Jack
Senior Member
We managed to come up with enough reasons to convince ourselves that Starlink would be a reasonable outlay for the benefits afforded.
From a thirty day trip through British Columbia, Canada, we have some results.
Our rationalization for Starlink: We have just 5Gb internet on T-Mobile while roaming in Canada – 10Gb with two phones. But Google Maps, even with offline maps, still chews up Gb. We also need to check for BC wildfire and smoke conditions on a regular basis. We don’t stream movies and such, but have to confess that we track weather, news, look up local geology and points of interest, historical background of places we stumble onto, search for interesting places to go to next and be able to make calls over WiFi when no cell service is at hand.
WiFi at RV parks is seldom excellent and often barely useable. WiFi at Starbucks or a visitor information center is usually very good but requires a planned stop. Cell broadband, where available, runs from marginal to excellent. Our WeBoost extends the range significantly, but we camp in a lot of places without cell service. And then there’s Canada (or the US if you live in Canada), where your monthly data is capped. For T-Mobile, its 5 Gb – enough for a week, but not a month. Most cell plans cost extra for hotspot so you can use your laptop or you need to setup PdaNet which requires some effort.
Cost:
Cost for hardware is $599 plus $50 shipping. Figure 7 to 10 days after ordering. Cost for roaming is $150/mo for lower priority service and $250/mo for 50Gb priority mobile (additional priority data available)). There are no caps on download Gb for roaming.
You can stop your roaming subscription at the end of 30 days and then restart it whenever. If you use Starlink at home as well, you still, I believe, need to pay $150/mo so you can pack up and travel anytime. If you leave Starlink in one place, you pay $130/mo. And Starlink always knows where your antenna is located
Note: if you don’t plan to use Starlink right after purchasing the hardware, go online and cancel your initial monthly subscription soon after you order.
Equipment:
The antenna unit includes all o processing hardware. The Starlink router is simply a WiFi access point and an AC-DC converter from 110VAC to 48VDC to power the antenna. Starlink knows who owns the antenna and if you want to sell it, you have to de-register it with Starlink. This also means that if someone steals the antenna, it has no value. Of course, there are a lot of dumb thieves out there, so there is some risk. We always take the antenna with us if we run an errand.
The Starlink app (iPhone and Android) is requires to manage the equipment.
Power:
Starlink draws between 4A and 7.5A through my DC-AC inverter. This varies depending on your data rate - if you are not transmitting, less power is drawn. Even at about 5A idle, leaving it on overnight will burn through 40A or more. The optimal times to use Starlink is after solar has recharged your battery and you have excess solar power or before you head out on the road for several hours and can recharge with a DC-DC charger from your vehicle’s alternator. If you have a string of cloudy/rainy days, as has been known to happen in the PNW, you need to watch your Starlink time carefully. And don’t forget that your laptop will add a few more Ah. Recharging two cell phones will draw another 3Ah to 5Ah.
In our FWC Fleet, with a compressor refrigerator, lights , electronics, and some minor furnace and fan time., we could easily go through 50Ah a night – with temperatures ranging from 55’F to 78’F. We have a 280Ah LiFePO4 battery, but 200Ah of Lithium batteries should be adequate if you sit for 3 days with minimal solar. With the rule of thumb to never discharge AGM batteries below 30%, 200Ah works with parsimonious use of your electronics.
Converting to a DC supply would be somewhat more efficient, but it is not trivial and it’s DIY - Starlink does not offer it’s own DC option. My initial attempt was not successful but I plan to try again.
Unless you are running on shore power, you want to turn off Snow Melt. Starlink turns on antenna heaters in cold weather. If it is snowing, manually clean off the antenna.
Setup:
Daily setup is quick, less than 5 minutes. With a Ling-Ling Chicken and Vegetable Potstickers box from Costco (just the right size) I built a simple box to protect the antenna and stow it in the back of the truck cab along with the antenna feet. The cable runs into the Fleet through the front tie-down access.
When you are ready to pack it up, you need to remember to stow it (full antenna tilt) to make it easier to pack): On the Starlink app, go to Settings/Starlink, and slide the Stow slider. It un-stows automatically when you power it up.
Location, Location, Location:
If you look at the map of the Starlink satellite orbits, https://satellitemap.space/ or https://starlink.sx/ you will see that the area below the 54th parallel is well covered. Below the 54th parallel, view of the sky can be much less important than above.
The app has a feature where you point your camera at the open sky (rotating as you point upwards) and you get an estimate of obstructions. Starlink will work with some level of obstructions, but you will experience periodic dropouts. For the first 5 or so hours after bootup, Starlink records loss of connectivity due to obstructions and uses that information to switch to a different satellite sooner than would be the case if there were no obstructions.
At latitudes above the 54th parallel north (and below the 54th parallel south), antenna placement is critical – you need a wide-open view of the sky, or at least a swatch of open sky consistent with the orbit of the satellites.
The rectangular antenna looks at a somewhat narrow and partial swath of the sky. If there are other Starlink antennas nearby, observe how they are facing. Otherwise wait until your antenna has searched and gone online for a few minutes, even if sporadically and observe its orientation. Now relocate your antenna so that the face of the antenna avoids as many obstacles (trees, buildings and such) as possible. My experience was that a north-south orientation was almost always the desired orientation.
Below the 54th parallel, Starlink seems to be able to handle a much narrow view of the sky.
Starlink tilts and rotates the antenna as needed after booting and it’s initial searching, After going online, note the position of the antenna and if you can, move it, without changing its orientation, to avoid obstacles for the swath of sky at which it is oriented.
Speeds:
Starlink has two mobile performance tiers. Best Effort / Mobile - Unlimited data. Always at a lower priority than other plans. 5-50 Mbps Download, 2-10 Mbps Upload. Priority / Mobile Priority - Priority usage, priority capped based on your data plan (50Gb, 1Tb or 5T
thereafter basic priority. 40-220 Mbps Download, 8-25 Mbps Upload.
In areas with a relatively high density of Starlink subscribers, speed becomes much more dependent on subscriber priority – basic roamers take a back seat to fixed location subscribers.
Starlink basic roaming speeds, as monitored every 3 seconds by a download program over the course downloading 1.1Gb to 2.4Gb files, varied from 10 Mbps to 143 Mbps over the course of a few minutes in several locations in remote parts of British Columbia where there was good view of the sky. It appears that Starlink adjusts the download speed on a second-by-second basis to provide a balanced response for all users. Because speeds vary so much over even a minute, typical speed tests will not provide an accurate measure of performance. It really comes down to: is the response time for your particular activity poor, adequate, or very good, be it user interface, video, streaming or file download. Starlinks’s own speed test, was somewhat better than speedtest.org, but still not reliable.
From a thirty day trip through British Columbia, Canada, we have some results.
Our rationalization for Starlink: We have just 5Gb internet on T-Mobile while roaming in Canada – 10Gb with two phones. But Google Maps, even with offline maps, still chews up Gb. We also need to check for BC wildfire and smoke conditions on a regular basis. We don’t stream movies and such, but have to confess that we track weather, news, look up local geology and points of interest, historical background of places we stumble onto, search for interesting places to go to next and be able to make calls over WiFi when no cell service is at hand.
WiFi at RV parks is seldom excellent and often barely useable. WiFi at Starbucks or a visitor information center is usually very good but requires a planned stop. Cell broadband, where available, runs from marginal to excellent. Our WeBoost extends the range significantly, but we camp in a lot of places without cell service. And then there’s Canada (or the US if you live in Canada), where your monthly data is capped. For T-Mobile, its 5 Gb – enough for a week, but not a month. Most cell plans cost extra for hotspot so you can use your laptop or you need to setup PdaNet which requires some effort.
Cost:
Cost for hardware is $599 plus $50 shipping. Figure 7 to 10 days after ordering. Cost for roaming is $150/mo for lower priority service and $250/mo for 50Gb priority mobile (additional priority data available)). There are no caps on download Gb for roaming.
You can stop your roaming subscription at the end of 30 days and then restart it whenever. If you use Starlink at home as well, you still, I believe, need to pay $150/mo so you can pack up and travel anytime. If you leave Starlink in one place, you pay $130/mo. And Starlink always knows where your antenna is located
Note: if you don’t plan to use Starlink right after purchasing the hardware, go online and cancel your initial monthly subscription soon after you order.
Equipment:
The antenna unit includes all o processing hardware. The Starlink router is simply a WiFi access point and an AC-DC converter from 110VAC to 48VDC to power the antenna. Starlink knows who owns the antenna and if you want to sell it, you have to de-register it with Starlink. This also means that if someone steals the antenna, it has no value. Of course, there are a lot of dumb thieves out there, so there is some risk. We always take the antenna with us if we run an errand.
The Starlink app (iPhone and Android) is requires to manage the equipment.
Power:
Starlink draws between 4A and 7.5A through my DC-AC inverter. This varies depending on your data rate - if you are not transmitting, less power is drawn. Even at about 5A idle, leaving it on overnight will burn through 40A or more. The optimal times to use Starlink is after solar has recharged your battery and you have excess solar power or before you head out on the road for several hours and can recharge with a DC-DC charger from your vehicle’s alternator. If you have a string of cloudy/rainy days, as has been known to happen in the PNW, you need to watch your Starlink time carefully. And don’t forget that your laptop will add a few more Ah. Recharging two cell phones will draw another 3Ah to 5Ah.
In our FWC Fleet, with a compressor refrigerator, lights , electronics, and some minor furnace and fan time., we could easily go through 50Ah a night – with temperatures ranging from 55’F to 78’F. We have a 280Ah LiFePO4 battery, but 200Ah of Lithium batteries should be adequate if you sit for 3 days with minimal solar. With the rule of thumb to never discharge AGM batteries below 30%, 200Ah works with parsimonious use of your electronics.
Converting to a DC supply would be somewhat more efficient, but it is not trivial and it’s DIY - Starlink does not offer it’s own DC option. My initial attempt was not successful but I plan to try again.
Unless you are running on shore power, you want to turn off Snow Melt. Starlink turns on antenna heaters in cold weather. If it is snowing, manually clean off the antenna.
Setup:
Daily setup is quick, less than 5 minutes. With a Ling-Ling Chicken and Vegetable Potstickers box from Costco (just the right size) I built a simple box to protect the antenna and stow it in the back of the truck cab along with the antenna feet. The cable runs into the Fleet through the front tie-down access.
When you are ready to pack it up, you need to remember to stow it (full antenna tilt) to make it easier to pack): On the Starlink app, go to Settings/Starlink, and slide the Stow slider. It un-stows automatically when you power it up.
Location, Location, Location:
If you look at the map of the Starlink satellite orbits, https://satellitemap.space/ or https://starlink.sx/ you will see that the area below the 54th parallel is well covered. Below the 54th parallel, view of the sky can be much less important than above.
The app has a feature where you point your camera at the open sky (rotating as you point upwards) and you get an estimate of obstructions. Starlink will work with some level of obstructions, but you will experience periodic dropouts. For the first 5 or so hours after bootup, Starlink records loss of connectivity due to obstructions and uses that information to switch to a different satellite sooner than would be the case if there were no obstructions.
At latitudes above the 54th parallel north (and below the 54th parallel south), antenna placement is critical – you need a wide-open view of the sky, or at least a swatch of open sky consistent with the orbit of the satellites.
The rectangular antenna looks at a somewhat narrow and partial swath of the sky. If there are other Starlink antennas nearby, observe how they are facing. Otherwise wait until your antenna has searched and gone online for a few minutes, even if sporadically and observe its orientation. Now relocate your antenna so that the face of the antenna avoids as many obstacles (trees, buildings and such) as possible. My experience was that a north-south orientation was almost always the desired orientation.
Below the 54th parallel, Starlink seems to be able to handle a much narrow view of the sky.
Starlink tilts and rotates the antenna as needed after booting and it’s initial searching, After going online, note the position of the antenna and if you can, move it, without changing its orientation, to avoid obstacles for the swath of sky at which it is oriented.
Speeds:
Starlink has two mobile performance tiers. Best Effort / Mobile - Unlimited data. Always at a lower priority than other plans. 5-50 Mbps Download, 2-10 Mbps Upload. Priority / Mobile Priority - Priority usage, priority capped based on your data plan (50Gb, 1Tb or 5T
thereafter basic priority. 40-220 Mbps Download, 8-25 Mbps Upload.In areas with a relatively high density of Starlink subscribers, speed becomes much more dependent on subscriber priority – basic roamers take a back seat to fixed location subscribers.
Starlink basic roaming speeds, as monitored every 3 seconds by a download program over the course downloading 1.1Gb to 2.4Gb files, varied from 10 Mbps to 143 Mbps over the course of a few minutes in several locations in remote parts of British Columbia where there was good view of the sky. It appears that Starlink adjusts the download speed on a second-by-second basis to provide a balanced response for all users. Because speeds vary so much over even a minute, typical speed tests will not provide an accurate measure of performance. It really comes down to: is the response time for your particular activity poor, adequate, or very good, be it user interface, video, streaming or file download. Starlinks’s own speed test, was somewhat better than speedtest.org, but still not reliable.
