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Red River Valley Amateur Radio Club
Amateur Radio in and around the Red River Valley Area of Northeast Texas
All,
Several members of the Club have Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet. Kathy and I do and we have been very, very, pleased with it. The local Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) we had been with for 15+ years just wasn’t getting it done. We try to “buy local” to the extent that we can, even if we pay more. We want the local option to stay in business. In this case the WISP was charging us nearly $200 a month for “OK” service, but if there was a power burp just about anywhere on their point-to-multi-point setup, we would lose service. And in a power outage that was weather induced, when we needed it the most, theirs was consistently DOWN. I do not think they even had little consumer UPSs at their sites. It was just straight utility power…and bad. Until I really lit them up a year ago they did not even email about outages and they took long holiday breaks with nobody answering the phones. Well, the lights never go out in Elon Musk’s operation, so we made that change.
Yesterday I received an email about a new product that might interest campers, RVers, preppers, etc. – the Starlink Mini. Details can be found here. Just scroll down the page and look at what all it can do. What a fascinatingly cool device! I immediately figured “Developed for US military, first fielded in Ukraine.” – I would bet a $100 bill that my first thought was right.
If you are looking for a light-weight and highly portable satellite setup to take out into the field, maybe as a ham responding to a disaster of some kind, this might be a nice piece for your kit.
73
Phillip Beall (W5EBC)
Red River Valley Amateur Radio Club (RRVARC) is a licensed FCC radio operator (WB5RDD) and an affiliate of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) – The National Association for Amateur Radio®.
Club members – hams – are persons interested in amateur radio operations and public service. The Club and its members participate in public service events such as the Tour de Paris, Field Day and educational activities, as well as during emergency preparedness activations.
The RRVARC is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization.
The Red River Valley Amateur Radio Club meets at High Cotton Kitchen (1260 Clarksville Street, Paris, TX 75460) usually on the 4th Saturday of each month. There is an optional breakfast gathering at 0830-0900 and the meeting starts at 1000. The Club meeting is conducted in the rear conference room.
Note: Special events like Field Day and some November and December meetings are excepted. Check the events calendar for special location, dates and time.