Any StarLink installed

oscar1

I am preparing the boat for a long trip, and I would like to get internet even in a remote location, so I am wonder if any one has install or play around with the Starlink dish yet. Thx 

YYZRC

Subscribed! 

There are point to point options where I boat but they are not viable as you need to keep the receiver pointed at the transmitter. The other issue here is that I only need a 5 month subscription (boating season) but they want to lock you in for a year and it’s not cheap. 

I have been relying on 4G and a router. 

https://www.outdoorrouter.ca/canada-4g-cellular-router-cat-6-modem/

I bought an external omni antenna for the router but it works well with the whole unit just tossed up on the bow so I haven’t bothered to install the antenna yet. I don’t want to shade my solar setup so I would need to go with a bow rail mount I guess. 

Willhound

I have experienced Starlink through my brother who has a dish and one of their travelling accounts so that he can take it between his summer cottage and home. Pretty slick and speed/quality was good but as @YYZRC points out, needs to be a static position on the dish, so likely not viable on the hook. Set up is pretty neat. Plug the dish into an electrical outlet, point it in the general direction of the closest satellite (you can get this info based on your location), use the app on your phone to get it dialed in closer, hit the lock button and the dish will take over and do the final point and lock itself. But all from a solid, non-moving position. Would be fine off a dock/slip at a marina, if they'd let you place it somewhere.

Liberty44140

Yea also subscribed. Our marina Wi-Fi is junk and I’d like good internet at our home dock. Considering getting starlink. Thinking perhaps the boat we share a finger with could split the monthly fee with me and we could share it. 

Willhound

We considered it for our RV that is in a full time park. But the initial cost was about a G note CDN and $140 a month. Went with a wireless LTE setup that utilizes signal from a cellular tower but on a separate wavelength so not impeded by cell traffic. Zero upfront or install fee and $100 CDN a month but can put on hold over winter. Download speeds up to 50MpS (we generally see around 40-50) and unlimited data but throttled back after 450 Gigs. You likely have much better deals in the US. We get hosed up here. Too much regulation and not enough competition.

YYZRC

Which provider @Willhound ?

Willhound

Bell. I left them several years ago at home for a reseller, Vmedia, for about half the cost. But for our RV it was about the only non wired option. I have to say though that my interaction with them this time around (so far) has been good. Had a lightening strike in a nearby tree that fried the router and I had a new one sent to me at no charge within 2 days.

J3ff

Yes, boat next to mine has it up and running, it's fast and great for what it is. Not as fast as the marina comcast connection though. Plenty fast for normal browsing, watching a show and emails, but you aren't going to be moving huge files up and down to the cloud through it quickly..

YYZRC

@oscar1 here’s my Starlink install. Happy so far!!

LaRea

Starlink Roam?

YYZRC

I am on their “Mobile” (RV) plan. 

Lake_Bum

I don't own one personally, but I've been on the lake around it, and also deep into the woods out hunting with it, and it works great with the RV plan.  Even video zoom calls are crystal clear. 

YYZRC

I’m in the most sub-optimal scenario right now at the marina - facing SSE and therefore the dish is angled slightly SSE. 

PickleRick

Hard to see but pretty sure we got a glimpse of starlink over head 

PickleRick

Sorry pic won't post without WiFi...or paying for starlink.  Will post when we get off the water

PickleRick

PickleRick

Willhound

I wouldn't be surprised you can spot them. There are over 4500 currently in orbit with about 42000 planned overall. Skynet is here. Surrender. Resistance is futile.....😆

PickleRick

With the US governments admission of finding space craft and life forms of unknown origin....it does kind of make you think.   There were right at a dozen of the lights in a straight line overhead moving much faster than your average commercial aircraft.    Spacing wasn't all perfect but they were all very close together.  

YYZRC

Well, sometimes things don’t go according to plan. 

After 23 hours of uptime, the Starlink died. I reached out to tech support and they said based on debug logs I probably have a defective cable (which is proprietary). They agree to send me a new cable at no charge but their shipping takes 1.5 weeks. 

In the meantime I buy a new cable locally and try it. No dice, dish is still dead. I start reading up on things and discover that this is quite common and often the connector at the dish fails. Lots of people with RVs on their second or third dishes already. 

I reached out to Starlink support again and explained that the cable isn’t the problem. They sent a whole new kit to me. I just received it yesterday and I am running it at home as a durability test. Will try again this weekend at the boat

Speeds that I am seeing are good (30-40mbps); not gamer quality but plenty good for what I need which is streaming and web browsing. 

So in summary - potential very high, product quality very low. 

Liberty44140

Friend of ours got the RV kit for their boat and it worked great…. Until they pinched the cable right at the connector on the dish and it quit. We’re setting it up after we docked together. Was a bummer as we were on an 8 day trip together and they were happy to share. Not sure if they got a new cable or what. 

Has anyone bought the residential package and used it on their boat? 

YYZRC

That's what I have - residential hardware on the boat.

Liberty44140

Gotcha. Was looking at that to save on the monthly cost vs the mobile/rv package. Residential $110 vs Mobile/RV of $150 per month 

YYZRC

You can register any service address (eg: marina) but Starlink will only work if you are using it there. If you try to use it elsewhere, the app says you either have to return to the service address or upgrade to the mobile plan. 

The other downside to mobile is you usually get slower speeds than residential service. If you want full speed, you have to pay for mobile priority which is another $2/gb on top of the monthly. I haven’t experimented with that yet.

I am usually anchored outside of my home “cell”. Pretty cool mapping here: https://starlink.sx/ (not mobile friendly)