This week we’re excited to add a piece of technology which could be just what we need to succeed as digital nomads once we finally hit the road: Starlink Satellite Internet.
It all started when I (Don) had a strong premonition that it was time for us to figure out how to get our Starlink equipment. In our current location Starlink isn’t expect to provide service until 2023. That didn’t matter to us because we are looking to add Starlink to our mobile internet solutions.
In order to put in an order for Starlink service you have to start by giving an address. If Starlink sees that you are in an area with service availability, you would be able to place your order. If you are in an area without service supported at this time, they allow you to put down a deposit toward equipment when service becomes available in your area.
It took some internet sleuthing, but eventually I found out that we were able to register with an address that did have Starlink availability, and place our order for our service and equipment.
And wouldn't you know it, my premonition paid off as Starlink equipment jumped up $100 in price the very next day!
I was able to sign up by finding a UPS store in Kansas that Starlink accepted as having availability for service. As I placed the order I changed our shipping address to our current location.
Anyone wanting to order Starlink service and equipment now will have a much easier time finding an address that currently has service as Starlink released an official “Availability Map” on their website.
In just 2 weeks our Starlink equipment, the Dishy McDishface 2 and router were delivered. Since we couldn’t use our new shiny Dishy in our area, we found a place on the official Starlink Availability Map that did have service that was a little over an hour away.
To test that our Starlink service was working we headed to that area, set it up in the back parking lot of a shopping center. I used a 12V to AC converter that was rated to power the Starlink equipment. I converted the power from our cigarette lighter in our car to 120V AC power with 2 regular household plugs. We plugged in the Dishy and were able to connect to the satellite network and the internet.
We tested the speeds and were happy to see that the download speeds we were getting from the satellite internet connect were just over 6 times faster that the 5G service we were able to get from the 4 bars of our AT&T mobile connection.
Download test speeds for Starlink in the area we tested were getting us about 119-131 Mbps from phone to internet with about 1-10 Mbps download speeds comparing that to our cell service internet speed of 20 Mbps download 19 Mbps upload.
The biggest reason we pulled the trigger for moving forward with adding the satellite internet service to our mobile connectivity options was that the Starlink system had recently added “roaming” in the Starlink app. This is a feature that founder and CEO of SpaceX & Tesla promises will someday allow users to connect to the internet through the Dishy and travel North America with no interruptions in service.
Since SpaceX has only launched about 1/3 of the satellites for the planned Starlink network we know it could be a while until the entire lower 48 states of the US are covered, but for the remote areas of the American West, the availability map looks like there is pretty good coverage in a lot of the public lands and open spaces that we are hoping to spend a lot of our time exploring . . . once we get on the road.
Up Next
We get back to working on the entry way for the cats to enter into their cat litter area below in a luggage bay.
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300W Power Inverter Car DC 12V to 110V AC Converter
This car power inverter features dual 110V AC outlets and 2 USB ports. 4.8A/dual USB ports can automatically detect your devices to deliver optimal charging speed.
Provides 300 watts continuous DC to AC power and 600 watts of peak power.
