Who Has Starlink?

[Zulu]

From another thread, I know of at least one forum member who has Starlink installed.

Here is Mariposa, CA, I got the invite from Starlink, but decided to wait as I'd get penalized for the early cancellation of my microwave Internet service. Damn.

Anyway, who has Starlink? What's your experience so far?

[dlundby]

I have had Starlink for about 3 months. I live on a farm in Montana and good internet access has been challenging. We live at the end of the power line, the end of the phone line and no cable. Phone line internet is still dial up not even DSL. We were using an unlimited Verizon mobile hot spot. Starlink has been a game changer.

Currently (10:46 pm) the internet speed is 150 Mbps, Latency Upload 25 ms - Loaded 55 ms and Upload speed 16 Mbps. Skies are light overcast and the temperature is 12 degrees.

Speeds have ranged from 46 to 180; usually the speed is in the 90 to 110 range. It appears those numbers have become more consistent as more satellites are deployed. I have had brief moments with no connection and that lasts about 5 to 10 minutes; the no connection has happened about a 4 or 5 times in the 3 months. There also seems to be a correlation of lost signal and the deployment of more satellites. 

The dish warms up in cold weather to help melt snow. However, that feature is slow and only does a moderate job of melting the snow. When the temperature was 20 degrees the dish temperature was about 34. When we where at 35 below the dish temperature was about 16 below. At this point, the area I am in has not had a large dumping of snow; therefore, I do not know how the dish will handle a large accumulation of snow. We have had winds gusting to 75 mph and there were no issues.

The setup was a simple plug and play. The most difficult part was running the ethernet cable into the house; I had to drill a one inch hole. Starlink now has a better system to plug the hole for the cable.

Edited February 18, 2021 by dlundby

[folivier]

dlundby, what is the Gb limit/month if any?  

That is something that is never mentioned but is an important part of the puzzle.

[dlundby]

1 hour ago, folivier said:

dlundby, what is the Gb limit/month if any?  

That is something that is never mentioned but is an important part of the puzzle.

The beta testing does not have any limits.

[Zulu]

12 hours ago, dlundby said:

I have had Starlink for about 3 months. I live on a farm in Montana and good internet access has been challenging. We live at the end of the power line, the end of the phone line and no cable. Phone line internet is still dial up not even DSL. We were using an unlimited Verizon mobile hot spot. Starlink has been a game changer.

 No wonder you're smiling in your photo.

[LindaH]

I got an invitation to Starlink this evening.  I'm not sure I'll take them up on it right now because we're still snowbirds so I wouldn't be able to use it for 4-5 months each year.

However, this paragraph was in the email...can anyone give me an idea of what kind of speeds and latency these numbers represent because I don't have a clue:

"During beta, users can expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s and latency from 20ms to 40ms in most locations over the next several months as we enhance the Starlink system. There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all."

[Dutch_12078]

Those numbers represent pretty good to very good speeds with low delay for most Internet purposes. Those speeds can easily handle multiple streaming feeds. The speeds are also expected to increase as more satellites launch and more ground stations come on line, but the biggest speed gains will likely occur when the new laser linked satellites come online.

[Zulu]

52 minutes ago, LindaH said:

I got an invitation to Starlink this evening.  I'm not sure I'll take them up on it right now because we're still snowbirds so I wouldn't be able to use it for 4-5 months each year.

You have more stamina than I do. I caved and signed up today. However, it might take 4 - 6 weeks for equipment to arrive.

[Chalkie]

10 hours ago, LindaH said:

I got an invitation to Starlink this evening.  I'm not sure I'll take them up on it right now because we're still snowbirds so I wouldn't be able to use it for 4-5 months each year.

I thought this was going to be one of the advantages to Starlink - portability. I have seen pics of the equipment and it doesn't look any larger than a satellite TV dish.

 

[Dutch_12078]

24 minutes ago, Chalkie said:

I thought this was going to be one of the advantages to Starlink - portability. I have seen pics of the equipment and it doesn't look any larger than a satellite TV dish.

 

Starlink mobility has not been implemented in the version 1 user terminals. They are geo-locked to your sign-up service address. Mobility likely won't be available for awhile yet, until there's more sats in the constellation and the hardware/firmware is updated.

[noteven]

The world famous YouTube creator Steve Wallis near Edmonton, Alberta is getting Starlink service. 

You cannot move your earth station around attached to your rig at this point in time with Starlink right?

I'm using a cellular service now approx USD $60/month for 500 gig home based to a single cell tower. It is intended for residential service. 

[Darryl&Rita]

Just now, noteven said:

The world famous YouTube creator Steve Wallis near Edmonton, Alberta is getting Starlink service. 

You cannot move your earth station around attached to your rig at this point in time with Starlink right?

I'm using a cellular service now approx USD $60/month for 500 gig home based to a single cell tower. It is intended for residential service. 

There isn't a Canadian service provider that will work in the US, either. Full stop within 20 km south of the border. Telus and Bell both allow hotspotting the phone, but their data plans are woeful. We've used T-Mobile and Sprint hotspots in the past, as well as Verizon. Straight Talk phones filled in one year when Telus changed plans right before we crossed the border.

[noteven]

13 minutes ago, noteven said:

The world famous YouTube creator Steve Wallis near Edmonton, Alberta is getting Starlink service. 

You cannot move your earth station around attached to your rig at this point in time with Starlink right?

I'm using a cellular service now approx USD $60/month for 500 gig home based to a single cell tower. It is intended for residential service. 

 

7 minutes ago, Darryl&Rita said:

There isn't a Canadian service provider that will work in the US, either. Full stop within 20 km south of the border. Telus and Bell both allow hotspotting the phone, but their data plans are woeful. We've used T-Mobile and Sprint hotspots in the past, as well as Verizon. Straight Talk phones filled in one year when Telus changed plans right before we crossed the border.

Yes. I've used Verizon for the last 4 years prior to this confinement winter. 

Looking at the Starlink website - your Starlink will receive as long as you are in the geometric boundaries of your system's satellite.  So you can move around the farm sounds like. 

My Telus cellular hotspot has been plenty glitchy the last 3 or 4 days. Normally it cruises along fine for my needs. 

[Dutch_12078]

57 minutes ago, noteven said:

...

You cannot move your earth station around attached to your rig at this point in time with Starlink right?

...

That's correct... The individual service is confined to a sort of "spot beam" that limits user terminal movement to about a 15 mile radius of the service address. 

[docj]

9 hours ago, Dutch_12078 said:

That's correct... The individual service is confined to a sort of "spot beam" that limits user terminal movement to about a 15 mile radius of the service address. 

So it would work for RVers if they want to take very short trips!  😂

I've already signed up to get my Starlink system and it should arrive late this year for use in TX.  Even if it sits unused for the months we are traveling it will make a world of difference when we are at our home location.  I can easily absorb the $99/mo by discontinuing one or two of my existing cellular connections none of which provide the speeds that Starlink seems capable of.

[Dutch_12078]

9 minutes ago, docj said:

So it would work for RVers if they want to take very short trips!  😂

I've already signed up to get my Starlink system and it should arrive late this year for use in TX.  Even if it sits unused for the months we are traveling it will make a world of difference when we are at our home location.  I can easily absorb the $99/mo by discontinuing one or two of my existing cellular connections none of which provide the speeds that Starlink seems capable of.

Yep, really short trips it is. I'm sure it'll be perfect for driveway camping though...

[Twotoes]

I think the main problem with mobility is the pointing of the dish needs to be so precise, not like Dish or DirecTv, that it is impractical right now. I have read that Musk is going to link up Starlink with his Tesla automobiles in the future so we who live in RV may have some options in the near future. 

[Chalkie]

5 minutes ago, Twotoes said:

I think the main problem with mobility is the pointing of the dish needs to be so precise, not like Dish or DirecTv, that it is impractical right now. I have read that Musk is going to link up Starlink with his Tesla automobiles in the future so we who live in RV may have some options in the near future. 

That is likely true until there are more satellites up. When I was using a "manual" antenna for DirecTv you had to have it pretty darned precise to get a signal, and now with my Pathway X2 if it misses just one of the satellites it has a fit, and it is automated supposedly. I think things will get more flexible as time goes on with this project.

[durangodon]

45 minutes ago, Twotoes said:

I think the main problem with mobility is the pointing of the dish needs to be so precise, not like Dish or DirecTv, that it is impractical right now. I have read that Musk is going to link up Starlink with his Tesla automobiles in the future so we who live in RV may have some options in the near future. 

I guess I misunderstand Starlink then.  I didn't think the dish had to be pointed at all, except generally at the sky.  I thought the Starlink satellites were in constant motion in the sky, and the receiver latched onto a new one every few hours. 

[LindaH]

On 2/18/2021 at 7:43 PM, Dutch_12078 said:

Those numbers represent pretty good to very good speeds with low delay for most Internet purposes. Those speeds can easily handle multiple streaming feeds. The speeds are also expected to increase as more satellites launch and more ground stations come on line, but the biggest speed gains will likely occur when the new laser linked satellites come online.

Thanks, Dutch.  That helps.

[LindaH]

10 hours ago, docj said:

I've already signed up to get my Starlink system and it should arrive late this year for use in TX.  

That was the other problem for me.  We leave to head south at the end of October, and there's no guarantee we would receive the equipment by then.  

[Dutch_12078]

5 hours ago, durangodon said:

I guess I misunderstand Starlink then.  I didn't think the dish had to be pointed at all, except generally at the sky.  I thought the Starlink satellites were in constant motion in the sky, and the receiver latched onto a new one every few hours. 

You're correct in thinking the antenna only needs a clear look at the sky, albeit with a fairly wide view. The motor drive system is for initial positioning and then the solid state phased array antenna takes over for the actual satellite communications. How often different sats are in view at a given time is increasing as more are added to the constellation, but there's nearly always more than one. Your signal is transferred from one sat to another as they pass by similar to the way cell phones seamlessly move from one tower to another, except in this case the "phone" is fixed, and the "towers" move.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Dutch_12078
typo

[docj]

4 hours ago, durangodon said:

I guess I misunderstand Starlink then.  I didn't think the dish had to be pointed at all, except generally at the sky.  I thought the Starlink satellites were in constant motion in the sky, and the receiver latched onto a new one every few hours. 

That's my understanding, also.  The one caveat is that any obstructions of its field of view can result in loss of your connection (for a period of time).  The system has no way, for instance, of knowing that there's an obstacle that obscures even a small portion of the sky.  So if the satellite you're supposed to be connected to is behind that object, you're out of luck

[Dutch_12078]

...

Edited February 20, 2021 by Dutch_12078
misposted

[Zulu]

You can get a good idea of how much "empty sky" you'll need with these apps: IOS or Android.