could occur if I loaded Win 11 on it. So far, no issues are apparent.

I won't know until I receive it on Friday. I'll post when I get it.

This morning I finally received tracking information from FedEx for my Dishy. It's been >2 weeks since I was charged for it. Making money on other people's money is the way the rich get richer.

I think I put my deposit down like in February. As an update to my previous post, my Dishy still hasn't shipped, despite the fact that I've been charged for it. I guess it's sort of like buying a Tesla in the early days.

FWIW I updated my old Dell Inspiron 7559 with a 6th Generation Intel Quad Core i7 to Windows 11 with absolutely no difficulty despite it not being on the list of preferred devices. Frankly, I see little practical difference between Win 10 and Win 11. I now have two other Dells using it, also, one that runs with a 10th gen i7 and the other with a Ryzen 5.

I have to admit that when we first enrolled I didn't understand the differences in how premiums would escalate with time. Our Humana Plan F policies were the cheapest at first, but they are "attained age" policies and increased each year. As for the questions we were asked they were largely about the diseases you hear medications advertised for every evening on TV. The biggest surprise was that diabetes wasn't considered an issue unless it had resulted in vision problems. They asked for the names of specialists we use and they did call to question my wife about one of them. They asked obvious things like "were you a patient in a hospital in the past 30 days" and that sort of thing. I wondered if they would ask about my knee replacement and the only question that related to it was "have you been advised to have a joint replacement and haven't yet had it?" Rather than trying to remember what questions were asked, I can say that two seniors in their 70's on moderate doses of blood pressure meds, cholesterol reducing meds, and diabetes meds didn't seem to bother them. I guess that makes you grateful for the relatively good health we both have!

FWIW my wife and I both successfully were able to transfer from Humana Plan F to AARP United Healthcare Plan F supplements. Yes, we had to answer a set of health-related questions but the things they seemed most concerned about were, fortunately, more serious than the ailments we suffer from. We've both now been notified of the approval of our applications. The net result of the change was to save each of us about $60/mo which is a non-trivial amount IMO.

One thing I don't see mentioned often is that SD doesn't require a higher license class to drive a vehicle >26,000 lbs whereas, by comparison, TX does. That's not a huge issue, but, for example, although I happen to have a CDL, my wife has only her "Class C" license and she is totally legal to drive our MH. She took a course from RV Driving School shortly after we purchased it and has driving it for many of the ~75,000 miles we've traveled in it. Under the reciprocity rules for licensing, if you're legal to drive a vehicle in your home State, you are legal drive it in the other 49. OTOH if we were TX residents she would have to obtain a non-commercial Class B license.

With all due respect, there's nothing stopping you from arranging for a mail forwarding service in SD in advance of when you actually leave Colorado. If you purchase the RV in Colorado and aren't sure if the dealer can arrange for out of State titling, have them issue you temporary CO plates while you get the SD paperwork done. Most of the major mail handling providers in SD can do the titling work for you. We've been fulltimers with an SD address for >11 years. IMHO you're paying too much attention to the simultaneity issues with respect to exiting one State and starting a domicile in another. Be honest in your dealings with both States and things should work out fine. In 2011 we left MD and relocated our domicile to SD and didn't hear a single word from the MD tax authorities. We were in SD a couple of months ago to get our licenses renewed and the entire process took barely a half hour. All our "formal" dealings with the State of SD have been very pleasant.

We've used both Zelle and Venmo. No problems with either of them. But we rarely use those to send presents to grandkids. It's difficult to beat Amazon gift cards.

We definitely don't have hills in south TX! 😁 We'll have to put it on a mast to get it above the live oaks, but the local microwave-based internet providers haven't had a problem with doing that. We have a small "casita" and a small tower on top of it should suffice.

I was notified this morning that my Starlink kit will ship this week. My account has been charged for the $495. I've even located an installer who should be able to mount it above the treeline at my location. We're in Rockport TX which is as far south as I have heard for any Starlink installations. Can't wait to get mine set up!

To clarify this point. You need to produce a SD hotel or campground receipt dated within a year from when you are renewing your license. It doesn't actually have to be from the trip during which you actually renewed the license. If you have such a receipt you can renew the license by mail or online. There's also a form that your out-of-state eye doctor can complete to satisfy that requirement.

Some policies were sold with inflation riders. We bought ours ~15 years ago and they came with 20 year 5% inflation coverage and no premium increases. Sometimes you do luck out.