StarLink Commercial, My Experience

There has been a lot of discussion about using StarLink Internet with Flex SmartLink. SmartLink was not usable because of the double NAT and Carrier Grade IP address.

Until, StartLink introduced StarLink Commercial, with an optional Public IP address. Here is my experience so far; all good, with some learning, when using SmartLink.

Here is the StarLink dashboard, where you can select the Public IP address option:

I found that Flex SmartLink works very well with this configuration. I typically see internet latency time of 30ms and a Flex Radio latency of 50ms. Commercial gets StarLink priority, so it has been very stable.

Here are a set of charts showing performance over seven days:

One crucial finding/problem. The StarLink antenna is susceptible to RF. I initially had my StarLink dish mounted near/under my SteppIR Yagi antenna. At even low power levels, I found that when I transmitted on 20M, the StarLink would lose its connection. No amount of ferrets would solve the problem. StarLink Technical Support said they could see my dish was locking itself out from a "high temperature" condition.

So....I moved the StarLink dish away, like 200 feet, from all my ham radio antennas, and the problem was solved.

You must use the "advance" StartLink hardware package, with an initial cost of $2,500. Not so good.

StarLink now has multiple available "use" packages with the advanced hardware package, and I have selected the 1GB, $250 per month plan. You can change your plans from your web-based support portal.

Alan WA9WUD