docj

25 minutes ago, TXiceman said:

It may have helped that I told them AT&T had much better coverage where we are and that I had no problem with switching carriers.

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.

On 12/6/2021 at 8:00 PM, Vladimir said:

Is the light blue....clear sky or obstruction??

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

On 12/6/2021 at 11:55 AM, Vladimir said:

I was NOT impressed with their location app.  

The "best" location I did first, and was told it was a great location.  I then walked around the meadow looking at other spots.  The app was correct in the sense that none were better than the initial site.

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.

On 11/25/2021 at 11:31 AM, Dutch_12078 said:

I've strung 200' of coax for my sat TV dish a few times, I wonder what the limit will be for the Starlink mobile dish... 

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.

1 hour ago, lappir said:

Thanks for the replies. I won't be getting one any time soon, but thought they were supposed to be the next best thing to the "Mobile Lifestyle Folks."

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.

6 hours ago, lappir said:

Is this not allowed to be installed on the rig, or not allowed to be used "Mobile"

Rod

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.

4 hours ago, Zulu said:

Amazing, isn’t it?

Check out STATS in the Starlink app. Very addictive.

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.

4 hours ago, Ray,IN said:

docj, is it the old model dish or the new square dish?

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

On 11/16/2021 at 8:04 AM, Chalkie said:

I too put my deposit down in February. Now they are saying in my area will not be until late 2022 or early 2023. Seems like an awful long time to let the richest man (or second richest depending on source) in the world use my money interest free. Maybe that is why he is so rich??

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.

11 hours ago, dewilso said:

When did you go on the list Doc?

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.

5 hours ago, Blues said:

What types of ailments were they asking about? 

I've wondered why anyone would choose anything other than cheapest one, if the benefits are identical.  But then I learned about the three different ways the companies can set premiums, and it's possible that an attained-age rated policy would be cheap at initial enrollment, but the premiums will increase as he ages, and it might become cheaper to switch to a plan whose premiums are community based.  But at that point, he has to apply for acceptance, so there's some risk.  I just recently found out about medical underwriting once the initial enrollment period has passed, and haven't run across anything that explains the types of conditions that would lead to rejection.  That's why I'm asking.

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.

29 minutes ago, sandsys said:

SD, TX and FL are the most popular because they have no state income tax and loots of mail forwarders. But there are other states with no income tax. And that should not be your only consideration. If you have trusts, are concerned about inheritance, and other things, you need to look at those as well. And you do have to sign saying that location is where you plan to settle at some point in time. 

 

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.   

2 hours ago, Shannon W said:

Hi Rod, thanks for your response. My concern is that we would have to set up the domicile before we actually move from Colorado so we’d still have our rental apartment here. I’m not sure if you can set up a domicile while living somewhere else? We’re very new to this!

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.

10 minutes ago, DanZemke said:

I have too many hills and trees around my house for Starlink to work for me at this location. 

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!

3 hours ago, Twotoes said:

Some of the advantages of using SD is that you only have to spend 1 night to get a driver's license good for 5 years

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.

3 hours ago, Randyretired said:

We both purchased long term care policies about 35 or 40 years ago.  These policies covered  most of the expenses back then.  Today those policies might cover 20% of the cost.

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.