Starlink RV installation and use

[Azcal77]

I've followed your posts re Visible from the beginning, thank you for so much great info. We have 3 lines on Visible, one line used as a Hotspot connected to our Winegard ConnecT 2.0. This works great for us wherever we have a good signal. Excited about the new Starlink and the info you provide.

[mike625]

Originally Posted by smiller

I didn't say that it wasn't competitive in a rural market. What I said was that fact alone will never pay for the system and that it will need to be attractive in urban areas as well since that's where the vast majority of subscribers are.

Just one thing to remember - Their market is world wide and urban areas are not their target market. Direct TV currently has something like 14 to 16 million & has the content costs. Where this allows streaming were everything is moving to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_...0these%20areas.

Approximately 97% of United States' land area is within rural counties, and 60 million people (roughly 19.3% of the population) reside in these areas.

[smiller]

Originally Posted by Isaac-1

They don't have enough bandwidth per satellite footprint to market to high population urban areas, any incidental customers they get in a high population density area will likely have the satellite at near capacity.

Everyone might want to read up on Starlink a little because I don't think there is a good understanding of the scope of the project. They have limited capacity during the early beta phase of course, but the plan is for 12,000 satellites (for which they already have regulatory approval, and have applied to the ITU for up to 30,000 additional) and the goal is up to gigabit speeds virtually everywhere once the system is in full operation. Starlink intends to soak up a significant percentage of last mile (or last 370 mile ) Internet service provision both in commercial backhaul and end user (both rural and urban) markets. The Starship project booster is intended to be able to loft 400 satellites in a single launch.

Will they meet these goals? Who knows, but never bet against Musk. In any event StarLink is most certainly not intended to serve only rural areas as even brief reading will reveal.

[Isaac-1]

Correct, but each of those 12,000 satellites will only be broadcasting a 200 or so mile wide beam at any given moment. In the early days like now that means a person on the ground must have a clear view of much of the sky to get a continuous signal, as the constellation fills in then people will be able to get signal with partly obstructed views of the sky most of the time as the satellite moves across the sky from horizon to horizon in about 5-6 minutes..

[MRUSA14]

What about any data usage limitations on the $99 plan?

I hope you Beta testers are prepared for frequent service outages, especially if you are moving around. That's why it is a Beta test. Their current limited satellite inventory will likely only provide reliable service in a small geographical area.

[Isaac-1]

Given that they have launched over 800 satellites since January, and 120 in October alone, these coverage gaps will likely fill in very quickly.

[gsgriffin]

Since I ordered within hours of their offering and they shipped it that day, I would imagine that this is one of the first reviews. Probably some money makers on YouTube posting today as well?

Anyhow, the antenna comes in an Apple-Like box. Almost nothing on the outside. Inside as you open it is a huge white panel with the three illustrated steps. Inside, everything is already pre-connected and cables are color coded to match the port they plug into. Almost too easy.

When you install the phone app and plug in the power cord, the app only has a couple steps....plug in the antenna and position outside. Phone app uses the camera in the phone to determine if their are any obstructions. It tells you to move the phone in specific directions (left, up, right) and then tell you if the antenna needs to be move of if their are obstructions. Wondering if in some small way it is using any of the tech from Tesla cars to determine what is an obstruction or not.

Once you connect with you phone to the antenna, the antenna can rotate on the post and then tilt about 80 degrees. It sets itself up to be perfectly level to the ground and waits. From there is tries to acquire a signal. If you lift the tripod, the antenna automatically begins to level itself. Which is really a good sign for RVers. Don't know if this will be good for driving down the road or not.

The power supply is rated for 2.5Amps. That is something but nothing like a fridge or heater. More than many modern TVs, though.

When connected, the phone app has a support option for "Stow". Once that is clicked, the antenna tilts back to the original storage angle (about 80 degrees). It then disconnects and appears to power off the wifi. The wifi, is an interestingly angular box that doesn't stand up well, but looks very cool and appears to be POE (gets the power through the Cat5 cable). If you unplug the wifi and plug it back it, that appears to wake up the antenna, at which point it then tilts back to a neutral position for the sky.

There is a stamp showing IP54 rating, which should be fine for mounting on the roof of the RV, but my thought it to look at doing something off the back ladder. The post to the antenna has little push locks that snap into holes for the base. I will start to look for pipes that will fit that and then determine hole positioning. If this could be mounted off or next to the ladder, it could then be easily removed and placed back on the tripod and positioned into the open to avoid obstructions (of course, I thinking about off-grid location where you have room to do that).

If you have ideas or thoughts about how to mount or use this based on what I've described, I would enjoy the conversation and ideas. Lots of smart people with ingenuity on this site.

[docj]

If you wanted to use this as a ground-mounted device, would there be any obvious way to secure it with a security cable?

[gsgriffin]

Originally Posted by docj

If you wanted to use this as a ground-mounted device, would there be any obvious way to secure it with a security cable?

Great question! No. It is not designed for that, but drilling a hole through the post would not be hard or get in the way of anything, so long as you give it enough slack to rotate.

[smiller]

Another minor question... does it work? (given that you are not precisely where they think you are)

[gsgriffin]

I don't expect it to work exactly where I'm at. It is set to work on our location in Montana, and I had ir shipped to where we currently are in New Mexico so I could spend time installing it first. Hopefully be back north in January and with range. Hopefully there is at least one other person on this site that is also getting it and can join this thread.

With the amount of money they are investing,I have no doubt it will prove better and more consistent than cellular over time. I'm investing now with a long-term perspective.

[docj]

Originally Posted by gsgriffin

With the amount of money they are investing,I have no doubt it will prove better and more consistent than cellular over time. I'm investing now with a long-term perspective.

I'll be interested in knowing how much clear sky aperture the system is going to insist on. Of course, until you get back up north where there are more satellites available you may not be able to tell.

[gsgriffin]

Originally Posted by docj

I'll be interested in knowing how much clear sky aperture the system is going to insist on. Of course, until you get back up north where there are more satellites available you may not be able to tell.

Correct, I won't be able to test until north again...hopefully someone else in the public beta jumps on this thread. I'm going to focus on setup and installation. Use will be confirmed by the entire public beta population, which I'm sure will be posting videos on YouTube like mad over the next few days to confirm use.

I do believe that 45 degrees the maximum design angle for a signal with the satellites. This, of course, would be close 45 degrees on the ground as well (unless we really want to argue about the curvature of the earth and things as picky as that).

A 45 degree opening overhead won't be too hard for me to get...especially since parking under trees is not my primary objective with a solar roof, but coming up with a mounting design that allows me to simply climb my rear ladder, grab the antenna, and pop it on the tripod somewhere nearby will still be a priority. I didn't measure the cable that comes with it, but it is pretty long.

This is (from what I've seen) a much steeper angle than what current sat dishes might be pointed to. Some seem to barely scrape the horizon as current satellites are designed for far fewer of them and people over a wide region all sharing a single satellite. Starlink will be focused much more upward and the satellites are eventually designed and planned to be passing closer to overhead all the time.

[gsgriffin]

Tesmanian: Early SpaceX Starlink beta customers say they are 'Streaming 4K with zero buffering'.
https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesm...starlink-speed