Finally, Starlink for RV's

[Mike&Sandy]

https://www.starlink.com/rv

[Np2650]

Looks like very spotty coverage, and it's not cheap, $650 for equipment and $135 a month. I'm not real familiar with this system. Have you had good luck with it?

[Mike&Sandy]

I don't have it yet.

[ChuckS]

It will be the best Sat Internet available ... in use now in Ukraine .. BETA testing has been ongoing for over a year.. More groups of geo synchronous birds being launched all the time..

It is a bit pricey but will work where nothing else can... hopefully the cost will go down for equipment and monthly rates as time goes by

[sahively]

"Finally" here for places that aren't the US.

[aaron_huber]

Originally Posted by ChuckS

More groups of geo synchronous birds being launched all the time.

Geosynchronous satellites orbit at just over 22,000 miles, which is great for pointing your dish at a specific place in the sky and keeping it there, but terrible for latency. It takes almost half a second for a signal to get up to the satellite and back even at the speed of light. If they used satellites in GEO they'd only need a few of them to cover the whole US, just like the old Hughes satellite internet service.

The Starlink satellites orbit at 340 miles up, which is very low, and why they need so many of them. The benefit is much lower latency, but the dish needs a fairly good view of the sky to be able to track the satellites since at that altitude they fly over very quickly. They orbit the earth about every 90 minutes so you can imagine it doesn't take them long to fly from one horizon to the other over you, and the dish has to move around to lock on to different satellites as they fly over. Take a look at https://satellitemap.space/ and see how many satellites are over you right now and how quickly they are moving.

I'm very curious to try it out, but I wonder how many places that I camp won't work very well because of the trees blocking the view of the satellites. If you're boondocking out in the desert that's obviously ideal, but camping in a national forest is probably not going to work unless you mount the dish to a tall mast.

[vampress_me]

Crossed fingers here. We ordered it this week and hope to have it in a couple weeks. I’m hoping it may give me the ability to work from the campground once in a while.

[JBM3M]

Originally Posted by ChuckS

It is a bit pricey but will work where nothing else can... hopefully the cost will go down for equipment and monthly rates as time goes by

Agreed....

[Stircrazy]

I have been waiting for this but I am disapointed in the turn out. in canada it will be an extra 40/month over regual and cant be used while in motion. so it is the same as a residentail with the ability to suspend it and tun it back on every month if you want to. what I would like to see is the home set up able to be used at any location so I can just take it with me. I don't want the ability to suspend my internet, just move it from the house to the cabin or the rv site when I go.

Steve

[Badbart56]

We've had it for about three months now and it's excellent! $60 less than we were paying for satellite that DIDN'T work. I'm even running 6 security cameras on it!

[bobbecky]

I wouldn't get too excited about Starlink just yet. Just about the time you might get it working, the Chinese will figure out how to shoot down the satellites https://www.rvtravel.com/china-hints...llation-1054b/

[John&Genny]

I've been keeping track of Starlink since it was first announced. Not quite ready to put out the $$$ for it yet because it is a bit too expensive and still has some kinks to work out. Maybe when it gets down to <$100/month and lower equipment costs, I'll consider it. Until then I'll just use my WiFi Ranger long with T-mobile 5G to keep connected.

[Scttw]

The folks up here that were on the beta test just got a big increase. Speed tests I conducted at their property showed only 5mbps. They seem to be spotty.

[Stircrazy]

Originally Posted by Scttw

The folks up here that were on the beta test just got a big increase. Speed tests I conducted at their property showed only 5mbps. They seem to be spotty.

I have a few friends that have the regular home starlink for the last 6 months and they are getting speeds well over 240mbps which is great as there rual provider only gave them 4 on a good day haha. instead of making a seperat system for rv's I would rather them just take the area lock off the home system so you can just take it with you. after all it comes with a tripod mount....

Steve

[BartsPlace]

It's the exact same equipment. The service is just de-prioritized in busy environments. If you're in a low use area (typical for RVers) you can expect up to 100Mbs.

[Carrottop]

I just installed it last weekend up here in Manitoba. I had to put it on the roof of the RV which is fine as we are at a seasonal site. easy as pie. I put the dish up put some sandbags on the stand and fed the cable through one of the slide openings. Within 10 minutes we had internet and were getting speeds over 150mbps with a partial blocking by some trees as we have a heavy tree canopy around our site. Streamed on our smart TV without any hesitation or freezing up. Yes its pricey but before that we were using date on our cell plan and it was pricey with spotty reception.

[Kzneft]

Love Starlink for RV! Ordered the Starlink for RV a few weeks ago. Arrived just in time for our boondocking at Joe's Valley Reservoir in Utah. Once arriving I set the dish on top of my truck cover. Secured it with bungee chords so it would not blow off with the wind. I have a GoalZero Yeti 1500 so I plugged the router into that. Within 1/2 hr setup I was getting 100mbps and sometimes faster. After all the other relatives arrived, and they found out I had internet everyone wanted to log in with their devices. I had 12 devices logged in, and I could still watch Prime Video and Nexflix with no problem. My Yetti 1500 said it had about 35 hours left of charge while plugged into the router. Since I have solar on my roof I could also charge the Yetti if I needed to, but with 35 hours there was no need. At night I would turn it off and then in the morning turn it back on again. Took about 5 minutes to re-connect, and since Joe's Valley does not have mobile service everyone could still make calls with the Starlink log in. Best decision I have made for my RV !

[precab]

Amazing how the not so positive comments are from people that don’t have it.

Been using it for three months extremely impressed and don’t get hung up on mounting it ….it works anywhere as long as it has a clear view of the northern or NE sky.

Obviously there are campsites that are fully wooded that could become a problem but nobody suggests getting rid of your back up on the road for the RV option

I ran the cable out the rubber seal on the slide and was up and running in five minutes. This is definitely the future and the Wi-Fi calling when there were zero cell phone towers was impressive as well

Understand Elon put all his money in the sky and hardware and does not have a huge customer service department answering the phones. If you have any problems you have to do it through the app and wait patiently. Everyone’s typically up and running in five minutes by plugging it in and setting it outside with the right exposure. The Wi-Fi router is very powerful and has not disappointed. Facebook had some excellent pages for Starlink for RVs to do A deeper dive on the details.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by vampress_me

Crossed fingers here. We ordered it this week and hope to have it in a couple weeks. I’m hoping it may give me the ability to work from the campground once in a while.

Lynette did you ever get this in and hooked up? I'm not really gung ho on it but I'm curious. If it well, and I believe Musk will continue to invest in it, it might be another "toy" to add in case other options fail. Man, how would we survive 2 weeks in the wilderness with nothing but a compass, saw and pistol anymore?