StarLink on Amel 54
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Hi All, I am very happy to report that my StarLink RV system bought in the UK and set up working in the UK is now working perfectly on our boat in the Caribbean. It is very fast. I have only set it on the starboard rail towards the rear for now. Will post final install and set up soon. I was worried that it would not work out of the home continent. Thinking that Elon will catch up with us soon, but I think he needs the business. Don't mind paying for the convenience. Please don't anyone hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments. Very Best Barry and Penny "SV Lady Penelope II" Amel 54. #17 Rodney Bay Saint Lucia |
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First and foremost,
be very cautious in St. Lucia. It is a VERY high crime
island and for many years according to CSSN the number one
place for dinghy theft in the entire Caribbean for cruisers. I
have been saying this for about 5 years now, it's nice to see
some media publications finally stating the same.
https://loosecannon.substack.com/p/crime-against-cruisers-in-st-lucia
With best regards,
Mark
Skipper Sailing Vessel - Cream Puff - SM2K - #275 Currently cruising - Tahiti, French Polynesia
On 3/23/2023 6:22 AM, Barry Connor via
groups.io wrote:
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Hi Mark,
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Yes, we are very aware when we go away from the marina. Thank you. Dinghy always lifted and chain locked. I have had a nightmare juggling with overloaded marina WiFi and 5 separate SIM cards for the past 3 years. Evidently at this time Elon is letting us cruisers have the benefit of roaming. I am sure he will tighten the reins and set up a special plan for cruisers. He is not in the business of locking customers off, loosing money. I will go with the flow as he sorts out the system. I last year met many cruisers here in the Caribbean who were using the RV system. Rodney Bsy is now showing 5 StarLink connections. I believe it is going to be a revolution in the next few years for internet access. Hoping he soon launches a cell phone with access to his low orbit satellites, in the meantime I will use WhatsApp and US Magic Jack. Very Best Barry On Mar 23, 2023, at 3:38 PM, Mark Erdos <mcerdos@...> wrote:
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Scott SV Tengah
Good to hear. I purchased my Starlink over Christmas when they had a 1/2 off special on the hardware and recently activated it as I was tired of limited coverage, bandwidth and data limits associated with regular 4G. I have to say, once we turned it on, it was like our experience when we first went off grid with lithium: life changing. I smile at the thought of being able to call family while anchored off an uninhabited atoll in Micronesia.
Happy to hear that it works outside your home continent. We will be going from NZ to Asia this upcoming season and while I am certain Mr. Musk will start charging for ocean data usage, customer service has responded that even the non-maritime service will work near shore, where we spend most of our time. I intend to disable the motors and install it on the same plane as my solar panels. Where do you plan to have the final install? -- Scott 2007 A54 #69 SV Tengah http://www.svtengah.com |
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Hi Scott,
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Yes, this is definitely a game changer. I have been juggling 5 SIM cards and using marina WiFi with too many users. I am taking off my bullet Digital Yacht antenna fixed on the side of my rear arch. No longer need to amplify any cell signals. Hoping to feed the cable through to the chart table. One extra bonus I just found was when using the Express VPN with the StarLink you can access many more sites that were blocked when connected via a cell signal or a marina WiFi. I haven’t found any that I can’t connect to. Before now I couldn’t get on to Government or semi Government sites as they knew I was out of the country. These are sites that you can access if you are in the actual country. Safe sailing for your plans, we might take up our original plan and go through the Panama Canal. Very Best Barry and Penny “SV Lady Penelope II” Amel 54. #17 Rodney Bay Marina Saint Lucia On Mar 25, 2023, at 5:11 AM, Scott SV Tengah <Scott.nguyen@...> wrote:
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Bruno COTTE
Except if Starlink blocks you as they say they will do if you don’t have one of the 2 maritime contract which costs for the cheapest one 1000 USD monthly ! And a lot of black zones here or there in Pacific and Indian Ocean .
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Envoyé de mon iPhone Le 25 mars 2023 à 11:57, Barry Connor via groups.io <connor_barry@...> a écrit :
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The business model is get the public hooked on it and buy the hardware then increase price and fro fence. It can’t be relied on long term. It’s a business.
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Scott SV Tengah
There is no doubt that current Starlink users are early adopters. The same could have been said when I (and others on Amels before me) went lithium 5 years ago. I have never once regretted that decision.
I am happy with the current Starlink setup and given the heavy discount I got, even if it only works for the next 3 months, it will be worth it for me. SpaceX is launching 50+ satellites every week or two to expand coverage and even better, Amazon is coming out with a competing product, which is good for everyone.
The Terms and Conditions, which they don’t really enforce (really frustrates me not to have rules to work with) state that they will start offering “Ocean Data”, whatever that means. After the recent Starlink facilitated mid-Pacific rescue of a monohull that sank in <15 minutes, I think it will be bad PR if they only allow superyachts to have internet offshore.
You do make a good point about coverage “black holes”. Offshore, I’ll still continue to carry my little InReach Mini with an onshore contact ready to help. I will likely get rid of the Iridium Go, however. Previously, I only kept it on for offshore passages. That involved a lot of replacement sim cards. Now they’re charging $50 to activate a new sim card. I think Iridium sees the writing on the wall and wants to grab everything they can as their ship sinks.
From: main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io <main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io> On Behalf Of Bruno COTTE
Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2023 12:55 AM To: main@amelyachtowners.groups.io Subject: Re: [AmelYachtOwners] StarLink on Amel 54
Except if Starlink blocks you as they say they will do if you don’t have one of the 2 maritime contract which costs for the cheapest one 1000 USD monthly ! And a lot of black zones here or there in Pacific and Indian Ocean . Envoyé de mon iPhone
-- Scott 2007 A54 #69 SV Tengah http://www.svtengah.com |
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Scott SV Tengah
Same here with feeding the cable.
Given the trouble we had feeding the 16mm2 pair of wires for the solar through to the battery bank, I think we’ll have to cut off the proprietary connector and feed the thin Cat5e wire through the conduit. I’ll reterminate with a shielded ethernet plug and run my existing wifi router. Never done it before, but it can’t be that hard? 😊
This will require (enable?) me to do a 24v DC conversion so we can run Starink without having to turn the inverter on. Have you considered doing that?
From: main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io <main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io> On Behalf Of Barry Connor via groups.io
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2023 11:57 PM To: main@amelyachtowners.groups.io Subject: Re: [AmelYachtOwners] StarLink on Amel 54
Hi Scott, Yes, this is definitely a game changer. I have been juggling 5 SIM cards and using marina WiFi with too many users. I am taking off my bullet Digital Yacht antenna fixed on the side of my rear arch. No longer need to amplify any cell signals. Hoping to feed the cable through to the chart table. One extra bonus I just found was when using the Express VPN with the StarLink you can access many more sites that were blocked when connected via a cell signal or a marina WiFi. I haven’t found any that I can’t connect to. Before now I couldn’t get on to Government or semi Government sites as they knew I was out of the country. These are sites that you can access if you are in the actual country. Safe sailing for your plans, we might take up our original plan and go through the Panama Canal. Very Best
Barry and Penny “SV Lady Penelope II” Amel 54. #17 Rodney Bay Marina Saint Lucia
-- Scott 2007 A54 #69 SV Tengah http://www.svtengah.com |
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Bruno COTTE
First they transform RV in Roam
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Then they open a new maritime agreement 5 time less expensive ( 1000 USD instead of 5000 monthly for super yachts ) Third they will start to block those who sail with a land agreement ( from next summer ) Envoyé de mon iPhone Le 25 mars 2023 à 20:21, Scott SV Tengah <Scott.nguyen@...> a écrit :
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Paul Harries
The economics of Starlink are based on bandwidth usage vs bandwidth availability within any particular area.
It would make sense that future pricing would focus on the combination of data utilization and data speed, the specifics would vary within geographical location. This model has been applied by Starlink in some geographical areas within the US. As to voice comms, with increased utilisation jitter will also increase for those with lower tier plans. High jitter makes voice comms impracticable. ( Think of jitter as the rapid fluctuation in connection speed). I suspect in the long term Starlink will be a great replacement for basic needs such as email, weather downloads and browsing but regularly streaming movies etc could get expensive. -- Paul Harries Prospective Amel Buyer |
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Scott SV Tengah
In New Zealand, where there are a decent number of users, here are my results on Starlink.
 The jitter and ping on Starlink are superior to 4G here. It blows away marina and boatyard wifi. You may very well be right that the pipe will be oversaturated in the future. That is the case with cable internet, 4G, etc. The same dynamics are in play. The hope is that they respectively stay on top of it. I'm hopeful because there are 4000 satellites up there now with up to 42,000 to be deployed in total. And further, V2.0 sats that are going up have 10X the bandwidth of current satellites. I am very happy with the current performance of Starlink and if I get geofenced in 3 months, it'll still be worth it because I got 3 months good use out of it. If service drops to 4G or 3G speed, that will still be better than the non-existent service I have experienced while in many areas of the Pacific, uninhabited and inhabited. I agree though, if you want guaranteed perfection today and in the future, Starlink probably isn't it. But then neither is Iridium GO nor SSB. :) -- Scott 2007 A54 #69 SV Tengah http://www.svtengah.com |
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Hello,
today as was checking Starlink web site and there is no RV version any more. Now is called STARLINK ROAM and it is written: "Immediately access high-speed, low-latency internet on an as-needed basis at any destination where Starlink provides active coverage. 75 €/mo with a one-time hardware cost of 450 €". And follows: The new Flat High Performance Starlink allows users to enjoy high-speed, low-latency internet while in motion. With a wide field of view and enhanced GPS capabilities, the Flat High Performance Starlink can connect to more satellites, allowing for consistent connectivity on the go. The hardware is designed for a permanent installation on your vehicle and is resilient in harsh environments. Currently available for order and use in select markets. Slavko SM 2000 #279 Bonne Anse in Croatia |
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Greg A54 172
Just happy.
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David Vogel
I think the T&Cs associated with ROAM now more specifically constrain the availability of the service to land.
Ref: Regional plans are geo-fenced to work on land within the same continent as the registered Shipping Address, while the Global plans work on land anywhere there is active service coverage.
David SM#396, Perigee, NZ (Starlink onboard since Nov’22)
From: <main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io> on behalf of Slavko Despotovic <slavko@...> Reply to: <main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io> Date: Monday, 27 March 2023 at 6:02 pm To: <main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io> Subject: Re: [AmelYachtOwners] StarLink on Amel 54
Hello,
today as was checking Starlink web site and there is no RV version any more. Now is called STARLINK ROAM and it is written: "Immediately access high-speed, low-latency internet on an as-needed basis at any destination where Starlink provides https://www.starlink.com/map?source=rv. 75 €/mo with a one-time hardware cost of 450 €". And follows: The new Flat High Performance Starlink allows users to enjoy high-speed, low-latency internet while in motion. With a wide field of view and enhanced GPS capabilities, the Flat High Performance Starlink can connect to more satellites, allowing for consistent connectivity on the go. The hardware is designed for a permanent installation on your vehicle and is resilient in harsh environments. Currently available for order and use in select markets.
I might read it in a way that suits me but as I understand there is no limit to territory and it only limits it to ACTIVE COVERAGE ( when one clicks on active coverage it will open the page with world map). -- Slavko SM 2000 #279 Bonne Anse in Croatia |
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Paul Harries
The USA website now reads:
STARLINK ROAMGLOBAL ROAMING NOW AVAILABLEUnlimited high-speed, low-latency internet on an as-needed basis all over the world. One-time cost of $599 for portable hardware or $2,500 for in-motion hardware. Choose Regional for $150/mo, Global for $200/mo. Starlink for RVs is now Starlink RoamPaul Harries Prospective Amel Buyer |
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Let me add, for Slovenia they are asking 300 Euro for HW and for Regional service 75 Euro and for Global services 240EUR. Regional is valid for the land base continent use. If one is out of hIs/her continent for more than 2 moths change of the address may be required. I could not find if it is possible to change from Regional to Global service within the same kit. And could not find In motion use for Europe.
-- Slavko SM 2000 #279 Bonne Anse in Croatia |
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Eloi Bamberg
I bought my setup in France. Since November 2022 it worked in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and even on Cap Horn. Even if it would stop now, it was absolutely worth buying it.
Eloi, SM2k 426 Red Lion Puerto Williams |
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Scott SV Tengah
I haven't even departed New Zealand with it yet and I agree with you! One concern I had was that it is so far superior to the monopoly providers on some of these remote pacific island countries that the politicians would protect their local monopolies and not allow starlink to operate there. Vanuatu did this and sent out a few threatening public notices about not using Starlink. There was a big uproar because Starlink works in Vanuatu but was deemed illegal. That has just changed. Starlink is now "legal" in Vanuatu. Just in time for our visit in a few months. On Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 06:50 Eloi Bamberg <eloi.bamberg@...> wrote: I bought my setup in France. Since November 2022 it worked in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and even on Cap Horn. Even if it would stop now, it was absolutely worth buying it. |
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Paul Harries
https://www.inverse.com/science/now-we-know-how-a-solar-storm-took-out-a-fleet-of-starlinks
-- Paul Harries Prospective Amel Buyer |
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