starlink beta testing

[MechAndy]

Elon Musk is a man of vision.

As odd as it may sound I don’t think he has peaked out yet.
Seldom does history get to see this kind of person.
We are blessed.

I am 60 years old.
In my lifetime I have seen several very innovative people like Jobs, Gates, Bozos and countless of other sharp minds, but they are not at this level.

I think we are witnessing something very cool and should enjoy it.

All the best.

[509]

What is the input voltage to the system?

[Mister Torgue]

Originally Posted by MechAndy

Elon Musk is a man of vision.

As odd as it may sound I don’t think he has peaked out yet.

I agree. I used to not like the dude, but, after opening my mind up a bit I see where he is coming from and what he is trying to do. Kudos to him.

[nm9stheham]

Originally Posted by 509

What is the input voltage to the system?

For the end user terminal + satellite receiver, one would assume 115 VAC in North America. Is there another part to, or reason for, this question?

[509]

Originally Posted by nm9stheham

For the end user terminal + satellite receiver, one would assume 115 VAC in North America. Is there another part to, or reason for, this question?

You might plug it into a 115 VAC system, but with many electronic devices the voltage is stepped down and converted to DC.



My laptop is plugged into a 115 VAC system, but the laptop runs off 20 volts.


I have a off-grid house and it save lots of energy IF I can run the starlink system at its native voltage rather than converting it from 115 VAC.

[nm9stheham]

Originally Posted by 509

You might plug it into a 115 VAC system, but with many electronic devices the voltage is stepped down and converted to DC.

My laptop is plugged into a 115 VAC system, but the laptop runs off 20 volts.

I have a off-grid house and it save lots of energy IF I can run the starlink system at its native voltage rather than converting it from 115 VAC.

OK I wondered why the question. Look at this video at about 2:30 minutes; the power converter is integrated with other circuitry so you'd have to figure out how to separate those functions to get to native voltage input.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzXZdipxCuw

[highplainsrunaway]

Of course ISP's are going to badmouth Starlink, but here's the latest:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...l-be-too-slow/

[Mister Torgue]

Originally Posted by highplainsrunaway

Of course ISP's are going to badmouth Starlink, but here's the latest:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...l-be-too-slow/

I’m surprised these vultures haven’t done the smear campaign any earlier, unless I missed it. Thankfully Starlink and Musk won’t be bullied to sell out to these life sucking leeches. I cannot wait to try it out personally.

[nm9stheham]

I hope a contrasting opinion is not minded. Almost all of the rural ISP service so far HAS been provided by these 'vultures'. The FCC has had rural internet funding programs in place for a few decades now, and that funding has been used by these 'vultures' to help them get ANY sort of service out to a LOT of rural users. It has progressed from dial-up to DSL, ADSL, and on. So it is not a reasonable characterization IMHO. Plus a $99 per month fee from Starlink is certainly no bargain.. and we don't know if that rate will be raised as the long term maintenance costs of Starlink sets in. (My $45 per month rural ADSL looks a lot better for my needs...)

The latest rollouts of rural land line internet is fiber. There is NO way that even the Starlink technology can compete with the ultimate speeds AND capacity of fiber. NO way. So investing the FCC $$ in fiber is, for the very long term, going to be the better long term value. But it certainly will come more slowly. Fiber's obvious problem is getting it everywhere.

All of the technical points raised about the ultimate speeds and capacity of Starlink are 100% valid concerns, based in reality. Such wireless systems are always self limiting, based on numbers of 'terminals' and spectrum available, AND the number of users.

That is the limiting problem with the cellular providers that we all know about... more cell sites are the equivalent to more satellites and we all know where we all are now as far as speeds and data caps. You can only stuff so much data through a set amount of frequency spectrum and afford just so many cell sites, or afford so many satellites PLUS the ground stations to feed them and the very wideband fiber connections from those ground stations.

So you can see there are a lot of bottlenecks in the Starlink system, and IMHO it is a valid position for anyone to think of not plowing too much public money into Starlink versus more landline fiber. It might turn out like all the money that eastern states plowed into canals in the early 19th century.. when the railroads came along, the states' moneys was all wasted. (And read up on the badly failed Illinois 'internal improvements' program in the 1830's..... they royally blew it!) There are plenty of cases of a gee-whiz thing attracting gov't money that is ultimately wasted... Let's not forget Solyndra.

Of course, maybe $885 million is small potatoes for the Federal Gov't..... like the congressman said: " A million here, a billion there... pretty soon you are talking about real money." LOL

[Mister Torgue]

Fiber won’t be cheap, not by a shot. Starlink is still going to be a great option for those who are beyond the boundary of available wireless, fiber, phone line DSL or even cell service areas. Some of the property we will be looking at fir example will have zero traditional broadband or wireless over the air internet available—and fiber is bloody not likely. Starlink will be able to get us something it seems and that matters.

And no amount of patting them on the back for slow rural service adaptation can take away from the fact that these companies are indeed vultures and love to quash competition. They don’t like competition in the least because they want to be lazy and price gouge, They especially don’t like it if it’s cheaper and better. More options = more competition = better pricing/service = win for the consumer.

Just my opinion on the matter.