Dish wifi

NYDutch · Nov 27, 2021

Billy J said:
Though I have never tried it, I have always been leery of satellite internet in general. One concern, of course, is the 1 or 2 second round trip delay. If you are a gamer, this is a killer. For the others of us, it is just annoying. More concerning to me is that for Internet (two-way) communication, the beamwidth of your antenna must be considerably less than the beamwidth of a receive-only TV antenna. Why? The orbital spacing of geostationary communications satellites is around 2 degrees. If you are doing receive-only communications, and pick up a bit of energy from the adjacent satellite, no harm is done. In fact, a Dish TV antenna has a relatively wide beamwidth, and can tolerate considerable misalignment - that’s why you can align it by hand. But if you expect to transmit, your beamwidth must be quite a bit narrower, and aim must be much more precise, to avoid pumping energy into an adjacent satellite. The narrower beam is harder to aim, and may require special equipment. And the antenna mounting system must be exceptionally stable and rigid. If you bolt it to a tree - or a flimsy Dish TV pipe-mount - you can be in trouble if a strong wind blows. To complicate matters, you must ensure that you don’t hit the adjacent satellite even during the aiming process. Climbing a ladder and tunking an antenna into position is OK for a receive-only antenna, but for transmit/receive, it won’t cut it.

I imagine that professional installation by a knowledgeable tech with special equipment is required. Or perhaps I am just a Luddite, and these things are of no concern today.

Bill

Obviously you haven't researched Starlink's Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite Internet. Latency is typically in the ~30 ms range, dropping lower as the newer laser connected satellites are deployed. And the flat faced "dish" is self aiming, so a professional installation is not required except perhaps for some unusual mounting locations. Hooking it up amounts to plugging a provided cable connected to the antenna unit in to an inside modem/router, a power supply, and a wall outlet.

I'm not a fan of the much higher (and slower) geosynchronous satellite Internet services for some of the same reasons you mentioned, but I will add that there are manual and automatic aiming systems for those that are used by a number of mobile RV'ers. For myself and my wife as full time RV'ers, cell based Internet currently works pretty well for us. I am keeping my eye on the progress of Starlink's promised mobile units intended for RV'ers, truckers, boaters, etc though.

GuyWhoMoves · Nov 27, 2021

Billy J said:
Though I have never tried it, I have always been leery of satellite internet in general. One concern, of course, is the 1 or 2 second round trip delay. If you are a gamer, this is a killer. For the others of us, it is just annoying. More concerning to me is that for Internet (two-way) communication, the beamwidth of your antenna must be considerably less than the beamwidth of a receive-only TV antenna. Why? The orbital spacing of geostationary communications satellites is around 2 degrees. If you are doing receive-only communications, and pick up a bit of energy from the adjacent satellite, no harm is done. In fact, a Dish TV antenna has a relatively wide beamwidth, and can tolerate considerable misalignment - that’s why you can align it by hand. But if you expect to transmit, your beamwidth must be quite a bit narrower, and aim must be much more precise, to avoid pumping energy into an adjacent satellite. The narrower beam is harder to aim, and may require special equipment. And the antenna mounting system must be exceptionally stable and rigid. If you bolt it to a tree - or a flimsy Dish TV pipe-mount - you can be in trouble if a strong wind blows. To complicate matters, you must ensure that you don’t hit the adjacent satellite even during the aiming process. Climbing a ladder and tunking an antenna into position is OK for a receive-only antenna, but for transmit/receive, it won’t cut it.

I imagine that professional installation by a knowledgeable tech with special equipment is required. Or perhaps I am just a Luddite, and these things are of no concern today.

Bill

Very nice technical description, my wife does not think I should climb ladders and I agree. I will find someone to perform that installation for me, if it comes to that. I have a hotspot and I never looked into performance, it seems like it works well. I am not a gamer no issues there. Just looking for something to supplement the 100GB, we currently have. Would love a suggestion from you.

HipKat · Nov 28, 2021

Billy J said:
Though I have never tried it, I have always been leery of satellite internet in general. One concern, of course, is the 1 or 2 second round trip delay. If you are a gamer, this is a killer. For the others of us, it is just annoying. More concerning to me is that for Internet (two-way) communication, the beamwidth of your antenna must be considerably less than the beamwidth of a receive-only TV antenna. Why? The orbital spacing of geostationary communications satellites is around 2 degrees. If you are doing receive-only communications, and pick up a bit of energy from the adjacent satellite, no harm is done. In fact, a Dish TV antenna has a relatively wide beamwidth, and can tolerate considerable misalignment - that’s why you can align it by hand. But if you expect to transmit, your beamwidth must be quite a bit narrower, and aim must be much more precise, to avoid pumping energy into an adjacent satellite. The narrower beam is harder to aim, and may require special equipment. And the antenna mounting system must be exceptionally stable and rigid. If you bolt it to a tree - or a flimsy Dish TV pipe-mount - you can be in trouble if a strong wind blows. To complicate matters, you must ensure that you don’t hit the adjacent satellite even during the aiming process. Climbing a ladder and tunking an antenna into position is OK for a receive-only antenna, but for transmit/receive, it won’t cut it.

I imagine that professional installation by a knowledgeable tech with special equipment is required. Or perhaps I am just a Luddite, and these things are of no concern today.

Bill

This is true and being off by a 1/4 inch at the dish translates to the size of California at the Satellite. Pointing in a Huighesnet or Viasat dish takes precision beyond that which is still usable for a Satellite TV Dish

GuyWhoMoves · Nov 28, 2021

HipKat said:
This is true and being off by a 1/4 inch at the dish translates to the size of California at the Satellite. Pointing in a Huighesnet or Viasat dish takes precision beyond that which is still usable for a Satellite TV Dish

I am still very skeptical about the pointing of the dish ot the HCP42 switch. We are planning to attend a RV rally n March of 22, in Tucson. I hope to get technical support, I still have issues but chose not to whine about them here. The help I have received here has kept me in a place where I can actually view the programs without a great number of interruptions.

NYDutch · Nov 28, 2021

Clearly if the equipment pricing comes in close to the current $499, the upcoming mobile setup from Starlink with $99/mo unlimited data will be the best satellite Internet option for many RV'ers over the existing plans and equipment. The ~$7,000 starting price for the current auto-aiming geosynchronous systems plus the expensive limited speeds, excessive latency, and data options pretty much rules them out for most of us. For now, cell based Internet is still the RV'ers best bet for nearly all locations.

GuyWhoMoves · Nov 28, 2021

Waiting for reality to happen....

NYDutch said:
Clearly if the equipment pricing comes in close to the current $499, the upcoming mobile setup from Starlink with $99/mo unlimited data will be the best satellite Internet option for many RV'ers over the existing plans and equipment. The ~$7,000 starting price for the current auto-aiming geosynchronous systems plus the expensive limited speeds, excessive latency, and data options pretty much rules them out for most of us. For now, cell based Internet is still the RV'ers best bet for nearly all locations

NYDutch · Nov 28, 2021

GuyWhoMoves said:
Waiting for reality to happen....

So far, Starlink has done everything they said they would. Not always when they expected to do it, but they have gotten there. Right now, the chip shortage is causing problems with delivering the current products, much less introducing new ones.

GuyWhoMoves · Nov 28, 2021

NYDutch said:
So far, Starlink has done everything they said they would. Not always when they expected to do it, but they have gotten there. Right now, the chip shortage is causing problems with delivering the current products, much less introducing new ones.

Yes that is what I have also heard. I have not done a deep dive into what is required, however I have heard that one would need a roof mounted antenna, no chance of that happening here. I see by your signature that you have a RV in Washington, do you have any tips for me?

NYDutch · Nov 28, 2021

GuyWhoMoves said:
Yes that is what I have also heard. I have not done a deep dive into what is required, however I have heard that one would need a roof mounted antenna, no chance of that happening here. I see by your signature that you have a RV in Washington, do you have any tips for me?

The specs for the mobile terminals are still pretty vague, although they have said the antenna's would not be suited to car installations. We're not in Washington state or DC. We're currently in upstate NY at our private Adirondack site until after the holidays. Then we'll be heading south to southern Georgia and Florida until spring.

What kind of tips are you looking for?

GuyWhoMoves · Nov 28, 2021

NYDutch said:
The specs for the mobile terminals are still pretty vague, although they have said the antenna's would not be suited to car installations. We're not in Washington state or DC. We're currently in upstate NY at our private Adirondack site until after the holidays. Then we'll be heading south to southern Georgia and Florida until spring.

What kind of tips are you looking for?

Places to stay, eat, buy, #2 diesel did i miss anything?

NYDutch · Nov 28, 2021

GuyWhoMoves said:
Places to stay, eat, buy, #2 diesel did i miss anything?

If you're looking for places in Washington State or DC, I can't help there.

GuyWhoMoves · Nov 28, 2021

NYDutch said:
If you're looking for places in Washington State or DC, I can't help there.

Well anyone that has a suggestion, I would appreciate it. Thanks anyway!

man00 · Nov 29, 2021

I would put Starlink on wait and see. lots of talk so far..they keep selling without shipping out anything is what I hear

NYDutch · Nov 29, 2021

man00 said:
I would put Starlink on wait and see. lots of talk so far..they keep selling without shipping out anything is what I hear

Starlink production is suffering from the same chip shortage problems as many other companies. They have shipped over 120,000 units so far though.

scoob83 · Nov 30, 2021

GuyWhoMoves said:
I just heard about Dish wifi any comments?

It’s an internet provider of last resort. If you have no other options, then consider it. However, I’d just get on the list for Starlink if you have no other options.

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