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Starlink receive FCC approval for mobile antennas incl boats


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That's a land coverage map, the real coverage is further out to sea.

But you are right that the service is still a long long way off being able to provide open ocean coverage in the pacific.  They need to launch another ~40,000 satellites for that goal to be achieved.  They currently have approval for 12,000 satellites, of which they have launched ~2500.   The focus is currently on populated areas.  But one day worldwide coverage will exist...

There also are no ground stations that we can use yet which will track fast enough to take into account boat movement.  It will work on an RV, cause of course they park in one place.

The issue at the moment is base stations, so although you can see a satellite from anywhere on earth, eg in the middle of the Indian ocean, that satellite that you can see cannot see a base station.  To solve this they need a full mesh - that means the Satellite you can see, sends your transmissions using laser's to another satellite, which can then bounce it to another, and so on until it reaches a satellite that can see a base station.  For that full mesh they need more Satellites, lots more satelites.

So quite a bit has to happen before we can use it on a boat at anchor.

I am not sure what approvals they would need to operate in international waters, currently every country has to provide permission individually to use the spectrum - nfi how that works in international waters...

Not withstanding the lack of a marine ground station, anywhere around NZs coast you can use it now.  Pretty much at the 200NM limit give or take, east cape.

There's a good interactive coverage map here... every dot is a satellite, much SPACE JUNK!  Definitely check the map out.

Here's a snapshot of NZs coverage area, covered by the honey comb's.  The Red dots are the six ground stations in NZ.

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Plenty of people using it on boats at anchor. Plenty of people using it on boats underway. It is geo fenced in parts of the States but not here it seems. Mine is installed and up an running.

The FB group Starlink on Boats is a good source of info.

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1 hour ago, darkside said:

Plenty of people using it on boats at anchor. Plenty of people using it on boats underway. It is geo fenced in parts of the States but not here it seems. Mine is installed and up an running.

The FB group Starlink on Boats is a good source of info.

While this is true, the current antenna's are not designed for mobile (boat) platforms. The RV one is ok when stopped. New ones are coming that are designed for movement...

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1 hour ago, darkside said:

Plenty of people using it on boats at anchor. Plenty of people using it on boats underway. It is geo fenced in parts of the States but not here it seems. Mine is installed and up an running.

The FB group Starlink on Boats is a good source of info.

Nice. Do you have a Starlink supplied base station? Or is it a after market one? 

I heard the Starlink ones had plastic gears and could not keep up? 

I don't know if NZ is or isn't Geo-Fenced. They could easily do it here if they wanted to. 

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1 minute ago, CarpeDiem said:

Nice. Do you have a Starlink supplied base station? Or is it a after market one? 

I heard the Starlink ones had plastic gears and could not keep up? 

That's my understanding as well, and some have disabled the motors. No personal experience - yet.

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Yes I am aware. But internet is available today, on boats at faster speeds than the fibre coming into our house, unlimited, for $250 a month.

We have Starlink RV. There are a lot of videos on YouTube showing how to disable the motors for more stable reception underway and at anchor.

Not sure that the gears failing is a problem at all.

Apparently if you leave it for a while the dishy just gives up hunting and goes back to flat

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Wow, nice speeds on Starlink. That's some of the best in the world. Good to see that happening! 

I assume you aren't subscribed to a 100mbit/s fibre service?  Assuming you aren't buying a slow service, I would definitely log a ticket with your ISP.  I just got 870mbit/s to fast.com. 

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Anyhoo it's real and it's here. There will be lots of them very soon.

From opening the box to getting internet is about 5 minutes. 

Is it a good thing? I'm a bit with BP here, go sailing and switch off. But for now it will mean I can spend more days on the boat so I'll take that. 

We are planning an around NZ this summer so that will be a good test.

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