Starlink

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

not sure I'd want to leave a $500 star link terminal just sitting around my camp, a little too portable.

It's not much more expensive than the satellite RV dishes that are similarly deployed (or generators, or portable solar panels)... but yes, anything not attached to the trailer raises the theft risk.

[kavm]

Although not a new story, I had missed seeing it. It reports that Starlink has applied to FCC for use in moving vehicles, including large trucks, ships and RVs!

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/spac...-vehicles.html

This person was ticketed for putting the Starlink dish on the car - on the hood…
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/02/chp-...h-on-hood.html

[richm]

It's possible to get Starlink today, and change the service address as needed - if, and this is a big if -- the service address is inside an active available cell (a cell that has available bandwidth). That is, it's possible to move the service address to another active available cell, and the delay in activation is said to be less than an hour.

The cells are hexagonal and ~17 miles from side to side. One can test whether a location is in an available cell by 1) by finding the location in google maps, copy the the +4 code from google maps and 2) pasting the +4 code into the starlink service address, and select it to determine whether starlink will allow it. Finding active cells can be very time consuming as it stands.

The downside of this, currently, is that one cannot suspend service so it's 100/mo till you cancel service, regardless of whether one's location is in an active cell or not, and returning the equipment for a equipment refund is said to be handled on a case by case basis.

I've made a deposit, but my current location has no available cells, otherwise I'd get it and take it camping myself.

[kavm]

I have 1GB connection with Google Fiber. Not giving that up for Starlink, though I got an invite from them to participate in the beta trial. My only use case is while camping. That is sufficient for me to justify the expense, but it is not yet supported. That’s why I eagerly await progress on it.

[DennisJGray]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

The Starlink Internet network is now taking subscribers on a limited basis. Has anyone signed up yet?


www.starlink.com

Hi Mike, sorry just saw this post. We live in rural upstate NY, near Ithaca. We have had starlink for about 8 months. For us it is fabulous - not perfect but WAY better than Hughesnet. Regularly get service of 100+ MBPS download and typically 20 to 50 MBPS upload. It is simply amazing. We are HEAVY users. Zoom/video conferencing was clunky in the beginning but pretty consistently good now. tks.

[brroberts]

Signed up a long time ago. Still don’t have it. Recently was able to set up LTE internet with a sim card only annual plan with NOMAD for $849 a year including membership fee. I’m typically 60 down and 5 up. Not great up, but better than anything around here except those few who got Starlink even though they signed up after me. So I will cancel Starlink and stay LTE for my internet.

[EscapeBoulder]

I believe I saw a Dishy McFlatface on the top of at van conversion the other day. First Starlink mobile rig. Since I believe one can't use Starlink outside of their pod yet, maybe it was someone who doesn't travel far.

[kavm]

Looks like Starlink for RV use is now a reality... It is not cheap... Aside from the initial cost - it is $110/month for standard service and an extra $135/month for the temporarily portable service...

Looking at it but not yet ready to pull the trigger. We have an excellent internet from Google Fiber $70/month for 1GB current, upgrading at some time to $100/month for 2 GB service. Taking up Starlink is an additional $1620/year without counting one time fees of for camping use only... An additional concern is the battery usage. My friend says that antenna disk is quite power hungry, though I did not get a spec on what exactly that means...

---------------------------------------------


Here is an email my friend (a Startlink customer) got...
---------------------------------------------
Starlink is excited to announce Portability as an add-on feature for all Starlink customers. Portability enables customers to temporarily move their Starlink to new locations and receive high-speed internet anywhere where Starlink provides active coverage within the same continent. To see active coverage areas, please view the Starlink Availability Map.

You can enable Portability for $25/month on your account page. Once enabled, Portability will take effect immediately, and you can disable Portability from your account page at any time.

To learn more about Starlink Portability, please read our FAQ page.

Thank you for being a Starlink customer!

The Starlink team
------------------------------------
News article..
https://www.shacknews.com/article/13...-now-available

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by kavm

Looks like Starlink for RV use is now a reality... It is not cheap... Aside from the initial cost - it is $110/month for standard service and an extra $135/month for the temporarily portable service...

The portable service cost was alarming until I realized that it's not an extra $135 per month, but an increase to $135 per month total ($110 for service plus $25 for portability), as confirmed by an item on the Starlink support page.

Thanks for the update. I will likely be switching my house to Starlink and enabling portability for RV use, starting next year.

[kavm]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

The portable service cost was alarming until I realized that it's not an extra $135 per month, but an increase to $135 per month total ($110 for service plus $25 for portability), as confirmed by an item on the Starlink support page.

Thanks for the update. I will likely be switching my house to Starlink and enabling portability for RV use, starting next year.

Thank you! I had understood correctly but misstated. My annual cost of $1620/year was based upon $135/year.

It is a great deal for those who are using Starlink for their home internet. Less compelling for those who are on other (superior) alternatives for their home ISP.

[Bea]

The portability of Starlink is a great step forward. Unfortunately, Starlink does not currently serve the main part of Alaska or the parts of Canada above 53 degrees latitude. Here's the coverage map: https://www.starlink.com/map. I hope they add the northern part of North America soon. - Bea

[kavm]

Brian,

Do you have any read on the power requirement from Starlink equipment? I am mainly interested in seeing whether we can support that without hookup. We have 2 LI batteries and 2 solar panels.

Thanks!

[cityofdestiny]

I was all set to get Starlink when it first came out and ultimately concluded that it was a bad option for me (lack of official portability at launch aside). I had even preordered it, only to cancel.

Big problem for me is the times when my wife stays home and it is just me camping with my son. Leaving her home with no broadband (and tv) was not going to work, so I cancelled the order.

I was also concerned about line of sight to the sky here in the tree-filled pacific Northwest and the power consumption on the gen1 dishes when running on battery.

[kernwig]

Power draw is around 100W, which is pretty significant on batteries.


Also, any populated area of the USA likely is at capacity by fixed-point users and you may not be able to use it there.


(I signed up for home service on the first day over a year ago, yet my home cell's capacity was apparently eaten up by the nearby urban and suburban areas. If you have access to fast terrestrial Internet, those of us in the nearby rural areas ask that you kindly wait to downgrade your service with Starlink, and give us a chance!)

[John in Santa Cruz]

for a good idea of how well Starlink is working, go to this page. https://starlink.sx/
do this on a fairly powerful computer, with a reasonably large screen, and decent internet connectivity, because this site uses a fair bit of pookah to run.

find your home location, choose the + tool, and click on your location. the small moving blue dots are the starlink satellites. the orange dots are earth stations. the dotted green paths from you to a satellite, then the dotted orange line to an earth station are possible paths, and the solid green one is the most likely path. The large green eclipse is the satellite horizon (you can see satellites inside that oval)

a future version of Starlink will support satellite to satellite 'mesh' hops by using lasers.

[gklott]

Originally Posted by kernwig

Power draw is around 100W, which is pretty significant on batteries.

According this article, the STARLINK POE injector brick shows '56 V at 1.6 A x 2' going to the dish. The router power consumption should be minimal. This is "just under 180 watts of power down a Cat5e cable".

180W is a lot to plan for.

We are scheduled to get our StarLink next month, June 2022. We will add the portable/roaming option. Once we install it, I will measure the actual power consumption for a typical 24 hrs.

73/gus

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by gklott

According this article, the STARLINK POE injector brick shows '56 V at 1.6 A x 2' going to the dish. The router power consumption should be minimal. This is "just under 180 watts of power down a Cat5e cable".

180W is a lot to plan for.
...s

I think that is the rated max power. In the comments, someone says theirs uses an average of 54 watts, with the (snow melt) heater off. Thats still a lot, a bit more than 4 amps, or almost 100 AH/day

[richm]

This guy substituted dc-dc converters in a 1st gen Starlink power supply, and it reduced power consumption to 41 watts while snow melt was disabled.

https://www.tuckstruck.net/truck-and...-on-ac-and-dc/

Starlink is said to have sent 12v power supplies and modified firmware to Ukrane for usage on solar power.

[TahoeJoe]

Just announced: Starlink for RVs!
https://www.digitaltrends.com/comput...rlink-for-rvs/
https://www.starlink.com/rv

[kavm]

Has someone tried Starlink RV yet? I am in two minds - to jump right now or to wait until next year.

Arguments for jumping right now are-

• Have a 10 day trip at the end of June where having good quality internet would be very helpful. Not that I plan to work the whole time but it'd be good to have the option for when it is necessary.
• Equipment is a one-time cost. This will help us work the kinks out and work out what's possible for more use later on.

The arguments for delay to the next year are:

• Our prospects for camping after the June trip are quite small. Have a 4-day trip around the Labor day and that's it. My wife is in Europe for a month in July-August and teaches 4 days a week starting mid August.
• So, we will use it for two trips at most for a total of 12 days. And, the fees - $600 up front + $135 for trip 1 and $135 for trip 2 (if we activate for that) are fairly steep.
• Delaying to next year might allow us to get more information, possibly get new(er) equipment (in case there are improvements) and save / defer some of the expense. Just as importantly, the implications of the lowest priority associated with this usage might become clearer.

Overall, the cost seems steep for our type of usage - not sustained long term use. If I defer to next year, I'll probably have to by a Verizon MiFi device and a prepaid plan, etc. So, that's about $300 cost as well.