Shot's from Kerrville

[Ray Davis]

At POG2 I promised to report back on Kerrville, as we were heading there for the Datastorm rally.

The Kerrville facility is probably the nicest rv park I've ever stayed in. They are able to take over 100 coaches, and the entire facility is paved, with the individual sites being concrete, surrounded generally by grass and bushes. Some of the sites overlook a creek winding through the park.

I'm going to try to upload some pictures here I snapped to show the park.

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This is a photo of our site in Kerrville. As mentioned, all sites are level concrete based. We had hedges between us and our neighbors, and they provided a chair and tables too.



388
A shot down the road in our section. We were in the "adult" section (some called "snob hill (jeesh!)". There was room for probably 20 coaches in this part, probably not enough to get the whole section for POG3. There was another main area with 3 rows of probably 25-30 coaches each, and then two other minor areas off of the creek, with 10+ coaches apiece.


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Here's an example of one of those other areas, on the creek.


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The barn. This is the main "rally" area, with their kitchen/dining facility. Off of the main facility are two other smaller rooms, and a 35 seat theater, all of which can be used for meetings etc. To the left side is a really nice BBQ area which we can use.


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Here's a look at the BBQ area


(oops, gotta do a new post, maximum attachments achieved!)

[Ray Davis]

392

Another close-up of the BBQ. The Datastorm users had their first night as a "Meat and Greet", where everyone brought something to potluck, and their own meet (or fish) to grill.

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This image doesn't do it justice, but it was great fun at night. The Datastorm dishes originally came with blue lights which illuminate the dishes at night. I tried to get a picture. Imagine 80+ dishes on coach roofs, all glowing blue in the night!


Here's a closer shot from another website, which might give a better idea:
http://www.joanontheroad.com/blog/pics/Mrmotolookshome.jpg.JPG


All in all, I thought it was a wonderful place to hold a rally. About 3 days solid driving from CA about 1400 miles. I imagine the best way to put it is that it is equally far from everyone! But, I think you'll find it worth the drive.


Ray

[Sting]

Thanks for the pics Ray. Kerrville is definately on our family to do list. I had a Datastorm satellite on our 2006 Country Coach Affinity. The blue light sure makes a statement at night. With that many in one location I bet it was a site to witness.

[dalej]

Thank's Ray for all of the nice photos, makes Jan and I anxious to get to Texas. You are doing a great job as one of our new leaders;)

[Ray Davis]

FYI, for those looking for the Kerrville facility on the web:

http://www.buckhornlake.com


Here's a link to a map which shows the different sections. You can click on several of the "features", and a small picture will come up.


http://www.buckhornlake.com/park_map.htm


Ray

[rfoster]

Ray, Thanks for the pics, looks very good to me - Sign Me and Micki up. We're ready to hit the road again. :cool:

[merle&louise]

Ray:

Thanks for the pictures and captions. I was certain that POG 3 would be a hit at the Buckhorn. Dee and Kathy Christensen (owners) are the nicest people that you would ever want to meet. Everyone in POG should try to make this rally; Buckhorn is in a class by itself!

April will be beautiful in the Texas hill country, hopefully with a little rain, the blue bonnets will be in bloom. Temperatures should be in the 60s.


Count us in!:D

[Jerry Winchester]

Ray,

I hate to say it, but when I see those dish photos this is what comes to mind;

"FIRE THE LASER!"

http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/new_line_cinema/austin_powers_in_goldmember/mindy_sterling/goldmember.jpg

[Ben]

Hey Ray,

Would you mind running a speed test on your dish. I've been thinking of getting one for a while now but haven't wanted to spend the $$. I'd love to know what kind of speed you get. (just make sure nothing else is using the connection when you run the test)

To test the speed, visit http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ and click on one of the cities listed on the left.

My wireless card varies widely from slow as hell to just plain slow. The numbers I got right now is 130kbps down and 91 up and this is a normal/good speed day for me.

-Ben

[garyde]

Hi Ray. It looks like you've had a great trip. The RV park looks similar to the Luxury Resorts in Las Vegas and Indio. Are they the same developers? Do they sell RV Sites. Either way, it looks perfect for our POG III. Gary

[MangoMike]

Ray,

Thanks for posting those pixs - it will be easier now to sell Ms. Donna on another big trip (and getting rid of the kids). I gotta tell you I love that big Texas sized grill.

Ben,
Hey thanks for that great site, I always wondered how to check the performance of my air card. Plus I'm using that K1 router so all my bus buddies parking next to me can be online.

I've been enjoying www.whereisben.com.

Mike

[Ray Davis]

Ben,

I quite often check my speed with speakeasy.net, also with testmy.net, which seems to give a better report (personal opinion).

I'm on a higher priced plan, so I generally get about 2.7Mbs download, and about 339 kbs upload. If you look at datastormusers.com, you'll find that most people are reporting about 800kbs down, and around 100kbs up when using the smaller dishes, and the cheaper rate plan.


Ray

[Ray Davis]

Gary,

I don't believe these are the same developers as the resorts you mentioned, BUT they do have something which Kathy and I found interesting. If you saw the map (posted in earlier post), there is an area to the left marked as future expansion. That is now called "The Club at Buckhorn Lake". Rather than purchasing your site, you lease it, for a 30 year period. You prepay a lease of $35,000, which is returned to you when you release interest in the site (sorry no interest on that though). BUT, you can build on your site, which is yours to appreciate and sell. Originally they had considered only putting up 300-500 sq ft areas to be a storage area or kitchen or similar. Some of the more recent customers have put up homes ranging up to 2000 square foot (two story homes).

The outsides are maintained by the park, and this provides you with a home base (for $475/mo), with a propery/building which will hopefully appreciate during the time you own it.

Kathy like this, because even though the possibility of going full time sounds fun, it would still provide a home base to come back to.

Anyway, we found it interesting, and perhaps better than paying $200,000-$400,000 just a site, as in some of the investment parks.

Ray

[merle&louise]

Ray:

If you are interested in talking to someone who has leased a site @ The Club at Buckhorn call Ken Hammill. He publishes the "Big Rigs Best Bets" campground directory. He has leased a site and built an apartment on it.
He is a Liberty owner and a great guy to talk with. I don't have his number handy, but if you have a copy of "Big Rigs" I'm sure that you can contact him.

[Ben]

Ray,

I really didn't need to know about your mega seutp... now I'll always be wanting one. Just list drooling over the 2007 Prevosts.

Do I dare ask how much your dish/plan setup costs?
Also, do you know anyone at the dish company that might want to sponsor me? It looks like I might be able to get Adobe and my publisher Peachpit to sponsor me... next comes a camera manufacturer (haven't started down that path yet)... but why not the dish guys? I'd pay the price for the normal small dish setup/plan and they would upgrade me to your setup while I talk up their system on my visits around the country. ;-)

Does $5500 sound about normal for the basic dish setup?

[Ray Davis]

Tuga,

I actually got to go in Ken's apartment there at the Club. He wasn't in town, but Sherly Prather took us into his site as a visualization of the earlier smaller units.

We got interested in seeing this speaking with a new owner at breakfast one morning. They couldn't speak enough about it!

They have a new section which will be opening some time next year that I might be interested in.

Ray

ps: I guess that both Liberty and Parliment held rallies at Buckhorn this last year.

[Ray Davis]

Ben,

Sorry to be the cause of drooling!! To get on the higher speed plans you need a larger dish. The next size up is an F2, which will run you about $7000 plus installation. You CAN install yourself, and it's really not too difficult.

There are lot's of different plans and rates. I chose to go with UnaSat because I felt I would get better overall performance for working on the road, vs the Hughes plans. If you go to motosat.com you can checkout the various options they have. Enough for all budgets.

One thing that was really interesting at the Datastorm rally. We went through introductions of everyone there. About 70% (out of 200 people/100 coaches), were full-timers! That's huge. There was some glowing testimonials from these people how Motosat changed their life, allowing them to have high speed internet while on the road full time. Obviously there are other options (like your Verizon card). Perhaps this might be a topic for POG3?

Anyway, as to sponsorships, you'll know better than I. I'm paying every penny for my system, even though I only use it probably (on average), 3-4 hours per month (given my traveling schedule). I was told at the rally that I could suspend my account when I'm not using it, but I have a dedicated IP (needed for Pixar), and I don't want to risk losing it, or having it change.

Ray

[Ben]

Ray,

Have you heard any stories about people getting cut off for high bandwidth usage? Verizon will cut you off with no discussion. It happened to me and I've read many other stories on the web about it. I haven't heard any about that happening with a dish, but I also don't hear that much chatter about them on the web.

Verizon's contract is so vague that they could cut off just about anyone. You will break the contract if you do any "sharing". That includes up/downloading from an FTP site. You can't watch any on-line videos (like YouTube). ...and there's a bunch of other stuff like that in the contract. If you use a lot of bandwidth, then they just say that they don't know how you could have done that without violating the contract. They give zero proof of a violation and just cut you off.

[rfoster]

Ben: I have one of their cards. When you say they just cut you off - is that permanent or for an hour or 24 hours. Please elaborate. I download a lot of car stuff when on the road. thanx:cool:

[Ben]

Roger,

I mean that they cancel your account, Period, no questions asked.

They will send you a letter saying that it will be cut off in seven days. Any phone calls you make to them won't help either... not even the managers can do a thing once they've decided to cut you off. The only evidence they give you is that you're using more bandwidth than a normal user.

You can go back to the Verizon store the day after you get cut off and sign up for a brand new account (can still attach it to the same cell phone account if you want), but that means signing a new two year contract. Some people have also been charged an early termination fee of something like $160. I'm not sure if I was charged that... I'd have to check with my office to find out, but I've heard of many others who have gotten charged that one.

Lesson: Verizon's unlimited card is not unlimited at all.

If I was one of you bigger buck guys, I'd think of getting an attorney involved since they gave no proof that I voilated the contract terms other than high bandwidth use (which shouldn't be a problem on an unlimited plan).

That's why I'd really like to know if something similar could happen with a dish setup... I don't want to pay $5500 for the dish setup only to get screwed when I actually want to use it.

[Ben]

Tonight I'm getting blazing speed out of my Verizon card (sarcasm):

Download: 47 kbps
Upload: 33 kbps

It's almost painfull to work at these speeds.

[MangoMike]

Sounds like to me ol' Ben is just trying to find a good excuse to justify that datastorm purchase.

I use that approach all the time.

MM

[Ray Davis]

Have you heard any stories about people getting cut off for high bandwidth usage?

Ben,

Satellite access generally has what they call a FAP, or Fair Access Policy. What this means is that there is a limit to how much you can upload or download in any given period. If you exceed that, your account is throttled back to a reserve speed. Generally 4 to 8 hours later you're back to full speed.

The upload FAP is smaller than the download FAP. I think it is designed to stop people from the peer to peer sharing of videos etc, which eats up bandwidth in a satelitte environment.

In looking at the UnaSat brochure (motosat.com), their FAP is 100/700 Mbytes (up/down) in a 24 hour period). You can't download a ton of videos, but generally 700MB is much less than I transfer. Higher priced accounts have higher FAPS, up to 600/5000 MB.


The lower priced Hughes plans indicate they have a 4 hour FAP of 500MB down.


Even if you exceed your limits, you are throttled back for a period of time. You never loose the ability to surf, nor do the cancel your account.

Ray

[Ben]

I just found out that Verizon charged me a $175 early termination fee when they shut down my wireless card. Then I had to sign a brand new 2 year contract to get going again.

If I had the $$, I'd take legal action. They gave no proof that I broke any terms of the contract and they get away with this crap?

[Jon Wehrenberg]

File in small claims court, and then make noise that you will consider advertising to see if the case has merit as a class action lawsuit.

You may be pleasantly surprised at how the filing fees can provide you with hours of enjoyment tweaking a big company's nose.

[Ben]

Well, I'm finally getting OK speed out of my Verizon card tonight... 572kbps down and 104kbps up. That feels like very acceptable browsing speed and downloads are OK. It's very rare for me to get speeds this high.

I'm at Prevost in Fort Worth... maybe I should stay here for a while just to get good browsing activity. That way I won't mind how often you guys post... it's hard to keep up with it all on a slow connection.

Hey, Ray... would a normal sized dish have speeds fast enough to do voice over IP and do you know if that's legal on their plans?

[Ray Davis]

Hey, Ray... would a normal sized dish have speeds fast enough to do voice over IP and do you know if that's legal on their plans?


I've talked to others who have successfully run VOIP, either Skype or Netzero Voice (I think that's it), and they've had pretty good luck with it. A newer 7000 modem and D3 controller on an F1 dish (the small dish) is capable of over 1Mbit download, and enough to work voip upload too. BUT, as with anything, sometimes it works, sometimes it won't on the smaller systems.