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REVIEW

Starlink Mini

Issue: 22.6 (November/December 2024)
Author: Marc Zeedar
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 8,536
Starting Page Number: 17
Article Number: 22603
Related Web Link(s):

http://xdevmag.com/browse/22.4/22409/

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As xDev readers may know, I have gotten into camping over the last decade, first converting a minivan into a camper in 2018, buying an RV trailer in 2021, and converting a small Nissan cargo van into a microcamper this past spring (see my interview in xDev 22.4: http://xdevmag.com/browse/22.4/22409/).

It's been a fun process and has kept me active for hikes with my dog, but the one drawback has been internet connectivity. Having communication is important for my work, entertainment, and safety. As part of my microcamper build, I bought a $100 cell phone booster, which definitely helps improve the signal inside the metal walls of my van. However, it can only boost if there is a signal to begin with, and often when camping, you're in a remote location where there is zero cell coverage.

Enter SpaceX's Starlink Mini. This is a small satellite dish capable of being carried in a backpack (see Figure 1). It is designed for exactly my use case: internet while camping. (While I'm no tent camper, it will work for that as well.)

The first thing to cover about the Mini is the cost, as that's most of the benefit. Starlink has offered RV service (and still does), but it's more suited for full-time RV use. It costs the same as regular Starlink ($120/month), and the only real difference is that you can turn it on or off on a monthly basis. This could be useful for someone who only travels in an RV for several months out of the year, but for the occasional camper like me, it's too expensive.

The Mini upends that by only charging $30 per month. The catch is that it's an add-on to your normal Starlink residential service (which is required), and you cannot turn the Roam service on and off. Thus, it effectively raises your monthly Starlink fee to $150/month. There is also a 50GB monthly data limit on the Mini satellite service (you can pay for more data at $1 per gigabyte, and there is an unlimited service for $165/month).

This strikes me as quite reasonable. I can now camp throughout the year and have plenty of data no matter where I am, and my only increase in cost is $30/month. For the safety benefits alone, this is worth it, and being able to do more work while traveling totally pays for the cost and encourages me to do more camping.

The next question to address is the speed and reliability of the service. When I first got Starlink at home a few years ago, there was concern about having an open view of the sky. Wouldn't the Mini also need a view not obscured by trees?

When I camp here in the Pacific Northwest, I favor cozy campsites with trees and privacy. I worried these would interfere with Starlink's satellite connection. Regular Starlink adjusts its positioning to track satellites as they move across the sky, but the Mini is fixed. You have to manually point it in the right direction; it doesn't move on its own (see Figure 2). This means it's less capable. But while it turns out that this is a concern, it's not nearly as bad as I expected.

First, few campsites are completely covered. People probably wouldn't want that anyway (especially those with tall RVs). The biggest problem is simply that the trees near you could block the particular section of sky your Mini needs to face.

Second, Starlink Mini includes a long cord, so you can position the dish away from your camper in a more open place if needed. (There are also poles and mounts you can buy to improve Mini's line of sight with the satellites.)

Third, if you do have obstacles that interfere with your connection, these typically do not last long because the satellites will move back into range. Outages range from a few seconds to a few minutes. While these are annoying, they aren't the end of the world when camping, as any connection is an improvement.

In one location, I had 220 Mbps service one minute and then zero connectivity the next, which was frustrating. Moving the dish onto the ground about 25 feet away made the service less fast (around 25 Mbps) but made it much more consistent (with few outages). See Figure 3.

In general, I haven't found the "open sky" requirement to be too much of a burden, but obviously, every situation is different. It's definitely no worse than trying to find bars of cell signal.

(Note that I have only tested in my area of the Pacific Northwest—I have heard that other parts of the United States are not nearly so well-covered by Starlink satellites, so that's another factor to consider. SpaceX does have a good return policy, so if the service doesn't work for you, you can return the equipment.)

One feature of Starlink Mini that I love is that it has a built-in WiFi router. This means you only have to plug in a single cord, and bingo, you're online.

(The plug is a brick, so it will block multiple power outlets. I use a six-inch extension cord to avoid that problem. I buy them in bulk on Amazon for exactly this use case.)

The router worked perfectly for me for my RV's television, as I was able to use multiple streaming services easily. That is much more difficult to do with a cellular connection (and my phone's hotspot feature limits me to just 20GB of data per month).

One caveat is to be careful of your data usage. With so many devices using your WiFi, it can be difficult to track where the data is going. For instance, my smart TV needed an update, and I logged into several streaming services. Somehow, even though I only streamed one movie, that used up 15GB of data! I suspect the updates downloaded large files, and each streaming service cached trailers and show data. At home, with unlimited bandwidth, you don't notice such things, but when you're on the road with a 50GB limit, data usage matters.

There are ways to turn down the data requirements on various apps and streaming services; it is recommended you do that before you start wasting your Roam data plan. (I also pre-download movies and shows to my devices before I camp, which helps reduce traveling data usage.)

The Starlink app is great for showing you how to align your Mini dish, display an obstacle map, check your current data usage, manage the WiFi router, check your connection speed, and more. It's a well-done and impressive app.

The bottom line is that I have few complaints or issues. This service is a godsend and wonderful for camping and traveling.

End of article.