[Starlink] Re: Starlink and Iran

Ulrich Speidel
2026-01-15T21:07:05Z

On 16/01/2026 9:30 am, Hayden Simon wrote:
> That leaves the most likely alternative as the action occuring from reasonable altitude. Be that in orbit, weather balloon(s)....drones.
>
Not really. Think of a Starlink satellite's beam as a laser pointer
pointing at Dishys on the ground that look at the satellite with a good
old fashioned telescope (which is what the phased array effectively
does). And vice versa (laser pointer at the Dishy, telescope at the
satellite). To disrupt that signal, you have to get yourself in front of
the telescope with your laser pointer so your interfering signal can
even be seen. Getting in front of the telescopes on the ground is
mission impossible because there are a few 10000 of them. Moreover, they
suddenly switch direction to point at another satellite typically every
15 to 75 s (which shorter intervals dominating).

Getting in front of the telescopes on the satellites is somewhat easier
as there are fewer of them and - with a drone - you'd be further away
and they'd already be pointing in your general direction if you're close
to the Dishy you're trying to interfere with. But even so, you'd need
one laser pointer per visible and usable satellite - in each cell you're
wanting to take Starlink out on. Moreover, you wouldn't know whether the
satellite is currently receiving from that cell on a red, blue, or green
light frequency - so you'd have to pump power into all of them. Not trivial.

GPS interference is much easier.

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Dr. Ulrich Speidel

School of Computer Science

Room 303S.594 (City Campus)

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