60 satellites ready to deploy
Posted on 01/25/2023 5:17:31 PM PST by eyeamok
Ok, so I live in the mountains, we barely have electricity and no other utilities of any kind, no phone,cable,...I have been using an unlimited mobile hotspot I got from Calyxinstitute.org for the last few years. It was on the Sprint network, but T Mobile bought Sprint and screwed it all up, Now it SUCKS, so I started looking for another ISP and decided to go with Starlink.(3 months ago)
I ordered it and it showed up 2 days later, I installed it over the weekend, my only real complaint is about how large the plug is from antenna to router, it required me to drill a hole 1 1/4" in diameter to fit the damned 90 degree plug. Once hooked up it took about 5 minutes for it to Self Align, loaded the App on my tablet and setup user/password for router and it was ON and UP!!
during this time I had never received any emails for confirmation, but the CC I used got jacked the day after I ordered it so the recurring bill wasn't going to go thru. I tried resetting on their site, dozens of times, sent support tickets, nothing worked never got anything, I run my own Mail Server and I never put all the records in my DNS because I never needed them, but I think they didn't like my email with no DMARC or SPF records, I finally I sent an email to SpaceX and got a reply, all they did was tell me I would get an email with a link to reset password, Never got anything but I didn't give up trying. then I went into the DNS and set all the records right, Finally when the credit card they had on file failed the second time, they sent me an email with a link top setup my account. I was able to login and fix everything.
They have NO CUSTOMER SERVICE of any kind and you can't call them if you have a problem. So don't screw anything up when you order it. However I am thoroughly impressed and pleased with the systems speed and operation, it really works Great and I would highly recommend it for others in my position. It is $110 per month and you have to buy the equipment up front for $600 also. But it is Absolutely worth every nickel, no blips, no hiccups, no Problems of any kind.
Well then, I will see if it is available where I live. A friend of mine was talking about it when we were smoking cigars and we looked up the coverage map.
At least at the time it didn’t cover most of the middle to east United States.
Maybe it’s changed since then.
“The satellites are in low orbit and are not Geo Sync satellites”
^^^This is my favorite thing about Starlink.^^^
We decided to ride out the COVID shutdowns in our vacation home in northeast PA. Originally I was using my phone as a hotspot (Verizon) for work but when the nice weather rolls around the area becomes a vacation destination and cell signal suffers. OK. Figured I’ll get satellite internet. Went with Hughesnet and while it was fine in many respects it’s biggest weakness is latency. It was wholly unsuitable for video conferencing and when I was on meetings someone would ask me a question and by the time my response got to them they would be on another topic. Starlink completely eliminated this and costs me $70 per month less than Hughesnet.
There are some other benefits as well. I have faster download and upload speeds, I can control heating the dish from the app on my phone to melt snow/ice, and the signal is so robust that in 5 months I have not lost signal due to rain/snow (something that would happen regularly with both my Hughesnet and Direct TV dishes.)
I live 15 minutes from WV in VA and we have it. The key is to get a clear shot at the satellite
Thanks for info.
I’m still with local telephone coop and DSL.
At first I thought Starlink would give a off grid solution to internet. When I looked at the power consumption that did not look favorable. Some of my local ham friends are working on a project to link local area with wireless network outside the internet. With option to be linked to web.
For emergency coms.
People see their area as not available wait list and assume they can never get it. They have to get on the wait list and wait their turn as capacity is added. But if they never get on the list they’ll never get a turn
Starlink has thousands. For most people their dish tends to point North
We’ve had over 50 inches of snow here. The dish has a heater in it that keeps the snow melted off of it
It is plug and play. You can plug it in and use it right out of the box. Permanently installing it does take a bit of skill but just about anybody can handle it
If it is going to interfere with Earth-based astrology then I’m against it, I can’t get through the day without my horoscope.
I bought a sturdy 39 inch Jpole mount with braces and attached to the house eve. Then had an old 2 inch galvanized pipe that was 5 ft long and found a Universal coupler which was $99 but a solid hunk of stainless steel and two pole clamps.
I clamped the 5 ft pipe on the Jpole mount and put the coupler on the end of the pipe and tightened it down and dropped the dish right down into the precut holes. So far it’s went through 40 mph winds and nasty summer thunderstorms in Kentucky mountains.
Pretty good all around site for domain/email record settings, https://mxtoolbox.com/dmarc.aspx
We have pretty decent DSL here because we happen to live near the BIG phone junction box. The one that has it’s own electric service and meter. They’ve been working on running fiber optic throughout all the neighborhoods but still need to run it down the hwy to town. Said they’re waiting on some fedgov teat money/grant for that. I think the ex is paying over $100/mth for fiber in town so I imagine they’ll be charging that out here. I’m thinking about going with Starlink.
Since you’re off grid, you probably know how much power the whole thing takes???
We lived off grid for 5 years and I wouldn’t mind getting the solar panels put back up. It’s only 500 watts but with good batteries, that will run electronics.
Some people just like to grump on everything
60 satellites ready to deploy
The cat traps . . . they’re working
Tell me more. And these things have a heater built in? Yuck.
ya i know, i just get times of all the elon musk hate
"Why not just make the boosters land and reuse them." Wonder how many old NASA guys laughed at the idea and I wonder how small their gonads shrunk when they saw this?
He wanted to land manned capsules the same way but NASA said no. Guess they were worried about the visual, uhmm, impact if something went wrong.
yes, till spacex got the first stage landing right they were exciting to watch, best thing for me is i get to watch a falcon 9 that launch from vandenberg. on a nice clear night i can see the landing burn.
“They deploy 50-60 on each launch. “
Thanks, I’ve watched several of these launches/deployments live via the internet.
Mrs. BBB333 doesn’t get the fun in it...
“Tell me more. And these things have a heater built in? Yuck.”
Yes, there is a heater as some installations require the dish to be mounted on a roof (or someplace equally inaccessible during the winter months).
You can choose, via the app:
OFF: Never use extra power to melt snow (southern climes or off the grid folks that have a way to clear the dish from snow),
AUTOMATIC: Automatically detect snow and heat up when needed,
PRE-HEAT: Keep warm to better resist snow build-up. This option may increase power consumption,
I use AUTOMATIC and it works very well. My client lives on the other side of the valley in a very snowy and inaccessible area and uses PRE-HEAT.
Your mileage may vary...
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