Our Starlink RV just arrived - here's our test vs NBN

Awesome, be interested to see what hardware you have to carry. Big dish?

Cheers

Lyndon

I have the RV coming and have to wait for the residential due to coverage not here yet, however on the Starlink FB page people are getting coverage in Darwin with no issue.
Mind you Dial up internet would be faster than the Sky Muster set I have at the minute.

This thread has prompted me to do some more research. Sometime previously seen a very good page regarding the electronics within the radome, I can no longer locate it. However, from that I now know that the operation of the antenna is more akin to the flat panel UHF TV antennas with the 4 bow-tie receiving elements than it does the standard parabolic dish antenna.

I did see there are concerns from some regarding the performance of the system. This was from the USA on July 20, 2022. Everything You Need to Know About Starlink Internet for RVers

5 Starlink Frustrations

As we’ve traveled North America in our RV these past five weeks, I’ve regularly set up my system wherever we camped. And I’ve been frustrated by the following:

1 Starlink download speeds are really not that fast. Don’t get me wrong. Starlink is fast. Often broadband fast, regularly reaching speeds at well over 100 Mbps. But you know what? So does 5G cellular in many parts of the country. And those super-fast Starlink speeds have not been consistent. Depending on how oversubscribed the area may be and how congested Starlink traffic is, I have often found that cellular Internet — even 4G LTE — performs better than Starlink. Like cellular, Starlink throttles speeds (they call it “de-prioritizing”) when you are operating portable out of your registered home area.
2 Starlink upload speeds are terrible. This has been my most bitter disappointment. Sometimes upload speeds reach only 1 or 2 Mbps. Rarely over 5, which is the bare minimum needed for a reliable video upload or a quality Zoom call with a good camera. Not once in our travels have I been able to get enough upload speed to do our YouTube live streams on the road with Starlink.
3 Starlink doesn’t do well with trees. We love trees. We love boondocking in out-of-the-way places and forested places. Even mounted on a 20-foot pole on my RV, reliable and consistent Starlink connectivity requires a clear sky. Yes, it can connect with some trees in the field of vision of the dish. But it drops the connection every 30-40 seconds, every time the satellite its tracking is partially blocked by the trees. The drops don’t last long — another satellite is always right behind the obscured one — but the constant drops are annoying. So is always having to set up camp in a clearing, which is necessary for a solid connection.
4 Starlink is not allowed for in-motion use. At least not yet. Despite those YouTube videos you’ve seen from do-it-yourself RVers who have jerry-rigged ways to anchor the antenna on the roof of the RV and get it working while in motion, Starlink says such use is prohibited and those who do so can have their access pulled. We know Starlink is working on in-motion use but big questions remain on whether a different antenna will be required and how much more such convenience will cost. So, meanwhile, it has to be set up and taken down and stowed every time you set up camp and move.

Another equally import piece of information for those wanting to take this into the field is the power consumption. I have just rebooted our unit after moving it to a different piece of roof and from startup to fully running I set my clamp meter to hold and the most current I pulled at 240V was 210mA. It generally sits around 180mA at 240V. Yes it only connects to 240V so an inverter is a must but the power is not bad at around 50W.

David

PS: This post was made using StarLink!

Another question for those wanting to travel with Starlink and minimise costs is if you have your RV subscription paused, and you find yourself in a location without any mobile coverage for long enough to warrant turning it back on, can you turn it back on via Starlink?

Another bonus discovery...our Telstra phones use WiFi calling, and now with our Starlink this means we can receive calls to our usual phone numbers in areas with no mobile service (provided the Starlink is connected so not whilst we're bumping down a track but when stopped and setup). Both inbound and outbound calls will be a huge help for our business on the road.
Michelle

Another bonus discovery...our Telstra phones use WiFi calling, and now with our Starlink this means we can receive calls to our usual phone numbers in areas with no mobile service (provided the Starlink is connected so not whilst we're bumping down a track but when stopped and setup). Both inbound and outbound calls will be a huge help for our business on the road.
Michelle

And reading an article today….Starlink, due to customer demand, will start throttling speed back for people who use more than 1Tb/mth……may not worry most, but for heavy users it might be a problem.

i've just deployed a service to sandstone .
going from skymuster with unworkable data limits and shit speed to a very respectable service now . makes remotely accessing their network a pleasure now