Chalkie

Just out of curiosity where did you get that date? I could not find any dates beyond December 2023 on either the US50info site or the CDOT site. Unless I am blind, which is entirely possible. 😂

5 hours ago, Chad Heiser said:

Are you using an incognito browser or clearing your cookies?  Both of these will require you to have to re-sign in every time you visit the site.

I agree. CCleaner runs daily and automatically on my laptop and would cause the same thing. It took me a little digging to find the right cookie and then add it to the exemption list. It is not just this site that relies on a cookie to stay logged in either.

On 10/12/2023 at 9:10 AM, TXiceman said:

If you have an emergency, medical or otherwise, something like your camper at the park is moved low on the priority list.  But you should remember where you are and at least notify the park of the situation and when you might be able to resolve the issue.

We had an instance when I ended up in the hospital. We were staying at a military famcamp, it was at the height of the season, and my wife did not know how to move the RV. She notified the office and she was able to stay in the space we were in with them juggling things around for other visitors. We were also fortunate that the RV next to us was occupied by a newly retired pilot who assisted my wife with RV chores so that she could be at the hospital with me.

The key here was notifying the office, explaining in detail the situation and then asking politely how it could be worked out. We ended up being there 5 days longer than planned and the office staff just took it day by day. They were great and apparently when they explained the reason to folks that were supposed to be in our space everyone was quite accommodating. I think most folks can be agreeable if provided with information. 

9 hours ago, bruce t said:

Simply join SKPs and get an address. Simple as that. Registration, insurance etc all then falls into place.

Good luck. 

Good advice from Bruce T. I would also add that while not the only place to buy an RV, Texas has PPL Motorhomes which has a pretty large selection of RVs of all types for sale.

11 hours ago, Ray,IN said:

TikTok is mind-numbing drivel IMO, from what I've seen via adds on the web. It's a good website if you want to take the Tide pod in your mouth challenge.💀

I do not have Tik Tok but the same could be said of Instagram, X, Truth, Reddit, Pinterest, Snapchat or any of the other multitude of social media apps. It all depends on the source, in other words who is doing the posting. For example, there is one individual on X that I follow for the entertainment value which is actually drivel, but it is funny (to me) drivel.

1 hour ago, Sculptor said:

if I remember the former LEO’s screen name I will post it.

If I am remembering it correctly, is it not Big5er ?

4 hours ago, Darryl&Rita said:

Our summer location is just north of 55th parallel. Starlink dishes look south, here. At the most, they will approach 20* off level, but still pointed south. 

Thanks for the confirmation of what I had heard from other places. For most of the lower 48 I have been told it will need the northern exposure. 

13 hours ago, Kirk W said:

The subject is the stock & bond markets, as well as CD's and other investments. Anything special that we should be doing, jist om case?

Yes, I am saying a little prayer that my financial advisor is on top of things and know what he is doing. 🙂

57 minutes ago, Lou Schneider said:

Starlink needing to see the "northern" sky is false.  Their satellites can be anywhere overhead.  Dishy orients itself to the north so it's uplink (which is less directional than the receive side) doesn't interfere with geosynchronous satellites over the equator.

Let's break this down. Starlink needing to see the "northern" sky is false.  We'll circle back to this. 

Their satellites can be anywhere overhead. - True.

Dishy orients itself to the north so it's uplink (which is less directional than the receive side) doesn't interfere with geosynchronous satellites over the equator. - Also true.

Now, back to the original sentence - partially true. It is true that it does not need to see the northern sky. In fact, I have been told that the farther north you are located the less northerly the dish orients. I cannot personally verify that. If your clear view at your location is any other direction but northerly you are going to be out of luck. Therefore, for the reason stated in sentence three you really do have to have a clear view of the northern sky since that is the direction the dish orients itself.

Read an article in the New York Post this morning that some folks getting the booster are being billed for it as not all insurance carriers have updated their codes to cover the shot.

People looking to get new COVID vaccine getting hit with $190 fees: report

30 minutes ago, Intimnasc said:

Looking the the Keystone Fusion Impact 415 also but may need to get slightly used like the GD. Also doesn't say alot about how well insulated it is and doesn't appear to offer a third ac. I live in Texas for now anyways. 

If you are in Texas I would walk away from the Fuzion. I looked at the specs and it says two 3/4 ton air conditioners. I think that is obfuscation. 3/4 ton is equal to 9000 BTU and therefore 18000 BTU. Our Montana only has two ACs with the option for a third but those two are 15000 and 12000 BTU units for 27000 BTU and they were struggling this summer to the point we got a 6000 BTU portable AC to supplement them.

Thanks for that link.

Interestingly enough, I was talking to my sister this afternoon and my B-I-L is CEO of the hospital in Smith Center. He was told that there is no date yet for when the hospital or the attached medical group or pharmacy would be getting the newest booster. And, sure enough, there is no where close that has it yet. 

You should check the Alliance Valor 44V14. If they had offered this when we bought last this would be it as we were looking for a toyhauler. It has stand alone dining table, lots of kitchen counter space, walk-in shower, and it has washer/dryer prep in both the bedroom and garage. We wanted the toyhauler to turn into an office/sewing room. 

7 hours ago, RV_ said:

 Which of you have even dared to test drive one? That seems to be a no no for anti EVrs. So the talk isn't even grounded in experience when there are plenty to test drive free.

I have driven one and ridden as passenger in one, my son-in-law's Chevy Bolt. It is a fun car to drive, is comfortable, quiet and makes an awesome around town car. Would I ever own it, no, (and neither would my son-in-law as a sole car) because I need a car that I can jump into and drive for long distances without needing lengthy fuel stops. I know that a Tesla can be quickly charged but I also need a car that I can afford, which for me is under $35K. I also need a car that can handle cold weather driving and doesn't run the risk of being "unfuelable" when it is very cold. This latter is documented in the news. Above all I just don't think EVs are ready for prime time. I would own a hybrid in a heartbeat. My granddaughter owns one and I think they are the best of both worlds although I am on the fence about the plug-in hybrids.

13 hours ago, sheldons65 said:

I basically don't need the Wifi radio noise coming from the Starlink router. Everything is all controlled by one router as well. 

I know that you can turn off the WiFi when using the ethernet port. I guess I did not word my question well. What is the advantage of using another WiFi router rather than the one included with the Starlink system?

4 hours ago, sheldons65 said:

Today, it powers up and will sort of connect but then goes to OFFILINE, stalled no data. It won't actually establish a data connection via cable or Wifi. All of these internet sources it's connected to are working just fine. I've not made any parameter changes to any of this equipment. 

It has been working fine for the past couple of years. Currently have been using it with Starlink in Bypass Mode via Ethernet cable, T Mobile M2000 via USB, and Netgear Nighthawk MR1100 over Wifi. Sometimes I've used Multi-WAN but generally just manually switch the Spruce from one of those 3 internet sources as needed. On occasion I may jump on park Wifi no issue. 

Updated firmware a couple of weeks ago to latest: b14, 7.1.0b14

I've done several power cycles and factory default resets from the WifiRanger web interface. No change. Still no connection. 

For now I'm just going directly to the Starlink router, M2000 or Nighthawk and have removed the Spruce. 

Anyone heard of similar issues or a fix?  It feels like my Spruce is toast.  What do you think?  My GoAC sort of went bonkers later on as well. 

Probably need to start researching a PepWave something?

I'm sorry you are having issues, but have a question which has nothing to do with a resolution.

As a Starlink user myself, I am curious why you bypass your Starlink router. Is there some advantage I am not seeing?

17 hours ago, Ray,IN said:

There is an adaptation of #6 in the military; it's called surrounding yourself with smart capable people who support you, and in turn learn your job. It's taught at military schools, and  is what makes the U.S.A. military the best in the world.

Very true. When I was a watch section supervisor I did not need to know how to do the job at every desk I supervised, I just needed to know how to ask the right questions to suss out the info we needed for the mission. 

This could also go under finance as it might affect Alphabet stock, but the government anti-monopoly trial starts today. 

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-google-monopolizing-digital-advertising-technologies

I wonder if the government will have any more luck than they did against Microsoft or IBM. 

Another daily email I got had this interesting this interesting bit:

Quote

An exec at the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo said an Android smartphone user would need to take 15 steps to select DuckDuckGo as the phone’s default search engine.

Now, that got me wondering as I can change the search engine with 3 steps in Chrome. Open Chrome, click Settings, click Search Engine, select the one you want. The choices are Google, Yahoo!, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia. I had to look up that last one. Well, I guess that is 4 steps if you count opening Chrome.

How many does it take for others?

1 hour ago, lappir said:

 I really want one for my motorcycles, but think it might be an option for my truck or your RV. 

I can see it on an ATV as well.

2 hours ago, RV_ said:

Chalkie why do you do a personal attack to accuse me of not liking Texas?

That's pretty easy. Any time there is a difficulty, real or perceived, about the grid in Texas you point it out. But Texas is not the only place that has the potential for issues with the grid this summer, you focused on ERCOT and lead in with billionaires being in control. NERC has warned that 2/3s of the country are at risk of blackouts this summer, specifically pretty much everyone west of the Mississippi, and that is sure a lot more than Texas, yet Texas was the topic. The head of the Texas PUC is pushing for more natural gas power plants and batteries because he is not sure wind turbines can meet demands. So the article about Texas and the Tesla VPPs is welcome news that did not need to start out with the bashing or naysaying. I am not going to waste my time going back through all your posts to tally the Texas comment but there have been enough to bolster the perception by myself and others. 

23 hours ago, RV_ said:

However, the City utilities, Google, and Ting, are bringing fiber to home with synchronous speeds of 500 Mbps up and down for the same price.  $89 for 1TB up and down.

This is pretty exciting to hear about my old home town as I think more cities should be pushing high speed internet. However, in atypical Springs fashion however it looks like they are starting the buildout in the "high rent" areas of town instead of downtown. Maybe if they get a cash infusion from Google they can cut the buildout time more.  But it does look good on the resume of the person that gets paid 5 times the salary of the governor, which is not bad for a public employee, I guess.

Derek,

What in particular do you not like about Texas? You happen to be living in a city that owns its own utilities. Given the size of the US that is one of a fairly small number. Just outside your city limits are some of those dreaded utilities in the hands of billionaires, such as Xcel Energy (which is also in Texas) and owns 36,000 miles of pipeline. 

I think that Tesla getting the deal is great, it is also spit in the bucket in the overall scheme of things, but it is a start.

On 9/3/2023 at 4:55 PM, RV_ said:

Texas has their utilities in the hands of private billionaires who to date have not hardened their gas cooling valves and other shortfalls. The more Powerwalls there are in Texas the better for all Texans. 

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/09/02/tesla-virtual-power-plants-get-approval-in-texas/

This is an interesting article and it is basically formalizing with ERCOT what has been around for years allowing home solar to feed excess back to the grid. I do wonder where you got the idea that the Texas utilities are in the hands of private billionaires. Most Texas utilities are publicly traded companies or cooperatives. And could not the same be said of Tesla? I mean two individuals that own the most Tesla stock (as individuals, not investment groups) are Elon Musk and Larry Ellison.

On 9/1/2023 at 7:27 AM, rbertalotto said:

Comments?

I have just one. Things like this are why you can't ever get an accurate wiring diagram for an RV, if you can get one at all. I firmly believe the wiring all depends on the mood and whims of whomever is wiring something on a given day and subject to change from day to day.

As a Starlink subscriber I think it honest to point out a couple of things for complete transparency.

1. You have to a have a clear view of the (mostly) northern sky. Just like satellite TV it does not work well in tree cover.

2. Thunderstorms or other heavy cloud cover events can limit or kill reception.

Otherwise, Starlink has been an awesome internet provider.