Starlink

[IXLR8]

I just saw that ViaSat lost their injunction against the FCC and Starlink to immediately halt satellite launches. They are still continuing with their suit to halt satellite launches, but the trial won't come before the courts until October at the earliest and I am hoping Starlink will be out of beta by then.

 

[rekees4300]

A strange Elon Musk statement: "I don't want to be the CEO of anything"

Elon Musk: 'I don't want to be CEO of anything'

 

[Doughknob]

"Want" is the key word. He realizes he "has" to be even though he doesn't want to be. HUGE but subtle difference.

 

[ernemats]

Is no one getting dishy lately, have not seen any new posts about receiving their dishy and how it is performing.

 

[plowhog]

Is no one getting dishy lately, have not seen any new posts about receiving their dishy

I've been wondering the same thing. I'm on the waiting list in two locations-- no activity at all.

 

[IXLR8]

I have read of some folks in Michigan getting their dishy's. I have also read some speculation that the chip shortage is hampering production. There is also some speculation of production switching over to a new smaller dishy. The first shell will be filled out before the end of the month and more speculation that once that happens more dishy's will be sent out when that happens.

 

[Smokeydog]

We were on the beta test list for about a year before being selected.

Installed April 2021. Have a heavy stainless steel top on top of my masonry chimney to clamp the base on. View to north clear but some tree tops low north east and north west. When I had signal it was great. Would lose signal at first every 10-15 minutes briefly. This improved somewhat over the first few weeks. Sometimes go for hours before losing signal. Often messages they were having technical trouble sometimes telling me to check for obstruction. Tried contacting several times on how to tell the difference between problems on their end or my install. Could see the dish move at first then stay at a steep angle. Before the first month service payment due contacted to terminate and return. Got a phone call almost immediately as to why? Explaining frequent loss of signal problems. Takes briefly about my install. They were real time looking at my house and could see the dish. Explaining it was on top of the chimney, the highest point, the potential obstructions were few. Told me they were going to launch 100 more satellites soon and that could help. Decided to return. Vague on return reimbursement because of condition of equipment. Boxed up everything and sent back. They asked to allow two weeks to get the equipment back and evaluate before refunding. Waited month and contacted them as to status. 100% refund that day.

When the tech improves I will try again.

 

[plowhog]

Got a phone call almost immediately .... They were real time looking at my house and could see the dish.

Just curious -- how did they (or anyone) have a "real time" view of your property?

 

[RustyA]

I saw a picture of the contractor roofing our house on Google earth a few years ago. Could almost read writing on the t-shirt he was wearing.

 

[ponytug]

Just curious -- how did they (or anyone) have a "real time" view of your property?

The dish sends back statistics, including obstructions. If you think about it, not receiving a signal when you should is like an inverse sonar/radar, which generates the obstruction map. If the dish isn't where it is supposed to be, the obstruction patterns and the GPS location will reflect that.

So not so much a real time view of the whole property as a real time feedback on what the dish is experiencing.

BTW: Starlink mentioned that they added 20,000 customers in July, so they are still ramping up. Just not to everyone just yet.

All the best,

Peter

 

[BigBlue1]

If the app is showing any type of obstructions, even on the fringes of the obstruction view, it can cause drop-outs. I had my dish in several locations on the ground the first month or two and was able to see this firsthand. Also, the update they pushed mid-April improved reliability dramatically. Went from a service I wouldn't use for work (I WFH with WebEx/Teams/Zoom calls much of the day) to being solid enough that it is comparable to any other ISP I've had while living in this rural area. Now I might get a very brief disruption once or twice during a workweek and I only notice it during online meetings. I use Starlink as my primary ISP now and it is great.

The comment on 'real-time view', as noted, was likely about them connecting to the dish to see the stats and obstructions that it is reporting.

 

[Frankenkubota]

saw something on tv yesterday about how the sky's are getting crowded with satellites, both functioning and dead.

some co is building a satellite with a magnet and gonna go collect the dead ones.

the show made the point that there is little to no real planning for unintended results and future congestion, can you believe that?

 

[Doughknob]

saw something on tv yesterday about how the sky's are getting crowded with satellites, both functioning and dead.

some co is building a satellite with a magnet and gonna go collect the dead ones.

the show made the point that there is little to no real planning for unintended results and future congestion, can you believe that?

Its easy to believe. There is no one in charge of "space."

 

[shooterdon]

Looks like I will be getting it soon. Got the email late last week and submitted the payment. Northern MI.

The fiancé is excited!! Hope it works. If it does, we will likely dump Dish TV. We are running two JetPack sim cards now and run out of capacity even with trying to conserve. Looking forward to unlimited Internet.

 

[ponytug]

saw something on tv yesterday about how the sky's are getting crowded with satellites, both functioning and dead.

some co is building a satellite with a magnet and gonna go collect the dead ones.

the show made the point that there is little to no real planning for unintended results and future congestion, can you believe that?

That has changed; folks are now required to do end of life planning, and deorbiting. That's where Starlink, and the low earth orbit that Starlink satellites are in, is so important. Gravity is stronger, and atmospheric drag kicks in relatively quickly to help deorbit even the totally dysfunctional satellites.

The current problem is all the old satellites and booster segments that are in high orbits that will be in orbit for a long long time and risk both hitting other satellites and being hit by a meteor, exploding into zillions of pieces. Then there are the satellite "destruction" tests that the Russians and the Chinese ran that generated who knows how many pieces of material going who knows where. Satelites are moving so quickly that even tiny pieces can punch holes straight through a satellite, or worse blow it into fragments, which can then hit other satellites...

Enjoy the show. It may not last and we may be facing a long long period of not being able to get objects into orbit again.

More here: Space Junk: Is it a disaster waiting to happen?

All the best,

Peter

 

[/pine]

The infrastructure bill that is likely to be passed and signed will give windfall funds to broadband high speed Internet providers...hopefully there will be some accountability that will force the ISPs to actually expand their fiber and cable networks into rural areas which is what the funds will be allocated for...

If enough of the infrastructure is upgraded...anyone currently with ADSL/DSL connections should be able to upgrade to a min. of 25mbs and double that in less remote areas after infrastructure upgrades...

 

[civilian]

Looks like I will be getting it soon. Got the email late last week and submitted the payment. Northern MI.

The fiancé is excited!! Hope it works. If it does, we will likely dump Dish TV. We are running two JetPack sim cards now and run out of capacity even with trying to conserve. Looking forward to unlimited Internet.

Please keep us posted on your upcoming internet improvement.

Your close northern neighbor, ESE of Vanderbilt, MI. Jon

 

[Frankenkubota]

The starlink birds are in low earth orbit. Low enough there is a very little atmospheric drag. That drag will deorbit them after a few years if they don't periodically do maneuvers. Their operational lifespan is only 5-10 years or so. So unlike a lot of the geosynchronous or high altitude birds & boosters starlink is only a short term debris problem at worst.

Orbits are tens of thousands of miles & dealing with miles per second (not hour) of speed. A magnet isn't going to start collecting space junk. Especially not space junk with more kinetic energy than a rifle round. A pant fleck did more damage to the space shuttle windshield than a .22lr years ago.

good point. i was also thinking, how much ferrous metal is in a satellite, i guess they are mostly aluminum ?

 

[ponytug]

The idea isn't to be a magnetic sweeper. It is to attach to a piece of debris tightly enough to push it into deorbiting in a controlled manner. This is zero gs, so it might not take much, and, rather than magnetic attraction, eddy currents might do the job. I've seen proposals to use harpoons. TBD if any of these ideas work, as the deorbiting satellite has to run down the debris, attach, and have enough propellant left over to get the whole shebang out of orbit without hitting anything else.

Definitely in the "lesser of two evils" category to me as I can't imagine what the insurance looks like.

All the best,

Peter