Starlink satellite issues

[Invisibleman]

Before you go out an get Starlink, here are my observations, having recently purchased one.

Starlink satellites are asyncrohous. The satellites spin around the earth, and are not at a fixed pioint like Viasat or Hughes. Totally different technology. Your connection leap frogs from one satellite, to the next, to the next, constantly as they move across the sky much like the ISS. I actually know people that have seen in the night sky a string of Starlink satellites streaming across the sky. You need a REALLY wide open sky, like the desert, or you will be experiencing numerous outages. They only last for about 30-45 seconds and can occur every few minutes, but your video call will be interupted, and your movie will buffer, and you sure don't want to be in a fast moving day-trade and have to get out when that happens. You can forget about Starlink in any wooded environment, like many campgrounds are. So unless you are in the desert, or on the beach, and have literally almost open sky from one side of the horizon to the other, you may want to do some more research.

That said, when it is working, it is fast, and robust, un-metered, and never throttled down. So far.

Their app does not work on Android. So you need to have an iphone to set it up. I don't so I had to have one of my grown kids with an iphone do the setup.

Tech support is lousy, almost non-existent. They are obviously just reading from a script.

In summary, its good to have, at a fixed location that meets the criteria. I wouldn't even consider it in an RV unless you don't move around, and have that open sky. Stick to your wifi hotspot for now.

[ependydad]

I haven't found the same with needing 100% wide open skies. I've been successful in a few environments where I was in a clearing with trees nearby. But you're 100% right that wooded environments are a non-starter.

Here's my saved note on my phone re: how is Starlink? (hint: I mostly agree with you)

I have had Starlink for a couple of months now. First while at our house in Orlando and then traveling: AL, DE, FL, MI, NC, NJ, OH, PA, TN, and VA.

Like any other option, if you *need* internet, it cannot be your only source of internet. You need to have 2 or even 3 different options.

I was at one place in Lenoir, NC that had a perfect view of the sky but it had slow speeds and horrendously slow ping times. It was barely usable for some work and I had to keep the kids off of streaming while I did it.

I’ve been at multiple tree covered places that it didn’t work at all.

If you need to be VPN’d for work, it’s been very hit or miss for me. I find it has regular drop-outs every 15-60 minutes that throws me off of my work VPN.

I’ve also seen very very fast speeds with it.

It’s a great tool, but it’s not the be all, end all that we all would like it to be.

[FOURWHL]

App works fine for me on a android.

Otherwise I second everything else

[Invisibleman]

Very interesting on the app. I've got a samsung galaxy A12 with plenty of memory and just can't get it to load. I've even tried loading the APK directly. And I can't say I have ever had any other app simply refuse to load. Maybe time for a new phone. What phone do you have?

[Invisibleman]

I should add, to be fair, that IF you have that wide open sky, at least in the northern latitudes, the Starlink is awsome. My son lives in RI and has that wide sky. He has almost no drop outs, extraordinary speed and extremely low latency. He just plopped the antenna on his outside deck, on the included stand. It aims itself and that was that. Fifteen minutes later and he was at work. He has remote worked for 10+ years and he is all day on video calls. He said it's been a game changer for him. My home is only about three miles from him, but my lot is wooded. Even with pretty significant tree trimming I still have dropouts. That said, it's reasonable, and I've dropped DirecTV and now rely on Starlink and YouTubeTV. But that's at home, not on my Force. I'll keep the Winegard and FirstNet on the Dynamax for now.

[Mike946]

We have starlink and a Samsung s10 and the app works for me. Just added the portability feature a month ago and so far have had internet at every spot but yes any tree coverage will cause outages.

[Mike946]

Our current campsite, the view from the dish and our stats of the starlink. It is good enough to stream sirius satellite radio but does cut out when streaming video. More than adequate for what we need it for.

[Invisibleman]

Mike, I guess that is better than nothing if there is no cell service. I did find out that my Samsung Galarxy A12 does not support gyroscopic features which is needed for the Starlink app, so I guess its time for a new phone.

[Phreak480]

Originally Posted by Invisibleman

Mike, I guess that is better than nothing if there is no cell service. I did find out that my Samsung Galarxy A12 does not support gyroscopic features which is needed for the Starlink app, so I guess its time for a new phone.

Yes the "A" series phones are de-featured compared to the "S" series phones.

The gyroscopic function is needed to be able to detect the aiming of the phone to be used as a way to check for proper view of the sky. I use a commercial app to do aiming checks for more complex satellite communication systems for uncle sam with great results.

Heck you could even grab an older used "S" series phone and use it just for that if you wanted and not have to change your main phone.

[Invisibleman]

Good to know about that A and S series.
I'd like to get the Starlink app working on my phone so I can check the sky and dropout rates. My phone is weak anyway, so I'll probably upgrade.

[vlamgat]

Good info guys, thank you all. Much less complex by all accounts than Iridium for sustained wide band but seemingly higher drop out as a consequence of still too few satellites to sustain continuous hand offs especially without throttling.

For a while the DoD had an algorithm that prevented "low priority" users from causing a DoD feed to throttle. I suspect these guys have the same for now at least whether its for the DoD or Elon's love letters.

[D W]

Monday night I was out on my deck around 10:30pm. The sun had gone down about an hour earlier. I happened to to glance up and saw a StarLink Array pass overhead. If you've never seen it, it is a sight to behold. Looks like a "space train". I counted 50 sats in the array. Travels fast, so no time to get the camera.

[Invisibleman]

Very nice. What part of the country if I may ask.?

[D W]

Originally Posted by Invisibleman

Very nice. What part of the country if I may ask.?

Anchorage, AK. (61° N Lat/149° W Long). The array came out of the northeastern sky heading southwest. Only took about 10 seconds for it to pass and it was out of sight.

When I first saw it I didn't know what it was. After I researched it I found out about StarLink. Musk has over 42000 of these satellites circumnavigating the globe in a low orbit. A lot of folks on YouTube have posted videos of the sats on the move.

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...tes+in+the+sky

[SailorSam20500]

There is a website to look up when recently launched Starlink sats will be passing overhead:

https://findstarlink.com/

I used it for a while when they first started the launches. Pretty impressive to see a "string of pearls" racing across the sky. With as many launches as Musk is doing, drop outs should slowly but steadily decrease...

[aspengirl]

Granted we've only had our RV Starlink for a month, but we had great luck with it in the Black Hills (South Dakota) at a remote mountain cabin ... 2 laptops, 2 iPhones, 1 iPad, streaming TV and tried a few WiFi calls, as well. Before traveling in the motorhome with it, we've been using it at home and it's been flawless. So far ... so good. Time will tell when we travel this fall what we think then.

[Villagerjjm]

Only 1/3 of all the satellites needed to complete the Starlink system have been launched as of August 29, 2022. Lots more to go up!! How about another review in 2 years???

[Keith W]

I live in Iowa and have had Starlink for ~1.5 years. I'm an RVer but have used it only at my home, because that was all that was allowed when I traveled. I would have loved it in Mission, TX, where our park has a terrible time getting a decent ISP.


While I don't have fantastic speeds or latency, it serves my needs well. (streaming TV and Internet) I greatly prefer it to the cable I had before, because of the cost and the hassle of dealing with the cable company. Starlink has steadily improved. The app says I have short outages, but they don't bother me. I've only seen it "shut down" once because of heavy rain.


It doesn't need "wide open" skies, especially to the south (in most of the lower 48). It need some side view and as much as you can get to the north.


I believe the 42000 satellites someone mentioned are the ultimate number. I've not checked recently, but believe there are around 1,500 orbiting now.
The app does work with my Samsung Galaxy S6. The obstruction finder is indeed a neat and helpful tool.


Shortly, I will get the one Internet service which is better than Starlink: fiber optic!!


Yes, Starlink is not perfect. Yes, there are limitations. Yes, it is improving and will continue to do so. But if you can live with the conditions imposed by the physics of the system, it is a fantastic system! I was thrilled to be able to use it relatively early in its operational life.

[firebuster]

I was in Montana on a fire they brought out a starlink so we could get maps etc. There were about 40 people in our area that were connected to SL at any one time.
Making calls,txt, emails even a few videos were watched . The only problem that was seen was at our 8:30 video meeting we had to ask for people to hold off on SL use. It seemed to slow down a bit but when less were on line it did great.

[CaptainJustice]

Originally Posted by Invisibleman

Before you go out an get Starlink, here are my observations, having recently purchased one.

<snip>

Their app does not work on Android. So you need to have an iphone to set it up. I don't so I had to have one of my grown kids with an iphone do the setup.

<snip>.

The app works fine on my Android phone (Galaxy S21). Flawlessly.