If you live out in the boondocks, like Peggy and I do, communication can be something of a challenge. Our only solution has been to reach up into the sky and hope that the sky gods are listening. As a result, our house is starting to look like a military installation out in the Nevada desert.
This past summer I was becoming increasingly irritated at the service we received from Hughes. Slow to start with, it was getting worse. Several of our neighbors had switched to Viasat and argued it was much better. I did my research and was prepared to make the leap. That’s when Clay suggested that I check out Elon Musk’s Starlink. If it served our area, I might be able to sign up as a Beta tester. It promised internet services at speeds several times faster than either Hughes or Viasat at a similar cost. Plus it included unlimited data. I went online and discovered that our latitude was one of the first to be served. So I signed up, made a deposit, and waited.
A few weeks ago, a large box showed up on our doorstep. Unlike Hughes and Dish, who sent technicians out, I would be on my own with Starlink. I was a wee bit nervous. As you may recall, things mechanical and I don’t get along. It isn’t that I can’t do them. Owning a house in the woods for 11 years has certainly taught me that; its just that I prefer to do other things like writing, photography, cooking, traveling, reading, watching movies, hiking, backpacking, kayaking, pulling star thistle and scrubbing out toilets— you get the picture. People like Clay and my friend Tom, on the other hand, take great joy in fixing things. When Tom comes to visit, he brings a tool box with high hopes of finding something. Clay insists that I have a list for him. Even Peggy gets a gleam in her eyes when she is holding a power tool.
Before the box arrived, our first chore was to download an app to our iPhone and wander around the yard with the camera on and the phone pointed toward the sky to find the best, obstruction-free place to set the satellite. Did I mention we live in the boondocks, in a forest, with lots and lots of trees. South was fine. It’s where our other satellite dishes are pointed. The Starlink dish, however, likes north. Heres what our north looks like:
The app was not happy. It kept telling me to move to another location until I ran out of locations. I talked with my friends Bryan, who lives up the hill from where we live, and Jeff, who lives down the hill. Both had received Starlink dishes a couple of weeks before we got ours. Both told me that the app had told them the same thing. They had ended up placing their dishes in the least obstructed locations they could find. I decided to do the same thing:
And I found this. Call it a window of opportunity. A small window. To take advantage, I would have to place our dish up on the roof.
Now—to backtrack a little— I opened the box. The dish came with a stand, a hundred foot long ethernet cable, a modem and a router. It was designed to be placed on the ground. It even came all plugged together, almost idiot proof. All I would need to do was drill a hole in the side of our house, which was scary enough, but was something I could handle, or sic Peggy on.
It was drilling holes in the roof that I found disturbing. They can be injurious to your house. Water can seep through and and do all sorts of nasty damage. Some people might also question the wisdom of a 78 year-old wandering around on a roof. They are probably the same people who questioned my wisdom in celebrating my 75th birthday by backpacking 750 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail, much of it by myself. No, I was not worried about being up on the roof. Try perching on a narrow trail by yourself with a thousand foot drop below you in a strong wind with a forest fire rapidly approaching.
I did what any modern fix-it person does and went looking for YouTube videos. There were plenty, of course. The secret was simply find the roof studs for screwing the mount into and seal the hell out of the holes. Okay, I could handle that. I bought extra outdoor sealant just in case. But I also opted for back up if needed. I called Joel, a roofer and really nice guy who had replaced a skylight for us. He quickly volunteered. He’s also waiting for a Starlink dish. And I checked in with Bryan, our uphill neighbor, who had already installed his Starlink dish on the side of his house and is quite handy. And then I waited again. Starlink had sent us everything we needed for the ground version, but it had another package for roof installation.
It arrived a few days ago and included a roof volcano mount, six large screws and (lo and behold) a tar-based super sticky sealant and directions how to use it. Elon Musk leaves little to chance. Okay, I said to myself— “Self, you can do this.” I gathered all of the tools I would need, loaded them into a garden apron Peggy loaned me, and up I went, like Santa sans reindeer. Peggy held the ladder and did whatever worrying that needed to be done. I am pleased to say that my mounting effort was a success. At least so far. Next, I affixed the cable along our eaves and came to my last scary task, drilling a large hole in the side of our house.
This drill exactly matched the size of the hole I had to create, but my first problem was that I needed to drill smaller holes before the large bit would enter the siding. Whatever. Except the sky was darkening, the wind picking up, and a possible downpour about to erupt. I drilled my smaller holes and quickly realized that my bits weren’t long enough to make it through the wall. Even the big bit. Measurements were called for as to where we would need to drill from the other side. Peggy demanded her turn with the drill and eventually, we had holes on both sides that would accommodate the cord. A wire that I had adapted for the purpose showed our two holes were exactly aligned. Exciting huh? Well, it was for us. Believe me.
Here’s the ironic part. Just as I was finishing up, a Fed-Ex truck drove down our road. It delivered another package from Starlink. It included everything I needed to drill the hole in our wall. At least I was able to use the patches it sent to cover the holes and the silicon sealant.
Wandering through Time and Place 
There you go, all set! Happy for you! Over here they seem to have fixed our connection finally, at least for now… So no need for the hotspot any more.
Thanks, Manja. We mainly use our hotspot for traveling. It works great as long as there is a strong cellphone signal. –Curt
Truly mission accomplished.
Peggy and I are ‘truly’ enjoying the new speeds, Peggy. In so many ways the US is way behind many other countries in providing internet access in rural areas. –Curt
That is a serious looking drill!
🙂 I would have liked to try the very different drill that Starlink sent, MB.
In an earlier life, I installed a lot of Dish satellite dishes and had the proper tools to do it. But I was amazed you were able to line up the holes inside and out to get your cable through the wall. I could not have done that in a million years.
I’ll bet you could, Ray. 🙂 The silver spray paint told me where I had to drill the starter hole for the large screws. I was able to drill exactly in the middle of each hole. I then put the sealant down as directed by Starlink over the holes. The silver paint also outlined exactly where my volcano mount to mark the holes and thus allowed me to place the screws in exactly the same place. What was funny was I started with black paint. It totally disappeared against the dark background of the composite shingles. –Curt
This stuff is WAY over my head. LOL. I’m with you, I’d rather be out and about – or essentially doing anything other than fixing things!!
A soul sister! Grin.
lol
Glad it all worked out, Curt.
Thanks, Girard! –Curt
Congratulations! We had a similar issue with internet service too. Some people in our area have to install a mast on the roof, then mount the dish near the top of the mast. This would be similar, I suppose, to the old days when we had rooftop antennae to get a TV signal. We were able to get the signal with a normal roof mount.
Thanks, Margy. It wasn’t all that difficult. I’m just glad it worked! –Curt
Yay! Don’s a huge fan of Elon Musk. Guess you are now too 😂
Alison
Elon did climb up a notch or two in my book! 🙂
I have enjoyed reading your tale this morning – and giggling.
Walking around on the roof and similar sounds pretty daring, I gather your balance is perfect. All the pictures from your battle to get internet installed
are hilarious. Did you bring pen and paper?
Yes , I wonder about that happy smile in the end…….😊.
Miriam
Glad it got a giggle or two, Miriam. 🙂 I figure the best way to carry out such projects is with a laugh (in between a few appropriate curses). There was lots to smile about. Thanks. –Curt
I guess this is another reason Elon Musk is about to become the first world trillionaire! It works!! Good to see you smilin’, Curt!
He has certainly been a genius when it comes to creating highly desired new products– and making money, G. 🙂 Actually, I smile a lot.
Good to hear.
Well done Curt! We’re seriously considering Starlink. We had fibre installed in the road right up to the door. That was over 18 months ago and they still haven’t made the line live 😦
Thanks, AC. 18 months, yuck! It did take three months for Starlink to send us our package. But once we plugged it in, it was up and running! 🙂
oh my Curt what a story… living in high places .. hahaaha but you got the job done which is all that counts. Omg Curt i was nervous hearing you getting on that roof.. send our friend Elon next time or have Clay go for you🤣🤣
Love your pics and expressions.
Yay to you.. you got it done!💖👏👏👏
I suspect getting Clay here will be a lot easier than, Elon. Grin.
Thanks, Cindy. Always fun to hear from you!
Plus it is always rewarding to check something off my to-do list. 🙂 –Curt
ain’t that the truth 🤣
You’re so welcome and yes now you can move on to the next project. Maybe the van travel antenna?! 🤣💖
The trailer van antenna. Yes. 🙂 I am working on that today, Cindy. Fortunately, it doesn’t involve crawling around on the roof! –Curt
oh awesome.. that helps a lot!!💖💖💖👏👏👏
🙂
💖
Curt, YOU are a bit too much. You’d rather pull thistles or clean the toilet than be using power tools on the roof? ha ha I’m glad that Peggy had the worrying all under control. My CenturyLink connection is acceptable and cheap, and that’s all I can say about it. Interestingly, in six years the reliability has become more stable, so that’s nice, but speeds are generally slower with more buffering delays. I think both of those changes are due to the increased population out here. Rainier (pop. 1,895) is a metropolis compared to Upper Applegate Road. I’m really glad to hear you have 7-10 times the speed. Once again, Elon Musk is giving us the technology we crave.
🙂
It was raining cats and dogs here this morning, Crystal. We would have been lucky to get a signal with Hughes. Plus it was Saturday, when more people climb on the Internet. That always slowed things down. I couldn’t notice any difference in Starlink! And Musk claims that the service will only get better! –Curt
I’m envious. I’d almost look into myself except that my Internet is not currently bad enough to mess with it.
It took me a long time to break away from Hughes, Crystal. Starlink really is easy to set up, however. Had I been able to use a ground location, it would have been a matter of plugging it in. Had I yanked the Hughes connection out, I even would have had a hole in the wall ready drilled. 🙂 –Curt
Your tale brought back memories of hanging crown molding ledges and bracketed shelves a couple of times. That was less complex than matching holes from two directions, but equally attention-focusing.
I do have to ask: is a bit too much akin to a bridge too far? Good one, Curt!
No need for Starlink here. Everyone likes to scream about Xfinity, but I’ve got download speeds around 90 Mbps and upload at about 8 Mbps.Even when there’s a little slowdown because of heavy traffic, it’s bearable.
A bit too much may be akin to a bridge too far. 🙂 And had I had your speeds, I certainly wouldn’t have been ordering Starlink. Rural America gets the wrong end of the stick when it comes to the internet, however. –Curt
We had Hughes until a couple of years ago when high speed finally reached our road, Curt. It was not fun and the limited availability meant we were watching movies at midnight. I’m so glad you found an alternative that is working. I like the big grin. 🙂
Next up, our new travel trailer, D. It comes with what is supposed to be a super-duper Winegard 360 plus wi-fi hotspot antenna. It’s supposed to handle streaming in addition to capturing signals in more remote areas. We’ll see. It may be a while before Starlink is available for traveling, but I imagine it will happen. 🙂 –Curt
My husband will travel anywhere as long as there’s wifi, the wuss. The new travel trailer sounds like a dream. 🙂 Enjoy!
We (including me) are far too dependent on our internet connection, D. 🙂 If our first week in the trailer even with the steep learning curve is any example, we will! Thanks. –Curt
Glad you’re up and going — well, for the most part. We are dependent on internet, for sure!
Sounds like it was worth the hassle..