New Gertie page (internet access

August 18, 2005, 06:04:53 pm

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Have you had success with the your portable satellite dish for internet access. Just curious on your thoughts as we are still considering the internet access options.

Scott, I'm not Andy, but we also have the portable satellite Internet dish (Direcway). We've had it for over a year now, and love it! We usually camp far from the maddening crowd where there is no cell phone signal or WiFi, so satellite Internet is about the only way for us to get email or surf with anything like regularity. It's quite easy to set up -- from the time that Earl pulls all the equipment out of the car to set up, to the time I'm online surfing is usually around 15-20 minutes. Occasionally, it will take longer, but not often.

Linda Hylton

2004 Red 23.5' TK

From Mountain View RV Park
Joseph, OR

See where we are: http://map.datastormusers.com/user2.cfm?user=1167

Re: Satellite internet access

Reply #1 – August 18, 2005, 10:37:26 pm

Yahoo Message Number: 56998

"Have you had success with the your portable satellite dish for internet access. Just curious on your thoughts as we are still considering the internet access options."
I think I need to take lessons from Linda and Earl, who can get online in twenty minutes! ;-) So far I've done it four times. The first three times it took me several hours to get aimed properly. This time I did it in under two hours...but I suspect it was sheer luck that I hit the satellite so quickly. Obviously I need a lot more practice, since folks like the Hiltons and Jonna Harlan report being able to get online in under an hour. But aiming has not come easily to me.
A big part of the problem is that my OPI (outdoor signal strength meter) hasn't been working for the past month and a half. The only way I can see whether I have a signal is to look through Gertie's window at my computer screen, using the Mac's built-in screen magnifier function to make the numbers HUGE. That's extremely awkward.
Dustyfoot offered to send a new OPI, and I really should take them up on it...but they also referred me to a discussion on the DataSTORM user group site that says the problem is widespread and is due to some kind of incompatibility between the OPI and the new AMC-9 satellite that I'm using, so a new OPI may not make any difference.
I can't switch satellites because no other bird has the coast-to-coast, north-to-south coverage that AMC-9 has--it works from Maine to the Baja and from Washington state to the Florida Keys. SatMex-5 and Horizons-1, the older satellites used by many DirecWay customers, don't have that kind of coverage. I need that.
Once set up and aimed, the system is quite reliable--I've been using it for almost two months now and have only lost signal twice during heavy rainstorms, plus one mysterious, network outage that lasted a couple of hours. And it's fairly fast: I typically get five or six hundred kbps on downloads and about 80-150 kbps on uploads.
If you buy one of these systems, I recommend Dustyfoot for several reasons: 1) Excellent user manual. 2) DVD training video included--very helpful. 3) Good tech support. 4) Align-A-Site aiming device included at no extra cost (about $150 if you bought it separately).
Let me talk a bit more about that last item, because I know most DirecWay users don't have them. The Align-A-Site helps you aim the dish...though obviously I haven't been doing too well in that department! ;-) There's a reason: its mount has to be calibrated carefully to the dish, and my mount was damaged in transit.
However, it still works perfectly well as a handheld "spotting" device, and this is where it's absolutely invaluable...for doing a "site survey" of available campsites to see which ones are suitable for satellite use. I did exactly that last week.
I'm in a heavily wooded campground in coastal Maine (Ocean Wood campground near Birch Harbor). If you walked around, you'd swear that NONE of these sites has a prayer of being suitable for a satellite dish. In fact, the folks right across from me ran 300 feet (!) of coax from their campsite out to the beach just so they could get a clear view for their satellite TV dish. But I only have about 35' of coax, and I'm not on a beachfront site.
What I did was to walk around the campground with the Align-A-Site set to the proper coordinates for this location, stopping at each site and checking through the device's optical sight for a good clear view of the sky. In 45 minutes I had my campground map marked with all the sites that were usable. Then I went to the office and asked which of these were available long-term.
There's no way I could have done this without the Align-A-Site...and since I can't get on the internet in any other way from this remote location, I would have had to leave instead of extending my stay in this beautiful spot. When you need to find a "hole in the trees," Align-A-Site is a fast, practical way to do it. It's worth buying your satellite system from a vendor like Dustyfoot who includes this device.
My friends Judie and Gary, who didn't get an Align-A-Site with their Direcway system, have ordered one. In Arizona they didn't need it--no trees. ;-) But now that they're in Oregon...boy, do they need it!
The bottom line on tripod-mount satellite internet systems from my perspective is that they can be difficult and frustrating to set up...but those who persist (as I will) eventually get good at it, like Linda and Earl. And once set up, they work very well indeed. If you need a broadband connection that you can use anywhere, this is pretty much the only game in town.
Oh, one addendum to my Ocean Wood campground story: I would likely not have been able to get online with a roof-mounted MotoSAT satellite antenna, because the suitable antenna locations I found were places where you couldn't easily park your rig. For example, my antenna right now is three or four feet from the road, at one corner of my campsite's driveway. There's no way I could position a rig so that a roof-mounted MotoSAT would be in that precise location without blocking the road.
The $6,000 MotoSAT system is unquestionably far more convenient than what I have. But because it's mounted on your RV, it's poorly suited to the kind of "shoot between the trees" operation that's easy with a tripod-mount antenna, which can be carried anywhere and set up in just the right location (determined with the Align-A-Site)...while you park under the trees in the shade. :-) Don't get me wrong--I'd love to be able to afford a MotoSAT--but if I had one, I'd also carry a tripod and dish for backup. I've heard that some of the more experienced MotoSAT owners do just that.
Now some MotoSAT owners no doubt have stories of how they *did* shoot between the trees. ;-) But I think it's intuitively obvious that it's a lot easier to put a tripod exactly where you want it...than a five-ton, 23+ foot motorhome. :-)
So that's my story. I'm still relatively new at this and obviously have a lot to earn. Once I get it aimed, I love the system (well, aside from the large amount of storage space it hogs).
But if you're expecting this to be like a typical consumer-electronics device--take it out of the box, plug it in and start using it--you're likely to be disappointed. If my experience is any guide, considerable patience and persistence will be required.

Andy Baird

Re: [Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: Satellite internet access

Reply #2 – August 20, 2005, 11:28:48 pm

Yahoo Message Number: 57076

On Fri, 2005-08-19 at 02:37 +0000, Andy Baird wrote:

Quote

...
AMC-9 satellite that I'm using, so a new OPI may not make any difference.
I can't switch satellites because no other bird has the coast-to-coast, north-to-south coverage that AMC-9 has--it works from Maine to the Baja and from Washington state to the Florida Keys. SatMex-5 and Horizons-1, the older satellites used by many DirecWay customers, don't have that kind of coverage. I need that.

...

Part of the problem, Andy, is that your AMC-9 satellite has moved! It was moved from 85 degrees W to 83 degrees W. Columbus, Ohio is close to 83 degrees W but the satellite is, of course, straight South and high over the equator.
At link http://www.satnews.com/main.htm search for "relocated". The coverage map is at:
http://www.ses-americom.com/satellites/amc-9.html

Note the link to a PDF file at the bottom of the page.
I bet that the Dustyfoot set up was for its original position at 85 deg West which was current at the time you bought the equipment.

Alex '05 MB Charlotte, NC

Re: Satellite internet access

Reply #3 – August 21, 2005, 09:22:51 am

Yahoo Message Number: 57081

"I bet that the Dustyfoot set up was for its original position at 85 deg West which was current at the time you bought the equipment."
Could be. The aiming information is built into the Hughes DW-6000 receiver, which contains a webserver that you access to do your setup. You tell it your ZIP code and it tells you where to aim the dish. If that lookup table is out of date because the bird has moved two degrees, that could cause some azimuth problems.
But most of my problems were due to the Align-A-Sites mounting platform having come loose during shipping--so it was useless for aiming the dish--and the OPI signal strength meter not working. Now that I have the Align-A site mount recalibrated, aiming goes much faster. And the OPI magically started working again last night, after two months of nothing but error messages! The result was that I got aimed in five minutes, my best time yet. :-)

Andy

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