Starlink roof mount

[sheridany]

I spoke with a marathon owner and he’s running Starlink up on his roof and it works even going down the road. He’s using this bracket set up. He recommended this over using cellular router but I already upgraded to 5 g.

STARLINK MOUNT Solid Mount - Etsy

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[Neal]

He recommended this over using cellular router but I already upgraded to 5 g.

I'm sure he never parks in an area with trees overhead. I've never been without cellular service (since 2018) but in a year I've had multiple situations with no Starlink service.

 

[Joe Hogan]

We are going to mount a Starlink mobile antenna on the new DS. Looking forward to the experience. I am working to get NEWMAR to install during FPU. we’ll see how that goes.

To Neal’s point, we will also install our cell hotspot for those days there is a canopy over the satellite antenna.

 

[sheridany]

I would not be one to go 100% starlink until it matures a lot. Given that Mr. Musk has a penchant for changing his mind on a whim (some call it genius), i’d rather wait and see.

 

[Neal]

Concur, it's a rapidly evolving technology and I wouldn't hard mount anything unless you can change things out and "not leave a mark." Supposedly a newer and much smaller antenna is coming next and I'm hoping it's a 12V more RV friendly system. There is also benefit in being able to place your antenna away from trees, obstacles, etc. Temp mounts such as flagpole buddy are nice but leaves you other options if it won't work in a specific location as I had in Ft. Collins backed into trees.

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

Agree with both Sheridany and Neal - Starlink is very fluid and changing. We have Starlink but cannot depend on it 100%. Choosing not to permanently mount it on the roof, we are able to move it around easily, which allows Starlink to be our 90-95% solution, with cell being our backup.
If it was permanently mounted I would guesstimate that it would only be workable 60-65% of the time. This will vary greatly on the campgrounds that you choose and part of the country.

 

[Joe Hogan]

Our home Starlink has been very reliable. also I have heard that the Mobile Starlink antenna is much more robust than my home unit.
I guess will will see

 

[Neal]

Starlink is dependent on two things: Unobstructed view and geolocation (coverage). After that we RV (roam) plans will get the leftovers (deprioritization) unlike your home service.

 

[sleepwalker]

Joe: I'm in process of converting mine from pole mount to permanent mount. We are in the Colorado/Utah/Wyoming/Arizona back country most of the time. If I lived out East I'd not go to a roof mount due to trees but it has been a non-issue for us over the past year and half. For us the convenience of not having to set it up and take it down every day outweighs the rare occasion we have blockage + no cell signal. YMMV

re: Congestion: It is generally caused by ground station overload. I work all day with 100+mb/s without issue but in the evenings during "netflix time" it goes to molasses - even in very remote locations - because the ground stations cover a huge area (for example in Colorado I'm usually relayed to the one in Elbert, Co, which also covers all of Denver, etc). The new 2nd generation Sats have started to be launched which have laser based sat-to-sat relay. When they get enough of these deployed it'll make a huge difference as they'll be able to relay users from congested ground stations to non-congested ones.