Starlink Internet?

Ken O

Ken O

Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2014
Messages
135
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4
C Dory Year
1990
C Dory Model
22 Cruiser
Vessel Name
Ravens' Roost
We are considering Starlink Internet for our C-22. Probably the mini-antenna. WeSeveral boaters in Alaska were very happy with Starlink. We would be interested mostly to research sea conditions from buoys, which help go/ no-go decisions. We would also transfer this system to our van when wandering remote parts of Alaska, Yukon, and NWT.

My concern is that Starlink offers Zero pre-sales support, and operational support is very poorly rated--close to nothing. KVH brags about offering great support for their Starlink offerings, but they never replied to my pre-purchase questions. Not encouraging. Also, their minimum monthly offering appears to be 50GB/month for $250.

Any direct experience with Starlink? Please, only actual experience, I've read all of the second-hand reports already. Thanks!
 
I have a Gen3 on my boat and use it for camping and traveling. I have the roam plan $165.00 per month unlimited. and $5.00 a month when it is suspended. I have never had to use tech support it just works. At Lake Powell in October I think it lost connection one time. For the most part it was working even in the narrow canyons. I will be taking it to Alaska next May.
 
Thanks for the info Jody. We will be in Juneau in June, then probably Hoonah and then Haines into August. Maybe we will see you there.
 
I purchased a Starlink mini in October, then set it up for a test run at home on the 50 GB plan for $50 a month. It worked great, so put it in stand by for $5 a month, until we leave for Alaska in April. We are really looking forward to having internet access for weather & all the other benefits the internet can provide in remote areas, especially this coming year, where the present plan is to stay around the east coastal area of Baranof Island, centered at Warm Springs Bay for the month of May. With Jody giving me access to his Starlink the last two years on Yellowstone Lake, I know how well the system works & now see the mini is great too.
 
We are looking at the mini antenna also. Were you able to find a direct 12 volt power connection, or do you need to go 120 volts via inverter? Also, did you use a pipe mount or the kickstand? Thanks
 
You can see mine in this picture mounted on a piece of 8020. I run mine on 120 volt. Using a power station.
Starlink.jpg
 
Here is what you need to DC power the mini this is on Starlink.com website. You can go there and make an account tell it what kind of dish and see the accessories for it.
MiniPower.JPG
 
Ken O said:
We are looking at the mini antenna also. Were you able to find a direct 12 volt power connection, or do you need to go 120 volts via inverter? Also, did you use a pipe mount or the kickstand? Thanks
Click to expand...

To mount on the boat, I’m planning like Jody to use a rail mount, but with me, it will be on the bow rail & then run the cable down through the present anchor hawse, which is unused since installing a windless. Again like Jody, power on the boat will come from a power station, a Jackery 1000. As I’m planning on staying several weeks watching whales & using the hot springs at Warm Springs Bay, I will use the Honda Gen 2000 to keep the boat batteries & power station charged. When moving, the power station will be charged from the boat motors. On the road or camping, I will also use the power station & keep it charged with the trucks 12 volt dc plug in or Honda gen. The Jackery power station is also set up to be charged by solar, but for my use, I believe using the boat motors & Honda gen the better option.
 
We have the star link mini with 50 gig plan and it has worked well. Most of our use has been traveling in our Roadtrek. On a six week trip to Alaska and back it worked well everywhere as long as you are not blocked by trees. In Canada we had good internet, but for whatever reason we could not stream anything. That being said streaming will eat up you 50 gigabits pretty fast. When we have phone data reception we will use that with a hot spot to conserve Starlink data.
We have tested it on the boat and one thing to know about these is that they can receive through the fiberglass roof of the C-Dory just fine. I just put ours on the shelf above the helm and it works great.
We power ours directly from 12 volt. You need to have a 20 amp 12 volt power supply and the shorter the cord the better. This is more efficient than using an inverter to run on 110V since the inverter uses additional power to operate. We also have a portable power pack that can run the mini for 6 hours.
This has been a good investment for us.
 
drbridge said:
We have the star link mini with 50 gig plan and it has worked well. Most of our use has been traveling in our Roadtrek. On a six week trip to Alaska and back it worked well everywhere as long as you are not blocked by trees. In Canada we had good internet, but for whatever reason we could not stream anything. That being said streaming will eat up you 50 gigabits pretty fast. When we have phone data reception we will use that with a hot spot to conserve Starlink data.
We have tested it on the boat and one thing to know about these is that they can receive through the fiberglass roof of the C-Dory just fine. I just put ours on the shelf above the helm and it works great.
We power ours directly from 12 volt. You need to have a 20 amp 12 volt power supply and the shorter the cord the better. This is more efficient than using an inverter to run on 110V since the inverter uses additional power to operate. We also have a portable power pack that can run the mini for 6 hours.
This has been a good investment for us.
Click to expand...
The being able to use inside the boat is really good to know. I will be experimenting with that in addition to having the Kaboat dingy mounted on the roof to see if it interferes.
 
I mounted our Gen 2 starlink on the rail with a mount ordered off Amazon.
Ordered a power converter off Amazon 12volt / to 48volts
We power it off our solar battery.
Already had the $165 roam plan .
Just got done going from Evansville, In. To Panama City ,FL.
Only had to ajust the SL a couple of times. It did better the farther south we went.
We run it off when we went to bed to save power.

If I was to do buy another . I would get a mini. From what I have read they track much better and don't need constant alignment .
 
Thanks everyone. Sounds like it would be hard not to go this route. Very interesting about carrying good signal through the roof. We would have kayaks and solar panels in the way also, which might block too much. But, that also raises the possibilty of somehow mounting it under the foredeck, forward of the hatch. We wouldn't hit our heads on it there.

And BTW, Nice fish, Jodi!
 
Hunkydory said:
The being able to use inside the boat is really good to know. I will be experimenting with that in addition to having the Kaboat dingy mounted on the roof to see if it interferes.
Click to expand...
Jay, one thing to note is that the Starlink mini likes 30v. You can get a 12v-30v converter for about $35. I wired up a couple lengths of power supply pigtails so I could move the antenna between the boat, camper, vehicle, etc. Reception was fine on the helm shelf, including through our Alaska series dingy, but not through a flexible solar panel. I also dedicated a circuit and switch for the unit as I rewired the boat last winter anyway.
 
Also there is a fb forum “Starlink on Boats” with lots of good info.
 

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