hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr3378.txt

Episode: 3378
Title: HPR3378: A bit of my experience with Starlink internet service
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3378/hpr3378.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-24 22:22:27

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3378 for Wednesday, the 14th of July 2021.
To its show is entitled, A Bit of My Experience with Starlink Internet Service.
It is hosted by Ezra and is about 10 minutes long and carries a clean flag.
The summary is, some ramblings about satellite internet service and how Starlink is different.
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Hello, HPR listeners.
My name is Ezra and I live on the satellite side of the digital divide.
That is to say, the only internet services available where I live are all satellite based.
And traditional satellite ISPs do not offer and cannot offer.
Internet service that will allow someone to participate in quite a bit of modern life.
During the pandemic, 20% of the students in my area could not participate in online classes.
Because internet service is not available where they live.
Or I should say, because usable internet service is not available where they live.
However, for me, all of that changed in February when I was invited to participate in Starlink's
Better Than Nothing Beta Program. Upon receiving the invitation, I signed up as soon as possible.
And on February 13th, I received the Starlink dish.
All satellite internet services have three major components.
The user terminal, a ground station, and a satellite, as the name implies.
The user terminal is a receiver and transmitter. It's going to have a dish and is usually
mounted to the roof of one's home. Ground station is also a transmitter and receiver and it is
connected to the internet backbone somewhere. And the third piece is the satellite.
And satellite acts as a relay between a user terminal and a ground station.
Signal goes from the user terminal to the satellite to the ground station to the requested server,
back to the ground station, up to the satellite, and then finally back down to the user.
This sort of system is what I refer to as a double line of site connection.
That is, there needs to be a clear line of site between the user terminal and the satellite.
And there also needs to be a clear line of site from the satellite to the ground station.
What this means for users of satellite internet service is that a
torrential rainstorm between the satellite and the user can knock out the signal.
Similarly, a torrential rainstorm between the ground station and a satellite can knock out the
signal. When I was a Hughesnet subscriber, that would be the seven years prior to joining the
Starlink Beta program, I had a fairly constant connection, except during major rainstorms in
Amarillo, Texas. Even though I'm in California, Amarillo, Texas is where my ground station was.
And a torrential rainstorm there would knock out my internet connection.
Traditional satellite ISPs use satellites that are in a geosynchronous earth orbit.
And relative to the earth's surface, the satellites appear to be in a fixed position
at an altitude of 35,786 kilometers, also known as 22,236 miles. Due to this altitude,
each request must travel 70,000 kilometers. And the response must also travel 70,000 kilometers.
This adds up to a latency of 600 to 800 milliseconds per request on a good day.
Because the satellite appears at the exact same location in the sky, always,
the user terminal that is fixed to one's roof can be pointed at a single direction directly at
that satellite. Starlink's current satellites are in a low earth orbit at about 550 kilometers
or 164th the distance of the geosynchronous satellite. That is why my latency is now less than
100 milliseconds, and I am finally able to participate in online video conferences.
Because the starlink satellites are in such a low orbit relative to the earth's surface,
they are constantly traveling into and out of view. Due to this difference in technology,
the dish of a starlink terminal is a phased array antenna capable of communicating with a satellite
that is moving across the sky. As the satellite that the dish is communicating with moves out of view,
the dish will switch to another satellite that is moving into view. The switching of satellites
takes place every 15 seconds or so, and is accomplished without requiring the dish to physically move.
Being able to track satellites as they cross the sky requires a much larger obstruction-free
view of the sky compared to geosynchronous satellite service, which only needs a clear view of a
single fixed point. Fortunately, Starlink has an app available for Android and iOS that can be used
to determine where the dish should be mounted in order to have the least amount of obstructions.
When I first mounted my dish, it was mid-February, and there were no obstructions.
Springtime then came along, and the oak trees that surround me leaped out. This resulted in about
four minutes of obstruction per day. Unfortunately, I did not use the app when I was making and installing
yet another mount for the dish in order to resolve this problem with obstructions.
The second mounting location had even worse obstructions, so it was necessary for me to make
a third mount, one that I could reposition if necessary for the ridge line of my roof.
My obstructions have now been reduced to zero, and the lower the obstructions, the better the
reception. Purchasing the Starlink hardware cost me $500 US dollars. From what I have read,
this is a significant discount as the price to produce the Starlink hardware is between
$1,500 and $3,000. I don't have a good fix on the actual price. The hardware consists of a power
supply, a router, and a dish with a stand, and a non-removable cable. The cable is 1.51515 chains
in length, or 6.06 rods, or if you prefer more sane units of measure, it would be 3,048 centimeters
long. That would be about 100 feet. Both the dish and the router receive power over their
Ethernet cables, and so there is only one cable going to the dish and one cable going to the router,
which makes for a very clean setup. Service-wise, I am paying $99 a month for the beta service.
The beta service currently has no data caps. The speeds are typically between 50 and 100
megabits per second, and the latency is usually between, I want to say, 30 and 80 milliseconds.
While this may not be great compared to a fiber optic connection, or a cable connection,
satellites the only thing available where I live. This is going to be a significant game-changer
in rural areas where ISPs refuse to install infrastructure to provide internet service,
even when those ISPs have been given millions of dollars by the federal government in order to
build out that infrastructure. As a beta service, I find Starlink to be amazingly usable,
especially now that I have my obstructions down to zero. The other day, I had a four and a half
hour long video conference with one of my coworkers. There was a slight audio glitch
three hours into the conference, but aside from that, everything held up well, and I am super
pleased with the performance of the service. That being said, there are certainly downsides to
having to rely upon satellite internet service. Specifically, obstructions.
A rainstorm taking out one's internet service is certainly not desirable, but that comes with
the territory of satellite internet. Similarly, obstructions based on trees are going to be difficult
to deal with, and will most likely require either finding a new place to put the dish or
firing up the chainsaw and removing some trees. Not everyone is willing to do that,
but if a solid stable connection is the desire, then it is a necessity.
If you happen to live in a location where the only internet options are satellite,
or really lousy DSL coming over copper that's been allowed to degrade,
then I'm going to highly recommend that you sign up for the Starlink Beta program at Starlink.com.
Thank you and have a wonderful day.
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