Starlink beta coming soon!

Yeah but I still haven't seen the receiver (or even a drawing of one) or the downlink stations that are supposed to required in order for the receivers to work. Those downlink stations have to be fairly close too, maybe something like cell towers in order for your receiver to function. And frankly I doubt we will see them installing downlinks in between Bonners Ferry and Kalispel for example, anytime soon.--------------------------------------------------

Don't count your chickens before they hatch....

agesilaus wrote:
Yeah but I still haven't seen the receiver (or even a drawing of one) or the downlink stations that are supposed to required in order for the receivers to work. Those downlink stations have to be fairly close too, maybe something like cell towers in order for your receiver to function. And frankly I doubt we will see them installing downlinks in between Bonners Ferry and Kalispel for example, anytime soon.--------------------------------------------------

Where did anyone hear of “downlink stations” which would defeat the entire concept of thousands of lsats to provide service everywhere?

“With performance that far surpasses that of traditional satellite internet, and a global network unbounded by ground infrastructure limitations, Starlink will deliver high speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.”

Space-X has applied to construct up to 1,000,000 download links. What that means I have no idea except it apparently is required for the sat antenna to operated. Sounds like the "pizza box' receives a signal from the download links not directly from the satellites tho, that's just speculation.

I see this on Wiki tho:

Wiki wrote:
User terminals

The system will not directly connect from its satellites to handsets (unlike the constellations from Iridium, Globalstar, Thuraya and Inmarsat). Instead, it will be linked to flat user terminals the size of a pizza box, which will have phased array antennas and track the satellites. The terminals can be mounted anywhere, as long as they can see the sky.[90]

In 2019, tests by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) demonstrated a 610 megabit per second data link through Starlink to a Beechcraft C-12 Huron aircraft in flight.[109]

So maybe the million download links are the pizza boxes? Who knows?

There are ground stations being built around the country and world, many at existing SpaceX and Tesla facilities, that will connect the satellites to the Internet. The user terminals have been described by Elon Musk as a "flying saucer on a stick", and the instructions are "Plug it in", "Point it at the sky", in either order.

agesilaus wrote:
Space-X has applied to construct up to 1,000,000 download links. What that means I have no idea except it apparently is required for the sat antenna to operated. Sounds like the "pizza box' receives a signal from the download links not directly from the satellites tho, that's just speculation.

I see this on Wiki tho:

Wiki wrote:
User terminals

The system will not directly connect from its satellites to handsets (unlike the constellations from Iridium, Globalstar, Thuraya and Inmarsat). Instead, it will be linked to flat user terminals the size of a pizza box, which will have phased array antennas and track the satellites. The terminals can be mounted anywhere, as long as they can see the sky.[90]

In 2019, tests by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) demonstrated a 610 megabit per second data link through Starlink to a Beechcraft C-12 Huron aircraft in flight.[109]

So maybe the million download links are the pizza boxes? Who knows?

The "terminal" just means a receiver. The satellite talks to your pizza box, which in turn connects via a CAT5 cable and/or WiFi to your devices.

My broadband is similar but it points to a terrestrial WiFi tower instead of a satellite. The current version is a little dish. The previous one I had was a flat pizza box.

agesilaus wrote:
Yeah but I still haven't seen the receiver (or even a drawing of one) ...

Knowing Elon Musk, he'll figure out a way to make the dish the size of a quarter? :B

Trying not to get too excited, as the download speed is only up to 1,000Mbps?

Don't get me wrong. I'm excited too but we're still going to be at the mercy of cables and fiber optic lines for a long while. Each router along the path from your computer to the website you want to view will play a huge roll. One gets buggered up and there goes all that wonderful speed.

This from a guy that just spent a winter watching all those satellites going up into space. If you haven't watched a rocket launch up close, I highly recommend it. The most awesome thing I've ever seen, heard and felt in my life.

I read Elon Musk wants to get permission to launch 42,000 satellites for Starlink? Though there are supposedly only 2,100 orbiting Earth now? At least, he doesn't think conservatively?