Shot's from Kerrville

[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

[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.