| |
Subject |
Author |
Date Posted |
Forum
|
 |
RE: Satellite Phone Coverage
Old topic but I will throw in my two bits worth. I have had a global star sat phone for 8 years. I live on the North Coast, Interior, area of BC. from about 2006 or so until last year GS service was horible. They had tech problems with a bunch of sats that they could not fix. Over the last two years they have put up a whole new constelation of new technology sats. The last of these was in Feb of this year. The last few sats will be going on line this summer. Starting last summer the sat availability has gone from several minutes an hour, to most of an hour. The bigger your sky, or lower your horizon, the better it works. Narrow valleys or canyons, you have to have a sat overhead. They work on line of sight. Where I use mine I had to use the sat schedual program or could never make a call. Now I just turn it on, if there is no sat, it will be there in a minute. Almost never drop a call. Cost is reasonable at $40 a month with 40 minutes free air. Right now they have a promo so 80 minutes free airtime. Where I live and play cell service is only about 10 km out of town. I carry the sat phone all the time for emergency use. It has more than paid for itself on a couple of ocasions.
|
StewB
|
05/21/13 08:51am |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Soldering wires to 1156 base to adapt led panel
I did just as StewB,plus I filled the adapter with hot glue. It keeps the wires off of the sharp edge.
Joe
Thats a great idea. I will do it to mine when I re-tape the panels in.
|
StewB
|
05/11/13 05:44pm |
Do It Yourself Modifications and Upgrades (DIY)
|
|
RE: LED Lights
I ordered at 10 pac of the 48 smd panels for 17.99 and a two pac of the 1156 102 SMD cobbs.
Both orders showed up 14 days after ordering.
I moded the bases to put the panels in my fixtures with 1156 bulbs and I am very pleased with the result. Although, one of the panels is a slightly different colour than the others.
I put one of the cobbs in my outdoor light and it is very bright.
The panels do not interfere with my radio at all but the cobbs pretty much make it usless with interferance.
I just ordered two more 10 pacs of the 10 x 48 panels to do the rest of my fixtures and have a few spares.
These panels do get pretty hot with the trailer plugged into shore power. A couple of the panels fell off after an hour or so. I will have to find some of the high heat tape to stick them back on.
Over all, best $17.99 I ever spent on the rig.
|
StewB
|
05/11/13 01:33pm |
Do It Yourself Modifications and Upgrades (DIY)
|
|
RE: Soldering wires to 1156 base to adapt led panel
So I am answering my own question.
I broke the glass and cleaned the remaining bits and pieces that get left behind. Be carefull not to break off the fine wires.
I clamped a small set of vicegrips onto the positive wire from inside the bulb. This wire is soldered into the small dab of solder that is the positive connection on the outside bottom of the base.
Placed the base on the bench vise with the vicegrips hanging down between the jaws. Touched the dab of solder with the iron and the vice grip droped out with the wire.
Took one of the no good to me adapters that came with the panels and unsoldered the wires.
When the wire fell out of the base, it leaves a tiny hole through the black plastic insulator in the center of the base. Feed the red wire into this hole. Apply very light pressure on this wire while touching the dab of solder on the outside with the iron. Wire pushes through into the solder and you have your connection.
Solder the negative wire onto the brass base
You now have an adapter for a 1156 - BA15S base.
One down, nine to go
Edit: I find that once I put the positive wire into the tiny hole iside the insulator, if I just hold the wire vertical and let the base sit on the wire, when I touch the iron to the dab of solder on the base the wire just slides up into the solder. This helps keep a nice round contact on the base.
|
StewB
|
05/11/13 10:34am |
Do It Yourself Modifications and Upgrades (DIY)
|
|
Soldering wires to 1156 base to adapt led panel
I ordered a 10 pack of the 48 led panesls. These ones don't come with the adapter to fit a BA15S base so I had planned on just soldering the wires to some 1156 bulb sockets after breaking the glass off. It does not look as easy as I first thought.
Has anyone done this? If so I am open to some input on how you did this.
Thanks for any help
Stew
|
StewB
|
05/11/13 09:57am |
Do It Yourself Modifications and Upgrades (DIY)
|
|
RE: Greasing Wheel Bearing
One common mistake with EZ lube hubs is not using double lip seals. When you buy new seals be sure to tell the guy double lip. Most will just hand you single. Single lip seals will lead to greese getting on the brakes. Every set of brakes I have seen with greese getting by the seal had the wrong seals.
|
StewB
|
05/08/13 08:13am |
Travel Trailers
|
|
RE: Cast your vote for the WORST customer service
FedX for me. Where we live FedX is not big so they use local a delivery service to pick up and deliver. When I first moved here I called FedX and asked them who the local agent was. She said she could not tell me and actually told me to google it. I was totaly flabergasted. When I asked her if she was for real, she just repeated what she had said about googling it. I told her I did google it and my search came up with the FedX # I had just called. I told her I wanted to talk to a supervisor, she would not let me but did put me on hold "while I talk to the supervisor". When she gets back on the line, she says, the supervisor told me to tell you to google it. I simply did not know what to say at that point so I hung up. :(
I ended up phoneing several local businesses until I found one that used FedX and they gave me the agents name and number.
|
StewB
|
04/29/13 08:54pm |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: ? about best fix on my fly fishing waders ( small leak)
Aquaseal is the way to go. Used it all the time on my dry suits back when I did hard hat diving.
|
StewB
|
04/25/13 09:26pm |
Around the Campfire
|
|
RE: Kitsault?
In the 80's and 90's I worked out of Prince Rupert as a hard hat diver. We worked in Kitsault in 80, 81 installing the fresh water intakes for the mine and the tailings line into the ocean. Absolutly beautiful area. On our one day a week off we explored all around the end of the inlet (Alice Arm). Climbed mountains, fished the river, explored old mines in the side of the mountains. Wandered around the old townsite of Alice Arm accross from Kitsault. It was a great place to be, not to mention we made a fortune. Brings back great memories.
Gary is right there is a gate not far from where the road starts but I don't know if they keep it locked or not. There are people in Kitsault keeping the place up. Google Kitsault for lots of info.
|
StewB
|
04/20/13 08:33am |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
|
|
RE: Steam Locomotive
There are also excursion trains in Kamloops and Summerland.
http://www.touristrailways.com/namerica/BRITISH_COLUMBIA/
Was in Kamloops this week. Read in the paper that the Kamloops train will no longer run as it needs a total overhaul to be certified.
|
StewB
|
03/29/13 10:38am |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
|
|
RE: Refilling Disposable Propane Tanks
I have been doing this for years. Cabelas sells the adapter. Put the small tanks in the freezer and get them frosty. Hook to the 20lb tank with the adapter and flip it upside down. The may not alway get as full as new but most of the time they do. Around here the little green bottles are $5 each so you save a pile of $ if you use many of them and we do. Read the fine print people. IT IS ONLY ILLEGAL TO TRANSPORT REFILLED BOTTES IN A COMMERCIAL VEHICAL. You can transport your own however you want. This is not only safe and extremly cost efficient, but it is environmentaly friendly as you don't send the little green ones off to the land fill.
|
StewB
|
03/10/13 11:09am |
Travel Trailers
|
|
RE: march camping in bc
I am Jealous, up here there is still a snow bank in front of trailer. Even if I could get it out of the storeage barn there is still lots of snow in the back country.
|
StewB
|
03/04/13 09:53am |
Truck Campers
|
|
RE: Biggest fish you've caught
73 lb Spring (King) salmon on the Skeena river in BC. Largest in my boat was 78 lbs spring in the same area that my buddy landed. When springs get that big they don't fight much they just swim around. Sometimes I swear they don't even know they are hooked for 20 or 30 minutes. It's a lot like fighting a freight train, when it turns and swims away, you just have to follow in the boat because you can't stop or even slow them down.
If I new how to attached photos I would.
Just an add on to my story. We never kill anything this big. These big fish have the genes you want to keep in the pool. If I want to eat some we keep small ones in the 10 to 15 lb range.
Stew
|
StewB
|
01/17/13 09:51am |
Around the Campfire
|
|
RE: Biggest fish you've caught
73 lb Spring (King) salmon on the Skeena river in BC. Largest in my boat was 78 lbs spring in the same area that my buddy landed. When springs get that big they don't fight much they just swim around. Sometimes I swear they don't even know they are hooked for 20 or 30 minutes. It's a lot like fighting a freight train, when it turns and swims away, you just have to follow in the boat because you can't stop or even slow them down.
If I new how to attached photos I would.
|
StewB
|
01/14/13 09:25am |
Around the Campfire
|
|
RE: Airbags for Ford 250 carrying Travel Lite 890 sbrx
I have a 2012 F250 4x4 short box. I put the no drill Firestone bags on mine. Not to bad to install. Did it myself in the driveway. Would have been a lot eaiser on a lift. I used them once to haul my Adventure 90 FWS from Alberta to BC and they worked great. Now I just use them to level the truck out if we have the Harleys in the back when we pull the TT.
|
StewB
|
01/10/13 09:17pm |
Truck Campers
|
|
RE: What other toys do you have?
He who dies with the most toys wins :)
In addition to our OK Eclipse 26RL, two Harley's, 20ft V8 powered jet boat, Adventure 90FWS camper, cabin in the middle of no where, and now shopping for Arctic Cat 800 mountain sled.
Does 20 something fishing rods and 10 boxes of tackle count as toys?
|
StewB
|
12/19/12 09:49am |
Around the Campfire
|
|
RE: Honda 2000i Generator, how long do they last
I have a honda 4000 and an 850 from 1974. They both have at least 1000 hours on them. When I go into my cabin after a long winter, with fresh gas they will both start first or second pull. You just can't beat a Honda Power product.
|
StewB
|
11/24/12 10:16am |
Tech Issues
|
|
RE: Just an interesting observation about Trains, RVs and Coal
Some of that PRB coal is shipped all the way up to Prince Rupert on the North Coast of BC. From there is is shipped to Asia.
|
StewB
|
11/20/12 09:34am |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Little Grand Canyon and Wedge Overlooks of Utah
Amazing country. I rode my Harley all through there in 97. I gotta get back to Utah.
|
StewB
|
11/16/12 09:30am |
Truck Campers
|
|
RE: Bad Batteries
The long charge was with the charger on Auto, 10 amp, for two days.
I have a Edge monitor so I know the batteries are getting well over 13V from the alternator.
I already took them back and got two new ones on warranty. When I did this the guy at the store load tested them and they showed no cranking amps.
When I tested them with a hydrometer, a couple cells showed full charge and some showed almost zero. My understanding is, once you have this kind of differance in specific gravity between cells the battery will no longer hold a charge.
Thanks for the input.
|
StewB
|
11/09/12 08:59am |
Tech Issues
|
