Accessing Internet While on the Road

[Tom&Shelly]

Hi John,

Hope you give us all a good trip report on Newfoundland. Shelly and I are hoping to get up there sometime in the next few years, and information on things to see will be appreciated.

Have a great trip!

Tom

 

[Capebuild]

Thanks Tom. Ive been thinking about creating another blog about our Newfoundland travels. This trip is requiring a lot of planning (ferries and all). I sure hope the Starlink Mini provides good connectivity

 

[bdosborn-SMB]

My Starlink Mini account switched to the new $5/month standby plan on 11/7 and I finally got around to playing with it. Here's what I found:

Facebook: works well, a little laggy loading pictures. I uploaded a picture from my phone and it took a little longer than usual, maybe 30 seconds or so.
e-mail: same, works fine but pictures take a few seconds to load
Pandora: timed out
YouTube: works on my phone but I didn't try it on a tablet
Plex: actually worked when I set the resolution to 240p on my phone. Worked on a tablet but buffered a bit.
Plex amp: works for lower bit rate MP3, FLACs wouldn't play.
Web: worked, but everything is pretty slow
Play Store: poor, it's so encrapified that it's miserable to use, but it will work in a pinch to load a new app.
texts: fine, pics load slowly.
Victron CerboGx: no difference from my home wifi.

Here's the obligatory speed test:

My take? This might be enough for us while we are camping, I think I'll hold off on activating the 50Gb/month plan again until I really need it. Which might be never? We bring all our AV media with us so streaming video or music on the Mini isn't something we need.
Bruce

 

[TwilaR]

That's odd, I just checked mine and it's 47.27 down and 41.27 up. And it's very windy and cloudy today in Virginia.

 

[Tony Latham]

This might be enough for us while we are camping,

Good to know,

Tony

 

[bdosborn-SMB]

That's odd, I just checked mine and it's 47.27 down and 41.27 up. And it's very windy and cloudy today in Virginia.

I just switched from the 50gb/month plan to the new $5/month standby plan for the off season. 0.5 Mbps downloads but unlimited data.
Bruce
P.S. Just switched our residential plan at our cabin to the residential lite plan for the off season.

 

[bdosborn-SMB]

Starlink quietly released a software update that lowered the standby power of V3 and Mini dishes by 25%. I'm seeing a load of 19W for the Mini instead of the 24W I'm used to seeing.
Starlink Quietly Reduced Antenna Power By 25%
Bruce

 

[Tony Latham]

I've been eyeballing these, and I'm going to watch for sales. Where did you get yours? Direct from Starlink?

From Starlink. You definitely need to purchase directly from them or from a (real) dealer, such as Home Depot, and Amazon isn't one. I think they are on sale for $200.

Tony

 

[Tony Latham]

Ooops double post.

 

[Shadowcatche]

We took the advice of folks familiar with RV on line. A WeBoost Drive sleek that cradles you phone or hot spot. We find the phone works fine. External omni or directional antenna, in more urban areas with more than one cell tower the omni works, in some places you need the directional. I do check cell tower locations and who they belong to prior to camping. We have yet to not get a usable signal. The mast is telescoping painter pole.