Internet on the road

I still work while we are on this adventure, and need reliable internet. Campground WI-FI ranges from non-existent to very unreliable.

When we first started, we were using cellular internet “hotspot” from our phones. This works great – if you have good cell signal. We have been surprised at how poor cell signal is in reasonably populated areas.

Early on, we purchased a MOFI Cellular router. This uses a SIM card from one of the carriers. We chose AT&T since we had several phones in that plan. The MOFI works better than a phone hotspot as it has external antennas that boosts reception.

Mofi – looks kinda like an alien or spider….

But what if we want to go somewhere with no service? How do we predict the future to see if cell service is good where we are going? Enter Starlink. Love him or hate him, Elon Musk has taken on HUGE projects and seems to be successful with them. One of the projects is Starlink. Elon’s company, SpaceX is launching thousands of low orbit satellites all over the globe. The initial goal is to provide high speed internet to under reached areas. They are now branching out to marine and in-motion satellite receivers.

We purchased Starlink about a year ago, and LOVE IT. It is very simple to set up and use. The satellite is named Dishy McFlatface – that is the name from the company! The only down side is it needs a very clear view of the sky. Other satellite systems, like Direct or Dish – they point to a particular spot in the sky. Starlink is connecting to 4-5 low orbit Satellites at a time. So it needs lots of sky. It comes with a low stand and a very long cable, so you can move it around to get a better shot at the sky.

Dishy out in the wild

We were concerned with performance and speed where we were located. So….we loaded up dishy and went on a road trip! We went WAY out in an open area, fired up the generator, and watched a movie!

Performance was awesome with open sky!

We purchased a telescoping flagpole from Amazon and a bracket from flag pole buddy. Flagpole buddy is great, because I can put the whole pole and satellite receiver up in the air without having to climb.

Dishy performance is better on the flagpole – less obstructions

Internet is vital as I am still working. We now use Dishy as our primary internet, but I still have the MOFI as a backup – and phone hotspot as a backup-backup. It has worked out great for us and without it, we could not be doing the lifestyle we love.