Starlink

[Justin Smith]

Scott shared 26 photos with you

Thanks for that, some very useful pics.
They don't seem to tell the lengths, though I was chatting to someone earlier who said he thought the length of the 35.8mm section was 4" / 100mm, and from the shoulder (where it increases diameter to 38.2mm) to the point where the cable exits is about 2.5". Does that sound about right ?
If so that raises very interesting possibilities......
If I was attaching a Starlink to a pole it would depend on the length of the pole I needed.
For a medium length alloy pole (up to an unsupported length of around 6ft) I'd use a 1.5" pole coupler onto a 1.5" diameter x 1.6mm pole. One would have to pack out the end of the 32.8mm section, insulation tape might sound like a bodge but it would work fine if done correctly. It would certainly be far stronger and more stable than the "genuine" Starlink" pole adapter which is pants.
If I needed to put the Starlink onto a longer pole I'd either couple together a longer 1.5" diam pole (using more pole couplers) and support it with guy wires, or I'd be sleeving the pole of the Starlink into an alloy scaffold pole:

Guy wire supported masts – A.T.V. Poles, Brackets, Clamps & Aerials

www.aerialsandtv.com

Poles and masts on test – A.T.V. Poles, Brackets, Clamps & Aerials

www.aerialsandtv.com

 

[downsizingnow48]

I'm not using it for a mast. It is for mounting to an existing very sturdy wood frame trellis. Unsupported length max 12". A cleaner solution than trying to use the three leg thing.

I measured the length of the 1.41" stub, it is 2 7/16".

 

[Justin Smith]

I'm not using it for a mast. It is for mounting to an existing very sturdy wood frame trellis. Unsupported length max 12". A cleaner solution than trying to use the three leg thing.

I measured the length of the 1.41" stub, it is 2 7/16".

12" should be OK, particularly in a sheltered spot.

 

[Justin Smith]

Could some of you Starlink users on here please have a read of my new webpage and tell me if I have missed anything useful off, or if I have made any mistakes ?

Starlink internet satellite dish installing – A.T.V. Poles, Brackets, Clamps & Aerials

www.aerialsandtv.com

 

[/pine]

Elon Musk and Amazon Are Battling to Put Satellite Internet in Your Backyard

For rural homesteaders and suburbanites alike, no matter where they live on the globe, fast, reliable internet connectivity is on its way—from outer space.

www.wsj.com

 

[luscsmith]

True. I guess you pretty much have to say the initial $500 cost is more like buying a ticket to the show. How long will it be good for. Not a huge dollar gamble though for what it is. Goes along with monthly pricing and caps and the future of all that.
I told the misses whatever she decides as she is the resident tech guru. I guess all I have to say to give her a nudge is that" I'm thinking about the new Harbor Freight satellite system." Comes with it's own bottle rocket...

My IT department, wife, ordered 2 setups for 2 different properties and they are supposed to be delivered this year.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Glad to hear these positive reports from early Starlink users. Thankfully we got fiber to the house 8 years ago out in the boonies. We have clay soil so they bored or plowed it in.

 

[John_Mc]

About 10 days ago, we started having more gaps in coverage: a Zoom conference might stall for 15 seconds or more, rather than the occasional 1-2 second blip.

A couple of days ago, those problems went away and our speeds went up: we had been mostly in the 140-150 Mbps range, topping out at about 180 Mbps down and occasionally seeing it drop below 100. Now I'm regularly seeing in the 250 Mbps range, sometimes hitting 300, sometimes dropping a bit below 200.

There was a firmware update to our Starlink equipment around the time this speed increase happened. Whether the increase was due to that, or getting more satellites up and operational, I don't know. Since even 100 Mbps speeds are higher than we typically need, this extra is just gravy. (It is nice seeing how quickly multi-gigabyte downloads happen now, having my son be able to download a large game file without bringing everyone else to a grinding halt.)

 

[IXLR8]

I am getting ready to move to a new home. The present owners are using Viasat with max of 25mb/s download, which I found odd as there is fibre cable internet service running down the road. Then I find out even with fibre, max speed is 150mb/s, at $148.00/month including equipment rental, and it is $6750.00 to run the fibre cable to the house, no wonder previous owners are using Viasat.... Starlink is looking better and better.

 

[luscsmith]

U

I got the beta invite on Feb 8, paid for the package on Feb 9. It shipped yesterday, arriving tomorrow. The property is filled with tall redwoods, but there is a north facing gap. If that doesn't work I might have to hire a tree climber to install it on a 100 ft redwood. I think one or two of the users in the reddit group did something like that.

Where do you live?

 

[BigBlue1]

Well, mine arrived today. Bit busy today so might not be able to set it up until tomorrow. Looking forward...

Rob

 

[downsizingnow48]

I am up to about 200 mbps now. Anything over 10 or so is wasted on me. But my wife likes streaming programs, and when the daughters are visiting they are usually teleworking too, including video meetings and conferences. Before, all that was marginal to impossible. We hit the Verizon data caps in a day or two when anyone but me was active.

I am still testing locations. The required field of view is larger than I anticipated. The starlink debug page is useful. It divides the field of view into 12 30 degree segments, with obstruction data for each. So I can see exactly where the problem is. I leave the dish in each location for a couple days to build up enough data for a reliable readout.

Location is california north coast 39N.

 

[cqaigy2]

These sound pretty good speeds. Now if they will send mine now.

 

[SouthernSky]

Could some of you Starlink users on here please have a read of my new webpage and tell me if I have missed anything useful off, or if I have made any mistakes ?

Starlink internet satellite dish installing – A.T.V. Poles, Brackets, Clamps & Aerials

www.aerialsandtv.com

So if this dish points nearly straight up instead of at an angle to the horizon like Directv, does this mean every time it rains the dish becomes a bowl for rain?

 

[BigBlue1]

So if this dish points nearly straight up instead of at an angle to the horizon like Directv, does this mean every time it rains the dish becomes a bowl for rain?

The facing surface of the dish is flat, not a bowl.

Rob

 

[Wakey]

Info on possible lasers..

https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/mdlprz

 

[BigBlue1]

Follow-up on my first week's experience (slightly over that).

The first day or two I was getting 90-150+ Mb/s speeds. But there were a variety of service disruptions. Figured it was somewhat expected due to the beta. But some of the disruptions involved the one PC I have connected to the Starlink wifi not recovering its connection even after Starlink was healthy. My phone would be back online but the PC wouldn't. I'd have to connect the PC to another wifi and then back to Starlink to reconnect it. This is not normally how things work when the access point loses Internet and then re-connects, and not normal for my PC. And after the second day my speeds were down consistently to around 30 Mb/s.

I opened a support request (via their web form) on 3/25 about this. The black box was getting pretty hot so I was wondering if something was wrong with the equipment causing the issues. They finally responded to me on 3/30 (5 days, but 2 were weekend). They claimed they checked their stats and found that my system was reporting blockage to the NW a portion of the time. My house is that direction and the dish had auto-pointed itself to the NW so this might be true. It's just sitting in my lawn for now until my roof mount arrives. They did say the box was expected to run hot ("may seem warmer than other power supplies in your home").

Last two days the wind was so strong it blew the dish over so I moved it to a safe spot (on the porch) so it wasn't in use for a day and a half. Wind is gone today so I re-located it further from the house. We'll see if the drop-outs are less frequent and recover better now. Speeds are back to the original range so hopefully that remains consistent too.

Thoughts:

If the dish was blocked, which is possible, I don't fault the Starlink system for the issues. We'll see how things improve (or not). I'm glad they had access to info that gave this insight. I do dislike the fact that they didn't respond very quickly to my support request. Would prefer a phone or chat setup for quicker access. I'd like to have better access in the Starlink app to get into the system. Would like more control over the router and to be able to see the info about blockages through the system. The phone app's 'blockage checker' is a joke. It'd be easier to just lay on the ground and look around to determine blockage!

I had tried my work VPN over Starlink the first couple days but the disconnects were a problem. I'll try again soon if things seem more stable with the new dish placement.

 

[JethroB]

I may have missed it, but has anyone in the Deep South received the equipment. Say below a line south of Tennessee?

 

[rekees4300]

Follow-up on my first week's experience (slightly over that).

The first day or two I was getting 90-150+ Mb/s speeds. But there were a variety of service disruptions. Figured it was somewhat expected due to the beta. But some of the disruptions involved the one PC I have connected to the Starlink wifi not recovering its connection even after Starlink was healthy. My phone would be back online but the PC wouldn't. I'd have to connect the PC to another wifi and then back to Starlink to reconnect it. This is not normally how things work when the access point loses Internet and then re-connects, and not normal for my PC. And after the second day my speeds were down consistently to around 30 Mb/s.

I opened a support request (via their web form) on 3/25 about this. The black box was getting pretty hot so I was wondering if something was wrong with the equipment causing the issues. They finally responded to me on 3/30 (5 days, but 2 were weekend). They claimed they checked their stats and found that my system was reporting blockage to the NW a portion of the time. My house is that direction and the dish had auto-pointed itself to the NW so this might be true. It's just sitting in my lawn for now until my roof mount arrives. They did say the box was expected to run hot ("may seem warmer than other power supplies in your home").

Last two days the wind was so strong it blew the dish over so I moved it to a safe spot (on the porch) so it wasn't in use for a day and a half. Wind is gone today so I re-located it further from the house. We'll see if the drop-outs are less frequent and recover better now. Speeds are back to the original range so hopefully that remains consistent too.

Thoughts:

If the dish was blocked, which is possible, I don't fault the Starlink system for the issues. We'll see how things improve (or not). I'm glad they had access to info that gave this insight. I do dislike the fact that they didn't respond very quickly to my support request. Would prefer a phone or chat setup for quicker access. I'd like to have better access in the Starlink app to get into the system. Would like more control over the router and to be able to see the info about blockages through the system. The phone app's 'blockage checker' is a joke. It'd be easier to just lay on the ground and look around to determine blockage!

I had tried my work VPN over Starlink the first couple days but the disconnects were a problem. I'll try again soon if things seem more stable with the new dish placement.

It's likely their Support will improve as they migrate from Beta to Business. At the present time their primary mission is creating a complex system that works. That requires employees who are engineering oriented rather than customer oriented.

 

[lostcreekranch]

I may have missed it, but has anyone in the Deep South received the equipment. Say below a line south of Tennessee?

No news .. here on the 29th parallel.