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Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by yellowapple on Thursday June 30, 2022 @02:08PM (#31936231)
And not just to your home. I'm very strongly considering ponying up the money for Starlink to be able to work while camped out in the middle of nowhere.
Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by rootusrootus on Thursday June 30, 2022 @02:33PM (#31936595)
I do this. Anywhere I can drag my trailer. I have a favorite location up in the mountains that gets no signal of any kind, but now that I have Starlink I can get perfect Internet there. So instead of going up for a weekend to relax, I go up for a week at a time, work during the day, and come home on the weekend to top up supplies.
Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by yellowapple on Thursday June 30, 2022 @03:32PM (#31937404)
Yep, that's exactly the sort of routine I have in mind.

Longer-term, I'm hoping for that favorite location to be a piece of land I actually own, in which case my goal is to setup a semi-permanent "base" with solar, Starlink, and a yurt or somesuch.

Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by logosmonkey on Thursday June 30, 2022 @10:20PM (#31941450)
Same, I got a setup before I went out west this year and I can now camp off grid at places I couldn't the previous years. It's great.
Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by kenchan on Thursday June 30, 2022 @02:27PM (#31936509)
Mine is arriving today and I'm SUPER stoked. Bye AT&T forever!
Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by Alupis on Thursday June 30, 2022 @02:15PM (#31936324)
The receiver doesn't seem to be easily portable, say on a backpacking trip or something. Perhaps that will change in the future though.
Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by skykooler on Thursday June 30, 2022 @02:38PM (#31936668)
The RV receiver fits in a backpack, though you'll need to carry a fairly heavy battery to power it for a while.
Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by mikestew on Thursday June 30, 2022 @03:31PM (#31937393)
"fits in a backpack", with the implication that it will consume the internal volume of said backpack. That does not make it a solution for parent's "backpacking trip", unless you wish to sleep on the ground in the clothes you wore. And you ate before your left. The "heavy battery" was just icing on the cake. You know some backpackers saw the handles of their toothbrush to impress other backpackers^W^W^Wsave weight, right? :-)

That's not to say Starlink or a competitor can't get there eventually. I already have pocketable/backpackable device that can shove data up and down a satellite link (Garmin InReach), it's just dog-slow, and that's likely down to the antenna and transmitter power if I were to guess. Someone with more RF smarts than I can probably cook up a foldable antenna, perhaps boost the power a bit, I dunno. But the PoC is there, it just needs iteration.

Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by dreamcompiler on Thursday June 30, 2022 @07:16PM (#31939955)
This is more of a physics problem than an engineering problem.

Garmin InReach uses an omnidirectional antenna on the Iridium network. With an omni antenna your S/N ratio is simply too low to send bits fast. If you made the device powerful enough to roast birds in flight it might work for faster uplink but then it would be dangerous to you too and the FCC would never let you use it anyway. And even this wouldn't improve your downlink speed.

The only way to improve the speed in both directions is to use a directional antenna, which points most of the uplink energy toward the satellite and concentrates the satellite's incoming energy to get the S/N ratio high in both directions. That's exactly what Starlink does.

This is made even more difficult because we're talking about LEO satellites and LEO satellites move. So the antenna has to track the satellite. Again this is what Starlink is doing.

(You can also use GEO satellites which don't move, but then latency becomes terrible. That's how the older satellite internet systems work.)

It's certainly possible to build a portable, directional, tracking LEO satellite antenna. That's exactly what the Starlink RV solution is. But it's never going to be as small as your Garmin unit.

Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by yellowapple on Thursday June 30, 2022 @02:15PM (#31936331)
True, but I've got a pickup :)
Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by xbar on Thursday June 30, 2022 @02:23PM (#31936454)
I'm expecting an official cybertruck-bed-based antenna dish.
Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by Already__Taken on Thursday June 30, 2022 @05:00PM (#31938550)
I'm serious that with rent costs increasing, starlink live roaming might see a real boost in live-aboard sailors
Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by jonah on Thursday June 30, 2022 @05:32PM (#31938900)
Until they have their inter-satellite links working, you and the downlink station have to both be visible to the same satellite.
Re:What do Starlink’s latest Ookla results mean for its RDOF... by BurningFrog on Thursday June 30, 2022 @02:23PM (#31936451)
Friend of mine does that and works from ultra-remote southwesterns deserts when so inclined.