4GAS T-Mobile service

4Gas- 4gantennashop.com is a business reseller of T-Mobile services. I am on the $17 for 5 gigs plus unlimited 2G and binge on. They have packages ranging from 5 gigs and up. I did buy a hotspot from them for $89 and had it 5 days later.

The hotspot I choose first was the Rocket aircard because it could be used on the 10 and 20 gig plans if I decided to upgrade. I am swapping it for a ZTE Z915 because it supports the 700 mhz band T-Mobile deployed in Colorado. When I enquired of the swap, the answer was of course we can. Just send back the Rocket when the 915 gets there.

Like with most carriers, T-Mobile has good coverage in Denver and I even have a tower near my house. Where I am really hoping to see a advantage is from the 700 mhz ( band 12) in the mountains. The lower the spectrum, the farther it carries and better penetrates buildings. I hoping to see something better than 2G up there.

You can call and get a real person 24/7. My account managers email is nicholas@4gantennashop.com and I have spoken with the owner twice. All very kind and helpful.

Again I have no connection except as a happy customer.

RingPlus free phone. text and data service.

RingPlus is another carrier like Freedompop where you buy the device, set up the account and pay nothing there after. They are on Sprint so make sure you have service . The deal I have with them was called the Leonardo 4 plan, comes with 1400 mins talk, 1400 text and 1200 Mbs of Data including using the hotspot for free a month. I did have to put $20 into a account in case I went over. Extra gigs are $8 a gig.

Unlike FreedomPop, RingPlus does not have hotspot only plans. I bought a Sprint Prepaid LG Tribute Duo on sale at Best buy for the service. I ran it through the MEID checks and signed up in minutes. You can buy and even lease phones from them if you wish or switch one over from another service.

Besides paid plans, they make their money using music and ads instead of a ring tone while you call someone. Sometimes when you sigh up for a promoted plan, it will have a survey or you will need to link to  social networks. Those promotions are paid for by the company wanting the survey. Each promotion usually only last for days so keep watch for the kind of plan you want. Some are heavier in TnT, others include more data or free use of the hotspot. There is a set of paid and lower tier free plans that are constant.

As for the service. I have had good luck using the phone for calls and text. The signal and data speeds are the same as with my Mingle Hotspot, weak when the signal is, blazing fast when the signal is good. (up to 33 Mbps so far)

So if you need a emergency back up, something to connect when other services may not or just a extra bit of data a month, RingPlus may be for you.

You can check them out at RingPlus.net and I am happy to answer any questions I can but I have no connection except being a happy customer. 

Freedompop

I bought a Freedompop mingle hotspot for $44 shipped. It is a refurbished Virgin mobile hotspot that does 4G/LTE and 3G. I got it to toss in the trailer for when we are out and about and either needed more data than the two Cricket phones offer or if they could not connect on the AT&T network. Freedompop uses the Sprint network, I'd also like something on Verizon too.

Freedompops basic plan is 500 mbs of 4g/LTE data a month for free. Having it be free month to month means it can be a back up, turned on when needed and extra data is $10 a Gig. They give you a 2 gig plan for the first month, so I have been giving it a good test.

The Mingle took a week to get here. They start your account the day it ships so that it is ready to go when you get it. It started right up and caught a 3G signal that while not as fast as the high speed, wasn't bad either. The 4G started connecting after joining their forum and listing it as the reason. In seconds I had a email and 100 mbs free for the inconvenience. Minutes later I turn the Mingle back on and it connected to 4G even though I am a half a block from the coverage area. 4G is faster to load than 3G most of the time.

The connection was 1 bar at best as I live 20 miles from downtown Denver. Even so most web pages loaded fine like on the high speed. You tube and videos took longer to load but ran fine after that. Even Pogo games loaded up and ran, the only website I have issue with was photobucket and it happens on my Cricket phone too. Switching the Mingle to the much stronger in my area 3G signal seems to allow photobucket to load.

The ability to use 3G on the free account cost $4 a month. Worth it if you don't get 4G or you travel a lot and need the expanded coverage of 3G

I was worried about Sprints coverage as I know it isn't the same as AT&T or Verizon. Sprints 4G map shows strong in major cities which I can attest to here in Denver. I have also had it out to the sticks in Michigan and got 4G out there too. Places like Quartzsite don't have 4G but do have 3G.

Freedompop has monthly plans including 3G that work out to the same $10 a gig in 2,3,4,5 and 10 gig sizes. You can roll over 500 mb's a month for $4 up to 20g. They have all the same plans for smart phones but I don't use them.

In testing out the Mingle and the Cricket phone hotspot I have been able to closely watch just how much data I use doing various things online. I was surprized to find out that checking email, cruising the forum and playing pogo hardly uses any data at all. I can Pogo bowl all day everyday and not use up the 500 mb's I get for free on the Mingle, not to mention the 20 gigs the phones give us.

Streaming, now that takes up some data. I have streamed hockey and football games and three games took up 5 gigs of data. Just listening to them isn't nothing but it eats up data much slower. Looking at pictures can eat it up too, I still need to attempt to upload a picture on photobucket to see what happens.

So what started out with me trying to find alternative connections for while on the road has turned into the realization that we don't need to pay $130 for high speed internet and cable TV or the land line that anymore is only used to keep the security connected. The hotspots will provide the internet. We get 30 usable channels OTA and the alarm will be switched to wireless for a small fee. That's $200 a month not going down the drain for nothing. That kind of money would allow me to upgrade the trailer for free and still be saving $200  a month after it's paid off.

Now up in the mountains there is no OTA signals and so far the internet has been only early in the day. We do use a Tailgater satellite system them but occasionally paying for that or some extra data here and there is still a lot less than paying for it all here all the time.

You can go to Freedompop.com to see their offers on phones and hotspots. I think it is a good service so far if you are in their coverage area and do not use huge amounts of data. I looked last night to get a Mingle for my mother in law that rarely uses internet but the only offer for her was a more expensive MiFi 500 that is going for $69.

I wanted to add a few things.

Freedompop friends is a program where you add list of emails of other freedopmpop users and get a free half a gig of data a month.  You can also share you data back and forth between these friends up to 100 mb per friend and 500 mb shared or received.

Like ringplus, you have to watch the deals. They have run free plans for phones with unlimited talk and text and nearly 2 gigs of data.

Mini fridge debate

I want to add a mini fridge to the trailer since going for more than a week makes it hard to have enough food in the 5 ft propane fridge. two trips ago we over loaded it, then knocked the sensor off of its holder and ended up tossing quite a bit of meat.

I have space on the two unused bunks with 24 inches up top, 32 1/2 inches in the lower. I can adjust the supports for the top bunk to allow for more on either but still use it as a guide.

I am also mindful of the fact that it has to run off of batteries and solar, so amp draw is  big thing. Oddly a small cube fridge can use more than one that is three times its size and nearly as much as one 10 times it's size.

Now if we were going snowbirding tomorrow or start full timing I would have a Edgestar 321ss 3.2 mini fridge for the lower bunk in a heart beat. It is by far the lowest draw I have seen for a mini fridge this side of a 12v compressor model yet. It draws .64 amp at 120v, that's 6.4 amp plus losses at 12v. That's incredible when you consider a 1 ft cube generally draws 1.3a at 120v.

The downside of the 3.2 is that it is big and until we start going on extended travels, we just don't need that much space yet.

That leaves the upper bunk. Aside from 1 foot cubes, I have only found one mini that fits in the space. it has a tiny freezer and pulls 1.0 amp at 120v.

The other option would be  cube sized freezer or edgestar has a cube fridge that can do either fridge or freezer. That would do because frozen food holds much longer than refrigerated food. Sadly the fridge/freezer combo uses more power and cost more than the 3.2 mini. It would probably be cheaper to get a mini freezer as we would rarely use it as a fridge anyways.

The two edgestar units would be new purchases and done in the spring. That gives me plenty of time to continue the research and possible find something acceptable on craigslist or get lucky and find a 12v unit.

A 12v unit would be wonderful for the low current draw but for the expense and size, they don't hold much. The mini fridges use more power but that's the one thing I have to spare.

MPPT vs PWM

Let me begin by saying I am not a highly versed person in technical terms, I tend to speak in laymen terms. Let me also say that neither MPPT or PWM is better, they are just two different ways of doing things with advantages and disadvantages to both.

Lets star with a basic discription of each.

PWM is Pulse width modulation. We call most simple controllers this even though even MPPT controllers use PWM for their charging. The difference is how the power is connected to the battery and controlled. With a PWM controller the battery is directly connected to the panel and its voltage and acceptance rate are what controls the output of the system. The downside is that when the batteries voltage is low, say 12v, that anything the panel produces above the battery voltage is lost until that voltage comes up to what the panel puts out. Your 100w panel will not be worth 100w's until the battery is near fully charged.

MPPT or Maximum power point tracking is the program that controls the output of a MPPT controller. Here the panel is not connected directly to the battery. It comes in to a buck converter that takes the DC current from the panel, turns it in to AC and then back to DC again. The buck converter allows for the full use of the panel no matter what the battery voltage is. It doesn't happen in just bulk mode, the bulk converter is in use in all modes.

So what is the MPPT part then you ask. Since the battery no longer controls the system, something has to decide how the power is applied in bulk mode. The program can somehow tweak the array to get the most out of it as well as decide how to best bring the batteries voltage up. So not only does the buck converter allow the use of higher voltage panels or even panels in series, it gets you the most power when you need it the most early on when the battery is down.

Aside from the additional cost, MPPT controllers have a disadvantage in high heat. Actually the panels will lose voltage in heat and the controller uses that voltage to create current. The lower the voltage, the lower the amps. The loss isn't big, maybe a amp or so and usually only mid day when your battery is likely to be in float anyways. 

So why go one or the other. For me it was equipment related as my panels are 24v grid tied panels and had no choice. They have higher voltage and lower amperage and while I could get a PWM controller that would clip the excess volts, it would give me the amps of a panel half it's size. Quite the waste of roof space.

Part of the decision can be budget. Until recently MPPT controllers cost considerably more the PWM controllers. The common thought was it wasn't worth the cost of buying a MPPT controller for less than 400w of panel. You coujld get a MPPT controller a single 12v panel or run two in series but the advantage you would see at peak wouldn't be enough to justify the expense. Three things this doesn't take into account are early production when the advantage is higher, the fact that less expensive MPPT controllers are available or the fact that 24v grid tied panels can be had for less than a 12v panel half it's size.

An example is I am looking for 140-150w panels to make a hinged portable. They each cost more than a 250w 24v panel does. 

On the other hand say you have one or two 100w panels and want more power. You would be better off adding a third panel to the PWM set up than running what you have on MPPT.  MPPT would get you more out of what you have if you were out of room for more panels.

So don't start the design of your system by choosing one form of charging controller first. Consider it a option as you look at how much room you have for panels, what panels are available to you, what the budget is and even what type of batteries you have. Find the balance that is best for you out of the different options before you start buying.

Last thing is to check on what your batteries require before you pick a controller. Know what voltages, modes and features you want before you buy. A cheap controller of either type may not properly charge your batteries and replacing them is certainly not cheap.

Why we have the Garden Treasures propane fire pit.

From the time I was a kid camping with the folks, a camp fire has been part of the daily routine. Gathering the wood, cutting it to size, preparing the pit and building the fire is part of what keeps me busy while camping. There are times when a fire ban is in effect, times that the wind is too high to safely have a fire and times that we just don't feel like being out there long enough to make it worth while to have a fire. For these times we have the Garden treasures propane fire pit.

Garden Treasures propane fire pit

We decided that this one was the best balance of size, flame height and convenience. At $99 it is on the low end for cost. It is big enough to look realistic and has enough flame to feel that way too. The lava rocks start glowing red like coals after a while and the lid makes storage a breeze. Drop it down in to a stone fire pit and from a few feet you can't tell it from a real fire.

These picture were taken with the pit on medium setting. We found that on high propane pits produce hissing that all but goes away on low. We also found out that on low the heat stays at the sitting level, on high it goes right over us.

It does take some getting use too. With a real fire we tend to stay out of the down wind side due to the smoke. With a propane pit we sit down wind because that's where the heat is.

With a real pit you are stuck with where it is. With the propane pit we would move it around depending if we wanted to watch the sun set, be closer to the trailer so the dogs could see us or be in a area where the wind was blocked. Don't like the spot you have it in, in a few moments you can be in a different one.

Now there isn't any smoke with a propane pit, that's nice but it means there is no camp fire smell either. I keep the sweatshirt that I wear out by the fire real or not in a bag between times. It always has that campfire smell even when using the propane pit.

The easiest thing about getting use to a propane pit is the ease of set up and take down. Pull it out of storage, hook up the hose and you are done. No chopping cutting, hauling of wood. At the end of the night it is as simple to put it out with a twist of the knob. No waiting for it to burn down, dousing the flames or worrying that a stray ember will get you on the news as the starter of the latest wild fire. As I said the rocks do get red hot after a while a it's nice to sit there a few minutes after we shut it down as if we were watching a real fire burn down to coals. Like coals the rocks still put out a considerable amount of heat, enough to use the pie irons on.

The biggest reason we have one was the fire bans we had for a few years in a row. At 9000-10,000 ft of altitude the temperatures drop quickly as the sun does even in the summer. Without a fire you are just sitting outside in the cold and dark. There is no TV reception and you can only rent so many movies for two weeks, so it gets boring inside where it's warm and toasty too. We have used our IR grill like a propane fire pit, it looks funny but puts out a lot of heat fast. More than enough to enjoy the sunset on a cool evening.

That's when I decided to get a proper propane pit. The two most popular were the campfire in a can at somewhere around $300 and the Lil red campfire around the same price as the Garden treasures at Lowes. The Campfire in a can is king of the heap for it's ability to be turned up to bon fire size. It does burn a lot of gas doing it too. The Lil red campfire is little. Seeing one in person makes you think it has a large ashtray for a burner plate. Both have lids like upside down pots that cover everything top to bottom. There is also now  big red campfire in the $150 range as well as others.

This last trip we used it not because of the weather or bans but because the firepit was trashed out and full to the brim with half burnt coals. Picking up the trash was one thing but digging out and rebuilding the stone pit was more than I wanted to do for the few nights we were there. Some trips it's a real fire one night and the propane the next, the trip before we never took it out at all. Ya just never know.

People are disgusting.

We went out last week again. Got delayed and left on a Saturday. We thought we got lucky when one of the prime spots was open, well until we got to see the state of the site.

It was trashed out. The fire pit had been used as a garbage can with diapers, cans, bottles and paper. So bad that someone had built a second pit next to it and left a wad of paper in it too. There is of course the normal piece of live tree that someone tried to burn even though there is wood dry and down everywhere.

On the other end of the site it looked like either the paper had blown out of the pit or someone had just been tossing it any where as they used it.

Not far from that there was a easy up frame that had busted so they took the cover and left it there.

I kinda got the feeling the site was vacant due to the mess instead of getting lucky and catching someone pulling out early to avoid the Sunday traffic. We came this close to finding another spot but decided to stay as it only took a short time to clean it up. We took out a grocery bag each of trsh, cans and recyclables. I didn't have the room to take the easy up but I took it down to its parts so that someone would hopefully haul it out.

Normally I would have dug out the pit that was full to the brim with charcoal and half burnt logs but the site is really windy and in my opinion should not have a pit at all. We used our propane pit this trip and didn't miss hauling and cutting the wood, messing with the fire or the smoke.

 So while I find the people that left the mess disgusting and I wouldn't blame someone for not wanting to clean it up, I simply couldn't be there and look at it for five days.