Starlink? Take it or not?

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

jly,

Do you mind of I merge the other thread with this one?

Sure, merge

[NutmegCarrera]

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.

[jyl]

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.

[Por_sha911]

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

[bugstrider]

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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[bugstrider]

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


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[masraum]

Cool.

[peppy]

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

[bugstrider]

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.



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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[masraum]

Originally Posted by bugstrider

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.


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.

[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by masraum

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.

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…


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[masraum]

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.

[bugstrider]

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.



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.

[masraum]

Nice, looks well done.

[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by masraum

Nice, looks well done.

Thank you!


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[jyl]

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.

[bugstrider]

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.

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.

[aigel]

Originally Posted by jyl

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.

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

[unclebilly]

Pulled the trigger a few minutes ago…

[stealthn]

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