SpaceX & Starlink

Monday - The two batteries in the Jeep had to be replaced yesterday. The secondary battery is installed under the fuse box and the primary battery. I had to watch a YouTube video to find out how to replace it. After removing the batteries, I put them in the Ural so I could run into town, and discovered that the sidecar tire was flat. Fortunately, a friend here at the park drove me to an auto parts store in Hondo, and they had replacement batteries. They even had the weird secondary battery in stock. That project took all afternoon.

This morning, SpaceX successfully launched Starship for the first time into an actual orbit. It carried 26 Starlink V3 satellites and deployed them once orbit was achieved. They opted to end the mission early for technical reasons. 

On another note, I received the Starlink Mini this week. I had changed the service plan of our other Starlink to “Residential 100Mb” for substantial savings. Shortly thereafter, I received an email asking if I wanted a Starlink Mini for a no-cost rental for traveling. It just needed a service attached to it. The current service is the $10/month “Standby” since we are not traveling. I set it up and did the software updates before switching it to “Standby”. 

We did not have to purchase this dish, and ownership is retained by Starlink. And note that the pole mount is included. 

Tuesday - This morning was a few degrees cooler than it has been, so I fixed the Ural sidecar flat tire. I must’ve driven with the tire flat, as the valve stem was pulled out of the tube. I put on the spare tire and worked with the flat wheel/tire on the back of the rig. I replaced the tube with a patched tube from a previous flat. I hope it holds air… The picture is just the broken valve stem sitting on the Blackstone lid.

By the time this task was done, it was up to 88°F already. 

The last recurring task was setting up the JPC-12 antenna for 40m to retrieve my winlink email and get ready to send my check-in message tomorrow.

Uneventful Week

Wednesday - Another hot, muggy day. After early morning coffee, I started to regenerate the water softener. The last time was in Mount Hood, so it's been a while. Even though it's a simple process, it still takes about 45 minutes, and it seems like it uses a lot of water. I just let the salt water run onto the ground, as running all of that salt into the septic system can't be a good thing.

This afternoon, I made grilled vegetables, and I’ll finish them off with a balsamic glaze. I’ve made this numerous times, and the result varies with the vegetables used. This time: sweet potato, carrots, potatoes, onions, beets, asparagus, yellow squash, green beans, mushrooms, and peppers. Should be good…

Thursday - Big surprise: another hot, muggy day. I filled up the fresh water tank on the Class C, as Bridget lent it out to someone in the park who had a dead A/C.

This afternoon, Bridget needed a ride to the airport as she is escaping from hot, muggy Texas to almost freezing Alaska for the weekend. There was a lot of traffic returning from the airport but it wasn’t as bad as I was dreading.

Friday - I rode the Ural into Hondo this morning. It’s been a while as it is still almost too hot and muggy. The mirrors are nicer as they don’t “auto adjust” like the original ones. But the size of the mirror is smaller. 

I picked up the ahi tuna poké bowl at HEB. I’ve had it before and it is delicious. A nice, simple treat. I arrived back in time for the mid-day test session but no candidates. 

Hanging Around the Park

Friday - Today's task was spraying for bugs around the foundation of the shed and anywhere the RV touches the ground. While cleaning things up, I saw this praying mantis in the driveway next to our propane hose. I hope I didn't spray it.

I did move the Class C back to the storage area. And left the inverter on, as the battery should be topped up by the solar every day.

It rained several times today, and it helped drop the temperature but raised the humidity. The RV A/C units actually were able to keep up and maintain the temperature in the mid-70s (°F). 

Saturday - There was a test session scheduled for early morning, but the candidate changed their mind. So no session. The morning temperature was a moderate 76°F, but with a relative humidity of 91%, I still didn't feel like sitting outside. I did take a short ½ mile walk around the perimeter of the park when it was only 81°F. Still too hot and muggy.

The mid-day test session was also cancelled due to a lack of candidates. Not unusual.

Monday - Finally, a reasonable temperature. At least at 8 in the morning. I’m sure it’ll be unreasonable later on today. I took the Jeep in for an oil change at the local quick lube shop. 

Tuesday -  We had a mobile RV wash service come in to wash both RVs. The Class C had 8000 miles of bugs, and the Class A hadn't been washed in over a year. They did a good job. They both look a whole lot better than they did before. 

Some Changes

Tuesday - A friend mentioned that the 100Mbps residential plan was $55. Since we aren’t traveling for several months, it made sense to change our plan to a fixed location. At least for now. I did a speed test, and it looks like the change took place. Earlier, the download was over 200Mbps.

The wind seems to pick up every night so I need to roll up the awning every evening. The awning is really needed during the day to shade the southern side of the RV. 

We drove halfway into San Antonio this morning and picked up a few more clothes for the upcoming trip. The goal is carry-on only. We don’t plan on renting any vehicles, so there will be a lot of walking and public transit. 

I did spend a little time this afternoon retrieving my Winlink email. I only needed to reassemble the antenna and tune it to the RMS frequency. I used the Lubbock RMS, and the throughput was pretty decent at 300 baud.

Wednesday - Thank you, Michael, for helping get the new A/C unit up on the roof of the class A and lowering the old unit to the ground. After a quick trip to the hardware store for some aluminum tape, I finished the wiring and ductwork enough to get the unit powered up. It's working great. The bedroom is probably 15 degrees cooler than the living room/kitchen.

I sent my Winlink check-in email this morning before coffee at around 4:45am. I used the Las Vegas RMS, as it always seems to be available. Most of the other servers seem to be shut off at night. Since it is connected to the Internet, I can understand why some folks would shut it down at night.

This is the ducted unit, so you can either have it push the cold air through the ceiling ducts or dump straight down. All of the ceiling ducts are connected, so either/both units can push air throughout the entire RV. 

Keeping Busy

Wednesday - I rode the Ural into Hondo this morning just to make sure it was running alright. It actually ran better than "alright". No flat spot at 58 mph, and it accelerated all the way to 70mph. It didn't run this well last June. Maybe the ethanol-free gas? 

Last night, I sent out the Winlink Wednesday check-in. All of the local RMS stations were pretty busy, so I used the station in eastern Oregon. During our summer travels, it had become my go-to station because it was centrally located in the PNW. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it worked from here. At ~1,800 miles, it's not very local.

Friday - The Winlink Wednesday website shows approximately where participants are located based on their grid square in the software. On the Windows computer, you need to manually enter your location (grid square) every time you move. If I used the phone with a VHF/UHF RMS, the RadioMail app would use the GPS in the phone to determine your location.

There was a midday test session today. By late morning, it was already in the low 90s (°F) and moderately high humidity. I did get a short walk in before 9, but it still felt hot and muggy if there wasn't any shade. The new A/C unit is on the UPS delivery truck right now, and it should be here by this evening. It is an 85# box that needs to get on the roof. Michael from church offered to come out and give me a hand. But our morning schedules don't match until next Wednesday. You don't want to be on the roof of an RV in the afternoon heat. The air distribution box (the inside piece) arrived a couple of days ago. 

This weekend, I'll remove the old distribution box and disconnect all of the wires. The Furion Chill Cubes don't use wall-mounted thermostats and I'll need to figure out how to control the rear furnace. Currently, it is controlled by the rear A/C unit and thermostat.

Monday - I don't seem to post very often anymore. Maybe there isn't much to say or going on. It is still miserably hot, with even the low temperatures rarely venturing very far into the 70s. The class C is very slowly getting unpacked, but with the temperatures and only one functional A/C unit, the class A isn't getting much use during the afternoons and evenings. Dinner may be prepared in the class A, but we sit down for dinner in class C. 

I guess this may be the entertaining category. Apple came out with a new version of the operating system for the Mac and it started to install. In the past, this would’ve been a long download and install. But over StarLink, the download was about 15min and on the newer laptop, the installation was under 10 minutes. 

This, by the way, is my corner in the shed. I have the JPC-12 antenna in the front “yard” and use it generally on 20m and 40m. I have the coax coming into the building in what originally was a small pvc pipe through the wall. There is a Windows tablet behind the Mac which has a USB connection to the HF radio to both control the radio as well as process audio when using digital modes. I have a small TV that I still need to install for the radio display. 

Still Getting Set Up

Saturday - We found a few issues with the class A upon returning. The rear A/C no longer puts out cold air. I ordered a Furion Chill Cube with heat pump to replace the Dometic unit but it won’t be here for a week. The class A will struggle with the heat.

We had a similar issue back in May and it was a failed thermal overload. I had an extra one and tried replacing it but it didn’t resolve the issue. 

Tuesday - It’s another hot day with today’s high predicted to be 97°F! Being Tuesday, I set up the JPC-12 in the front yard for the Winlink Wednesday check-in. It’s a very easy setup since I have an antenna cable passthru in the wall. 

I tried starting the Ural. Put the petcock to the prime position, waited a couple of seconds and it fired up after only a couple of revolutions. And idled great. I’ll credit it to the ethanol free gas I filled the tank with back in June. 

Now to get it on the road…

That, BTW, is my new helmet that I picked up in Salem, OR, during our summer travels.

Arriving back to Hondo

Friday - A modest travel through Texas. It’s not as hot as it has been the last couple of days but at 94°F, it’s still hot. The generator will, again, be running most of the day. Besides he A/C, it is also powering both refrigerators and the converter to charge the AGM battery. Even though the A/C will run off of the batteries, the refrigerator will need to be switched to propane. We prefer to have the propane shut off while traveling just for safety. 

The Garmin always tries to route us through San Antonio so we have Google Maps running as well. Eventually, the Garmin will start matching Google but not until we turn south at Kerrville. The San Antonio route is longer but maybe Garmin doesn’t like secondary roads. 

Wichita Falls, TX

Thursday - A long travel day from Kansas to Texas. About 470 miles and over eight hours. We arrived with the temperature at 100°F. The roof A/C was running all day long with the generator except for gas stops. But we finally made it into Texas. 

The RV park is fine though the showers seemed old. The pool closed at 8 pm, which I didn’t learn until 7:55 pm. Oh well.

Our next travel day is about 100 miles shorter and ends in Hondo. I’m not sure of the state of the class A as the Internet stopped working a while back so I haven’t been able to log into HomeAssistant. This is the second time the AT&T hotspot has quit in the middle of the summer.

Minneapolis, KS

Wednesday - It’s a hot one today. A 428 mile travel day to Minneapolis, KS. A small town that doesn’t seem to resemble the more well known version. But it’s nice enough for an overnight stop. Power for the A/C  is all we really need. And it is only $15 at this city campground. 

Tomorrow is another long-ish travel day to Wichita Falls, TX. It’s just across the border with Oklahoma. We had a head wind for most of today’s drive which drove up gas consumption. The class C did fine. I checked the oil level this morning and it was still full after about 2,300 miles. I can’t complain about that. The generator was run since about noon to run the roof A/C on high. The dash A/C sort of worked but it seemed to have difficulty with the triple digit temperatures. But when it was running good, the outlet air temperature was 49°F. 

Dinner is pulled pork! Thank you Annie and Kevin.