STARLINK MINI

 Here we are, still kicking and screaming in central Cali.  I think I've recovered from the shrimp fest and am on to better things .... like girding my loins for Bingo night, WAY too close to that full moon,

Weird photo this morning.  That's the moon, surrounded by a rainbow of colors that don't show up in the picture.  

The opposite direction looks like this.  It's a wonderful 66 degrees, soon to be down to the mid 50's.  YAY!  I think Mother Nature is ready to dump all her leaves in my front yard.

The first thing on my to-do list was to use up those tomatoes before they spoiled.  I actually boiled some water to make the tomatoes easier to peel.  That little trick really works well.  After a ride in the blender, I dumped them into the pot of browned hamburger.  I prefer Italian sausage, but alas, there was none at the Mexican store in town.  More spices than I have EVER used before, went swimming for about an hour.

I compared it to the leftover in the fridge.  Not bad ... not bad at all, though I could taste a little anise in the other one.  I dumped a big spoonful on top of the leftover pasta.  Perfect for lunch!!

I contemplated staying home, but you know that's not in me.  Just as I was heading out the door to the fabric shop, they called to say the last two Veterans Quilts were ready for pickup.  If you remember, my machine went on the fritz, so I took them to the shop.  It has taken a month to get them done.  Luckily I have until October to finish them up.

And then of course I had to get these.  I'm guessing you can tell what this quilt will be ... a Halloween special.  Yessiree ... bought most of this fabric two years ago for that pumpkin quilt.  Hopefully THIS year it will get done.

That left me back at home sampling all of that sweet goodness out of the fridge ... leftover desserts.   That is not good for the diet, but OH so tasty!  I finally decided it was time to tackle the Starlink setup.

I went to the patio and set it on a small table in the middle of the lawn.  The only setup was plugging the cord in to the unit itself, with the other end going into the plug.  That's it ... the router is built in.  

Next you download the Starlink App (which I had already done) and sign in.  I clicked on START YOUR SETUP.  This was the first screen that popped up.  

As with all electronics, the next thing that popped up was an UPDATE.  It took maybe 4 minutes for this to happen.

As it rebooted, it told me to go to settings and turn on my phone Wi-Fi, clicking on the Starlink icon.

Next it told me there were no obstructions, but to click on Alignment.  This image came up which had me completely stumped.  Finally I figured out when I moved the phone, the alignment arrow got longer or shorter, meaning I needed to turn the dish around until it disappeared.  Sure enough ... I was aligned.

So from now on, set it up, click on the WiFi setting on my phone and align the dish.  Done!!  I played a few games on my phone to see how the speed was ... and it was just fine.  In fact, you can check the speed downloads and uploads.  Just for fun, I clicked on that to find the download was at 225 and the upload at 25.  All I know is that it worked great.  

It was a piece of cake to set up.   Maybe tomorrow I will see how it works with my smart TV that is much smarter than I am, since I haven't been able to figure it out at all!   It will also be interesting to see just how far 50gb will get me, which is the much cheaper limit.  Not far enough, I'm sure, but I can move to unlimited with a click of my phone.

Next question, is it waterproof?  They say it can take rain, hail and snow, but not tornados, hurricanes, meteors, dinosaurs or other extreme forces of nature.  Yes, that's exactly what it says.  Okay then .....

Though we rarely see sunsets around here, there was a nice one last night as I put the dish away and folded up the cord.  

That took all of two minutes and I think this will be a good addition to my van.  The cost you ask?  $500.00.  If you want the BIG version, they are currently on sale for $175.00, but then you have to deal with the much bigger dish, the long cord AND the router.  

Now to find a nice hard case to put it in while traveling.  And of course put on my armor for BINGO because TONIGHT is the last night my Fairy Godmother will be able to work and do all that setup for me.  I will now be left to my own devices!!!  Wah Wah Wahhhhhhhhh!