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<p>Nice tracker, Mike!<br>
</p>
<p>That said: It's not just a matter of geometry though. Presuming
that a dishy aims itself at whichever portion of the sky it seems
most satellites (with gateway service), there's another aspect to
the elevation angle. The lower your elevation, the longer the path
that the signal has to take through the atmosphere, and the higher
the degree of service disruption as a result of rain fade, or in
Tonga's case, potential ash cloud fading. In Fiji's case, Starlink
also has to find a site with low elevation take-off to Tonga AND
fibre connectivity. Plus they have to get past the regulator in a
country that's know to regulate heavily and that currently
experiences a lot of Covid-related disruption with people in badly
connected home office.<br>
</p>
<p>Note that Tonga has had emergency service for a while now:
Intelsat, SES and Kacific are all at present providing service
(Kacific at 1 Gbps even). That's plenty for emergency use.</p>
<p>The big sticky point is that mobile Internet isn't working,
people have to go to Tonga Telecom offices for access or wifi.
That's an issue because 4 out of 5 households in Tonga rely on
remittances from family overseas, which are usually sent via
Western Union. Moneygram etc., whose apps are out of action right
now.</p>
<p>And yes, the date line is fun. Pacific countries are known for
having shifted it back and forth for spurious reasons, which is
why it's badly bent, and these days I'm still grateful if people
have maps online that don't end at the date line ;-)<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 8/02/2022 10:36 am, Mike Puchol
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:8ecdc077-1751-4302-a013-fa35b2291a87@Spark">
<title></title>
<div name="messageBodySection">
<div dir="auto">Placing a gateway at the Fiji teleport results
in satellites that cover Tonga being serviced. However,
satellite density, but most importantly, GSO protection, take
out a significant portion of the coverage from the satellites.<br>
<br>
They would need to lower minimum elevation (now 25°
everywhere) to improve the situation. With things as-is, Tonga
would be covered by 1-2 satellites which should be enough for
emergency service restoration.<br>
<br>
You can play around with this on my tracker at <a href="https://starink.sx" moz-do-not-send="true">https://starink.sx</a>, I will be
adding the temporary gateway in a few minutes.<br>
<br>
Please not that the date line causes some weird issues with
the map and the algorithms, which I’m still trying to fix. You
can thank whoever thought moving from -180° to +180° across a
line was a good idea.</div>
</div>
<div name="messageSignatureSection"><br>
Best,<br>
<br>
Mike</div>
<div name="messageReplySection">On Feb 7, 2022, 22:24 +0100, David
Lang <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:david@lang.hm"><david@lang.hm></a>, wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" style="border-left-color: grey;
border-left-width: thin; border-left-style: solid; margin: 5px
5px;padding-left: 10px;">the dish aimes at where it sees the
most satellites, not necessarily 53. I took<br>
my dish to a campground where there were trees to the north
and it ended up<br>
pointing straight up (Los Angeles area) performance was fine.<br>
<br>
when you power it on, the dish tilts and swivels to point
straight up (no idea<br>
what the angle logic is), and after a few min of watching the
sky will re-aim<br>
itself if/as needed.<br>
<br>
David Lang<br>
<br>
On Mon, 7 Feb 2022, Ben Greear wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2022 13:18:49 -0800<br>
From: Ben Greear <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:greearb@candelatech.com"><greearb@candelatech.com></a><br>
To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net">starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net</a><br>
Subject: Re: [Starlink] Starlink for Tonga?<br>
<br>
90 or even much smaller percentage is a lot better than
zero.<br>
<br>
I wonder if they can point the dish towards the horizon to
pick up the sat<br>
where<br>
it can best see the functional downlink. I realize the dish
auto-points<br>
itself<br>
now, but surely engineers that can design that can also
design an 'off'<br>
switch<br>
for that and let their on-the-ground folks do some
hacking....<br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
Ben<br>
<br>
On 2/7/22 11:05 AM, Christian von der Ropp wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite">But in practice the satellites won't
be sitting and waiting at the edge of<br>
</blockquote>
this 940km radius. They are moving in and out the radius and
the question is<br>
if<br>
<blockquote type="cite">satellite density is high enough so
that once the serving satellite loses<br>
</blockquote>
its gateway link there's another satellite in the 940km
radius which also<br>
covers<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Tonga. And then this new satellite
cannot be within certain elevation<br>
</blockquote>
angles (~60-80° at 0° azimuth) where the geostationary arc
crosses Fijian<br>
skies and the<br>
<blockquote type="cite">gateway antennas have to seize
emission. My gut feeling is that<br>
</blockquote>
availability in Tonga would be <90% simply because it's
too far out at the<br>
edge of a Fijian<br>
<blockquote type="cite">gateway's range where there will be
frequent service interruptions.<br>
<br>
<br>
Am 07.02.2022 um 19:51 schrieb Nathan Owens:<br>
<blockquote type="cite">The current coverage radius of a
gateway/ground station with a 25 degree<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
minimum elevation is ~940km, so nothing in theory.<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
On Mon, Feb 7, 2022 at 10:50 AM Daniel AJ Sokolov
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:daniel@sokolov.eu.org"><daniel@sokolov.eu.org></a><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
Hello,<br>
<br>
I hope this is not offtopic: Starlink wants to build a
ground station<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
on<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">Fiji to supply Tonga with
internet.<br>
<br>
The distance between Tonga and Fiji is about 750 km
minimum. That's<br>
quite the distance.<br>
<br>
What does Starlink have to do to make this work?<br>
<br>
Cheers<br>
Daniel<br>
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Dr. Ulrich Speidel
School of Computer Science
Room 303S.594 (City Campus)
Ph: (+64-9)-373-7599 ext. 85282
The University of Auckland
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