One week of Starlink

[oldcorpgunny]

I ordered my Starlink system quite a while ago and have been informed that it'll be around January of 2023 before I see it. I'm OK with the wait. We spend half the year in Arizona and I plan on taking the system with us. I considered the RV setup, but my 5th wheel trailer isn't moving from it's spot way out in the AZ desert. So I'll save a little money on the equipment snf monthly charge.

 

[The Heretic]

I ordered my Starlink system quite a while ago and have been informed that it'll be around January of 2023 before I see it. I'm OK with the wait. We spend half the year in Arizona and I plan on taking the system with us. I considered the RV setup, but my 5th wheel trailer isn't moving from it's spot way out in the AZ desert. So I'll save a little money on the equipment snf monthly charge.

The equipment costs the same, it is the monthly charge that is different. If you add the portability option to the residential service, the monthly cost and service is the same, but you can turn portability on/off. The RV dish you can pause/unpause.

Which to get all depends on when/where/how you envision using it.

My residential dish is supposed to be here monday

 

[RainMan_PNW]

There was some question on the FB Rv group as to whether RV dishys can be transferred - like the residential dishys. Apparently at first SL said no, then may have changed their minds. I don't know. It is a good thing though that you are able to return the RV dish. My situation is kind of unique in that I would keep both.

I reached out to SL as soon as I got the notification to ask about just transferring the RV over to Residential. This is the quoted reply they gave me:

Thank you for reaching out to Starlink support!

At this time, you are able to completely switch your residential account to Starlink for RV. However you CANNOT switch from RV to Residential. This could very well change in the future, but at this time, this option is not available.

Currently, a Residential Starlink kit would be needed for residential service. You cannot pause residential service. You can only cancel residential service and when ready to activate its solely based on your areas capacity at the time reactivation is requested.

You are within the return window for the RV kit. You have 30 days from the date of delivery (7/14/22) to return the RV kit for a refund.

If this is what you prefer to do, Please place the order for your Residential kit FIRST to ensure that you do not cancel your account, Once you have confirmed Your Residential order, you may then cancel your RV service.

After confirming your Residential kit:

To cancel your RV subscription & return the Kit, please take the followings steps:

1. Log in to your Starlink Account at Starlink.com.

2. On the Account home page, under the "YOUR STARLINKS" section, Click "Manage" next to the Starlink you wish to cancel service for. Be sure to click return Starlink so that we email you the return label.

3. Click "Cancel Service".

You should then receive a prepaid return label to the email address on file. Please check SPAM and JUNK folders if you do not see it in your inbox. (be sure to let us know if you don't get it)

For more information and answers to frequently asked questions about RV usage, you can visit https://support.starlink.com/topic?category=26

We do hope this has answered your question. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to open a ticket

I double-checked with them what would happen if I didn't get my new Residential kit in time to still be able to return my RV and they extended my return window by an extra 14 days just in case. I shouldn't need it, though, because I just got notice this morning that my Residential kit is on the way and should arrive Monday.

Did you have a residential deposit in for a long time? Mine was put in early March 2021 IIRC.

My deposit for Residential was placed early February, 2021...literally the day I got email notice that I could sign up for a deposit in my area.

 

[The Heretic]

I reached out to SL as soon as I got the notification to ask about just transferring the RV over to Residential. This is the quoted reply they gave me:

I double-checked with them what would happen if I didn't get my new Residential kit in time to still be able to return my RV and they extended my return window by an extra 14 days just in case. I shouldn't need it, though, because I just got notice this morning that my Residential kit is on the way and should arrive Monday.


My deposit for Residential was placed early February, 2021...literally the day I got email notice that I could sign up for a deposit in my area.

Pretty much my situation except I have had my RV dish for two months so I can't return for a full refund. But since I plan to sell my house with the residential dish (transfer ownership of the dish too), that is ok. I will pause the RV dish for now.

 

[ATCclears]

@The Heretic expect a drop in service quality during moderate to heavy precipitation.

 

[The Heretic]

@The Heretic expect a drop in service quality during moderate to heavy precipitation.

The first day or two that I had it, I got some downpours.

No problems.

 

[The Heretic]

I just received my Residential dishy with the 2a2e1faf firmware
My RV dishy has the cd5f774c firmware version
I have not moved my residential dishy to the roof yet, waiting for my safety man to arrive
I did some ad hoc testing, I will do some more later, but I have paused my RV dishy and expect the service to it to cease sometime tonight or tomorrow (my billing period for it starts on the 2nd). I am not going to pay the $135 for another month just to be able to compare the two services for a longer period of time.
What I have noticed so far:

1. The residential service does not have (yet) a higher speed limit (I will try to test it during off peak hours - e.g., 2AM to 6AM). So far I have seen an upper speed of about 230 mbps, but the RV dishy can do that too, and has at approx the same time.
2. Most of the time that I tested both simultaneously (more or less), the RV speeds seem to give preference to the residential service. E.G., If I start the residential test a few seconds later than the RV test, the RV speeds usually drop off quite a bit (once it did not) - e.g., from 150 mbps down to 40 mbps.

In the past, before I got the residential dishy I noticed that the RV speed tests usually dropped off after a peak, e.g., from 150 to 100 mbps, but usually not down to one third the speed.
OTOH, the residential speeds seem to peak and stay relatively stable near the peak, or even keep increasing until the end of the test. I also notice that the speeds seem more consistent from test to test, while the RV tests I have done over the past two months have varied a lot. Disclaimer: I've only had the residential dishy for a couple hours, so this seeming consistency may just be a fluke.
If I start the residential speed test first and then start the RV test, so far, the speeds for the RV dish have always been slower and usually the residential speeds did not slow (sometimes they did).

 

[RainMan_PNW]

Put the new (residential) dish on the roof last night and pulled down the "RV" one (they are the same dish, but the SN of the one is "locked" to an RV account vs the residential account). I didn't even bother changing the router/modem out.

Once it was back online and confirmed, I boxed up the RV dish with all the other parts from the new box and canceled the RV service for a refund. FedEx just picked up the return box, so before too long I should be getting the refund. Looks like I'll end up paying for about 2 weeks of overlap in service between the two, but that'll come out in the wash long term.

 

[The Heretic]

 

[The Heretic]

Had an outage across N America for about 6 minutes yesterday at about 1AM with intermitent outages for another 30 minutes

Debate on Reddit/Fb is whether this was caused by the solar storm or Starlink was updating satellite firmware.

 

[The Heretic]

Vid on tech details of how Starlink works - deep dive

Executive summary: they use QAM modulation and beam forming

 

[Member 3687]

We have had ours over a year now or maybe longer got in at the start of the beta program and have enjoyed it very much.

We have the older oval dish and mounted to a poll along side of our house do to winter snow issues and it cleared our trees.

Compared to everything else we have tried it's great. We cannot get cable or fiber optic so our only choice was satellite and this system is the best.

I recommend it and hope it sticks around for a while.

At he moment running 100.63 down load and 7.83 up load 12:07 8-20-2022

 

[The Heretic]

Starlink just announced they are going to use both Falcon and Starship rockets (not just the latter) to launch the new much larger and much more capable V2 satellites. They are going to modify the satellite they launch with the Falcon, to fit on the smaller rocket.

This should be interesting and I look forward to see the results.

 

[The Heretic]

Got the SL ground pole mast - thought it might fit inside the existing j-mount at the peak of the roof.

No dice - mount is too flimsy (thin pipe) and wobbly anyway - even if I guyed the mast it wouldn't be good.

Going to order an eave end mount and use that instead.

 

[The Heretic]

Starlink Launches Best Effort Service - Starlink Hardware

Starlink Best Effort is now an option for pre-order customers. You'll get deprioritized service while you wait for your full order.

www.starlinkhardware.com

 

[The Heretic]

Starlink & T-Mobile have announced a tech partnership where, in the next year or two, Starlink satellites will provide connectivity to existing cell phones anywhere that you have a clear view of the sky. First in the USA, then later anywhere a cell provider wants to join this partnership.

First it will be text messaging, then expand eventually to voice and even video.

 

[The Heretic]

Experienced my first global outage last night.

By "global" I mean reports came in on Reddit from Australia to Europe. All reports were pretty much within minutes of the same time, so doubtful it was a CME, even though the sun is very active lately. Ionosphere events typically are not that severe enough to cause outages from one side of the globe to another, especially not when a good portion of the affected systems are on the dark side away from the sun. IMO

More likely a glitch in some central server? That is not encouraging; I would have hoped that the system is more compartmentalized than that.

Lasted for about 30-40 minutes from about midnight to 12:30 Pacific time.

 

[RainMan_PNW]

Can't say I noticed, but I'm sawing logs at that time frame.

I do recall seeing somewhere something about a system upgrade/update being scheduled recently, but now I don't remember where. But still, as you said, youd think the system was better compartmentalized to prevent a system-wide shut down from something like an update.

 

[The Heretic]

Can't say I noticed, but I'm sawing logs at that time frame.

I do recall seeing somewhere something about a system upgrade/update being scheduled recently, but now I don't remember where. But still, as you said, youd think the system was better compartmentalized to prevent a system-wide shut down from something like an update.

The update/upgrade was previous to the outage - I think it was a couple of weeks before?

 

[The Heretic]

I had put my dish on a pole on an eave mount just before the outage and was watching my obstruction events. They weren't doing too well, but it takes a while for the system to find the obstructions and somehow optimize (?) for them, or otherwise settle down somehow - that's the pattern I seem to have seen.

Anyway, after the outage, the system has settled down - at least in the last day or so - and is now less than one minute of obstructed events per 12 hours, which is what I had before I moved the dish. So that is good - we'll see how long that lasts.

I've noticed that it seems to do better in the evening and early morning, than during the day, with regards to obstructions. Not sure why that would be.