Dutch_12078

I looked at an RV a few years ago that had "stacked" roller shades, an off white shade that passed a fair amount of light with a room darkener shade mounted just above it so either one or even both could be pulled down as desired. The shades appeared to be standard stock that you would find at Home Depot, Lowes, etc.

If you're referring to the amplifier for a Winegard "batwing" crank up roof antenna, the amplifier is in the antenna head, not in the wall plate. The standard wall plate is simply a power injector that sends power to the rooftop amplifier.

I've had USPS packages sent to a franchised UPS Store when one was convenient. I did have to fill out a form ahead of time and pay a small fee ($3?), but they had no problem accepting the package. I've also had a number of packages shipped shipped to "Hold for Pickup" at FEDEX and UPS distribution centers. For Amazon packages, the UPS Store is probably a good choice since they'll accept UPS, USPS, and FEDEX packages.

Now that's what I meant by evaluating the total benefits offered by a group in selecting which to join for the SafeRide ERS plan rather than just the difference in plan cost. Of course it's also possible to join both groups, as many do...

I suspect it is an affiliation with a third-party SD mail service, although they don't spell that out. https://www.fmca.com/fmca-mail-forwarding On edit: Oops! I see they do show that it's "Your Best Address" in Sioux Falls, SD.

FMCA is $60 for the first year only, and $50/yr after that. Right now, they're waiving the $10 initiation for new members as well, making it $50 for them too. I included the membership fees to calculate the actual out of pocket difference for the ERS, but of course the other benefits such as the mail service they both offer, do play into deciding which group better fits your needs regardless of the difference in ERS costs.

Including the annual cost of membership in each group, that will make FMCA's roadside service plan effectively $14 less than the SKP's plan. In my opinion, that leaves it up to how each of us values the other benefits offered by each group in determining the best value overall.

Yep! Last December we reserved a site at a NY State park for next Labor Day weekend and the following week. A few days ago, we decided to extend it to the full two week limit, but found our site was already booked for the balance of the season. We were able to secure another site for the added time, but we will have to do the "site shuffle" of course.

I'm sure you meant the hard drive is built in...

If you have the optional OTA adapter, you can record sat and OTA programs at the same time, and even watch a pre-recorded program at the same time.

My understanding of the FCC's rules is that DNS is intended as a replacement for the locals, not in addition to them. A one or the other deal, but not both. I know some folks have been getting both, but it appears that DTV is currently working on making sure they're following the rules. If you get the locals, you don't need DNS seems to be the way it's supposed to work. They likely don't want to get caught out the way Dish did awhile back, losing the right to offer DNS for a few years.

Why would you change your service address if you have DNS? As I understand it, DNS is intended to replace the local stations for mobile RV'ers and truckers.

But that's the whole point when it comes to RV'ers, there IS no "average".

Oh, I don't disagree that there are places your setup can get into that mine can't, just as there many places me and my backpack can get into that your Jeep can't. My point was just that being a fulltimer doesn't necessarily limit our boondocking opportunities any more than it does for anyone else. I had a good friend that fulltimed for about 20 years with a mini-van and a teardrop. She absolutely could go places I couldn't go with our coach. Stick the teardrop behind your Jeep, and it could go places your 17 footer can't go. I'm just saying don't categorize us just because we're fulltimers. We're all different with different equipment and different requirements.

Are you assuming all fulltimers drive "big rigs"? Our 34' coach is shorter by several feet than an F-150 towing a 20' TT. And if that truck/trailer combo can get to a remote boondocking spot, there's a good likelihood our coach can as well.

I don't know or care how anyone else categorizes our lifestyle. We own a small lakeside vacation cottage in upstate NY that's been in the family since the mid 40's, and we also have a full hookup RV site on the property. We arrived here from our southern winter tour a couple of days ago to spend the Easter holiday with our nearby family and set up on our site. We'll probably stick around here for at least a few weeks while we catch up on medical appointments and help with the spring yard work before heading to Vermont to help a friend with spring planting. Oh, and of course we're still living in our motorhome just as we do the rest of the year. Does owning the cottage disqualify us as fulltimers? Your call, because we really don't care...

We've set up the dish daily quite often, although now that we have two unlimited data hotspots, we're streaming more often for overnight stops. If you can get Dish to designate your account as an "Outdoor" account, you may be able to change locals with a few button presses in the MyDish phone app. Other than that, using a pre-written script we find chatting with a Dish CSR to change locals to be a pretty simple process that usually takes no more than 5 minutes.

Our multi-satellite tripod setup for Dish usually takes no more than 10-15 minutes including getting the pieces out, leveling, setting the skew and elevation, and then aiming using a signal meter and an augmented reality app on my phone. Dish has two sets of three satellites, one set more to the west, and one further east. Both sets carry the same national programming, and having the choice of which set to use gives us more clear aiming opportunities on treed sites. In the near 10 years we've had this setup, we have yet to land on a site where I couldn't find a signal one sat set or the other. Having the multiple sat setup means we can use the Dish Hopper receiver series. The model we have receives and records 3 sat channels at a time, and the newest model can receive/record 16 at channels at once. We prefer Dish as the more "RV friendly" sat service, but check the programming available on both to find the best fit for your viewing requirements. Direct has more sports choices, for instance.

Man plans and Mother Nature says, "Hold my beer"...

The urgency for remedial action is not because the climate is changing, but because it's changing much more rapidly than in the past. And that increased speed is directly attributable to human actions...

My understanding is that Prime Air, the department that includes drone delivery development, is still working on the program. Regulatory approvals seem to be the primary holdup I believe.

http://www.scotese.com/climate.htm

You never saw anyone inside a building using a mobile as they call it over there? Sat phones don't work without a clear view of the sky.

Would it surprise you to know that Samsung alone shipped about 15 million cell phones to the EU in just the first quarter of 2018? That was about half of the combined ~30 million shipped by the major vendors. This article is primarily about Huawei and Xiaomi in the EU market, but the statistics are interesting. Both companies are huge in Asia not surprisingly, although Samsung is the sales leader there as well. https://qz.com/1275570/never-mind-the-us-huawei-and-xiaomi-are-huge-in-the-eu/

That should work! You'll just need to stick one of these in your backyard pool...