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Old 04-19-2022, 07:17 PM   #101
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My impression is that lower is better on a vessel in motion. Also, you don't want it adjacent to anything that will obstruct the view to the horizon. Your vessel will be moving around its anchor and the antenna could occasionally be blocked by the mast. Also, the antenna needs to be far enough away from the mast to be able to move to track satellites. Of course, you could always anchor bow and stern when using Starlink.

On a terrestrial installation or at a marina this wouldn't be a problem. The antenna orients itself and pretty much doesn't move after that.

There will probably be sufficient marine installations documented in the near future that you will find one that will work for you.

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I didn’t mean a sail boat mast, but rather my radar mast on my trawler.
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Old 04-19-2022, 08:49 PM   #102
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I recently had a problem with my Starlink that may show how well it may work at sea.

After a power outage, my antenna went to the stowed position. Dish was vertical. Internet was acting slower than normal, but still fast enough to stream video. I went a couple days before I spotted the antenna. Motors weren't working but a Starlink reboot fixed it. Dish went back to it's normal position.

At my dock, the dish is usually at a 25° angle, but it was still receiving ok at nearly 90°. So apparently it has a wide communication window. Speed was about 30mbps and 5 mbps with the dish in the vertical position. Usual speed is 100+ and I've seen 300+ speeds.
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Old 04-19-2022, 09:06 PM   #103
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Lepke,

The best I can tell, the Starband antenna uses satellites that are +/- 40 degrees of the flat face. At a 25 degree tilt to the north, it would go down to 25 degrees above the horizon and due south it would go down to 75 degrees above the horizon. E/W would be somewhere in between. Beyond those angles it would become inefficient which is why your speeds slowed way down when you were tracking a satellite that was east or west of your location or passing directly over head.

Your experience confirms the off axis limitations of flat panel antennas. It's this limitation that would require Starlink to use a gimballed antenna to maintain optimum pointing of a panel on a vessel underway. The alternative as some have proposed is multiple panels.

Tom
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Old 04-30-2022, 08:48 AM   #104
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Excellent article on install

SIAP. This article discusses installation on a boat. Great read for those considering it. https://svrenaissance.com/musings-about-starlink/
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Old 04-30-2022, 09:48 AM   #105
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SIAP. This article discusses installation on a boat. Great read for those considering it. https://svrenaissance.com/musings-about-starlink/
Excellent article indeed! Thanks.
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Old 04-30-2022, 01:48 PM   #106
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Seems to be working fine on many sailing vessels.
See no reason for it not to work on powered vessels


Limitations at the moment appear to be an offshore 12nm geofence or, limitation of the laser ground stations.


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Old 04-30-2022, 02:54 PM   #107
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In Canada right now you can only get the round one, the 2nd gen. A bit bigger but it also doesn’t have the built in router which is a positive. More electricity usage.
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Old 04-30-2022, 03:39 PM   #108
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In Canada right now you can only get the round one, the 2nd gen. A bit bigger but it also doesn’t have the built in router which is a positive. More electricity usage.
I got the round dishy in Mexico and have measured about 50w average power consumption, so about 100 amp hours a day at 12v. We leave it on 24/7 at anchor and the power consumption is well worth it. One upside is you don't need to also buy the ethernet adapter if you're connecting it to another router.
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Old 04-30-2022, 04:14 PM   #109
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retriever… How do you mount it? And is your home address for it Mexico or is roaming now enabled as I hear? Mine just arrived but still in a box. The round one.
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Old 04-30-2022, 07:18 PM   #110
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retriever… How do you mount it? And is your home address for it Mexico or is roaming now enabled as I hear? Mine just arrived but still in a box. The round one.
I haven't mounted it yet since we're about to leave the boat for the summer in Mexico. I'll leave it indoors while we're gone and will see what creative solutions people come up with. The dish is sensitive to obstructions so getting it higher than masts, davits, stanchions, etc. makes a difference.

I used the marina we're at in Mexico for my "service address" and a Seattle-area billing address. I've been on the waitlist in the USA for a year or two for a cabin in the San Juans and it wouldn't let me change that service address to one in Mexico. I had to make a new Starlink account with a different email to associate it with a different country, but that wasn't much hassle.

Diagnostics show that when we travel more than a few miles away from the marina we are roaming, but not outside the country where we obtained service, and performance hasn't been noticeably impacted.
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Old 04-30-2022, 07:36 PM   #111
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Interesting. Do you stay connected if you are on the hook or just at the dock? What about the affects of the tide in the PNW?

My son has one in Missouri and he stated it was a 'game changer.'
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Old 04-30-2022, 10:59 PM   #112
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Can you suspend service for the off season?
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Old 04-30-2022, 11:22 PM   #113
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You might want to consult a lawyer if you decide to take your trawler to Mars, though. Their contract contains this language:

For Services provided to, on, or in orbit around the planet Earth or the Moon, these Terms and any disputes between us arising out of or related to this Agreement, including disputes regarding arbitrability ("Disputes") will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California in the United States. For Services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, Disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement.
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Old 04-30-2022, 11:56 PM   #114
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I just read this:

https://seabits.com/starlink-finally-useful-aboard/

Encouraging...
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Old 05-01-2022, 11:24 AM   #115
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Good article. Thanks for sharing. We are looking at Starlink for next year and see what they do on the marine side. more $$$ for sure.
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Old 05-01-2022, 07:39 PM   #116
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Tom,

I wish I knew when they are going to start launching into the 70/97 degree inclinations as that would give us some indication when Alaska service would begin. Their plans show 720 satellites in the 70 degree inclination, so that means 14-16 launches of the Falcon 9. At the rate of 2-3 launches a month that would mean around 6 months to complete the shell with limited service starting some time before that. They still have 900 satellites to launch for the 53.2 degree shell, so that would be 17-18 launches or 7 months to complete that. I would say we are at least a year out from Alaska service. Starship could change that dynamic as it can hold upwards of 400 Starlink satellites.

For open ocean service, there are around 700 satellites in service almost all in the 53.2 degree shell with laser crosslinks. Depending on the distribution of those satellites and employment of those cross links. Service could start pretty soon. Hawaiian Airlines signed a contract with Starlink for WiFi on their aircraft so it might be sooner than later.

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Old 05-01-2022, 07:43 PM   #117
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The more I consider it, the more I think I will wait. It could be that there will be a new dish for boats out which has the cable inside the stem, for water proofing, and perhaps more robust motors. 2023 for me, I think.
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Old 05-01-2022, 07:47 PM   #118
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That power usage is an eye-opener. Wow.

I'd love to understand if just mounting it flat and stationary can work. Obviously not optimal.
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Old 05-01-2022, 08:42 PM   #119
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Their website says service to Juneau will come online in 2023. As far as I know there is no ground station in range yet.
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Old 05-01-2022, 09:00 PM   #120
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The more I consider it, the more I think I will wait. It could be that there will be a new dish for boats out which has the cable inside the stem, for water proofing, and perhaps more robust motors. 2023 for me, I think.
I just went ahead and ordered a good cellar antenna and mid-range Peplink router for about $800. I think for coastal stuff that should be pretty good & from what the Seabits article says there are enough dropouts on Starlink to require secondary connection for video calls. So even if I had Starlink I might want the cellular option as well.

All that said, it sure looks like a game changer. The unlimited bandwidth is amazing, particularly at those speeds, and the rate of improvement seems tremendous. Very exciting.
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