Starlink internet onboard?

I was talking with a Captain down in Texas yesterday online, and he was all the rave about his Starlink High Speed internet on his boat...

He said that he can make 10kts and not lose his connection to the satellites.

I am mostly on the Tennessee River, Ohio River, and the upper/lower Mississippi...

I was wandering if anyone in these areas is using it, and what they think of it?

I looked at the Starlink site, and it said expanding in 2023 for those areas?

They are billing $110 a month, plus $599 one time for equipment.

I want reliable internet for streaming online to my Twitch, and YouTube accounts from the boat.

What are your thought on Starlink?

Vinny

There are several other threads on the forum with positive results mostly in the Northern USA. I'm strongly considering adding it for next summer. My cruising takes me to the Great Lakes including Superior, Georgian Bay and the North Channel. Having reliable internet, weather forecasting and voice over internet communications would be a huge plus.

Ted

It will be $135 a month for the portability option, either home with portability or RV. It will also allow disconnecting for periods of the year when you are not using it.

This trip my new,, small dish has worked well in NJ, Shenandoah Valley, and Wilmington, NC. In the woods and populated areas. I can't vouch for moving speeds, but of course that is still not approved by Starlink. Using it in my RV.

As for clear sky, we still had pretty good service with this amount of trees around and over one campsite. See pic. Note....motion like wind in the treetops did interrupt connection so my guess is any boat motion without very open sky coverage might do the same.

I was speaking with the Sidney BC Manager of NW Explorations and they are installing them on some of their charter fleet. Early experience is that the RV dish is not marinized and corrodes. They are testing installation of the dish inside an decommissioned Sat TV dome. Apparently it will work.

Anyone else heard of this? I will not recommission our older Sat TV system, and this sounds like a good solution.

I was among the first users. Mine is on a power boat. I was using it before bolting the antenna down. It blew overboard, tied by the wire. I flushed it with fresh water, let it dry and it's been working ever since.
It works fine. Usual download time is 50+mbps and runs as high as 300. You can use it outside your area but at a slightly slower speed. I haven't noticed any difference. It works at sea but I've only checked at about 25nm out. With the phone app, you can see outages. They are rare, usually only a few seconds, and doesn't effect any data or streaming.

hi Vinny,I've had starlink for almost s year and i am a fan. i live in Ladner BC a suburb of Vancouver and it works beautifully. At sea your reception will of course be affected by sea state but you are on a river so that should not be a problem. i think it is great value for the money and highly recommend it

The new flat panel for $2,500 is supposed to be much more wind and rain tolerant. I will be unboxing mine early next week. By January it will be on the boat at the confluence of the TomBigBee and the Tennessee. Will come back to let you know what I find.

This thread has a vast amount of info in it. https://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s4/starlink-61866.html

Just ran this exact area with it stuck under the teak grab rail and bungee corded down. Worked great. There's a picture of my mounting arrangement in this blog post:

https://www.adventuresofyorksieandme.com/post/onward-ho

Many people on other forums are reporting using the RV version and putting it on a bucket so it always points straight up - and it works just fine. Other users are drilling holes in the RV version to disable the pointing motor and mounting it flat.

There are enough satellites now that it doesn't need to point anymore.

It's been a game changer for us, as we are cruising and working.

T-mobile home internet works for me.
$50 a month, no equipment charges, speeds average 120m down, 60m upload.
runs on 5g so depends on your local reception.

We're in the middle of nowhere Sea of Cortez.
Mex RV package. Works very well, a game changer.
Speeds of 200 mbps seen. Spoiled rotten!
Phone calls on wifi are like being in the same room.

I am not cruising very far , but I use my straight talk phone as a hotspot ,then I get my" tv " shows I like , and navionics ,anyone else do that with any issues ?

Pricy "Maritime" bill!

Gee Starling sounds great for us wandering souls but Elon's web site has a steep $5k monthly for maritime! From website:*
"STARLINK MARITIME High-speed, low-latency internet with up to 350 Mbps download while at sea. $5,000/mo with a one-time hardware cost of $5,000 for two high performance terminals." Maybe that is for cruise ships?

Akkkk! While I've been pondering mooring the 'passage maker' I made an offer on to save cash!

RV package looks safer and probably work near shore?
"STARLINK FOR RVs Immediately access unlimited high-speed, low-latency internet on an as-needed basis at any destination where Starlink provides active coverage. $135/mo with a one-time cost of $599 for portable hardware or $2,500 for in-motion hardware."

As needed basis? Sigh.

*https://www.starlink.com/maritime

Appears to work pretty well from the pnw clear to turtle bay in mex. Jim and Rosie on M/V Sea Venture just cruised that leg and had great connection the whole way. M/V Feedom in the PNW is having good luck with it as well, some in and out. He did his own custom install. Capt Paul over in Fla on M/V Southern Estates seems very happy with it, just stuck it up on a pole on the side of the house.

Starlink just launched a crap load of satellites so coverage should be getting much better.

GrandWood said:

Appears to work pretty well from the pnw clear to turtle bay in mex. Jim and Rosie on M/V Sea Venture just cruised that leg and had great connection the whole way. M/V Feedom in the PNW is having good luck with it as well, some in and out. He did his own custom install. Capt Paul over in Fla on M/V Southern Estates seems very happy with it, just stuck it up on a pole on the side of the house.

Starlink just launched a crap load of satellites so coverage should be getting much better.

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I'm in the Sea of Cortez and it works great here. It was perfect from Anacortes south.

Helmsman said:

The new flat panel for $2,500 is supposed to be much more wind and rain tolerant. I will be unboxing mine early next week. By January it will be on the boat at the confluence of the TomBigBee and the Tennessee. Will come back to let you know what I find.

This thread has a vast amount of info in it. https://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s4/starlink-61866.html

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I'll be interested in your posts. Planning for Starlink on the 46.

chanprr said:

I'll be interested in your posts. Planning for Starlink on the 46.

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Here’s the new flat panel mounted on my NT37. Works great but draws a lot of juice.

Sababa said:

Here’s the new flat panel mounted on my NT37. Works great but draws a lot of juice.

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Thanks. Looks good. Any interference when the radar is on?

Here's our flat panel

Just the standard $450 dish that set itself flat well over a week ago
Power usage is not noticed.

chanprr said:

Thanks. Looks good. Any interference when the radar is on?

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None at all. The Seaview mount is designed to put the satellite antenna above the radar beam. Works great underway too.

Just finished the install and looking forward to connectivity in Lake Superior this summer.



Ted

Ted,
Best of luck! Our experience going to Alaska and back last summer was that it worked FANTASTIC in less developed areas, and often SUCKS once we got back to a more populated area, (Port Orchard, WA). Right now, it tested at 32 down and 1.89 up, so not too bad. But in the evenings, it will go down to maybe 2 down and .3 or so up . . . .

But in Canada, on our way up to Alaska, it was often over 200 down and 40 or so up . . . . waiting for more satellites to be sent up . . . .

Yes, it will be interesting to see how it does and where it's poor. There are some large cities going up the AICW, but also the marshes of Georgia and other less populated areas. Heading over to Fort Pierce on Monday and am interested to see how it does underway and crossing Lake Okeechobee.

Ted

geofence

Has anyone experienced getting cut off with Starlinks geofence on the RV solution boating?

I understand they put a geofence in place Feb 1st and at least one customer got cut off at 20 miles from shore.

Thanks, Tom

Tom-Jill-Lilly said:

Has anyone experienced getting cut off with Starlinks geofence on the RV solution boating?

I understand they put a geofence in place Feb 1st and at least one customer got cut off at 20 miles from shore.

Thanks, Tom

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Did he have an RV unit or did he try to take his residential unit away from home? You pay a $25 premium for mobility over the residential unit.

Ted

O C Diver said:

Did he have an RV unit or did he try to take his residential unit away from home? You pay a $25 premium for mobility over the residential unit.

Ted

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The geofence is probably coming, but I haven’t found it yet while crossing the Pacific. I’m posting from Starlink RV right now and we’re 2100nm west of Hawaii and 1250nm east of Guam. Not many RVs out here!

Thanks. I purchased the RV solution at $599 and a monthly of $135 (I didn't nor do I see an option for $25 mobility, maybe its built into the price, I also didn't purchase high-end antenna for using underway.). Installing on a new Helmsman 38 in which I am not "cutting holes" but temporarily mounting to use in the inside passage this summer. If it works well, then I'll fully install with Peplink later. Nervous a bit on the future with geofence. Seems like Starlink makes up rules as they go.

Tom-Jill-Lilly said:

Thanks. I purchased the RV solution at $599 and a monthly of $135 (I didn't nor do I see an option for $25 mobility, maybe its built into the price, I also didn't purchase high-end antenna for using underway.). Installing on a new Helmsman 38 in which I am not "cutting holes" but temporarily mounting to use in the inside passage this summer. If it works well, then I'll fully install with Peplink later. Nervous a bit on the future with geofence. Seems like Starlink makes up rules as they go.

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Tom, you have the mobility feature. A home subscription is $110.

I just added the RV version to my boat, currently in Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle. Everything works just fine, although I do a lot of remote connection work (I own an IT Service Company and am still "working" while I'm on the boat) and once in a while the latency gets a bit noticeable. I have also heard that unless you do pony up for the Maritime equipment and package, you may want to shut the service off while underway as I've heard folks reporting that Starlink is emailing them saying they need to upgrade to a more expensive plan if they are going to continue to use the system while moving. Seems like there will still be changes to the plans and such as everyone figures out the best option and I don't think many recreational users will be able to justify the cost of the Marine version. I do also have a Verizon business hotspot with a Weboost antenna and signal booster for it which I plan to use while underway if I do shut the Starlink down during those times.

Sababa said:

Here’s the new flat panel mounted on my NT37. Works great but draws a lot of juice.

Click to expand...

Can you use it when at anchor, with juice coming only from solar panels?

I have not received any emails from starlink for using it while on the move. My travel speed is 10 knots.

I do not normally use the starlink while in motion but there is always background apps and incoming phone calls that happen while traveling.

The system is pretty smart. It knew when I crossed into Canada so I’m sure it knows how fast I am moving.

Until recently I have had no issues with being on Low Priority Roam plan. The only time I had an issue was when 3 large cruise ships passed me in a 15 minute time span. For about 7 minutes I saw some serious pixelation on the tv. Other than that, no issues for me.