I miss our HAM days as well. Those nets were always a great source of entertainment. I loved sailing into a new anchorage and meeting live the people we had been talking to on the radio for months.
Those days are gone. All of that communication has moved to WhatsApp groups and apps like NoForeignLand (and Facebook groups although the signal-to-noise ratio on Facebook is as horrible as you would think it would be).
The same is true of the VHF radio. Few boats keep their radios on these days. Our VHF installation is optimized for AIS, not voice (although we still keep our VHF on out of habit).
In an emergency, the very first "Maday" call goes out over WhatsApp via Starlink.
At first it was the growing ubiquity of shore-based 3G and 4G cell network that made this possible. Now it's Starlink. It's nothing short of miraculous how well it works and how cheap an accessible it has made high-speed, low-latency internet in the middle of the ocean. Nothing else comes close. The last figure I saw was that more than 85% of the cruising boats in the South Pacific had Starlink aboard.
Great article! Thanks for this first hand information. I will travel to Fakarava for about 3 weeks this October. I am planning if I should bring my starlink mini with me.
cmiiw, from your article, my understanding is starlink is not working when you ancharing at fakarava as it is close less than 12 miles from shore. Even in-motion ocean mode is not helping.
Your Starlink will will work fine in Fakarava. Roam-unlimited works well. You won't need to use ocean mode. We spent many months there with no problems.
Hey Jim! Thank you for the great article and all of the details! We were in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and had Starlink disconnected as we were outside of our service area (New Zealand) for more than 60 days. We were actually away for almost a year before we got cut off. We ended up changing our service address (from NZ to Fiji) and were reinstated (despite the fact that we were not in Fiji (yet). It took a lot of emails back and forth to get reinstated along with photos of our departure paperwork from RMI.
We are in route to Fiji now and all is working with the Fiji Roam Unlimited plan that is currently switched to Global Priority (as we are underway).
We will use Fiji Roam Unlimited in Fiji until we get to New Zealand where we will switch back to a NZ address. That is of course unless SL forces us to switch to the non-unlimited plans.
Hi Jim, I stumbled across this post and thought I would share my recent experience getting rid of Starlink... I now live in a fairly rural area of Chile and internet options are limited at best. I'd had Starlink for about 3 years and I was fairly happy with it. However, with the situation in the States, I wanted another option.. and here's what I found. Cheers! John https://mundanemarvels.substack.com/p/kicked-to-the-curb
Thanks! Sounds as though you found a workable alternative. For a cruising sailboat in the ocean or anchored off an uninhabited island, Starlink is the only option for cost effective, reliable, high-speed Internet. 4G/5G doesn't reach out here. "Game changer" is an over-used phrase but it fits here. It borders on miraculous.
Starlink has to negotiate tariff agreements with each regulatory agency in every country in which sells its equipment and service. Some countries haven't allowed them to sell their equipment and service--French Polynesia for example. One reason is the entrenched cellular providers wield their political power to block Starlink from operating in their country. It makes sense. These carriers made big infrastructure investments to provide wireless broadband services. They expect to recoup that investment over a long period of time. Starlink is a threat to that revenue stream. Unfortunately, it's the citizens who suffer when they canāt get access to affordable high-speed, low-latency Internet.
Other than as a subscriber, I have no affiliation with SpaceX or Starlink.
Holly Molly. I liked our ham radio. Old school. Sure sounds complicated and tiresome. At least for me reading that. š¤£š„“
Have fun. Iām sure you helped a few people or lost them. š³š³š¤š¤£
ā¤ļø
I miss our HAM days as well. Those nets were always a great source of entertainment. I loved sailing into a new anchorage and meeting live the people we had been talking to on the radio for months.
Those days are gone. All of that communication has moved to WhatsApp groups and apps like NoForeignLand (and Facebook groups although the signal-to-noise ratio on Facebook is as horrible as you would think it would be).
The same is true of the VHF radio. Few boats keep their radios on these days. Our VHF installation is optimized for AIS, not voice (although we still keep our VHF on out of habit).
In an emergency, the very first "Maday" call goes out over WhatsApp via Starlink.
At first it was the growing ubiquity of shore-based 3G and 4G cell network that made this possible. Now it's Starlink. It's nothing short of miraculous how well it works and how cheap an accessible it has made high-speed, low-latency internet in the middle of the ocean. Nothing else comes close. The last figure I saw was that more than 85% of the cruising boats in the South Pacific had Starlink aboard.
73,
KO6JJ
Great article! Thanks for this first hand information. I will travel to Fakarava for about 3 weeks this October. I am planning if I should bring my starlink mini with me.
cmiiw, from your article, my understanding is starlink is not working when you ancharing at fakarava as it is close less than 12 miles from shore. Even in-motion ocean mode is not helping.
Your Starlink will will work fine in Fakarava. Roam-unlimited works well. You won't need to use ocean mode. We spent many months there with no problems.
Maybe you and Pam should change the name of your boat to āRoam Unlimited!ā
Ha! If we ever change Starlink plans we'll have to change the boat name. "Global Priority" does have a nice ring to it, though.
Jim, that's an AMAZING article! Many thanks indeed!
Hey Jim! Thank you for the great article and all of the details! We were in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and had Starlink disconnected as we were outside of our service area (New Zealand) for more than 60 days. We were actually away for almost a year before we got cut off. We ended up changing our service address (from NZ to Fiji) and were reinstated (despite the fact that we were not in Fiji (yet). It took a lot of emails back and forth to get reinstated along with photos of our departure paperwork from RMI.
We are in route to Fiji now and all is working with the Fiji Roam Unlimited plan that is currently switched to Global Priority (as we are underway).
We will use Fiji Roam Unlimited in Fiji until we get to New Zealand where we will switch back to a NZ address. That is of course unless SL forces us to switch to the non-unlimited plans.
We shall see
First, I am sending positive energy your way for a safe finish to your passage to Fiji. I know it has been eventful!
Thanks for sharing your experience getting moved on to the Roam-Unlimited plan. I'm hoping it remains a viable option for all of us out here cruising.
Hi Jim, I stumbled across this post and thought I would share my recent experience getting rid of Starlink... I now live in a fairly rural area of Chile and internet options are limited at best. I'd had Starlink for about 3 years and I was fairly happy with it. However, with the situation in the States, I wanted another option.. and here's what I found. Cheers! John https://mundanemarvels.substack.com/p/kicked-to-the-curb
Thanks! Sounds as though you found a workable alternative. For a cruising sailboat in the ocean or anchored off an uninhabited island, Starlink is the only option for cost effective, reliable, high-speed Internet. 4G/5G doesn't reach out here. "Game changer" is an over-used phrase but it fits here. It borders on miraculous.
Starlink has to negotiate tariff agreements with each regulatory agency in every country in which sells its equipment and service. Some countries haven't allowed them to sell their equipment and service--French Polynesia for example. One reason is the entrenched cellular providers wield their political power to block Starlink from operating in their country. It makes sense. These carriers made big infrastructure investments to provide wireless broadband services. They expect to recoup that investment over a long period of time. Starlink is a threat to that revenue stream. Unfortunately, it's the citizens who suffer when they canāt get access to affordable high-speed, low-latency Internet.
Other than as a subscriber, I have no affiliation with SpaceX or Starlink.