Share your Starlink RV install and experiences

[Buly]

I was wandering how much the reception will be affected, if the dishy antenna on a tall pole moves during high winds. There must be some wobble. Don’t know if the antenna locks on one satellite at the time, or group of them?

 

[Neal]

I was wandering how much the reception will be affected, if the dishy antenna on a tall pole moves during high winds. There must be some wobble. Don’t know if the antenna locks on one satellite at the time, or group of them?

I don't know the scientific/exact answer but my guess is not much. I think this is connected via phased array radar.

 

[Scotttkd2]

Hi Ed, both the dish and the router Mac addresses are attached to your specific account you set up when ordering. If either were stolen you can disable them via customer service. A pain, but useless to someone else. I agree with Neal, these are becoming more common and and will soon be like seeing all the dish and direct tv tailgaters sitting near RV's. My bigger concern is someone running it over if not on my flagpole mount.

 

[Neal]

I'm curious how dishy will hold up to hail. I see people permanently roof mounting much less if hail is predicted should you bring in dishy? I think it's thin plastic and don't trust it's going to survive, the same applies to carefully storing to not break the face of the dish.

 

[Neal]

I haven't seen the best of Starlink connectivity here in Granby, CO and I'm not sure why. Today I decided to check the Starlink app and it still showed obstructions which was from the last time I used it in Fort Collins (yes, there was a tree). I tapped "Visibility" in the app and it did a scan for obstructions which took 24 minutes (as the app showed). After that completed I'm now seeing good speeds. I wonder if there is a bug in the system that remember it's degraded or something? Here is my speed test after the scan. I'll see if this changes much over time but I'll be using this as AT&T is not consistent here.



EDIT: Still unstable on speeds here. Not sure why, clear skies, no obstructions

 

[marc2912]

I haven't seen the best of Starlink connectivity here in Granby, CO and I'm not sure why. Today I decided to check the Starlink app and it still showed obstructions which was from the last time I used it in Fort Collins (yes, there was a tree). I tapped "Visibility" in the app and it did a scan for obstructions which took 24 minutes (as the app showed). After that completed I'm now seeing good speeds. I wonder if there is a bug in the system that remember it's degraded or something? Here is my speed test after the scan. I'll see if this changes much over time but I'll be using this as AT&T is not consistent here.

View attachment 14117

EDIT: Still unstable on speeds here. Not sure why, clear skies, no obstructions

I found RV mode to give you really unstable speeds over time as you're basically getting the leftover after the "local" traffic.

 

[lemondrop9344]

Marc2912,
Reading the 'fine print' regarding the RV plan, it appears you are getting exactly what they state you will. RV mode appears to be the lowest priority.
One would hope it will get better in time & some users have had outstanding results with the RV plan. For the time being, I'm holding out for the residential plan.
Thanks for providing the feedback. It's always beneficial to hear the 'not so good' as well as it's 'the best thing since sliced bread'.

 

[Neal]

I don't think that's the case or cause in my area, the population here is minimal and I bet the Starlink users are minimal as well. It's probably a capacity or some other cause, I don't know. We (me) have to keep our expectations in check, we are still early adopters on this new Internet provider.

 

[Neal]

I lost my Starlink Internet connectivity somewhere over the night. As AT&T is super fast here it's been my primary (5G) but I want to continue exploring Starlink. I had wondered how you replace the cable on the Dishy side if needed, today I learned that the cable on the Dishy is a USB plug just like going into the router side. With that said the connection had come loose. For those using flagpole type setups to get the Dishy above your roof you'll need to pay careful attention to the weight of or pulling the cable as it can easily come out of the Dishy side (or come loose). I'll likely be taping the dishy side to ensure this doesn't happen again. It was fine when installed yesterday, somewhere between then and last night the cable worked its way out slightly.

FYI

 

[Scotttkd2]

Starlink Plans in a nutshell: current as of Sept 8, 2020.

Residential - full priority and full capabilities, but must wait for Starlink availability.
Downside - Who knows when you will get your service in populated areas. Quoting 2024 in some areas now.

Residential plus portability - you have a "home" area with residential level service, if capacity allows you MAY have service elsewhere (away from your home cell), deprioritized behind the then local residential plans already in place where you happen to be roaming.
Downside - if Starlink decides there is not enough bandwidth you could be DENIED service in congested service areas. No guarantee of service if traveling with SL.

RV - you are allowed service in all areas, congested, or not, whether SL has a wait list for new users or not.
Downside - you are at lowest priority, and will not have their top speeds for that reason.

What works best for you will depend on how you need to use the service. Hope that helps those that may be kicking the tires.

 

[Buly]

We love our Starlink. Here in UP Michigan, too many areas have zero cell. Coverage.
SL had only one 30 min Global outage. Also our TV picture quality is excellent compared to the low res Dish TV.

 

[Neal]

I finally got my Starlink settled into it's permanent location where I can route the cable through the shore power bay using the grommet so as not to deal with the cable compressing against the edge of a basement door. While I have no issues with the cable compressing the grommet at a basement door, it's not my permanent desired solution.

Today I was going to knock out a chore which I bought parts for two months ago to add a 120V "smart" outlet in the power cord reel bay. The intent was to put the Starlink router in there and route the ethernet cable to this location. I then realized having recently learned how there is a USB plug connection for the cable at the Dishy, get the thought out of my head that we always have to make the cable connections at the router. I have several 120V outlets in my basement as I added two and if you have central vac and don't use it, you can use that plug as well.

So I decided to stow my router velcro'd to the wall along side of the central vac. The "prickly" side of velcro (not the fuzzy side) typically sticks to the carpet material Newmar uses on walls so I applied two strips of that to the back of the router. I ended up getting it wedged and not against the wall and it's not going anywhere so I'm leaving it as is. The router has a decent enough power cord length to reach an outlet so for me I plugged it in to my additional outlet between bays 1 and 2 passenger side. The ethernet cable that I use is routed to the adapter, non issue.

To route the cable as I did simply unplug the antenna cable from your connector at the router (or ethernet adapter). Now take this around to your power cord bay and push it over the top of the rear wall. Newmar just uses wooden "false" walls (sts) so you can easily route cables over top of them. Try to push it as far as you can and then go to the other side of that compartment and crawl in and find the cable and pull it through and route it to your router. Again going over any walls as necessary. Now you can route the wire into your coach using the rubber grommet shared with the power cord reel just like I do with the coax, etc. When stowing the dishy antenna you'll now unplug from the dishy side, coil your cable and stow. Done.

As you can see in the picture below I stowed the router such that I can view the white power light on the bottom to ensure it has power.

 

[Neal]

Seems like I do everything twice...so I moved my router to the forward most bay and put it on the shelf above the dometic cooler where I also have 120V outlets. As I'm using the ethernet cable option and also ran my Starlink antenna cable I don't need to be messing with the router and I tend to forget to unplug it when not in use. Probably not a big deal but I like it to be reset and powered on when the dishy is connected. It is also a power hog from what I've read so if boondocking it may be something to consider depending on your battery "horsepower". So I added an Amazon smart plug as I have Amazon echo "alexas" in my coach so it's easy to manage power to this router now. There are cheaper ones and you can get 2-4 for the price of one of these but I prefer the Amazon smart plugs.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089DR29T6/?tag=rvf01-20

 

[Neal]

If you drop your dish and find out how fragile it is, as I did, it's $250 for a refurb, $599 for a new dish. Fortunately mine still works. I'll consider a new dish when an upgraded version comes out. Support was timely in answering my question on cost for a new dish.

 

[marc2912]

If you drop your dish and find out how fragile it is, as I did, it's $250 for a refurb, $599 for a new dish. Fortunately mine still works. I'll consider a new dish when an upgraded version comes out. Support was timely in answering my question on cost for a new dish.

So I did one better. I put my dish on top of my wrangler in a wooded campground to get better signal. You already know where this is going don't you. Someone came and talked to me as I was prepping my site to go out in town for a bit. Forgot to remove it from the roof. As I drive away the spare cord stretches out and boom the dish foot drags across my hard top and the dish crashes to the ground. The back cover pops off and the foot (made out of cheap cast metal) breaks a leg clear off.

I did get very lucky, the cover snapped back on and I got a new foot on eBay for $50. The dish seems to work correctly though it does feel very loose.

Live and learn, it no longer goes on the roof of the Jeep.