Starlink now available to UK addresses

[dabigm]

Figured out the app / obstructions bit.

There's a very narrow strip that I guess at my location runs sort of diagonally across the sky. The app draws black borders where you shouldn't point the phone. But if it sees obstructions it will say turn phone to left, aim phone at sky etc. Not very exciting. Was hoping it might actually find a satellite and tell me it had found it (sort of like google sky map)

 

[GavinAshford]

The starlink satellites aren't in geo stationary orbit - they orbit the earth in around 90minutes so each satellite is only overhead for a few minutes at a time before it passes and the next one comes along to serve you - hence the narrow strip you mention - that's the path they take and I'd guess that path needs clear, continuous, view to maintain connection.

 

[vcommsmind]

Back yard (obstructed by my actual house if i point it at at the house, but the neighbours sky dish points directly at my house and works apparently)

If Mark doesn't want to go for it, anyone want to crowdfund me ? I promise to write about it here and test whatever you want.

Yeah you need to do it in the day, then it shows what it sees and the area it needs to see is shown so you can see where you'd need to place it to get a good view...

 

[Bubblesthefish6]

@dabigm ill certainly put 10 quid in

 

[dabigm]

The starlink satellites aren't in geo stationary orbit - they orbit the earth in around 90minutes so each satellite is only overhead for a few minutes at a time before it passes and the next one comes along to serve you - hence the narrow strip you mention - that's the path they take and I'd guess that path needs clear, continuous, view to maintain connection.

Yeah they're in LEO. I have been watching the constellation and its quite difficult to tell what sort of visibility i'd have and therefore what periods i'd have without connectivity.

 

[kommando828]

I used the app, the dish according to what I could see needs to be pointed at a letterbox high up but towards the south. Plenty of uninterrupted views for me to pick from, as I allegedly have FTTP coming in 2022 and currently have 70mb 4G it makes no sense for me but Openreach and R100 do not fill me with confidence. It may be by the time I get to see FTTP the Starlink prices have dropped enough so that FTTP is not worth the hassle due to the expected wayleaves issues.

 

[Crom]

Just to add my story:
I paid £89 sometime early Feb having registered on the US site months/years ago. I received an email last night that the rest of the money would be taken in three days and I had an opportunity cancel. I swallowed hard and have decided to go with it.

I currently have BT broadband which manages about a 2Mbps and less in the evening. This is load balanced to a dual SIM modem with a 3 SIM and an EE SIM. I have a 4G aerial on the roof and another in the loft. I generally get a combined average down speed of 10Mbps although when the wind is blowing in the right direction or 3/EE aren't managing my data too efficiently I can get bursts of 40 or even 60Mbps....trouble is that it is too intermittant and inconsistent to be able to work from home (zoom etc).

Having read about Starlink suffering short dropouts (3 per hour approx) this is going to cause havoc with zoom calls. So, my plan is to bypass the Starlink router and plug the dish and the 3 SIM straight into Wan1 and Wan2 of my unifi USG and set the primary connection to starlink with the 3 sim taking over on failover...or perhaps I'll use BT broadband connection. With any luck the short drops in signal will be covered by the backup wan connection but I'll see.

The cost of Starlink is pretty prohibitive (in my opinion) but if it works it will remove one massive stress of trying to remain connected (and thereby remaining relevant) in a competive world whilst living in the sticks, working from home because of COVID...and given all the various connections I've cobbled together the monthly price is only a little higher than what I'm paying at the moment!

Now...I need to find where to buy one of those pipe adapters so I can mount the dish on the roof above the sky dish!