Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Elon Musk’s Starlink
My kid brother John runs a small television, antenna, cable, and dish installation business in New Mexico. He’s been doing it for many years and he’s really good at it. He sends me pictures sometimes of huge flatscreen televisions he’s mounted on tile walls above fireplaces in extraordinarily expensive Santa Fe homes, stuff like that. He does nice work.
Lately, he’s been busy — really busy — doing Starlink installations. Starlink, as everyone probably knows, is Elon Musk’s space-based internet service provider. New Mexico is a huge, wide-open, mostly empty state with lots of mountains and pockets of wealth. It’s a booming market for Musk’s high-speed, low-latency, low-Earth-orbit service.
Starlink interests me. Not because I want it: I have inexpensive cable internet that does a great job for me. It interests me because it’s innovative, beautifully engineered, and one of the drivers of SpaceX (Starlink’s parent company) and Musk’s rocket business.
I have grown to appreciate Elon Musk’s style of engineering. He is a lot like the best of the entrepreneurial engineers with whom I work: smart, innovative, quirky, and somewhere on one or another spectrum. I like his openness, his willingness to fail spectacularly — and to let us watch. And I love that his rocket boosters land upright, sometimes two at a time.
Next time you see a television dish on someone’s house, note the arm rising up into approximately the middle of it. There’s a little receiver at the end of that arm; the dish is a parabolic reflector that focuses the signal from a faraway (geosynchronous) satellite on that receiver. (Sometimes, there are two receivers, and the dish focuses signals from a different satellite on each.) On internet-capable dishes, there’s a transmitter sharing space with the receiver, and the dish focuses the signal from that transmitter into a beam aimed at that far-away satellite.
Those aren’t Starlink dishes. Starlink dishes don’t have that arm sticking out, because Starlink dishes aren’t really dishes per se — they aren’t reflectors directing a signal toward a receiver. Rather, they’re what are known as phased array antennas. Each “dish” contains hundreds of little antennas in a honeycomb pattern. Sophisticated electronics and computers within the dish control the timing of the signal emitted by each of those little antennas so that the phases of the signals reinforce and cancel each other in a way that effectively aims the radio signal sent out.
None of that is necessary when dealing with a satellite that doesn’t move across the sky. But Starlink satellites are much closer than normal satellites and so move quickly. Starlink antennas have motors that will move them on their masts, but most of the satellite tracking is performed by the phased array, electronically shifting the angle of the emitted beam.
I read somewhere that Starlink now owns more than half of all functioning satellites in low Earth orbit. I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s certainly plausible.
I’m thinking about Starlink today because I read that Russia has put the world on notice that it might shoot down such satellites if it deemed them military threats — or, presumably, if Ukraine keeps using Starlink services to coordinate its defense.
Elon Musk replied to the threat, observing that SpaceX can launch satellites faster than the Russians can launch anti-satellite missiles. (Seriously, this is what I love about the guy.) That’s probably true: SpaceX can put them up about 50 at a time, and can do it week after week. I doubt the Russians have extensive anti-satellite capability.
Of course, the Russians have demonstrated a willingness to dump a lot of debris into orbit, threatening the physical integrity of satellites, space stations, astronauts, etc. It’s easy to imagine them exploding things in the orbit used by Starlink, filling it with nuts and bolts and dangerous junk.
But the more I think about that, the less effective a technique it seems. Space is big: the orbit Starlink satellites occupy is a bit bigger around than the surface of the Earth, and just imagine how much debris you’d have to put in the air at ground level to go all the way around the planet and threaten a few thousand refrigerator-sized objects. And, of course, it’s hard to blow things up at a carefully controlled speed. That means that debris is going to rise (if moving fast) or fall (if moving slowly) until it enters an orbit above or below Starlink’s, perhaps crossing orbits occasionally but not zipping around picking off one satellite after another.
Finally, every Starlink satellite has little Krypton-fueled ion engines that can adjust the satellite’s position: they aren’t entirely passive targets.
This threat from Moscow, at least, seems empty.
Published in Science & Technology
And just for fun:
https://satellitemap.space/
See the current Starlink satellite status, including watching the ‘trains’ of new satellites on their way up.
“BRING ME THE DRIVEWAY STRETCHER!”
They can fit 4 more in each successive shell.
Shouldn’t you actually want the “driveway compressor?”
I want Henry’s Starlink goons to keep getting further away no matter how long they walk toward the house.
Thanks very much. I will check it out. (The “North” business is what prompted my first question on this thread. “South” is really much better in terms of orientation, for me.)
I’m hoping so! If I can get it to work reasonably well, and better than what I currently have, by sticking it on a fencepost and putting the router in the barn (whilst puppy, and sheep-proofing it all), then I’ll consider hieing myself to the top of the barn roof and installing it there. (Hafta say, they offer a number of interesting mounts for just such a contingency. Nothing to stop you falling off the roof, though. Which is a bit of a concern.)
I’ll be delirious with glee if I can surf the Internet pretty well and if I can listen to audio podcasts in real time. At the moment, it often takes me plus one-point-five to do so; IOW a one-hour audio podcast can take an hour-and-a-half, while I wait for it to buffer. If I can listen to/view video podcasts in some facsimile of real time, I’ll probably faint from shock. (At the moment, I rarely even try.)
Although I saw somewhere that–under best conditions–Starlink might allow one to download and view up to five 4K HD movies at once, that objective seems laughable to me. I might like to view some Prime videos. Or perhaps a few other moving objects. But my needs are simple.
As, I suspect, are those of many others in this country. I, and they, have been waiting since the days of Bill Clinton (or perhaps it was Bush II), for “Universal High-Speed Internet Access.” And I’ve been writing about it for more than a decade, here on Ricochet, ever since the DAYS WHEN MY POSTS GOT NO LIKES AT ALL. (TBF, I might have written this one in the days when “Liking” a post wasn’t actually an option. Whatever.)
Guys. Please. (Now that it’s possible to resurrect such things from the dead. LOL. Just kidding. Maybe.)
“Though much is taken, much abides.” That seems true in the matter of high-speed Internet access, if not much else.
I’ve been getting downlink speeds between 33 – 80 mb, the former during some crappy weather. A few weeks ago there was a problem with high latency and DNS timeout, but they seem to have beaten whatever condition was causing it.
The most we’ve done with it is one HD stream, or playing a MMO game. Only two of us, and we usually watch video together, so we aren’t stressing it.
You’re about to have a house full of volunteers. Opportunity doesn’t just knock. It crunches right up the driveway.
I have a climbing harness that I bought five years ago when putting a relatively steep roof on our new pole barn. I hope never to use it again, and giving it away would be one way to be sure.
I wouldn’t give away the long rope I used with it, though, as I use it for tree felling operations. There is a rope that came with the harness, but it’s not one that would be sufficient in all situations or desirable for regular use. I may have tied the two together, but I don’t remember that part. There was no good tree or anything to tie the good rope to on the ground on the one side of the roof, so I backed up our old Toyota (with a trailer hitch) to that side of the building, tied the rope to the trailer hitch, and then scouted around to make sure all car keys were accounted for and that nobody would get in and drive away while I was on the roof, attached to the other end of the rope.
I have declared myself too old for that kind of work now. I was using the harness not just to protect me in case of a fall, but to hold me in position on the slippery metal roof so I could work and get the ridge cap fastened down. I guarantee that it’s a lot easier said than done.
Our Comcast/Xfinity service has its limitations, but I suspect it is still better than anything I can get from Elon Musk. Giving that harness away would force me not to think too hard about it. I can’t say for sure that we’ll be able to come in December, though.
There’s a guy on YouTube with a channel about his roof-cleaning business up in the Pac NorthWet. And all I can see is no harness, broken back, business plan needs work.
Thanks for all the handy hints on climbing, folks. I’ve got a couple of climbing harnesses and a bunch of ropes, hooks and other technical gear myself. Not to mention a fairly complete inventory of roofing equipment.
In my day, I climbed Seneca Rocks in WV, and rappelled down parts of it, and a few other places beside. More than once. Mr. She, who was–for more than 60 years–an avid rock and ice climber (IMHO, those folks are completely round the bend) used to take me with him now and then.
I hated every moment of it, not least because I eventually discovered I have an inner-ear imbalance that makes me quite unstable at heights and in large, open expanses like mountains, and even football stadia.
The things we do for love.
I may yet end up on the barn roof, but not without someone on the ground keeping an eye out.
My dad used to love to tell this story. He and his second wife, Pat (not a step-mom to me in any way, just a truly great friend), and their priest-friend (that’s hard to describe, it was a friend of theirs who was a priest :-) ) went to Italy together. While they were there, they climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
The tower inside was dark and dank. The windows were tiny. My dad and the priest were just plain miserable. They felt very nervous and claustrophobic. But Pat loved it and laughed at their misery the entire trip up the stairs.
They reached the top, and Dad and the priest said, “Thank goodness.” They ran to the edge of the small balcony to look out and breath the fresh air. But when they looked behind them, they saw Pat plastered against the wall of the tower. She had not anticipated how high this tower was, and when she stepped out of the staircase, she was overcome with her fear of heights. Too funny.
My dad would say there’s some internal reason for the way people react to certain situations, like an inner-ear imbalance. It’s just part of the differences in the way people are prewired. :-)
After 16 months on the waiting list, I canceled my starlink order. I am ¼ mile off the nearest road and this would have been great. On the latest delay I started wondering if I really want to spend $500 in hardware and over $100/mo for a fast satellite connection that may blip out if there is a tree in the way or no satellite whizzing by anytime soon (anytime soon being 600mS). I got a T-mobile 5G home internet for an extra $30/mo and no hardware costs. Oh, and I actually HAVE it. And no speed issues.
I’m surprised you could get 5G since the ranges are quite limited. And of course, many people who can’t get other wired high-speed internet, don’t have cellular service either.
I am in the woods but then again I am still in densely populated central Massachusetts. Right now I get 50Mbps but it’s higher in the off peak times which means I am sharing the bandwidth with other people. Hughesnet has data limits which won’t do for me.
I used Exede/Viasat for a few years in Phoenix, when I got tired of Cox Cable (the only alternative in my area and what most people end up using) screwing things up. No “hard” data caps with them. (i.e., it doesn’t just STOP when you reach your high-speed “quota,” it slows down to a speed that was fine for me but probably not sufficient for Netflix etc.)
Multiple options is a very good thing.
Well, it’s arrived. Box is 24’W x 10.5’H x 14″D. Weight is about 18lbs.
Much smaller than any other such I’ve received over the years.
I haven’t opened it yet, as I’m involved with some other things at the moment. Perhaps this weekend.
Just the right sized box for the kitten.
I’m not sure about Starlink, but the other services use geosynchronous orbits which are all over the equator. So the dishes point south in the northern hemisphere and north in the southern.
Edit: Should have known this would have been answered.
What I like about SpaceX and Starlink is that Elon created the most modern and innovative rocket company so that he could be the world’s largest ISP.
I have it, and it works. I installed it on the top of a dormant chimney. There is a short “blip” in coverage as it switches satellites, so it is not perfect yet. But it makes a dandy backup to my Comcast, and my internet guru (@kidcoder) is doing a load-sharing redundancy arrangement.
Your kitteh got the memo:
https://twitter.com/Tippen22/status/1476985855981993984/photo/1
Heh. This is Psymon. He doesn’t need a lot of urging or instruction to figure things out. Not sure he’ll want to climb to the top of the barn to lie on this particular dish, but if I leave a ladder in place, he’s got all the requisite skills:
On second thought, perhaps I’ll put him in helmet and harness, pack up the gear, break out some ropes, ‘biners and pitons, and send him up to install the thing!
@She I ran across the clip I took from the article on antenna positioning and obstructions:
Thanks very much!
Bless.
LOL. No one told me there would be math.
If you–Starlink–think I am climbing up one of those “obstructions to the North’ with my laser pointer, and some sort of other measuring device which can measure the vertical height of the obstruction if I discover that I’m within the horizontal range you specify, then I’m afraid you’ve got another think coming…..
No one told me there would be math.
HaHa! Taller than the dish? The dish is only about twelve inches tall. But what I suspect you actually mean here is “taller than the height of the top-of-the-dish from the ground.” AMIRITE? Again, sorry, not sorry. The trees here belong. The dish? Not so much.
No one told me there would be math.
I’m not worried about obstructions to the South. Dish network, DirectTV network, Hughes Network, and God knows what all else I’ve tried over the years, think that my southern exposure is stellar. The problem is only that conventional satellites don’t do that good of a job when it comes to service.
I was hoping that Starlink might solve that problem. But I’m less-and-less hopeful with every passing day, and with some of the information that’s been presented here.
And that’s OK. I’ll survive.
But if Elon Musk thinks he’s going to make a killing among folks like me, he (also) might want to think again.
Conventional satellites are geostationary above the equator, so aiming south matters, and aiming anywhere else doesn’t.
Starlink satellites are not aligned with the equator at all, and are in low orbit. So aiming in various directions matters a lot. Starlink orbits are tilted such that the apparent motion angles and probabilities of needed aim points is biased to the north. That low orbit is largely responsible for Starlink’s stellar performance.
Such is life.
Consider mounting on a 15 or 20 foot rigid pole somewhere in your yard that minimizes obstructions. Maybe with guy wires.
But a building roof should be fine too. It depends more on nearby trees, other buildings…
She doesn’t want to climb on any of her roofs. A pole can be tipped over for servicing whatever is on top. The recommendation was deliberate to address her stated constraints.