Starlink In The Forest - Part 1

Background
Like many people in the rural hinterlands, we get our internet service through Windstream.  Our DSL service is limited to about 25 MBps, which is adequate for two people who aren't working from home. 

Four - five years ago the service was only 10 MBps and was not too reliable.  They have improved their speed and reliability since being bought out by Kinetic.

Though their service is adequate, we've noticed that they censure our e-mails so we've been looking at Starlink as an alternative.

Starlink Hype
Like any Elon Musk endeavor, Starlink is front-loaded with a lot of hype.  Back in 2020 I paid my $99 deposit to get on the wait list for Starlink, which would be 'coming soon'.

I've been on the wait list for about two years.  A few weeks ago I received a message that 'full service' will not be available here in Southern Appalachiastan  until 2023 (or maybe even 2024).  However, they offered me reduced "Best Effort" service for the non-discounted full-service price. 

I iz a geek... so, of course I plunked down another $500 bucks to get inferior service for $110/month.  YAY!!

• Starlink is SO generous.  When full Residential service finally becomes available they will upgrade my account for FREE.  Oh, wait, I'm already paying full price.

 Starlink Has Arrived
They weren't supposed to ship for two to three weeks but Starlink arrived in just a few days.  The technology is really impressive.  The dish (appropriately named 'Dishy') is compact, motorized and self-aiming.  It is shipped in a 'Stowed' position and everything snaps together in less than a minute!

Starlink In The Forest
I honestly didn't think that Dishy would work here because it needs a clear view of the sky and we're in a dense forest.  But that's OK because I have a few days to evaluate and send it back for a refund.

I won't go into the Setup process because it is totally automated. 

• Download the Starlink App to your phone
• Put Dishy outside
• Plug Dishy into the Router
• Wait... wait... wait

The first thing Dishy does is point straight up and acquire its exact location from GPS satellites. I'm lazy so I put Dishy out on the deck for the inaugural test.

Dishy managed to get its precise location but, no surprise, it was unable to get any satisfactory connections to the Starlink satellite constellation.  We had zero internet.   I was thinking about sending it back for a refund.

Geeks Don't Give Up
I waited two years for my opportunity to give Starlink a try so I wasn't ready to throw in the towel.  I made a roof mount out of aluminum bar and clamps... and hauled Dishy up to the highest point on the Great Room roof.

• Note 1 - My homemade mount clamps to the standing seams so there are no penetrations into the roof.  YAY!
  
• Note 2 - I don't like being up on the roof.

Preliminary Results
It took Dishy several hours (overnight) to get oriented and resolve the satellites. 

The results are not very promising.  It indicates that the trees will cause an obstruction roughly every 44 seconds. It will definitely not work for live applications, such as Zoom meetings.

But I decided to try a speed test.  After a short delay (caused by an obstruction) Dishy hooked up and we got 89MBps... more that 3X faster than Windstream!

This was encouraging.  So I tried streaming a High-Def movie from Netflix.  I was pleasantly surprised that the 2 hour movie played flawlessly despite having a 5-20 second interruption every minute.

YT also worked with no problems.

In spite of the frequent dropouts, I've decided to keep Dishy as a science-project (we will keep Windstream for now).   We'll get our tree service to 'vista-prune' some of the trees and hope that our view of the sky will improve.

YAY SCIENCE!!