Is there a way to make a Starlink dish that is viable for backpacking (i.e. 5kg at most, but preferably 0.5-2kg, including the solar panel and battery needed to power it) or is the satellite LTE service the only possibility?
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First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
81–90 of 208 posts
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#82I plan to work and travel in Europe for 1.5 months this summer and I hope they will release it soon. Hotel/AirBnB wifi is often unstable and unreliable - you never know if Zoom will work or not. With Starlink I will have backup and at minimum will be able to take calls in the car. We will have rental car so planned to get regular Starlink but this one will be much better option.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#83Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not many devices that run off 30V will run off 12V too. It's too big of a difference. But 12V to 36V boost converters are readily available and very cheap.
No sure about vans, but aren't lots of cars moving to 48V?
Not sure what your point is though.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#85The lack of DC power is rough for boats, vans, and RVs. If someone wants to put this in a backpack they really need to get a DC power supply version. There are solutions out there at this point for the standard dishy but the flat high performance has a crazy power supply with it.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well Starlink here in Spain costs 40€ per month. That's a lot less than the unlimited Garmin inreach plan (74,99€!!) that only allows you to send short messages! And that's the regular plan. Deprioritised Starlink costs €29/month! Still way way more useful service than inreach. I have inreach and for €19,99 I get 10 SMS per month (i don't subscribe every month) and I also have to pay a €39,99 yearly fee. Starlink is…
WTF? Entry price for starlink is £75/month in UK! ADSL is typically ~£25-30 for unlimited 80/20 for comparison
Alternatively, maybe the meaningful coverage areas are so small and dense that the price should be higher. Since Starlink's biggest limitation is that performance suffers in more densely populated areas.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
This much more likely to be something that had been in the long term plan for many years. Amazon is announcing stuff because they are spending 10e of billions and have nothing to show for it, and wont have anything for years. They need to show progress to the quarter to quarter investor. Frankly the idea that Starlink is passivly reacting to Amazon annoucments is a bit silly. The difficult part is to actually produce…
They have at least three Kuiper launches booked in mid-2025, that’s not far off! It’s awesome that they have the flexibility to choose different launch partners and can use the most reliable and flight proven technology. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/innovation-at-amazon/amazon...
The most reliable and flight proven launcher, F9, usually gets in a launch every 3 days and it's still going to have to keep that pace up until Starship is ready to dump hundreds of starlinks into orbit in one launch.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well Starlink here in Spain costs 40€ per month. That's a lot less than the unlimited Garmin inreach plan (74,99€!!) that only allows you to send short messages! And that's the regular plan. Deprioritised Starlink costs €29/month! Still way way more useful service than inreach. I have inreach and for €19,99 I get 10 SMS per month (i don't subscribe every month) and I also have to pay a €39,99 yearly fee. Starlink is…
WTF? Entry price for starlink is £75/month in UK! ADSL is typically ~£25-30 for unlimited 80/20 for comparison
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#89I plan to work and travel in Europe for 1.5 months this summer and I hope they will release it soon. Hotel/AirBnB wifi is often unstable and unreliable - you never know if Zoom will work or not. With Starlink I will have backup and at minimum will be able to take calls in the car. We will have rental car so planned to get regular Starlink but this one will be much better option.
I would think in Europe even on the top of Jungfraujoch you will have better performance from a 5G link.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#90I wish “mesh” WiFi was more standardized. I don’t think there’s any good reason that a device like this should require specifically a Starlink mesh mode instead of an industry standard WDS device.