Starlink

[grsthegreat]

When I rented out my place the tenant installed a dish but almost every year trees would cause problems…

No direct experience with starlink good or bad but my thought is trees would continue to be an ongoing issue.

My starlink dish points nearly straigt up…i forget the angle. Maybe 10 percent? Trees arnt an issue.

That being said…i just trenched in my pipe run from the fiber box to my house yesterday. Will contact fiber company monday to schedule my hookup.

 

[Eagle1]

Starlink uses many satellites not just one in orbit. It learns the best pattern over time. Also look much higher in the sky than Direct or Dish. It tells you where to aim on the app, and shows that in real time. Easy.
You can throw it flat on the ground and will connect in a pretty small window and give you real time obstruction information.
Heck you can mount it in a tree....

 

[grsthegreat]

Starlink uses many satellites not just one in orbit. It learns the best pattern over time. Also look much higher in the sky than Direct or Dish. It tells you where to aim on the app, and shows that in real time. Easy.
You can throw it flat on the ground and will connect in a pretty small window and give you real time obstruction information.
Heck you can mount it in a tree....
View attachment 5017512

I would think a tree would move too much to maintain a good signal. The gen3 dis does not move.

 

[JRH02]

When I rented out my place the tenant installed a dish but almost every year trees would cause problems…

No direct experience with starlink good or bad but my thought is trees would continue to be an ongoing issue.

I have used all the other 'satellite' internet and TV vendors and had those pointing issues. But the Starlink view goes mostly straight up with a little lean to the north. I have interference on the far extremes of the Starlink dish's view but if has no affect on reliability or speed. There's more satellites now which lessens the chance for the problems further yet.

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

I considered satellite in the Pacific Northwest but being heavily forested is an ongoing challenge and pricing and wait time for delivery much higher then.

Are the trees overhanging your house? My lot is heavily treed but not right up to the house. I have the gen 3 dish mounted on a soffit at a slight angle to horizontal that means the tops of some trees are probably in line with it but I'm consistently getting the advertised speeds. There are also mounts that put the dish on the roof peak so unless you have 100' tall trees very close to the house I don't think they'd be a problem.

That said, we use a Starlink mini when traveling in our motorhome and a couple times we've been in camp sites with near 100% tree cover and we did have issues with delays and short disconnects.

 

[IXLR8]

I would think a tree would move too much to maintain a good signal. The gen3 dis does not move.

Starlink says the tree can sway 3ft before there is an issue.

 

[ultrarunner]

The trees by the house were removed but with old growth Doug Fir 130+ feet and Cedar the challenge was clear path for HD is the renters complaint…

The home is on a down slope adjacent to small salt water lagoon.

The old dish had quite an angle which I’m guessing is the root cause.

I can see where close to vertical is the ticket.

 

[Fallon]

I would think a tree would move too much to maintain a good signal. The gen3 dis does not move.

You can attach the dish to a car cruising down the freeway or a boat rocking in the water.

Gen 1 & 2 dishes have motors to point it vaguely towards the most open part of the sky. The dish itself is a phased array antenna. It can instantly steer the beam by a large angle. 100 degrees or so I believe.

With low earth orbit satellites a given satellite is only in view for a couple minutes. Cheap consumer motor hardware is nowhere fast or precise enough to track them. Hence them not even trying & using the phased array antennas.

There are enough satellites up there now that they don't even bother with the motors on the gen 3 or mini hardware at all. Just pointing it vaguely at open sky is close enough for the phased array antenna to get a lock. It was harder to do with fewer satellites up there, but with more birds they can get rid of the motors to save money without giving up connectivity.

 

[Fallon]

On a camping trip last summer my gen 2 dish decided it would rather look at the trees rather than the open sky I initially pointed the dish at. I was going to try & fix it, but connectivity was fine, so I didn't bother.

View attachment 5017525View attachment 5017526

 

[Fallon]

I still hate Tapatalk attaching multiple photos.