Communications

Telecommunication on the Road

Good Guys

For Internet on the Road

Internet:

We used HughesNet for the first 6 months of our road life. This was because we need 24/7 access and couldn't guarantee access to cellular every time. However, the satellite dish doesn't provide connection all the time. When I couldn't get the dish connected, we were down hard. We had the modem replaced, we had the transmit radio replaced. Each of these problems took hours to resolve over a period of many days. The final straw was several weeks, which became months, of no connectivity in NH in April of 2008, it was March of 2009 before I could get the stink of HughesNet out of our life for good.

So, in June of 2008, we tried to flush the HughesNet account and went with a Verizon Aircard. The AirCard with a router from the 3GStore replaces all of the satellite stuff with a package the size of a coffee cup.

The ease of setting up the router and aircard each time you move is shown in all it's glory in this YouTube video I made for the 3GStore at the 2008 HDT Rally. Add 30 minutes of setup time the very first time you set up the router.

The decision to start out with satellite is one of the more expensive mistakes in terms on money, emotional units, and general pain that we have made.

Telephone:

After a lot of what if's, we haven't found a solution for us other than Verizon cellular. Most of our calls are in-network calls, so for us, it's a good deal.

Television:

This was an easier choice than the the internet or phone. I tried various over the air antenna solutions and camp ground cable with very mixed results. I almost missed one of the 2007 Patriot perfection games.

In looking at satellite dishes, I spoke with two installers to figure out if Dish or DirecTV was the way to go. Both had their good and bad points and far as I could tell from the marketing literature and from folks who were using them.

What made up my mind was the information I got from the two installers. The Dish installer told me good info about Dish and then proceeded to tell me a lot of bad things about DirecTV, most of which was false. The DirecTV installer told me all about DirecTV and the packages and then told me that Dish does a few things better and a few things that I should look at more closely, but that I should select the vendor who will deliver the channels that I wanted. I went with DirecTV because the installer didn't have to bad mouth the competition to make a sale.

So, which one is better? I'm not sure, but DirecTV works well and they have no problem with me moving their dish all the time, or it being installed in the RV.

DirecTV Slimline Dish

The main parts of the dish assembly are the tripod, the mounting plate, the CLAW and the foot brace.

The tripod and base plate are secured to the ground using a ground CLAW. The ground CLAW is good for 1200 lbs. of force. Even with the full size DirecTV Slimline dish in 50 mph winds, I never lost signal in TX.

Mounting the Slimline Dish

The slimline dish is a little tricky to mount on a tripod. It is much larger than the usual 18" dish, and has 5 LNB's.

It uses a tripod with a ground CLAW. The tripod is set into a foot brace so that the feet can't spread. The bracket is a little funky though. The slimline dish uses a 2" OD mount post. This is a non-standard size. The two normal sizes are 2 3/8 (DirectWAY) and 1 5/8 (Older DirectTV, Dish). You can make a good 2" OD mount from almost any 1 5/8 mount if the dear wife will allow you to put 6" of PVC pipe in the oven.

Heat a 6" section of 1 1/2" schedule 40 PVC pipe uo to 275 degrees F. Then slip it over a standard 1 5/8 mount. You will need to reheat the pipe several time to complete this operation. Do not over heat the pipe, it will lose form, and at less than 275F, it isn't pliable enough to stretch over the 1 5/8 mount post. Just that simple. It took me about 35 minutes to make and assemble the 2" mount bracket.

Transporting Sattelite Dishes

The sattelite dishes don't really fit anywhere on the toter, or in the trailer, so I had a local welding place make a set of brackets, that when coupled with a Tractor Supply Truck Bed box, fit into the receivers that we ordered with the SpaceCraft.

Box Mount Left

Plate Alignment

Lid Plates

Box Mount Right

All of the cables, tripods and other dish support gear is packed in the box. The maiden voyage of the dish transport box made it 450 miles without a hiccup. When I get back in the northeast, I'll dismantle the box, sandblast the parts and have them powder coated. One of the few solutions that I have liked version 1.0 enough to not even contemplate a version 1.1, or heaven forbid, version 2.0.

Oopsie

Really Oopsie

OK, So version 1.0 got really crunched, not once but twice. Version 2.0 is in the design stage and only needs to handle one DirecTV Slimline dish. It's not done yet, details later...