Test Results: Starlink on a Sailboat Underway

[Tenedos]

Originally Posted by bpierce815

Consumer internet is not these businesses main source of income, so I doubt that they are quite scared yet.

True but Starlink is not just consumer. They signed a deal with Hawaiian airlines to provide inflight Internet in 2023 and Delta was testing too. Air Force was also testing it for F-35s. Once you have something like this working, hard not to get the attention of anyone who needs high speed connectivity.

[Tenedos]

Originally Posted by Kolchac

https://seatech.systems/2021/02/09/c...nk-on-my-boat/

Respectfully disagree with this. Quite a few of us do use it on boats already. It is not perfect but it is much more than usable right now.

[bpierce815]

Originally Posted by Scorpius

I would think that the ten mile offshore restriction is not physical - but logical in the software. The satellites are whizzing everywhere and would not naturally cut off ten miles from shore. I would think, for the US, for licensing reasons, it is being limited to the 12 mile territorial limit. Just MHO.

Otherwise, this is GREAT news!

The 10 miles off shore is because the satellites must be able to talk to a land terminal currently. They are working on enabling communication between satellites that will help expand this.

[CaptainMarkS]

Very interesting! What're your uptime statistics? I'm assuming regular interruptions, especially while underway. The YouTube video shows a snapshot of impressive availability. How reliable is this?

[bpierce815]

Originally Posted by Kolchac

https://seatech.systems/2021/02/09/c...nk-on-my-boat/

This article is over a year old. New technology tends to advance quickly, which is what has happened here. I suspect that roaming starlink dishes will start to become much more popular in the coming months.

[toddster8]

Originally Posted by Scorpius

I agree totally. I suspect it is being "geofenced" around countries where it is licensed to operate. Possibly if you could spoof it to think it's always in the US it would probably work much further afield. Too bad it's not geofenced OUT of countries where it is NOT licensed. That way it might operate on the high seas.

I foresee a HUGE battle ahead in many countries as the telcos and cable companies lobby hard to keep Starlink out. It's a HUGE, possibly existential, threat to their business viability. Perhaps, with excellent foresight, Elon Musk got his licenses to operate in the US and Canada before the competition woke up to the potential threat.

The capacity of satellite networks is likely to be tiny, compared to fiber optics, for the foreseeable future. That is why places where significant numbers of people live are already blocked from new subscriptions. The wide open rural spaces? Cable companies don't want to operate there anyway. There's no profit in it.

[RickG]

Originally Posted by JArcherM

I'm in USVI and get mine this week. Wondering how far from the island it will work. PR shows in cell but I've heard bvi is a no go. It will be nice when u can cruise to grenada with good signal.

We're in the USVI and headed south again this summer. Reports are that Starlink falls off as you get into the BVIs. We are going to wait on Starlink until we return in November. Hopefully there will still be room in our cell.

Cheers, RickG

[DeValency]

Originally Posted by Hermia II

So do I, it will bring down the prices of Iridium and Inmarsat too

At that point absolutely it will and I guess they already struggle to find a solution to stay in business as it will also kill their main commercial businesses globally. For now, Starlink is still not a true sat service for offshore cruisers

[bcboomer]

Originally Posted by Tenedos

I wrote an article on our experiences with Internet and Starlink on a boat. Also provided more on detail on how you can power Starlink from a DC power source.

This really is a game changing technology, I couldn't be more excited!

Thanks for the DC info. I'll add it to my "ToDo" list.
I had to cut my cable to get it through the arch as well and used tool-free RJ45 connectors. I shortened up the cable as well.
So far, so good and I'm looking forward to having internet access in the anchorages up the coast. Most of the places we have anchored don't have cell service.

[Rigdaddy]

Thanks for posting this, I'll be keeping track.

[Seafarer7]

Originally Posted by Tenedos

I wrote an article on our experiences with Internet and Starlink on a boat. Also provided more on detail on how you can power Starlink from a DC power source.



This really is a game changing technology, I couldn't be more excited!

Tenedos,
Thanks for that excellent write up.
I’m curious as to what your energy savings are using your poe vs the oem router to power the Dish.

I’m looking into implementing something similar to what you did powering yours from dc, but I plan to use the starlink Ethernet adapter instead of cutting the oem cable. Essentially same except that I would cut and terminate the Ethernet adapter cable to plug into the poe injector, and my custom router would plug into the Ethernet adapter with a standard cat 5 cable (and no data input into the poe injector). From what I see so far that should work.

[Seafarer7]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lippman

Great video and great work. What a great solution. Tons of questions:

1. Why pole mount rather than on the deck?

2. Any sense of how much pitching, rolling, and turning you did?

3. Any idea of open ocean coverage? I think it is in the plan, as might be a sea-specific dish.



It makes sense that the dishy doesn't need precise aiming since it has to electronically track the LEO satellites. But I have no idea what that implies for turning the dish, as when you tack.



I have Fleet One and it is sufficiently fast for downloading weather and some email but incredibly expensive!

Thanks.
1. Pole mounting was the most efficient for me, it doesn’t take up any deck space, was out of the way, and does not impact the solar array.
2. I did quite a bit of turning, there was pitching and rolling as you can see from the clip (went through rougher waters too) and I didn’t notice any outage - not to say there wasn’t any but it wasn’t noticeable to me. The dish periodically reorients to track due north on major tack changes.
3. I lost signal approximately 10 miles offshore

[Seafarer7]

Originally Posted by Mark Selawry

Very interesting! What're your uptime statistics? I'm assuming regular interruptions, especially while underway. The YouTube video shows a snapshot of impressive availability. How reliable is this?

Attached are stats sitting at a marina (haven’t reviewed stats underway yet).
I didn’t notice any interruptions while underway but I wasn’t tracking closely while maintaining watch (solo).

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by bpierce815

Consumer internet is not these businesses main source of income, so I doubt that they are quite scared yet.

If starlink licensed them as a reseller and let them dip their beaks it would help too

[Seafarer7]

Originally Posted by Kolchac

https://seatech.systems/2021/02/09/c...nk-on-my-boat/

In fairness to the writer of that article, it was written a long while ago, when Starlink was not was it is today: no roaming, older antenna, less ability to cope with motion, etc.

With the current maturity of Starlink and recent changes in the last several weeks, Starlink is a great option for local and coastal cruisers, and should very soon also serve transoceanic cruisers.