Starlink install in the big woods

We live in Narnia, as my son's friend once said. 

On one hand, this is *very good.* Not a lot of people, traffic or planes flying overhead. 

On the other, it leaves us with not many options for Internet. 

We have had DSL since we moved out here. Recently Starlink became available for our area. 

The family has struggled for many years sharing the DSL. Our top speed DSL speed is 11 mbps.  When you have a son who loves streaming and gaming, and then us watching shows online, everyone is unhappy. 

My husband and I talked about it, at length, and decided it was time to upgrade our Internet game. Or, at least try to upgrade it.  We have a lot of large, mature pine and oak trees on the property and I'm unwilling to cut any down just to have faster internet. 

Thankfully, we don't have to do that. 

I placed the order for the Starlink installation kit on Friday, Sept. 2. Over the weekend, or the following Monday, I received a notice that the kit shipped and would be here on Friday, Sept. 9. Wow! The installation kit shipped way faster than I thought it would.  

My husband used last week to research how others installed it, and looked for any tips on the best way to set it up to get the best possible signal. There was no one Internet hub that had all the tips and tricks, so I thought I'd write down what we did, and maybe it will help someone else down the road. 

Friday afternoon the FedEx man showed up and carried out a box smaller than I expected it to be. 

I have never researched Starlink. I didn't know what it was going to look like.  

The satellite is much smaller than I expected. 

I watched the how-to video that was sent when the order for the kit was confirmed. Then I looked at a couple of YouTube videos, to learn what some of the numbers meant when you are supposed to scan the sky and all that other stuff. 

Then I set the satellite up in the driveway. 

After about 15 minutes, like the app says, the satellite settled on a direction.  I did a speed test and was astonished to see what the numbers were.  While the satellite was on the ground and surrounded by huge, mature trees. 

I'm used to seeing a top DSL speed of 11 mbps, and an upload speed of .5 mbps. Not joking even a little bit. 

Wowee!

When my husband got home he went up on the roof and set up a ladder for the satellite to temporarily sit on.  

More speed tests were ran.  We were seeing numbers I never thought we'd see. 

This isn't the highest speeds we've seen.  There have been a few times it was over 200 mbps. 

I thought I took a photo of the satellite on the ladder, all by itself up on the roof, but I can't find anything on my camera roll. Surprisingly, we didn't notice the bright yellow ladder up on the roof when we drove up to the house after making a trip to town. 

Saturday morning my husband and son set up the pole for the satellite to go on. 

In my husband's research, he learned that you can use the top rail of a chain link fence. They are very sturdy and much less costly than something that is specific for setting the satellite on.  We got ours at Menard's and at the time of this blog post it was $19.79 before the 11 percent mail-in rebate. 

Stats on the piece we have: 1 - 3/8" x 10' 6" galvanized chain-link fence top rail. Model number 9900210600. SKU: 1715301.

My husband also purchased from Menard's a RCA 3-foot TV antenna tripod to support the pole. My husband said the RCA 3-foot tripod was very sturdy.

Model number VH130R. SKU 3012956. At the time of this writing cost is $33.99, before the 11 percent mail-in rebate.

So, like I said, on Saturday my husband and son went up on the roof and started setting things up for a permanent spot. 

Thankfully it wasn't raining, like it was on Friday, and it wasn't too warm out. I think they moved the ladder a few times and ran speed tests, to verify things. I was in the house and moving the modem around to a few different spots, to see where we got the best wifi coverage.  Even out in the she shed!  The she shed gets at least double what the DSL gives us.  I was a happy girl when I realized how decent the signal was for out there. 

A different angle so you can see how hard my guys were working, 

At some point my son crawled up into the attic, to catch the cord that was brought into the house via the ridge line, so no holes had to be drilled into the roof. 

My husband cut the rail pipe down to 6  1/2 feet. 

Then we had to figure out how to mount the satellite onto the pole.  Do we wait for the adapter that we ordered from Starlink, or go with something different?  

We went with something different. 

Another trip to Menard's to get a chain-link fence top rail sleeve. 

Stats for this is model number 1715307. SKU 1715307. Price as of this writing is $3.60 before the 11 percent mail-in rebate. 

With this piece my husband was able to secure the satellite to the pole. He had to make a few holes to put screws in to secure it all together.  

I forgot to mention earlier that a piece of cedar was put down between the roof and the pole, so no damage is done to the roof. 

In these last few photos and video you can see just how big our trees are, and why I thought Starlink wouldn't work for us. 

 The ultimate "test" will be when my son's DSL adapter arrives and he can play his online games. 

Here's a final video showing it all off, in all of it's glory. 

I hope this blog post helps someone out there. If you considered Starlink, but was unsure because of trees, give it a go! You have nothing to lose, and you may be just as pleasantly surprised as I was.