k4rs

I was shocked when I learned that my Mutual of Omaha Part D plan premium was going up by almost 300% in 2023. I started looking at other plans and thought I had found a suitable replacement. After talking it over with my insurance agent, I discovered that one of my (expensive) medications was not covered on that plan. It turns out that Mutual of Omaha has a new plan that fits my needs well. It covers all of my medications and has a lower premium than I am currently paying. The frustrating thing is the conflicting information that makes it difficult to accurately compare plans. Fortunately, the advice of a professional was able to prevent me from making en expensive mistake. Safe Travels...

Starlink Sets High-Speed Data Cap at 1TB Per Month, Lowers Advertised Speeds https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-sets-high-speed-data-cap-at-1tb-per-month-lowers-advertised-speeds To add insult to injury: The same document also notes residential Starlink customers will receive the Priority Access tier, but not subscribers of Starlink RV and the Starlink Best Effort plans. These users will have to settle for the slower speeds. Safe Travels...

I don't think this is a rumor: SpaceX's Starlink Quietly Mentions High-Speed Data Caps Are Coming for US Users The company adds new language to Starlink's terms of service about users receiving a monthly allocation of 'Priority Access.' You can read the entire article here: https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacexs-starlink-quietly-mentions-high-speed-data-caps-are-coming-for-us Safe Travels...

I have been interested in Starlink for the house since I first heard about them. I keep checking the map, but I am still in the "Not Available" area. I guess this may be a blessing in disguise. Rates are going up, speeds are going down, and now I read they are implementing data caps. I am hoping these are just growing pains and will be resolved by the time service becomes available. Safe Travels...

Ray, That HP should do fine with most versions of Linux. The limiting factor is the 300 watt power supply, so you can't add very much (some video cards draw that much alone). I would suggest an SSD for the OS and programs. You can keep the 1TB as a data drive. SSD's draw very little power and are MUCH faster than a spinning platter hard drive. The good news is that SSD prices have dropped quite a bit recently. Wireless drivers can sometimes be a problem but your HP uses an Ralink card that is well supported: https://linux-hardware.org/index.php?id=pci:1814-5390-103c-1636 Safe Travels...

I have one computer that I upgraded from Windows 10 to 11. I did not run into any snags and it seems that everything is working correctly. There are a few features that I prefer in 11, but most of the changes to the user interface rub me the wrong way. What really upset me was when it updated to 22H2, it deleted several of my programs and reset the desktop settings. Consumer versions of Windows 10 will be supported until 2025 so there is no real rush. My advice is to do a full backup before upgrading to 11. If you find you like it, great. If not, you can restore the backup. Safe Travels...

If you decide to upgrade, be sure to do a full backup first. After my laptop upgraded to Win 11 22H2 I discovered that several of my programs were deleted and all of my desktop customization was reset. I am seriously considering rolling back to Win 10. I do most of my computing on Linux but wanted to try Win 11 so I could be competent to support my neighbors who use that OS. Safe Travels...

I have Mutual of Omaha for my part D prescription plan. I do not think I will be staying with them next year. In 2022 there was a very modest premium increase over 2021. I have been notified that in 2023 the premium will increase almost 300% So much for lower prescription prices due to the so called Inflation Reduction Act. Safe Travels...

Good news! Our power was restored on Sunday evening.

Our home base is the Avion Palms RV Resort in Bowling Green, FL where we have a park model. https://www.avionpalms.org/ According to Google Maps, we are 9.37 miles NNW of the SKP Resort. When the Governor said evacuate to the east coast we did exactly that. We relocated to an RV park in Vero Beach, FL (about 90 miles east). We had considerably higher winds than forecast. The biggest concern was the tornadoes during the night. Fortunately none touched down in our area (but some alerts were uncomfortably close). Safe Travels...

We stayed in the RV on the east coast (as recommended by the Governor). Wednesday night and Thursday we had VERY heavy rain and winds about 60 MPH. Other than some water leaks, we had no issues. Lots of standing water and tree debris (nothing serious). We never lost power in the campground but many others in the area did. We heard from neighbors that some of my antennas were down but no other damage at the house. Today we took a day trip over to the house so I could run the generator to power the chest freezer while I took down the remains of my antennas to prevent roof damage. Lots of downed trees, power lines and flooded roads. The good news is that power crews are working everywhere you look. We had a heck of a time getting across the Peace river. We had to back track a long ways to find a route that was not flooded. Power is out to the entire county and fuel is scarce so we brought along a bunch of 5 gallon gas cans for neighbors. When we got back to the east coast we discovered there are fuel shortages here as well. We got diesel at one station, but they had run out of gas. A second station had gas (cash only), but no diesel. I am hoping this is a temporary situation. We need to go out tomorrow so will look some more. So far this has been very similar to the Irma experience. Both storms passed directly over our house but did very little damage. Much of this can be attributed to stronger building codes post Andrew. We'll take the RV back in a couple of days and use it as a lifeboat until power is restored. We'll be well stocked with food, water, and fuel for the generators and treat this like a boondocking trip to Quartzsite. Safe Travels...

Thank you. Our home base is just a few miles from The Resort and I have been looking for local information such as you shared. Could I ask the source of your information? Safe Travels...

I am a big fan of Linux. Even though I have been using it since the mid 90's, my distribution of choice for most of my computers is Mint. Mint is often described as being for beginners but it is an excellent choice for more advanced users as well. For really old computers I have found that systemd based distributions don't seem to play well. PC Linux OS (PCLOS) and MX Linux work well and have enough modern features to be useful. There are some distributions that run on 30 year old PC's, but I certainly would not want to use one for my daily driver. Safe Travels...

Take a look in the RV section. https://www.starlink.com/map?source=rv Safe Travels...

When I first saw the title of this thread I was thinking Lazydays RV dealership. I didn't notice the slight difference in the name. I am sorry to hear it was one of the better manufacturers going out of business. After my less than stellar experience with the RV dealership I would not be saddened to hear they were closing their doors. Safe Travels...

I thought I saw a commercial where a Tundra towed the Space Shuttle. Safe Travels...

Since my last post I have given in to my desire to operate HF from the RV. I tried to resist temptation, but the pain of withdrawal became too much Last summer I purchased an Icom IC-705. It is small, portable and light weight making it ideal for the RV. The first antenna I tried was a loop. I never had a loop before and I have not mastered the art of tuning of it. I also had to sit outside at a picnic table to use it. I quickly realized I would much prefer to operate inside the rig, avoiding bugs heat and rain. I quickly added a couple of dipoles for 20 and 40 meters. I mounted them just below a VHF/UHF vertical on a 15 foot fiberglass mast attached to the back of the rig. Many campgrounds prohibit you from attaching anything to trees so I secured the ends to plastic bottles filled with water. I am constantly amazed how well a QRP radio and a low mounted inverted V dipole can work. This year I added a 40 meter OCF dipole which is also resonant on 20, 10, and 6 meters (30 meters with tuner) along with an end fed half wave (which I have not tried yet) and several hamsticks for use in small sites without room for a dipole. So far the OCF is working very well and the hamsticks leave much to be desired. I think I have figured out a way to mount my Hustler 6-BTV to the tongue, but that will have to wait until we get back to Florida. I have also installed a permanent run of coax from the back of the refrigerator into the rig. I can now run the coax from the antennas through the holes in the access panel (next to the drain hose) and attach to a barrel connector. This works much better than through a window which is what I did previously. So now I can operate HF, VHF, UHF, D-Star, and with the help of a handheld, DMR. I certainly hope this prevents me from withdrawal again. 73 es Safe Travels...

There are currently two empty lots available at our home park: https://www.avionpalms.org/?page_id=348 Sometimes there are more and sometimes there are none. There are also 3 lots with RV's listed. Safe Travels...

I prefer to use an operating system that is supported and receives security updates. If your computer never goes online, I believe it is safe to continue using an unsupported OS. For those who prefer to stay with Win 7, updates are still available, just not directly from Microsoft: https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/simplix_updatepack.html I really liked Win 7 but some of my newer hardware is not supported. Most of my computing is done on Linux. For those things that require Windows I prefer Win 10. I have 2 machines running Win 11 just so I can remain current and really do not like it. Of course I don't really like Win 10 either, but of the 2, Win 10 is the lesser of the 2 evils. Safe Travels...

I am one of those who stays in the right lane and travels 55-60 on the Interstate highway. I do not believe I am being a hazard to anyone. All interstates have additional lanes for those who want to pass. If someone cannot make a simple lane change without crashing, they are being careless and should not be on the road. Now someone driving 55 in the left lane is another story. Safe Travels...

There is a solution to the problem with Gmail and "less secure" apps. I just had to go through this with my security cameras (I get an email when motion is detected). You must log in with a secure device that uses 2 factor authentication then generate an "app password" to use in your "less secure device". https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833 As far as Outlook 2010, it is out of date, unsupported, and no longer gets security updates. It also uses a proprietary .pst format to store your emails that is known to be easily corrupted. I believe that Thunderbird mentioned above is a much better choice. One very nice feature of Thunderbird is that it can import your existing emails from Outlook. Safe Travels...

I also stopped using Quicken when they shifted over to a subscription model. My needs are rather simple and have found that GNU Cash does the job very well. It is open source and works on multiple operating systems: https://gnucash.org/ Safe Travels...

As a kid we had all kinds of RV's, mostly travel trailers, but one van conversion and a slide in truck camper. Once I became an adult it was only natural to continue the RV lifestyle I had known while growing up. Our first RV was a 13 foot Scotty travel trailer. It lacked plumbing and kitchen necessities, but provided a place for us to sleep. Toni had never experienced RV'ing before, but enjoyed traveling around the country while on vacations. We used it for almost 10 years. Then, two years in a row, I was unable to get time off from work so Toni suggested we sell the trailer. After all it was just sitting next to the house and not going anywhere. Right after we sold it, my boss came to me and said "You have way too much leave on the books". We ended up taking a four week cross country trip staying all but two nights in a tent. When we completed that trip, Toni stated "If you say the word tent one more time I will slit your throat from ear to ear". Needless to say, we soon had another travel trailer. It was a 15 foot Terry Resort with air conditioner, stove, refrigerator, and plumbing. We were fully self contained and felt like we were living in luxury! We kept that trailer until just before we retired and pulled it from border to border, coast to coast, and all across Canada. We knew that we would need a larger rig to full time in so we purchased a 24 foot Sunnybrook travel trailer. We used it in vacation mode one year and full time for about 8 months. We quickly realized that we had miscalculated and needed something larger. After a lot of searching we found a rig that met all of our needs. Actually, we ordered it built to our specifications and had to wait 8 weeks for it to be delivered. We were wintering in southern Arizona and had to scramble to find places to stay while we were waiting. On the day we took possession, I parked the Sunnybrook next to the new rig so we could transfer our stuff. Side by side, the Sunnybrook was dwarfed. Toni said "Oh my god. That thing is a monster. Are you sure we can pull that?" The new rig was a 38 foot Nomad Rampage fifth wheel toy hauler. We had finally found the rig we would have for the rest of our full time RV adventure. Again, that rig went coast to coast, border to border (many times), across Canada, and one trip to Alaska before we purchased a home and transitioned to long time RV status. Since we were no longer full timing, we downsized to a 27 foot travel trailer. That trailer was a disaster and we only kept it for 3 years. The first problem was that it was not a toy hauler and we had to leave the motorcycles behind while we were traveling. That was my mistake. The second, and largest, problem was that the dealer we purchased it from lied to us and hid the fact that the trailer had been seriously damaged in an accident. We did not discover this until it literally started falling apart on us. After the fourth incident we became fed up and prompted us to move on to something else. Our current rig is a 33 foot XLR toy hauler. The pandemic kept us home in 2020, but we were able to use it half the summer of 2019, the entire summer of 2021 and several shorter trips. We are happy with it and hope the price of diesel will allow us to continue enjoying it for years to come. Safe Travels...

I don't recall the specifics about the case. I bought it from either Amazon or Newegg. I had an mSata SSD laying around and did not have a computer to install it in. I have looked behind the desk and crawled around on the floor underneath but have been unable to locate the drive. It must have found some nook or cranny to slip into. I have WAY TOO MUCH on the desk to move it away from the wall. I expect that sometime long after I am gone, someone will eventually find it and wonder what it is. Safe Travels...

Sounds like a good deal. I have several external USB cases for SATA drives. Some have SSD and the rest are HD. I only have one that uses an M.2 drive. It is blazing fast when hooked up to a Gen2 USB port. Unfortunately it fell off the back of my desk and I have been unable to locate it. Safe Travels...