Starlink Public Beta About to Happen?!?!

Oof, that might be an issue. I wonder how it will do in the south Florida summer heat all day for 8 months straight.
In my location, summer temps generally hover around 105-115 degrees. Currently the temps are between 85-90 degrees during the day. I've not had problems yet due to heat, but will report if I experience a heat related issue.
 
In my location, summer temps generally hover around 105-115 degrees. Currently the temps are between 85-90 degrees during the day. I've not had problems yet due to heat, but will report if I experience a heat related issue.
Thanks. The beta opens up in my area later in the summer when it gets hottest (August-September).
 
I think 104f is the air temp. The dish focus does get hot.
But this is nothing new, satellite TV dishes can survive it.
Don't know how much more delicate the starlink electronics will be
 
I live 40 mi N of Atlanta and I paid my 99 deposit months ago, we can expect qround late summer they said. Itbgets into 80s to 90s here so hot but 100% humidity. Lets see how Starlink holds up to lobster pot levels of wet heat.

I have 1.2gbps comcrap and yes im willing to ditch that shitbucket business for Elon Musks outfit
 
I've read mixed feelings on this. Some say it's great and some complain about dropped internet times.

It's extremely dependent on your view of the sky, especially until there are more satellites. And when I say view of the sky, I don't just mean straight-up. How open your view of the horizon is can have an impact also, as the dish attempts to remain in contact with every satellite that it can from the moment a satellite rises on one side of the sky to the moment it sets on the other side. Something as simple as a tree or a utility pole on your property can disrupt your connection as a satellite passes behind it. It's very different than traditional satellite services where you just have a single geosynchronous satellite that doesn't move across the sky, you only really need a clear view of that one satellite, and you simply aim your dish at that one spot in the sky.

The default Starlink kit is a bit obnoxious in this respect, as it only comes with a ground stand. You can mount it on the roof, but you have to buy an optional roof mount.
 
It's extremely dependent on your view of the sky, especially until there are more satellites. And when I say view of the sky, I don't just mean straight-up. How open your view of the horizon is can have an impact also, as the dish attempts to remain in contact with every satellite that it can from the moment a satellite rises on one side of the sky to the moment it sets on the other side. Something as simple as a tree or a utility pole on your property can disrupt your connection as a satellite passes behind it. It's very different than traditional satellite services where you just have a single geosynchronous satellite that doesn't move across the sky, you only really need a clear view of that one satellite, and you simply aim your dish at that one spot in the sky.

The default Starlink kit is a bit obnoxious in this respect, as it only comes with a ground stand. You can mount it on the roof, but you have to buy an optional roof mount.

Well starlink is phased array and has a self tracking motor in it. So maybe with more sats up, projected to 12,000 the service will be very stable and fast. Right now its about 800 up.
 
yeah 104f/40c does seem awfully low considering how many places get to that and above...
we're still waitin on out beta kit.
 
Well starlink is phased array and has a self tracking motor in it. So maybe with more sats up, projected to 12,000 the service will be very stable and fast. Right now its about 800 up.
The 800 number is a little dated. They have almost 1400 up now. They've launched around 480 this year, so far. Between 240 and 300 of those are not yet in final position. Generally, they take a couple of months for them to achieve their assigned orbits.

I've read mixed feelings on this. Some say it's great and some complain about dropped internet times.

A great site was posted earlier in this thread. https://satellitemap.space It shows the orbits of satellites currently up. If you go into settings and enable "RINGS", it will show an approximation of the ground coverage. As others have indicated trees and local geography also play a big factor, but still you can see where the major holes exist.
 
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The 800 number is a little dated. They have almost 1400 up now. They've launched around 480 this year, so far. Between 240 and 300 are up but not yet in final position. Generally, they take a couple of months for them to achieve their assigned orbits.



A great site was posted earlier in this thread. https://satellitemap.space It shows the orbits of satellites currently up. If you go into setting and enabled "RINGS", it will show an approximation of the ground coverage. As others have indicated trees and local geography also play a big factor, but still you can see where the major holes exist.
What is with the conga lines of satellites dancing over the oceans? Is that to overcome any line of sight issues?
 
What is with the conga lines of satellites dancing over the oceans? Is that to overcome any line of sight issues?
If you're referring to the closely spaced (yellow rings), those are the latest launches that have not had a chance to spread out and achieve their "final" orbits.

I have not come across anything on the reasoning for their orbital dynamics. But I would assume, it was chosen to help maximize coverage. If you watch carefully, you can see that different groups move in different direction (primarily up / down).
 
Here's another site I stumbled across. It shows approximate network availability for each cell. Clicking on a cell will display details.

It looks like the Well World. I wonder if Musk is a Markovian...

Also, I saw that a few invites went out in the NC area.

EDIT: Looks like this site is no longer updated. Sorry.
 
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Found another site that allows you to place your location and estimate cover. Other site was not updated in a while.

https://starlink.sx/

THis is great. Here is for Atlanta GA Region - I live about 40 miles N of the city

THis prediction looks outstanding to me! Very little slowdowns if any at all and almost no dropout. That will mean when more satellites are up, and they just put 60 more up a few days ago, the drop outs are going to be near zero to none at all with an increase in bandwidth

As I have already pre-ordered my dish, and patiently waiting to kick Cumcast to the curb, this looks promising for me to have a solid dependable internet connection away from Super Corporate Cancel Culture Pandering Monopolistic Theiving and Morally Depraved Comcrap.

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THis is great. Here is for Atlanta GA Region - I live about 40 miles N of the city

THis prediction looks outstanding to me! Very little slowdowns if any at all and almost no dropout. That will mean when more satellites are up, and they just put 60 more up a few days ago, the drop outs are going to be near zero to none at all with an increase in bandwidth

As I have already pre-ordered my dish, and patiently waiting to kick Cumcast to the curb, this looks promising for me to have a solid dependable internet connection away from Super Corporate Cancel Culture Pandering Monopolistic Theiving and Morally Depraved Comcrap.

View attachment 353540
Not as good in my area yet, but it's not officially launching until August-September. I'm sure more satellites will be covering my area by then.
 
THis is great. Here is for Atlanta GA Region - I live about 40 miles N of the city

THis prediction looks outstanding to me! Very little slowdowns if any at all and almost no dropout. That will mean when more satellites are up, and they just put 60 more up a few days ago, the drop outs are going to be near zero to none at all with an increase in bandwidth

As I have already pre-ordered my dish, and patiently waiting to kick Cumcast to the curb, this looks promising for me to have a solid dependable internet connection away from Super Corporate Cancel Culture Pandering Monopolistic Theiving and Morally Depraved Comcrap.

View attachment 353540
Please, take the time out of your day to tell us how you really feel :p
 
Wonder how long it takes from launch to On Station serving customers?

Code:
Not in service yet:

Raising orbit: 290
Parked and drifting to their target planes: 286
 
Got the invite mail too, but didn't order due to the dish's operating temperature (-22°F to 104°F).

https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/k5iy8z/hot_weather_dish/
The last week saw temperatures in my area between 103-108F, have not had any issues so far. Dropouts have decreased (as well as length of dropouts) compared to a few months ago. We recently cancelled our cable satellite and went with streaming sevices, haven't had a single issue with streaming. Starlink is still working absolutely fantastically, and seems to be getting better over time.
 
The last week saw temperatures in my area between 103-108F, have not had any issues so far. Dropouts have decreased (as well as length of dropouts) compared to a few months ago. We recently cancelled our cable satellite and went with streaming sevices, haven't had a single issue with streaming. Starlink is still working absolutely fantastically, and seems to be getting better over time.

Nice, that's good to hear, thanks for the update! I'm gonna sign up now, but who knows how long it'll take since I'm now super late to the party.
 
womp womp wommmmpp: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit

https://arstechnica.com/information...rizona-sun-knocking-user-offline-for-7-hours/
Well...don't put them on asphalt or over super reflective surfaces, and try to avoid putting them in direct sunlight I guess? Guy lives in Arizona, where shoes melt from the heat and people die from heat-stroke after being left in their car for a couple minutes. Should have been prepared for this, imo.
 
Well...don't put them on asphalt or over super reflective surfaces, and try to avoid putting them in direct sunlight I guess? Guy lives in Arizona, where shoes melt from the heat and people die from heat-stroke after being left in their car for a couple minutes. Should have been prepared for this, imo.

Considering you want your dish to have a very large view of the sky, this is kinda hard to accomplish...
 
Well...don't put them on asphalt or over super reflective surfaces, and try to avoid putting them in direct sunlight I guess? Guy lives in Arizona, where shoes melt from the heat and people die from heat-stroke after being left in their car for a couple minutes. Should have been prepared for this, imo.
Guess people can build a sunshade for their antennas using radome materials (fiberglass, ptfe?)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radome
 
Considering you want your dish to have a very large view of the sky, this is kinda hard to accomplish...
Considering the dish is only 1'x2'x5" or so, no, it's really not.
 
I guess someone will come out with a water cooling kit. Surprised Musk has not already done it and started using it to advertise StarLink as so fast that it requires advanced cooling.
 
Alright, so I can't shade my eyes from direct sunlight just because I need a 180° view of the sky?

THE SATELLITES MOVE ACROSS THE SKY. At some point, whatever is shading the dish will interfere with the LOS to the satellites. Why do you think so many people with Starlink complain that they need a huge field with no tree line around?
 
THE SATELLITES MOVE ACROSS THE SKY. At some point, whatever is shading the dish will interfere with the LOS to the satellites. Why do you think so many people with Starlink complain that they need a huge field with no tree line around?
Because they have the dish on the ground instead of on a pole...

Ed: Look, I'll install a shade over mine if they ever get around to me in the queue, and I'll let you know how it goes.
 
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I've been using Starlink since early March in Southwest Michigan. Unfortunately, I live in a area with lots of very tall trees, and only one spot with decent line of sight to the sky. The outages actually got worse over time instead of better, due to the trees growing in their leaves, which caused more obstructions. I pretty much went from 6-7 minutes on average for outtages to 3 minutes, so gaming becomes painful.

I have the dishy on the ground, as the house is getting the roof re-done sometime in the near future, putting it on a mast on top of the house I think would improve it quite a lot.

However, Earthlink (unrelated to Starlink) is now servicing my area with 25mbps DSL (Previously 7mbps from frontier), so I'll be switching to that once the installer arrives in a week. Assuming I get the rated speeds, I'll need to figure out what to do with my Starlink kit after the switch.
 
There are already many reports about objects as small/thin as a utility pole causing connection disruptions. It's pretty comical that there are some here who think that they are going to be putting shade panels over their antenna, lol
 
There are already many reports about objects as small/thin as a utility pole causing connection disruptions. It's pretty comical that there are some here who think that they are going to be putting shade panels over their antenna, lol
Utility poles are neither small nor thin...
 
Utility poles are neither small nor thin...

I'm not talking about antennas installed right next to a pole. I'm talking about poles that are like 20ft or more away and only block the path of a satellite for a fraction of a second as the satellite passes behind the pole. The same issue has been happening with trees (even trees with no leaves that don't block much).
 
There are already many reports about objects as small/thin as a utility pole causing connection disruptions. It's pretty comical that there are some here who think that they are going to be putting shade panels over their antenna, lol
Keep in mind what the shade panels are made of will make a huge difference in whether how much of the signal will be blocked, if any. The front of the dish has some type of plastic covering the transceivers. That material or a similar material could likely be used to shade the sun while having minimal impact on the signal.

I've seen covers for DirecTV and DISH dishes that were intended to keep snow from accumulating on the dish, while allowing the signals to get through. Those are different frequencies, so it just a matter of finding the right material for the frequencies that StarLink uses.
 
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