September 2024 UPDATE
My friend John just did a DIY install with the new Mini. Here is his report verbatim:
Captain John Hanzl
Hey Dave – I dumped the gear out of my KVH dome and mounted a Starlink Mini on a 2 1/2” pipe and pipe flange. The only other thing I had to do was add a Victron DC/DC converter to change 12v up to the dome to 24v (so I didn’t have to pull new – heavier gauge – wire). Works perfectly. It’s also invisible in the dome. And it works regardless of motion or boat positioning. And no orienting motors or any of that nonsense.
I did the install myself, so no installation costs, and set up the service right in the Starlink app. Cost me $600 for the Mini, $75 for the DC/DC converter and inline fuse, and $44 for the pole mount kit.
I get ~177mbps all day long, moving, docked, or watching around on a mooring. And the built-in wifi router in the Mini reaches every nook and cranny in my Sabre 42…
If you’d like to talk directly to John, let me know and I’ll connect you.
The Original Report
As discussed in an earlier post, I ended up with both Starlink and DirectTV on Amazing Grace.
I understand that it sounds like overkill, but Martimo offers the KVH HD7 as a very attractively priced factory option. At the time we commissioned the build, the only official Starklink Maritime option was $5,000/ month.
Since then, they’ve come out with two viable options:
I have an excellent electronics guy (SK Marine – New Bedford), but Scott wasn’t crazy about my idea to install Starlink when we first started talking about it a year ago. That said, we discussed it regularly over the winter, and by spring, he had begun offering it to his customers.
From the very beginning, I assured Scott that I understood I was pushing him into a new technology before he was fully ready and promised to overlook the inevitable bumps in the road.
Starlink is a true internet company – they have no phone number. Their business model is to deal with consumers directly through their website and their app. Probably okay for a home dish, but what about boats?
Scott identified a reseller in Florida to source the dish and marine installation gear. He also referred me to them for my Starlink Service Contract.
Beware of Resellers
From my two years in the Starlink on Boats Facebook group, I’ve learned that Starlink really doesn’t like middlemen but grudgingly tolerates them for Cruise Ships, Airlines, and Yachts.
My reseller (who will remain nameless here – email me if you want the name), did help SK with the installation but really screwed me on the Starlink service and, in the end, actually lied to me.
It appears that Starlink only allowed this reseller to offer the Maritime Service Packages. The advantage of the Maritime Packages is that it works in the middle of the ocean, and in heavy congestion, it theoretically gets priority access over residential and RV customers.
Every rational customer would want to use the unlimited regular data until it stopped working (out at sea or in heavy congestion)
The problem with this package is that it goes through your 50GB FIRST and then, theoretically, switches you to non-priority service.
Except it didn’t!
We spent our first weekend on the boat well inland, and Monday morning, I got an email telling me my 50 GB was almost all gone!
I called the reseller to see if we would switch to the regular service when the 50GB was gone, and he started trying to sell me on the $1,000/month 1TB plan. He also lied, telling me the regular service didn’t really work and that an HD movie would burn up 50 GB.
I immediately posted on the Starlink on Boats Facebook group. I learned that the reseller was overcharging me and that the package I really wanted was the high-speed On The Go Internet package for $150/month.
After a lot of phone calls to get my dish released to me, I was able to cancel my reseller’s service contract and sign up directly with Starlink.
They did gouge me on the way out…
Do Any Of Us Need The Maritime Package?
I’d say it’s doubtful. I’ve had a few 10-20-second outages, but that’s it. The farthest offshore I’ve been is 16 miles out of Boston. And the beauty of this plan is that you get notified by Starlink if you’re too far offshore and can opt-in to get full Maritime service for $2/GB (just remember to shut it off when you get near shore).
By the way, the Starlink website will show you where you get service without being on the Maritime package.
Each of those hexagons represents terrestrial satellite coverage. If you zoom in, you can see the shoreline and islands that are considered terrestrial.
Looks like we’re good north of Block Island and Long Island, but we’ll need Maritime if we run south.
What About Cost?
The high-performance dish costs $2,500. That’s the one that mounts flat and never needs positioning.
As I said, the On The Go Internet package is $150/month plus $2/GB if you’re well offshore.
The installation cost will vary from DYI to thousands of dollars, but it will be less than an HD KVH. In terms of content, we put a Roku on every TV for Netflix, Prime, etc, and I subscribed to YouTube TV for $72.99/month.
I wholeheartedly recommend this approach, and I’ll probably suspend my DirectTV account next season.