North Bend, OR & dying phone

I’m going to be in North Bend a few days.  I have a package coming in from Amazon and the forecast says the weather will be mild here for the near future.  It will peak at 78F today then stay in the mid-to-high 60s for the next week. There is a self-described boardwalk area east

chirp, cranking up the Baofeng UV-5R

When I was reorganizing the van the other day I found the little dual-band transceiver and the charger.  The charger was DOA but the HT was fully charged.  It is the only piece of ham gear I own now after downsizing into the van. I ordered a replacement charger off Amazon.  Because of the weird economics of

the joys of bureaucracy

My last day of work for the state was technically 12/31.  There were a few payments the agency would owe me. salary for December – this was paid on Jan ~2nd.  No problems as it’s an automatic function pay for standby duty – this was paid on 9th, as is typical.  It takes human intervention. pay

the Achilles heel of a Verizon MVNO carrier

I’m generally happy with US Mobile, as described in this post.  My current stay in Quartzsite reveals a perfect storm that has real effects

broken phone

[Note: I have no internet connection right now (Tuesday the 13th); this post was composeded offline in open source QTM and uploaded later. Midmorning Sunday I noticed my Verizon LTE data went out. It happens sometimes at that location because it’s only 1 bar in the best of times on that ridgeline. This time, though,

tablets –> chromebook

I had two android tablets and traded them in for a used chromebook.   It’s worked out well. I had been both interested in and skeptical of the chromebook concept. I like things that are simple, but I worried what would happen when offline.

Article: MVNOs performance lags main carriers. Duh.

From this article: If you’re using an MVNO for your wireless service in the United States, you are likely saving quite a bit of money as compared to what you would pay if you were under direct contract with Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, or Sprint. That’s great! However, a new report from Canadian mobile quality metrics company

Verizon $5 3G apocalypse

A few days ago Verizon started shutting down flashed devices.  My wifi puck died on the first day of the apocalypse.  Even though my smartphone was still showing $15/mo and was working I started sniffing around. After seeing the excellent coverage of Verizon I decided to stay with them or, more likely, a reseller (MVNO). 

In (faint) praise of the iPhone

I was assigned a work phone (boo!) and it was an iPhone 8 (boo!).  As much as it frustrates me with the “we know what’s best for you” apple approach, I do have a couple of nice things to say about it: the hardware is beautiful, as always the battery life is much better than

$5 3G hack in the S&B

I’d read the Cheap RV Living forum’s Unlimited Verizon 3G $5 a month thread a few months back and it sounded like something I would like to explore.  After some experimenting I have cancelled my “broadband” (see below) and am currently running my sticks and bricks household off a $5/mo account and saving the $75 difference.