Sure, merge

Hello folks.
No comments here about service or their business plan.
My story is about our experience here at scout camp. Obviously, we have cell and 5G coverage - as I am posting from our site on a perfect, Wisconsin summer morning.
We arrived Sunday (7/24), and the sky was totally clear. The evening was gorgeous, with not a cloud in the sky. After getting our site all situated and our gear stowed, we began putting a fire together.
I figured I would take a look up at the stars.
Well, holy cow - I saw a string of lights hauling azz across the sky directly overhead.
For about 45 seconds or so - we watched the star link satellite train heading into the night sky.
Completely cool - and almost unbelievable, considering that if we wanted to watch - there’s no way we would’ve spotted it.

Added "portability" to my Starlink account, packed up to gear, and UPS'd it off to my daughter who is managing a summer camp at 8500 ft in the Sierras and has spotty internet.

no idea what Starlink is but here is a bump to the top

Just received our confirmation email and ordered it….

We have, wait for it…… DSL. Yup, old archaic copper phone line DSL. Been out for a week too.

Can’t wait to get it up and running. Been on the wait list since 2/2021.


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Took delivery of our Starlink, however I haven’t had time to install it yet.


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Cool.

We got on the list last month. It will probably be a year wait.

Starlink? Take it or not?
 

Ok…..
Got our StarLink two weekish ago. Officially went online ten minutes ago. Playing with the video quality since all we had previously was DSL over ancient copper phone lines. Seeing 31-47 Mbps downloads and 12-18 up. That is….. if I am conducting the speed test correctly. Used an existing Dish Network mount from when we had TV ten plus years ago.

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It is odd to see this thing rotate and adjust automatically. Even has a “snow melt” feature that heats up to melt the white fluffy stuff.


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Go to https://www.speedtest.net/ and hit the "go" button.

And while you're up there could you screw the grate back over the holes in the soffit. Thanks. :D

Hahaha thanks…
I am not done yet. Still need to route the cable and do all the buttoning up. Had to yank out the old dish cables, blah, blah, blah. Just wanted to get it up n running to make sure it worked…[emoji12]


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I was thinking that you might be planning to route cable through there, but hadn't even though about the fact that you may have had old cabling to remove.

Starlink? Take it or not?
 

The vent is where the Dish Tec routed the cable from the old system. I pulled it off to remove the old cable stub. I then drilled a 3/4” hole for the new StarLink cable. Once routed, I secured that with the provided cable clips and made a water drip loop. I then plugged the 3/4” hole with a provided plug and then ran some silicone around it to make it water tight. Then I got to squirrel myself through a small passageway to clean up the area and secure the excess cable to the point it entered the “old-work” outlet box I installed.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...13e71c6bdd.jpg
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Took the extra precaution by putting a shroud on the main cable from the antenna. This side of the house gets relentless sun so I thought a little extra UV protection would be advisable.

Nice, looks well done.

Thank you![emoji4]


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A few more comments about my Starlink experience.

My daughter is running a summer camp at 8500 ft in the Sierras, their internet is some satellite service (Hughes?) and I measure 300 kBps to 1 MBps. So I installed my Starlink system for her. \

The good: even with a partially obstructed location (which is the best we can do, lots of tall trees) I measure 40 MBps to 120 MBps.

The bad: Internet is interrupted for 2-20 seconds every several minutes, due to the obstructions. You don't notice this for most uses, but for Zoom video meetings it might be an issue, also one of my apps won't auto-reconnect so I have to click "reconnect" all the time.

Starlink really wants an unobstructed view of the sky, above 30 deg from horizon, especially to the north. It will work with a clear view to the north and significant obstructions elsewhere, but you'll get the interruptions.

I'm now planning to install the Starlink on my Vanagon Westy camper, and turns out it is a little bit of a power hog - average draw as much as 100 watts - but I think I can get it lower by running from DC. However, the obstruction issue will be a problem at many PacNW type campsites, so I am also looking at a cell signal booster (WeBoost etc) as a fallback.

Starlink? Take it or not?
 

After having SL for a week-ish. Speed ranges a bit depending on time of day. Per the SL app, as slow as under ten, to as fast as 100+. I am hoping that speed will be more consistent as they get more satellite up since they just them over us.

I do have some obstruction so I am looking at a different location to get past a tall pine that shows up on the app.

Yesterday I pulled out SL antenna off of the standard DISH j-mount and reinstalled a 39” J-tube. That has seemed to eliminate our small obstruction issue. Now we are showing all good on the app.
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With that said, we visited out son’s house I honestly do not know “how” they get any signal. They are blocked by a wall of 100+’ pines. They seem to get it without issue for streaming and general use. Video chat calls/Zoom need to be hooked up to a hotspot to avoid interruptions.

Thanks for this John. I have a new camper and find myself in the woods more. I also can work from home, so the thought of leaving on a Thursday and coming back Monday night is intriguing, working from the woods. Thist tree business has me concerned. I guess one could find a very open campsite in terms of trees. I am not limited to campsites, actually try to avoid them. Some of my adventures are in the high Sierra above the tree line and also in the high desert, where it will work well.

What do you do if you don't want the device any longer? Can you sell it? Are there used units on the market? I think for about a grand to get started for a couple months, I may give it a go, before the winter hits!?

Edit: Could one take this to another continent, i.e. to camp there or take it to a remote location where internet is poor? How portable is it in a small suitcase?

Thanks!

George

Pulled the trigger a few minutes ago…

I looked at it for a client (business), a little expensive but I guess that’s relative, the issue for me was the upload was just too little for more than a couple of people. Glad there are options out there

They're now promoting Starlink in Australia...

"Starlink plans will set you back $139 per month in Australia. You'll also need to pay $924 in hardware fees."

I got around to setting it up tonight. Its awesome!
10% faster than our previous 'high speed' internet which was line of sight...

Wow, that was fast! Didn't you just order the Starlink earlier this month? I signed up in October but our wait will be much longer... I imagine it will finally show up when we have about 12" of snow on our roof!

I'll probably buy it next year instead of using the traditional method of internet. All of the bs lock ins and fine print.

It's a nice alternative.

Log into your Starlink account and check the status. It seemed like nothing was happening until I set up an account and logged in.

Starlink? Take it or not?
 

You guys won’t be disappointed. Ours has been up and running for a few months. It’s great!!


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We signed up in July and got an email today for "Best effort". I went ahead and ordered it.

Just got our Starlink kit yesterday. I ordered one of their mounts to install the satellite dish to an eve face.

We have been up and running for a few weeks with their "best effort" service. The initial hardware costs were a bit more than I expected, but so far I am happy with the service.
Kit $584.40+99=683.40
pipe adapter and Ethernet adapter 65.29
mesh router 136.89
total $885.58
Installation pictures
This is the basement were the main router and Ethernet adapter are located.
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Mesh router located a few rooms away and covers the rest of the house.
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Nice. I hope it works well for you.

My provider is failing. Starlink just launched another satellite, but tall trees and a mountain are in the way.

Our Starlink is up and running. I also got 2 of their Mesh devices (signal extenders) due to the size of our home. Funny, the day I first hooked it up and switched our computers, phones and 2 TV's over to it all went great. I still had more to switch over. The next day Optimum (the new SuddenLink, same horrible service) went down. I swapped the last 2 TV's over and removed the Optimum and now we are 100% Starlink. No issues and great speeds. It is $110 per month and their installation kit was $597 for residential install. The Mesh devices were $139 each, no monthly rental, you own it.

Just received an update from Starlink... "Your service area remains at capacity which means we are unable to convert you to Residential service at this time. Our best estimate for delivery of Residential service in your area is now mid-2023." Crap! When we signed up, the estimate was for early 2023. Our current internet provider's service is undependable which is why we were excited about switching over but we must wait longer - on a brighter note, the snow will probably be melted once it does arrive (we received about 10" more inches yesterday).

So for you established users of the system, what speeds for up/down are you seeing during peak usage?

Finally... well, almost... I received an email yesterday that began with the phrase "Your Starlink is ready!". Because the part of the country we live in (Michigan's Upper Peninsula) our wait was much longer than what others experience - it took six months from signing up and paying the deposit to arrive at this point. Once the equipment arrives all of the snow covering our roof should be gone so installation will certainly be smoother AND safer. We are so much looking forward to having reliable internet! We have spoken with a couple of folks that live in neighboring communities and they all have spoken very positively about the connectivity that Starlink provided - we are excited!!!

Had it for about a year now. I routinely see 100M down and 20M up. Worst I have seen is 25M down and 15M up. Best has been around 270+M down and 35M up. It cost me $499 initially and now is 110 per month. I have the rectangle gen2 dish. This is located in Oregon and the numbers are through snow and rain periods.

Later Hughesnet....I am never looking back. With them it was 1M down and 0.5M up at best.

Yeah, Hughesnet and Starlink are only barely related as far as type of system. Geo stationary satellite vs slew of low earth orbit satellites, very, VERY different. When I moved to where I am now, I knew that there was no way that I'd go with something like Hughes.

I am in one of the two black holes of the Hughesnet coverage...one oversold beam. Horrible service and dishonest business imo.

Starlink? Take it or not?
 

You will be pleased…. We had old school copper line DSL from ATT… who would a thunk it being in the city limits and it was 2022 when we finally got ours.

Our wait was just shy of two years from sign-up and deposit until delivery. Well worth the wait in our eyes. We can now add cameras to our house alarm…..yippy!!!!!!


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We did a custom eve-mount, with an extended 6' pole. Cable runs inside the pole and we had the pole powder coated. The pole is affixed to the rafter tail with 4 bolts and then another plate on the other side of the tail, so the rafter is sandwiched. It's not going anywhere.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1681137585.jpg
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