Starlink

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$50.00 on Ebay. Or you can order this one direct from Starlink:


Pipe_Adapter_Rectangular_1100x620.png



Pipe Adapter

$37.00

*Price includes shipping and handling fees Designed to attach to any pole with a max diameter of 2.5" (64 mm). Slide adapter over the top of the existing pole, fasten provided screws, and drop Starlink in.

  • Tools Needed: N/A
    Package Dimensions: 8.3" x 5.5" x 3.4" / 21 x 14 x 8.7 cm
    Package Weight: 1.35 lbs / 0.6 kg





PennBruce said:
My Flat "dish" equipment arrived last Monday and I picked it up today. I did a temporary install at the service location where I had had it delivered. Ten minutes after I pugged the router in I had this:

View attachment 127713

Then onto Northeastern PA where I live. NEPA is not in a Starlink coverage area. I again set it up and I was able to intermittently connect to Starlink. This demonstrates that you can have connectivity outside of your service cell.

Later this summer Quack Shack will be moving from the Chesapeake to the Hudson River back into Starlink coverage.

There is a Starlink Internet Pipe Adapter available on eBay. This stainless steel adapter clicks into the support leg of the antenna and is threaded to connect with a female NPT coupler. I've order one that I hope will be useful in my installation.

The antenna is shipped with the leg in the stowed position. In service the antenna is horizontal. My initial impression is that the motors in the unit are used to align the phased array antenna with the direction that the tracked satellite is moving. The antenna is surprisingly small.

Bruce
Click to expand...
 
bowball said:
Can you suspend service for the off season?
Click to expand...

As far as I know, kind of. You can cancel service, but you run the risk of your cell being "full" when you want to resume service. We're just going to keep it active and pay the fee even though we're not using it.

Since we got our dishy, several friends on cruising boats have gotten them too. We're all finding we spend more time at anchor and feel less pressure to return to cell/Wi-Fi service to take care of real life things. Frankly, a good chunk of our time at marinas over the last few months has been to find a usable internet connection, and a single night at a marina here is often more expensive than a month of Starlink.

Our communications setup before Starlink was a Pepwave Max Transit + booster/external antenna with unlimited ATT SIM card ($80 a month), unlimited T-Mobile SIM card ($50 a month), and Iridium Go ($140 a month). We'll drop the T-Mobile plan and move the Iridium to the most basic plan for emergency use only, so there's no monthly increase in cost for Starlink for us, just a huge increase in usability.
 
My issue is I received the earlier round one just now, as I’m in Canada. I need to decide whether to return it for the newer rectangular one as it becomes available here. The round one is still in the box as it just arrived.
 
Helmsman said:
Since Starlinks inception, there has been discussions about whether or not it would be made available for boating, ocean travel, etc. looks like Elon Musk doesn’t see it as a big problem. Link below.

https://www.inverse.com/innovation/starlink-will-it-work-on-boats
Click to expand...

I've got starlink, works good. Allows mobile use. Essentially good at placid anchor (not yawing too much). Knowing how it works (I'm from the design team) I wouldn't expect it to work under way unless you're on a SHIP (very stable): you need a fancier, gyrostabilized antenna.

I'm pleased that you can move your location and still use it. Even only at anchor, that's a huge benefit. Not clear it'll be allowed forever -- I don't believe the service terms promised this feature.

Anyway it works pretty great in the northern US latitudes.
 
Seadog,

There is a ground station in Ketchikan near Walmart. They also have one on the North Slope in the oil patch and one in Nome. I suspect once they start launches into 70 and 97 degree inclinations there will be a few more.

Tom
 
Having just read an article about the tens of billions of dollars governments and Coops are spending on land-based broadband for rural America, I am curious how Starlink and such systems will play out. It seems a much cheaper solution to just buy the Starlink system.

Tator
 
Tator said:
Having just read an article about the tens of billions of dollars governments and Coops are spending on land-based broadband for rural America, I am curious how Starlink and such systems will play out. It seems a much cheaper solution to just buy the Starlink system.

Tator
Click to expand...

It'll likely be location dependent. Somewhere with houses 2 miles apart will likely make more sense for Starlink, while denser areas will likely be more practical and cost effective to go wired to get enough bandwidth.
 
Starlink was one of the largest single winners in the Remote Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) FCC reverse auction. I think the major issue for Starlink is capacity in its predefined cells. It can only bid into areas where it has enough capacity to serve the unserved households in that area.

My major complaint about the entire subsidy process in RDOF is that where I live no one bid to provide broadband service. So I had to pay the full price for Starlink whereas if I lived in a place where someone bid to provide service, my out of pocket cost would probably have been $0 or close to it. It costs Starlink the same to provide service where they won the auction as it does in my area where no one bid. Why do a few Starlink customers get it for nothing or very reduced prices and others have to pay?

I don't know how the government gets out of that conundrum without either not subsidizing anything or only providing subsidies to individuals versus service providers. This then poses the question of subsidizing broadband services for 20,000 acre ranches owned by some seriously rich people. That doesn't make much sense either.

Tom
 
Does anyone know the dimension of the square antenna, and the dimensions of the router?
 
Tator said:
Having just read an article about the tens of billions of dollars governments and Coops are spending on land-based broadband for rural America, I am curious how Starlink and such systems will play out. It seems a much cheaper solution to just buy the Starlink system.

Tator
Click to expand...

Just three weeks ago a small town mayor was proudly telling me he was thinking about springing for a "deal" to help the town. It involved doing some deal with a company to string broadband wiring to provide broadband at the home / office level.

And this, in a town that had cable access.

His face dropped. He was shocked to learn there were other options.

I mentioned there were TWO new services to provide broadband via sats, and what he was talking about wasn't needed. Once needed? Sure, maybe. Today, not so much.

Several states away I have another home, and it is very rural and agricultural. Cable isn't run down every back road because of insufficient customer density. The County was considering spending something like $25mm as I recall to run cable lines. They didn't, and now that's a good thing. There is today a small business trying to get up and going running lines to compete with cable. They are in a few neighborhoods now. I have a hard time seeing how that can be economic. The cable company there just sold out. Handwriting on the wall?? So customers, at least in some neighborhoods, would have a choice between cable, the new cable, Starlink, or the soon to come Amazon sat service. Competition is great for consumers, until cost pressure makes quality / reliability suspect.

Verizon was getting into the broadband business, delivered via fiber. They stopped.

But the short story, it seems to me, is that we here are tracking this. But not that many folks in general.
 
I don't think that's how it works. They bid to provide service, then Comcast underbids, then SpaceX goes down again. "Winner" gets the money, with the liability to provide service (at full price) to all the promised areas.
You don't get a discount, under any circumstances.
 
little bigger than a legal pad, maybe 15" x 24" Router's a beautiful obelisk about a foot tall, like a bowling trophy.
 
I have had Starlink for a couple of weeks. I live in one grid and my marina is one grid over... the Starlink map shows the marina grid as being on the wait list. At the marina my speeds have been 80% what they were at home.



Today I received an email from Starlink stating:




612x101.png
Service Improvements​
​


To improve your Starlink service, we have updated the location on your account. This helps improve the connection between your Starlink and the satellite constellation. It should only improve your internet experience and requires no action on your part. ​

​
You can see the updated location by logging into the Customer Support portal.


So, my service address is now in the middle of a bay. I will see if my speed has improved later today. Obviously, very active monitoring on Starlink's part.​
 
Didn't Starlink/Musk just announce a Cel/SAT phone will solve many people's issues?
 
No. This means starlink to base station and from there (just like a cell tower) to existing user equipment. There'll be some low cost options for special cases but typical users will be offered a cell phone plan at competitive costs. You've gotta read closely and with a small dollop of cynicism.
 
What it means is that in order to bid in the RDOF Starlink had to be an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) meaning they also had to offer voice services. Most do this by offering a VOIP service much like Hughes and Viasat do today. I don't see Starlink trying to get into the cell phone business, but I do see them insuring that they work reasonably well with voice over WiFi with existing cell phone services.

Tom
 
Ordered mine Sunday, 30 April. Just received e-mail with Fedex tracking, delivery this Saturday. Hope this works out!
 
Latest is an extra $25 USD/mth for portability/roaming
 
It would seem that "roaming," known as Portability is now a paid option. I received an email this morning stating:



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.
 
Progress for sure, but still not worth doing here for boating in Queensland. It looks to be a geofencing issue, possibly due to insufficient satellites at this point. Sub-tropical Australia as well as tropical Australia does not even rank as waitlist yet.

I'd sign up in a heartbeat if it covered the Great Barrier Reef. But at present 4G mobile, with external antenna, is the only offering for that (excluding very expensive data-rate geostationary satellites) although it is still fairly poor as well. However, the rate of change in this area is amazing, so I need to watch this space carefully!
 
End of an affair

My long time infatuation with Starlink ended this morning when i read my email and found out that "portability" would now add $25 to my service. The Starlink terminal is now on its way back to Hawthorne, CA.

I will now be using my T-Mobile home internet modem. I had thought it was geofenced. However, last week I moved it to the boat two hundred fifty miles from my service area and it worked fine. A flat $50 versus $135+taxes a month.

Bruce
 
PennBruce said:
My long time infatuation with Starlink ended this morning when i read my email and found out that "portability" would now add $25 to my service. The Starlink terminal is now on its way back to Hawthorne, CA.

I will now be using my T-Mobile home internet modem. I had thought it was geofenced. However, last week I moved it to the boat two hundred fifty miles from my service area and it worked fine. A flat $50 versus $135+taxes a month.

Bruce
Click to expand...

Yeah, if I was a livaboard I'd spring for it even at $200/mo due to the unlimited data but for occasional use & 1-2 intensive months in the summer (and on vacation, so shouldn't be sitting around streaming Netflix anyway) I think a minimal data plan or two that can be shut off is better for me.

Interesting to hear the T-mobile home internet plan isn't geofenced... wonder if they'll fix that in the future.
 
The T-mobile plan not being geofenced is nice, but you're still forced to use their provided equipment for it. And I don't think you're supposed to move it, so even it it works, they may shut it off at some point.
 
mvweebles said:
Article on Starlink portability - there are several caveats. Note that portability does not mean mobility, which remains unauthorized use.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/05/spacex-adds-25-portability-monthly-fee-for-starlink-service.html

Peter
Click to expand...

That would be a concern to me. I’d be reluctant to invest in the equipment when my intended use is unauthorized under the service agreement. They clearly know where you are, and they would be within their legal rights to cut you off at any time.
 
SeaDogAK said:
That would be a concern to me. I’d be reluctant to invest in the equipment when my intended use is unauthorized under the service agreement. They clearly know where you are, and they would be within their legal rights to cut you off at any time.
Click to expand...

Several people on CruisersForum report mobile use of Starlink either the policy is not being enforced or the users are not straying too far afield (or some combination). For cruising boats, communications are divided into criticality (discretionary comms vs critical comms); and access to infratructure (cell towers vs satellite). To me, the use-case for Starlink is critical comms (weather, emergency) when well out-of-range of cell. Current restrictions, even if unenforced, do not support that use-case......yet.

Peter
 
mvweebles said:
Several people on CruisersForum report mobile use of Starlink either the policy is not being enforced or the users are not straying too far afield (or some combination). For cruising boats, communications are divided into criticality (discretionary comms vs critical comms); and access to infratructure (cell towers vs satellite). To me, the use-case for Starlink is critical comms (weather, emergency) when well out-of-range of cell. Current restrictions, even if unenforced, do not support that use-case......yet.

Peter
Click to expand...

I've seen some articles where cruisers take a different approach:
- critical comms = minimal satphone plan; Starlink makes this a true emergency-only or offshore option only if no connection is available.
- discretionary comms = starlink + cell phone, where the former is used for bulk downloads & asynchronous data transfer, with cell network used as a backup to Starlink, for example on video calls where a momentary drop-off is a big problem.

The big advantages of Starlink are unlimited data and fast downloads in places where the cell network is poor or non-existent.

EDIT: I can see a Starlink subscription easily paying for itself if it allows you to downgrade your satphone plan & a couple of cellular data plans. And you get a potentially much better experience without needing to worry about data rationing.

Fascinating stuff. I agree it seems to be getting better very fast.
 
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