Internet, Satellite dishes, and Trees
I have a love/hate relationship with trees. I love the beauty, the shade, and the ambiance they provide. I hate that they block our satellite dish from connecting us to Internet. It took me a while before I had the nerve to ask a park for a site without trees. That was sacrilege! But, I got over it. We have plenty of opportunity to enjoy trees on walks and driving around. When I’m ‘home’ I want my Internet! I’ve learned to simply ask if there are any ’satellite friendly’ sites. Even though relatively few people have the Internet satellite that we do, the TV satellites have the same issue with trees, and park personnel are accustomed to dealing with the issue.
The following pictures are from Oregon and California. Our dish did get connected here, even with all the trees. It doesn’t need a wide open area, just a hole thru the branches (in the exact right spot) will do.
In the 5 years that we’ve been traveling and using our Datastorm Internet Satellite dish, trees have not bothered us. We were always able to find a hole thru the trees big enough for our dish to find its satellite and connect.
Until now.
We are in New England and I’ve never seen so many trees! As I mentioned in last week’s article, we had no connection (Satellite, Wi-Fi, or Cellular) in Acadia National park. The picture below is from a commercial park in central Maine. We didn’t even try to raise the dish here. Luckily, this park had good free Wi-Fi, so we got online all we wanted.
This next photo is from Burlingame State Park in Rhode Island. No satellite connection available here! And no Wi-Fi. Luckily the Verizon signal was good enough to use the Broadband Connect feature of our phone.
The angle of your dish makes a difference
Another thing that makes it more difficult to connect here in New England is that we are so far north and east. The satellite is in geosynchronous orbit over the equator somewhere in the Pacific. That means that it appears to stay in the exact same place … it is orbiting at the same rate the earth is spinning. For more info see this NASA site.
Think about it, if we were parked near the equator, our satellite dish would be pointing straight up. If the photo above was taken in Southern California, we may have been able to connect because the dish would be aimed higher and may be shooting over the trees. Here in New England, the dish is pointing much closer to the horizon, and even short trees get in the way.
Just another example that, if you need the Internet as you travel, you need to use all three methods to connect.
Chris Guld
www.geeksontour.com
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Something about not seeing the forest for the trees….
Yep trees can be a bummer, that is why we opted for a portable dish, have always been able to find a hole, we have mega length of cable, right now we have the cable hung out many feet from our fifth, we keep moving it around until we find a good spot. A bit more time consuming to set up but with some experiece no problem at all. Love our Hughes portable dish.
We are currently in Fairbanks, Alaska and have good internet reception with our Datastorm. In fact, there have only been a few places up here that have been troublesome; we moved toSat 127 when we came here. WiFi has generally been satisfactory although we generally didn’t need it.
Ian,
Wow – Fairbanks, AK and still getting satellite internet. Cool! Do you have the bigger (1.2 meter) dish? According to the satellite footprint for 127 (http://www.motosat.com/internet_service/is_satsdwaymob.asp) you need the bigger dish to get signal in Alaska.
Patsy and Woody,
Yes, trees are definitely an argument in favor of the tripod type of satellite dish. I’m glad you found what works for you!
I just have a mind set that if TV/internet doesnt come in then I just enjoy the trees and if I need a TV show I plug in a good movie for the night and call it a night. Camping is my main goal in my travels. The great outdoors.
Bob,
I share your attitude for one, or possibly two nights. And, that’s exactly why I have a LOVE/hate relationship – the forest is beautiful (see my blog post at http://geeksontour.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-hampshire.html). It’s just that, being a fulltimer with a web-based business, I really can’t afford to be offline more than a day or two.
Um…I see your desire to be online while camping, but I find that it defeats the purpose of the outdoors. I actually blogged about it yesterday http://familycampman.com/?p=30 . Check it out if you have a minute.
I use the Sprint data card. Having my own Internet business I only go where there is good coverage. If the area doesn’t have good coverage then I will have to come back and visit after I retire.
Speaking for myself, obviously, the idea of camping is to be out-of-touch with civilization-as-they-say-it-is. It’s a form of meditation and prayer for me to be out in the woods or in the desert. For whatever personal reasons, I can’t keep grounded—or “centered” or whatever term—with jive coming in from the tv, the web, the newspapers, radio. I guess it’s like the question “Am I a physical person who has spiritual experiences or am I a spiritual person who has physical experiences?”
I like to talk to the trees and creeks and rocks and birds and then listen to what they have to say to me.
I need help. I have a King Dome in-motion satellite on my RV.
I currently have Dish network and get TV fine.
I want to find a service that I can use to get Internet and TV for home and use the same service via my King Dome.
I am willing to change TV services, but I don’t want to put a lot of money into changing equipment right now. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
C