Pulling the Starlink trigger

[HoughMade]

Got the shipping notification today. Should have it in a few days.

 

[HoughMade]

Still thinking through what to name my wifi. I think I mentioned this before.

Currently, it is "NSA Drone".

In the past, I have used: "FBI Surveillance Van".

When I lived within several houses that could get the signal, this was more fun. Now there's only 2 houses that have an outside chance of getting a weak signal.

Right now, the leader in the clubhouse is: "Elon's Musk"

Other contenders:

"The Powers of Matthew Starlink" (super obscure)

"Riker's Legover" (if you know, you know)

"Flatty McDishface" (not great, but considered)

"Tommy's Shinebox"

"Make WIFI Great Again"

"Free Russian wifi"

"Enter credit card, win prizes"

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

Sub'd... So we can get off the DSL & LTE/4G covered wagon...

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

Starlink eye candy?

 

[HoughMade]

Starlink eye candy?

Like I haven't discovered those videos already...

...but seriously, she has done a couple of interesting interviews about how Starlink has helped students at a school in rural Virginia who were forced into at-home education and also about how an Indian reservation in Washigton state has benefited.

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

Like I haven't discovered those videos already...

...but seriously, she has done a couple of interesting interviews about how Starlink has helped students at a school in rural Virginia who were forced into at-home education and also about how an Indian reservation in Washigton state has benefited.

My sons were using the crappy DSL we have while working on school from home during covid times and I was using my work- 4G/LTE on a Cradlepoint...

I vote HoughMade as the official Ingo Starlink beta tester!

 

[Alamo]

Take and publish good notes when you set it up.

The more I thought about how much I dislike AT&T, and the fact that Elon is now my neighbor and shooting off cool rockets in the neighborhood, and how much I dislike AT&T, I popped for $99 deposit. Supposed to be available in my area mid- to late-2021.

 

[HoughMade]

Initially, it will be on the tripod in my yard....it's nice that where I am, I don't have to worry about it being stolen. I have ordered the "volcano" mount and will be putting it on the roof as soon as I get that. My northern skies are pretty free of obstructions, so here's hoping.

This is a website where you can enter your coordinates (or let it find you) and it will show what satellites you would be connected to.

Starlink satellite tracker

Live view of SpaceX starlink satellite constellation and coverage.

satellitemap.space

 

[thompal]

Well, I went and submitted my order. Elon Musk will be sending me a dish and router so I can get SpaceX internet in the next few weeks. The “fastest” internet I can get at home is Frontier DSL at a whopping 6 mbps down when no one else on my road is on the web, but usually closer to 3 to 4. Starlink (it’s in beta) represents 50-150 mbps....which would be like heaven. If we are going to video chat, no one else can use the internet- just an example.

It’s an investment, but with the kids doing an online charter school (even before this mess), faster internet is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.

I’ll update from time to time. I’ve been watching videos. It has a built-in heater to melt snow and automatically positions itself. No pointing and hoping like when I had satellite TV.

Starlink

High-speed internet. Available almost anywhere on Earth.

www.starlink.com

How does the uplink work? I remember a few years ago there were a couple of satellite internet providers for rural people, but only the download portion came via satellite. The uplink was still over phone line.

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

I'm like Alamo... Almost pulled the cc trigger on the $99 this afternoon but delivery for my location is mid to late summer. We are south of HoughMade down by Logansport-Lafayette area...


Yes- please take LOTS of pictures.

 

[HoughMade]

How does the uplink work? I remember a few years ago there were a couple of satellite internet providers for rural people, but only the download portion came via satellite. The uplink was still over phone line.

Up and down both over the satellites. I say satellites because they are in low earth orbit and you connect to different satellites as they progress from west to east (from our perspective). It's kind of like a cell phone that connects to different towers as you drive. Because they are only 340 miles up while something like HughesNet is 22,000 miles up. There are currently about 1,500 satellites with plans for 42,000.

 

[Alamo]

At $99/month there's still a chance I will reconsider and pull my deposit, but AT&T has been annoying the hell out me for years, so subtracting what I pay them for internet service from the $99 makes it not so bad.

 

[Alamo]

Initially, it will be on the tripod in my yard....it's nice that where I am, I don't have to worry about it being stolen. I have ordered the "volcano" mount and will be putting it on the roof as soon as I get that. My northern skies are pretty free of obstructions, so here's hoping.

This is a website where you can enter your coordinates (or let it find you) and it will show what satellites you would be connected to.

Starlink satellite tracker

Live view of SpaceX starlink satellite constellation and coverage.

satellitemap.space

Hmm, I'm 138 miles south of the MacGregor ground station, 220 miles east of Hamshire GS, and about 300 miles north of Boca Chica. hope that helps. I see three sats flying by right now. Cool.

 

[Alamo]

COOL!

If you go to that link Houghmade published about the location of satellites RIGHT NOW you will see two parallel lines of ... 30? each... satellites in close formation marching steadily south. I guess these are the ones that just got launched a couple days ago.

Live Starlink Satellite Map

 

[HoughMade]

They launch 60 at a time and I think there are 240 more up there heading towards orbit since I ordered almost 5 weeks ago.

 

[phylodog]

I just pulled the trigger. Fingers crossed this is what I've been hoping for.

 

[Alamo]

They launch 60 at a time and I think there are 240 more up there heading towards orbit since I ordered almost 5 weeks ago.

Yes, if you scroll that globe around you can see the others recently launched over between South America and Africa (at the moment). Way cool.

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

Ok... You got to be in it to win it... Wait thats for lottery which I dont play. If Alamo and Phylo are in- I'm in.

Just placed my down payment.

 

[markholst]

Keep us updated guys!

Wife works from home and she can't afford losing signal. If she loses internet, she loses what she was doing. I really don't want to face that wrath, so I'm interested if signal (is that the right word?) drops and, if so, how often and how long.

 

[HoughMade]

Keep us updated guys!

Wife works from home and she can't afford losing signal. If she loses internet, she loses what she was doing. I really don't want to face that wrath, so I'm interested if signal (is that the right word?) drops and, if so, how often and how long.

I'll be reporting back from time to time, but right now it is expected that every few hours, the Starlink signal will drop for 10 to 30 seconds due to gaps in satellite coverage. As more satellites are launched (currently 60 at time, but when the Starship is up and running, 240 at a time), they should eliminate these.

Oh...and my wife vetoed: "Riker's Legover" as the network name.