Starlink ! By Elon Musk

[Tallybird]

Jim W, thanks for the tip will shop around

Mike, thanks for the real live feedback and shopping tip.
I’m going to start on a residential plan. My concern is what JimR brought up. Different rules for different parts of the country. My educated guess is given they are starting to have bandwidth issues in certain parts of the country they are trying to manage it. Example, the CNET article I read yesterday on Starlink was dated October 24. They said, where he lived, once you came off a residential plan to a roam plan, you could not go back to residential with that hardware. You had to buy a new setup. Obviously Jim W’s experience is different as he can go back and forth based on his home base location. I live in a congested area already so I don’t want to be deprioritized. Honestly when we are on the road we don’t use the stuff too much. So I think I’ll start with the one residential setup and go from there. As least until they can hang more birds to alleviate the congestion. With Amazon coming line this year, we will have to see how all this plays out. I can do like Jim W did and get a roam setup and pause it when I’m not traveling.

Originally Posted by wandermore

Pete, install the OpenWRT, GoldenOrb or WiFix firmware on your cellular router and you can do some powerful stuff. Mainly lock the cellular modem to specific bands, frequencies, etc. that cannot be done with most cellphones. You can also get some Cisco omnidirectional antennas and/or a solid yagi for not much money to really boost your gain. Plenty of info on it at thewirelessjoint.com boards. For a techie like you it will be lots of fun!

Jim R, thanks for the suggestions and pointing me in the right direction. Also thank you for the generous comment. Unfortunately I’ve been out of the game so long I feel like a model A truck on an L A freeway!!!!! :-) Retired 11 years and technology moves at warp speed. But I will go hang around the board suggestion you gave me to see if I can find a cost effective solution. Crit gave me a peplink 4G router with a built in KVH omnidirectional roof mounted antenna. If I can make that setup hunt in a cost effective way, then that may be good enough for now on the road and I’ll only need one Starlink setup. We have another home, Donna’s childhood home nearby we use as a staycation type of thing. So I can always change the residence address and be up in running in 1/2 hour with Starlink.

Doug, according to Starlinks coverage map, all of the continental US is. Covered.

Ps to all interesting story I read on the news feed about 3 months ago. Seems they court marshaled a navy officer on a battle ship currently on duty in the Middle East. Seems this enterprising officer snuck a Starlink antenna on the battleships deck where all the other antennas were. She then sold service to other officers so they could contact their families while deployed. Obviously she gets can A+ in my book for creativity but also obviously she put the entire battleship in potential danger given all the ways about how are enemies track us. Yes google it this is a real life story!!!!!

[jberger]

Here's the starlink on the boat article and it's a great example of poor leadership on the boat: https://www.twz.com/sea/the-story-of...-truly-bonkers

Note that's TWZ (the war zone) NOT TMZ as the source.

We use a Tmobile 5g box for 90-95% of our trips, and just pull out the Starlink when I need to work and there is no 5g signal. I really appreciate the ability to pause the service and just turn it on when I need it, but the price changes have been more than a little confusing.

I thought they had blocked the residential address hack a while back, so just be prepared if they force you onto a mobile plan.

[wandermore]

Originally Posted by Tallybird

Jim W, thanks for the tip will shop around

Mike, thanks for the real live feedback and shopping tip.
I’m going to start on a residential plan. My concern is what JimR brought up. Different rules for different parts of the country. My educated guess is given they are starting to have bandwidth issues in certain parts of the country they are trying to manage it. Example, the CNET article I read yesterday on Starlink was dated October 24. They said, where he lived, once you came off a residential plan to a roam plan, you could not go back to residential with that hardware. You had to buy a new setup. Obviously Jim W’s experience is different as he can go back and forth based on his home base location. I live in a congested area already so I don’t want to be deprioritized. Honestly when we are on the road we don’t use the stuff too much. So I think I’ll start with the one residential setup and go from there. As least until they can hang more birds to alleviate the congestion. With Amazon coming line this year, we will have to see how all this plays out. I can do like Jim W did and get a roam setup and pause it when I’m not traveling.





Jim R, thanks for the suggestions and pointing me in the right direction. Also thank you for the generous comment. Unfortunately I’ve been out of the game so long I feel like a model A truck on an L A freeway!!!!! :-) Retired 11 years and technology moves at warp speed. But I will go hang around the board suggestion you gave me to see if I can find a cost effective solution. Crit gave me a peplink 4G router with a built in KVH omnidirectional roof mounted antenna. If I can make that setup hunt in a cost effective way, then that may be good enough for now on the road and I’ll only need one Starlink setup. We have another home, Donna’s childhood home nearby we use as a staycation type of thing. So I can always change the residence address and be up in running in 1/2 hour with Starlink.

Doug, according to Starlinks coverage map, all of the continental US is. Covered.

Ps to all interesting story I read on the news feed about 3 months ago. Seems they court marshaled a navy officer on a battle ship currently on duty in the Middle East. Seems this enterprising officer snuck a Starlink antenna on the battleships deck where all the other antennas were. She then sold service to other officers so they could contact their families while deployed. Obviously she gets can A+ in my book for creativity but also obviously she put the entire battleship in potential danger given all the ways about how are enemies track us. Yes google it this is a real life story!!!!!

Wow, she was incredibly foolish to do such a thing. That gives me flashbacks to my runin with the Russian warships last summer.

That is helpful info on your router. I am not familiar with that router, as I built mine from parts and selected the best modem at the time for T-Mobile and Verizon (utilizing a visible plan.)

To get the best performance from it you need to look at the specs of the modem installed to see which bands it supports. Then compare with this list:

https://powerfulsignal.com/cellular-...gaArzoEALw_wcB

Once you do that you will know which carrier network you should purchase a SIM card to best utilize it. Many people do not realize their issues with cellular connectivity is not at all the tower, but the old modem in their own dated equipment. This is why sometimes a phone upgrade can make your signal better (usually) and sometimes worse in the same location.

[Tallybird]

Jayson and Jim R. Yeah I agree. Not the best example of leadership. You can’t put the ship and crew in additional peril especially in a war zone. I’m thankful it all worked out.

Jim R thank you for outlining a work plan. I sincerely appreciate it and can follow your plan. Will let you know how it turns out. I also remember the story you told about the Russian ship and you loosing communications. People forget exactly how close Cuba is to south Florida and our enemies make frequent stops there. Every one has new technology and hacking and jamming is the order of business these days. I remember telling Donna when you relayed that story of how brave you guys were and extremely lucky not to get caught up in anything. Grateful it all worked out for you and your crew. That was a heck of a trip and I bet a lot of fun in addition to all the work and effort. Dreams of a lifetime. If I remember correctly the Russians were there doing tours of one of there ships to the Cubans. Not sure if you ran into that particular ship when it left port or a support ship but yeah scary stuff.

[wandermore]

There was no bravery. Just the combination of happenstance and thrill seeking sailors with a case of gotta-get-there-itis.

[Tallybird]

Originally Posted by wandermore

Pete, install the OpenWRT, GoldenOrb or WiFix firmware on your cellular router and you can do some powerful stuff. Mainly lock the cellular modem to specific bands, frequencies, etc. that cannot be done with most cellphones. You can also get some Cisco omnidirectional antennas and/or a solid yagi for not much money to really boost your gain. Plenty of info on it at thewirelessjoint.com boards. For a techie like you it will be lots of fun!

Ok Jim R, so ya just had to suck me down the rabbit hole didn’t ya? :-) so I did some research, the iPhone 13s we have use Qualcomm’s snapdragon x60 modems. Plenty of horsepower. Version, T mobile, Att is the order in terms of performance. Problem is ya can’t get at the hotspots router to mess with it.
The current 4G router I have is miles slower but for the minimum streaming I’d do in the bus, it would be ok. Problem is I can’t get a cost effective plan. I can’t stop/ start / pause like Starlink roam. This is the big issue no matter what cellular solution I choose. Back in the day, you used to be able to buy GB and it expired in a year on prepaid. That would be the way to go but isn’t available anymore.
I do like the new Qualcomm snapdragon x75 chipset modem and I’m sure I could find/ build a router alas same issue with plan cost for cellular . I used to work with snapdragon back in the days when I built / designed PCs and servers. Good guys, quality stuff and always delivered on time for integration and not hold up my ship date commitment.

With Starlink roam, I could buy the 50 bucks per month and start/ stop it anytime like so I could use Jim W’s solution of 2 setups. Yeah another one time hardware fee but the per month cost is a lot cheaper and I can pause it.

I did a test last month when we were at the other house and steamed some playoff games. Our run rate is about 1gb/ hour so if we’re on the road our usage is so low that the 50 GB plan would suit our needs.

Bottom line, unless I can find a prepaid cellular plan where I can buy gb and they last at least a year Starlink remains the most cost effective way to go since you can pause. With cellular you have to pay monthly whether you use it or not.
God, when I retired I swore I’d never do this stuff again. I feel like a reformed addict who fell off the wagon!!!!!:-)

[patticake]

Pete, you can always turn to restringing shades . I know you are good at

[wandermore]

Visible is unlimited data for $25 per month including tax and fees. I have heard stories about them limiting cellphone hotspots to 5mbps, but that can easily be defeated by USB tethering your phone to your router or just moving the SIM to the router and maybe tweaking the TTL.

Last I used it, Google Fi (uses T-Mobile) had a cheaper plan with a low base and then a pay per Gb fee. I think service can also be paused on it and with better granularity than SL. Maybe worth looking into for your needs if they have not changed their terms.

[Tallybird]

Originally Posted by wandermore

Visible is unlimited data for $25 per month including tax and fees. I have heard stories about them limiting cellphone hotspots to 5mbps, but that can easily be defeated by USB tethering your phone to your router or just moving the SIM to the router and maybe tweaking the TTL.

Last I used it, Google Fi (uses T-Mobile) had a cheaper plan with a low base and then a pay per Gb fee. I think service can also be paused on it and with better granularity than SL. Maybe worth looking into for your needs if they have not changed their terms.

Jim R, thanks I’ll look into it. Last time I checked people were complaining that That visible was getting wiser and they were getting kicked off with routers and the router ids were getting band because they were not phones. I did see some good stuff about Google Fi so I’ll check it out. Honestly for now I’d like to get the 4g router running cost effectively given the low usage we have and worry about an upgrade later.
With Amazon coming online this year I’d like to keep my options open until they announce and ship to see what they have.

Steve W , if I remember correctly what did that member say to you, Dave, and I something about it took the 3 of us so long to string one blind that we couldn’t make a living at it even if we split it???? Gosh, he was so funny!!!! But we did get it done and we laughed all the way through it. I had a ball!!!! Thanks for reminding me of the great times working with members at the rally.