Posts by cows2

Things that needn't be said: Don't plonk a massive Starlink dish on the hood of your car

Re: At VTCodger, re: aiming.

Again, you are referring to satellite services that point at a fixed location. The Starlink antenna tracks satellites that are constantly moving quickly across the sky, horizons to up. There are typically multiple visible in multiple parts of the sky at a time, more as more launches happen (the goal). They won't need any special setup as you're suggesting. The mobile setup is using the same (or pretty close) hardware (no doubt there will be revisions). If it can't see north, it will choose up. South, no, the license (I believe) requires mostly north (ish) in our hemisphere (If I recall correctly, could be wrong).

There isn't a gross general direction. The antenna just needs to see "up".

Take a look at satellitemap dot space (no www), it shows their movement and positions. Note that the antennas are already self-pointing and can orient themselves as is.

Re: It is cheap compared to the past

"While that's expensive compared to setting up a land-line based or cellular-based internet circuit"

You're not familiar with the costs in a lot of areas. Cell carriers aren't available everywhere, and often don't have "unlimited" plans suitable for home use. Many people in the US pay more than $100 for shady plans (like corporate accounts not meant for home use, etc.). And, good cell boosters start at around $500 (I have one, know several that do).

Land-line cost, no, that's much more expensive in a lot of areas. The fiber I'm closest to is metered, they don't offer an unlimited plan. Just one plan. 50Mbps, $20 base fee, $0.20 per 1GB used with no cap on use. Use 100 gigs, $40 bill. 1,000 gigs, $220. That's only 7 miles away, if i'd pay to run that to me, it would pass by 3 houses. My cousins were quoted $85,000 to run a line 1/2 mile, so, 7 miles would not be possible.... In the village, "up to" 5 Mbps service that cuts out streaming audio is $85/month. $15 more for something that works isn't too bad.

Bottom line, the costs of Starlink are competitive as is in a lot of areas. Expensive yes, but competitive.

Re: Spaced-GenX?

It's a phased array antenna, it already tracks satellites moving fairly quickly across a large area of the sky, not in fixed positions, and in more than one direction. They are working on mobile use (like airplanes), not so much cars, perhaps RV use though.