Looking for install tips for Starlink on a boat

[DandGNWales]

Hi all,

If all goes well with the pre purchase survey we hope to become the new owners of a 2004 Liverpool Boats 70 foot cruiser stern narrrowboat called Perseverance. We intend to put her on a residential mooring at Whixhall Marina, the mobile signal black hole lol, I still have to work online full time so having checked the coverage for various networks in the area it has to be a starlink system, so looking if anyone has one, what are they like, any fitting tips etc. 

Thanks in advance for any help

Geoff and Dee

[MtB]

A peripheral suggestion... on a permie resi mooring, can you not have a telephone landline installed? FAR cheaper than a starlink subscription! 

 

 

[DandGNWales]

Thanks for your suggestion MtB, good call but don't think the Marina would allow it but worth asking the question and save more pennies for boat stuff 

[IanD]

1 hour ago, DandGNWales said:

Hi all,

If all goes well with the pre purchase survey we hope to become the new owners of a 2004 Liverpool Boats 70 foot cruiser stern narrrowboat called Perseverance. We intend to put her on a residential mooring at Whixhall Marina, the mobile signal black hole lol, I still have to work online full time so having checked the coverage for various networks in the area it has to be a starlink system, so looking if anyone has one, what are they like, any fitting tips etc. 

Thanks in advance for any help

Geoff and Dee

 

According to the BIDB coverage maps Three and Vodafone both have reasonable 4G coverage (indoors and outdoors) there, EE and O2 are both poor (4G outdoors only).

 

So you may find you can get acceptable data rates with a decent external antenna on Three or Vodafone -- or maybe not. Easy enough to get a cheap monthly SIM on each network and try them out using a mobile phone outdoors, this should give similar results to an external antenna. Or if you're fixed in one location, a directional external antenna will give better signal level than an omnidirectional one.

 

If none of the networks does the job then Starlink should do, so long as the cost is acceptable to you 🙂 

[GUMPY]

14 minutes ago, IanD said:

According to the BIDB coverage maps Three and Vodafone both have reasonable 4G coverage (indoors and outdoors) there, EE and O2 are both poor (4G outdoors only).

Looking at Cellmapoer for 3 coverage Whixall marina is on the edge of Cell 7 from  mast 11236 this unfortunately only uses band 20  so although there is coverage the data rates are unlikely to be high.

 

[DandGNWales]

Looks like you found a better coverage checker than I managed, will look into setting up an external antenna and try cheap sims see how it works out, we live in a small rural hamlet in West Wales, phone signal is crap here but we got FTP internet so going to miss that speed, will also have a chat with the travelsat guy who advertises in the boat magazine see what he suggests then if not happy can then try the starlink and just have to bite the buller on cost, less beer tokens is never a good thing

[adam1uk]

This blogger, Paul, has done a couple of posts on his Starlink system: https://thesumpnersafloat.com/2024/03/10/starlink-on-a-narrowboat-part-1/

Personally, I’d try everything else, in order not to give Elon Musk any more money.

Edited September 30 by adam1uk

[IanD]

18 minutes ago, GUMPY said:

Looking at Cellmapoer for 3 coverage Whixall marina is on the edge of Cell 7 from  mast 11236 this unfortunately only uses band 20  so although there is coverage the data rates are unlikely to be high.

 

And Vodafone?

 

Just had a look on Cellmapper and it looks like *all* the networks are pretty useless there -- so maybe Starlink is the only usable option for WFB... 😞 

Edited September 30 by IanD

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, MtB said:

A peripheral suggestion... on a permie resi mooring, can you not have a telephone landline installed? FAR cheaper than a starlink subscription! 

 

 

 

When we were at Whixhall (I think) every mooring had a telephone line, you could opt to have it connected, or not.

We had a 'leisure' mooring and it certainly had a 'box' to connect to.

[GUMPY]

10 minutes ago, IanD said:

And Vodafone?

Again on the edge and only band 20 

 

 

I've never seen band 8 in use before.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

30 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

When we were at Whixhall (I think) every mooring had a telephone line, you could opt to have it connected, or not.

We had a 'leisure' mooring and it certainly had a 'box' to connect to.

When I first took the current mooring (not Whixhall), all the residential berths had the option of phone line connection. It was very very important to remember to disconnect the cable when going cruising! We have excellent mobile coverage here and speed is now much better on mobile than land line, so no one uses it any more.

 

I did once destroy an electric bollard by failing to disconnect the land line before setting off.

[robtheplod]

30 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

When I first took the current mooring (not Whixhall), all the residential berths had the option of phone line connection. It was very very important to remember to disconnect the cable when going cruising! We have excellent mobile coverage here and speed is now much better on mobile than land line, so no one uses it any more.

 

I did once destroy an electric bollard by failing to disconnect the land line before setting off.

.... or just have a long extension.....

[Jen-in-Wellies]

2 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

.... or just have a long extension.....

Just think of the voltage drop at the far end of the trip! Or having to do a ring in reverse again to get all the cable back.

[IanD]

1 hour ago, GUMPY said:

Again on the edge and only band 20 

 

 

I've never seen band 8 in use before.

 

Band 8 was used for 2G/3G by Vodafone and O2, don't know if it's still used or has been reallocated to 4G as 3G sites shut down.

 

https://4grouter.co.uk/4g-and-5g-frequencies-in-the-uk/

[DandGNWales]

17 hours ago, adam1uk said:

This blogger, Paul, has done a couple of posts on his Starlink system: https://thesumpnersafloat.com/2024/03/10/starlink-on-a-narrowboat-part-1/

Personally, I’d try everything else, in order not to give Elon Musk any more money.

Thanks for that, will have a look

[matty40s]

15 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Just think of the voltage drop at the far end of the trip! Or having to do a ring in reverse again to get all the cable back.

Just do reverse charges...

[DandGNWales]

17 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

When we were at Whixhall (I think) every mooring had a telephone line, you could opt to have it connected, or not.

We had a 'leisure' mooring and it certainly had a 'box' to connect to.

I have not asked the marina yet but thanks for your input, really appreciate it.

17 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

When I first took the current mooring (not Whixhall), all the residential berths had the option of phone line connection. It was very very important to remember to disconnect the cable when going cruising! We have excellent mobile coverage here and speed is now much better on mobile than land line, so no one uses it any more.

 

I did once destroy an electric bollard by failing to disconnect the land line before setting off.

Must not be a good week for electric bollards, drove up to look at the various Marinas we wanted to check out, got up to the campsite after dark and reversed the caravan into the electric bollard, I think it looked better horizontal lol

[IanD]

2 hours ago, DandGNWales said:

Thanks for that, will have a look

Bear in mind that the Mini dish might not be the best choice for a boat, because the WiFi router is built into the dish -- which means it'll be outside the steel cabin in a narrowboat, which means Wi-Fi reception inside the boat could be poor. The standard (bigger, higher power consumption, cheaper) dishes (intended for residential use) have a separate router which goes inside.

 

https://www.starlinkhardware.com/170-mbps-internet-that-fits-in-a-backpack-starlink-mini-review/

[DandGNWales]

1 hour ago, IanD said:

Bear in mind that the Mini dish might not be the best choice for a boat, because the WiFi router is built into the dish -- which means it'll be outside the steel cabin in a narrowboat, which means Wi-Fi reception inside the boat could be poor. The standard (bigger, higher power consumption, cheaper) dishes (intended for residential use) have a separate router which goes inside.

 

https://www.starlinkhardware.com/170-mbps-internet-that-fits-in-a-backpack-starlink-mini-review/

I had heard this so thanks for reminding me, I was going to go for the Gen 3 residential set, just read the thread that was suggested about the guy who fitted a gen 2 to his electric NB and it says you would have to swap to a roaming deal so better look more into that, it's good you can now get them from Currys/PC World so at least if the Marina wifi is dire I can go to Currys and be sorted.

[Iain_S]

1 hour ago, IanD said:

Bear in mind that the Mini dish might not be the best choice for a boat, because the WiFi router is built into the dish -- which means it'll be outside the steel cabin in a narrowboat, which means Wi-Fi reception inside the boat could be poor. The standard (bigger, higher power consumption, cheaper) dishes (intended for residential use) have a separate router which goes inside.

 

https://www.starlinkhardware.com/170-mbps-internet-that-fits-in-a-backpack-starlink-mini-review/

The review says there is an ethernet port, so a cable could be used to connect to a WiFi adaptor 

[IanD]

10 minutes ago, Iain_S said:

The review says there is an ethernet port, so a cable could be used to connect to a WiFi adaptor 

Yes it could, but that's more cost (unless you have one anyway) and power consumption (a few watts -- typically less than 10W). Also note that water resistance is degraded if you use the Ethernet port.

The mini dish (yes I know, it's a flat phased array not a dish...) being smaller will also have a bit lower gain than the standard one, which may make a difference in areas where the signal level is poorer due to obstructions/reflections -- like a moored boat in some places. But it is of course smaller and less obtrusive and easier to mount on a boat, and consumes less power.

 

All things that you need to be aware of when going down the Starlink route -- as so often, the devil is in the details... 😉 

Edited October 1 by IanD

[tallyho]

Vodaphone just updated local mast and now good signal at Whixall. I know as I moor there. 

[DandGNWales]

Thanks for that will see what SIM deal I can get with them

[blackrose]

Where I'm moored on the R. Nene I think the only mobile signal is EE and a poor 3 signal. But the 3 data signal is ok so I use the standard Huawei B535 4G router and Poynting external wifi antenna. I work from the boat, join online Teams meetings and stream TV sometimes. It's not the fastest connection and Excel documents take a while to download and open, but it does the job and it's cheap. I bought one of those Three 500GB monthly data sims from Amazon so a one off payment instead of a monthly subscription. I have to set my phone to "WiFi calling" to use my phone for phone calls - that works inside the boat but not outside.

 

 

Edited Thursday at 08:30 by blackrose