[Starlink] Speaking of retirements...

Tue Sep 26 07:02:02 EDT 2023

On 26/09/2023 11:46 pm, Noel Butler via Starlink wrote:
>
> On 25/09/2023 21:45, Ulrich Speidel via Starlink wrote:
>
>> The "RV" option available in Australia and NZ at this time is indeed 
>> the residential option without the cell lock. It's intended for 
>> stationary use and assumes that you have a mains (AC) power source. 
>> We've tried it here with the much taunted Yaosheng adapter, which 
>> however isn't 12V (it needs 42V) and which gave us a lot more outages 
>> than the Starlink router with Ethernet adapter.
>>
>> There is also a "mobility" option available here (or at least they 
>> offer sales consultations for it) that's shown mounted flat on the 
>> roof of a speeding 4WD and seems to be quite different from a 
>> residential class Dishy. Presumably that will run off 12V. Cost is 
>> significantly more than
>>
> At least two articles I've read tonight confirm they are still AC powered
>
The RV option is AC powered, yes.
>
> The significant cost is for the mobility "pro" version, one article 
> indicated 599 for the standard (I assume that's USD but can't confirm)
>
I think, as on this mailing list, that a lot of people confuse the RV 
(mobile in the sense that you can take it to other places) and the truly 
mobile version (usable *while* you move), so the "standard" is probably 
the standard residential unit on an RV subscription.
>
> So looks like we *still* have to void warranties and hack it for 12v.
>
We use it with a portable power station.
>>
>> meaning that most satellites Dishy talks to are more like 800 - 1000 
>> km away. Near the Equator, Dishy will remain in "coffee table" 
>> position but avoid the geostationary arc, which also means that the 
>> sats it talks to are quite a bit off to the side all of the time.
>>
> Still a lot closer than 22km's up in the troposphere where Aus's NBN 
> sats are, hrmm, actually 22k's might even be the stratosphere, I'm 
> sure someone will correct me :)
>
Yes, that needs correction. Aus's NBN sats are geostationary, that's 
35,756 km above the Equator, anything at 22 km would need to be a HAPS 
(under development in various places but not operational at this time) 
or face early demise because it's still very much in the atmosphere - 
some military jets fly as high as that, as did Concorde I think. Space 
starts at about 100 km.
>>
>> We've observed that our Dishy consumes more power during large 
>> downloads than during uploads, which suggests that transmit power isn't
>>
> Something to be mindful of then if that's the cases with all units, my 
> use cases are jitsi, VoIP, Weather, twatter, and odd youtube, I dont 
> have netflix or such, and for FTA TV, there's VAST and foxtel uses the 
> same satellite as VAST so ...yeah, there's that ;)
>
Which might just blow your cigarette lighter fuse - in some vehicles, 
these allow for as little as 8 amps (and most plugs get hot at that 
current, so there's an immediate voltage drop there).
>>
>> the main factor here. It appears that it's the signal processing that 
>> is needed to receive and demodulate the incoming signal with the high 
>> bit rate data stream that really eats the watts.
>>
> That doesn't sound well designed if thats the case, I mean we're only 
> talking a few hundred mbps on a consumer unit if you're lucky.
>
>> Incidentally, with more birds in the sky, Dishy seems to be willing 
>> to put up with a bit more obstruction nowadays:
>>
>>
> If you have this level of obstruction at a permanent location, why not 
> put it up high in clear(er) view of the sky :)

1) Because my wife put it there while I was at APNIC56 ;-) She had 
visitors and needed the use of the outdoor table on which it lived until 
then (which had a much clearer view of the sky but has since moved from 
that hibernation location to a summer position where it hasn't).

2) Can do, but by the looks of it I don't need to.

> -- 
>
> Regards,
> Noel Butler
>
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-- 
****************************************************************
Dr. Ulrich Speidel

School of Computer Science

Room 303S.594 (City Campus)

The University of Auckland
u.speidel at auckland.ac.nz  
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/
****************************************************************

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