Power Out for last 4 days...

[sandyut]

Talk about timing David. Whew, you got the Genny up and running when you most needed it. Being in God's Country does have its benefits but unfortunately there are a few bumps that come along with the experience. Glad to hear the outage went reasonably well. Assuming you've got clear access to Starlink satellites that is an option to consider but if the free signal booster can get ya by then that's the way to go. SL access is not cheap!

Lotsa of folks have SL up here and like it. Its expensive tho. Its about $500 more per year...So we are still debating if its worth it. Given the long outages have not become regular...yet

Dang that sucks. So I had starlink and it works wonderfully. But once I got fiber I cancelled. They then emailed offering me to keep it as a backup for $10 a month. Might be worth doing for you as well for when comcast goes out. That being said you could also keep it as your primary internet.

The plans are a deterrent for sure. If I can get the booster to work for free then we will try that. My test run with the outdoor antenna in the house pull 6-10MBPS and I was watch TV and do some internet with it. We'll see.

Starlink has changed plans. I used to be able to suspend the monthly access fee for my camper. Now Starlink has a $5 / month standby plan. When in Standby Mode it provides unlimited low-speed data capped at up to 500 Kbps (0.5 Mbps) for both download and upload. This is usable data for WiFi calling, and security devices (IOT).

My access when we travel is $165/mo. A bit pricey but this thing will work anywhere on the North American Continent. We have traveled to a few places where cell phones do not work. This will work provided I can "see" the sky. Never know when you might need to make a 911 call.

Do you have a "look" at any cities, dense population areas from your elevation? A decent TV antenna and pre-amp would bring in a lot of free channels.

I run this pre amp hooked to an outdoor antenna in my attic. Don't be fooled by all the digital/HD hype. Any style TV antenna will work, best to use combo UHF/VHF for simplicity

RG

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I may do the roaming plan as a back up and just turn it on when needed. But so far in 3.5 years we had one 3 and one 4 day outage. that is why we are on the fence about making a big investment. If this happens couple times a year, we are all in for sure.

 

[sandyut]

Thanks to all for the good input and support! It means a lot.

The Gennie was worth every penny and got hooked up at he last second! My wife thought it was a bit too expensive, till she took a hot shower with the lights on and we cooked a pizza in the toaster oven.

 

[schlotz]

Thanks to all for the good input and support! It means a lot.

The Gennie was worth every penny and got hooked up at he last second! My wife thought it was a bit too expensive, till she took a hot shower with the lights on and we cooked a pizza in the toaster oven.

Isn't it amazing how that experienced can influence one's opinion?

 

[sandyut]

Finally settled on a plan. Picked up a Starlink standard kit on sale. I can run it on their roaming plan as needed, when in standby its $5/month and it will stay updated. On standby it will provides a very slow signal, but allows immediate reactivation. The monthly active roaming is $50/month, with a 50GB data cap.

SL for full time use costs about 2x what we pay for Comcast. I cant choke that down.

There is no perfect solution. But this issue is likely gonna get worse. Cell towers went down and those that didnt now suck much worse that before. Having no comms is really no good. We are now having red flag warnings daily and there have been fires. Without comms, the lack of intel is dangerous.

Hope we dont need it, but its looking like we will.