https://www.independent.co.uk/life-styl ... 55982.html
Elon Musk’s Starlink space internet is running into an unusual adversary: trees.
The SpaceX satellite internet service entered beta testing in June 2020 for areas in high latitudes such as Seattle, but some users have been experiencing issues.
“We want to get Starlink but the sky above our house is almost completely covered with trees over 40 feet tall”, one user posted on the r/Starlink subreddit. “Is it possible to get Starlink to work in our area or are we just out of luck?”
Another expressed similar issues, asking for advice about using mounts to get the Starlink antenna six to 10 feet higher to get signal above the nearby trees, but potential masts “don't seem to appear to accommodate the dish”. One beta tester managed to get above the trees via a tripod mounted to the top of their roof, something that they described as an “idiotic contraption”.
In order to set up a Starlink internet connection users require a £439 satellite dish and pay an £84 monthly fee, but also need a direct line of sight between the dish and the satellite, as well as a 100-degree cone with a 25 degree elevation minimum around the centre of the dish.
This means that trees, neighbouring buildings, and other obstacles provide a severe challenge - with one user installing his dish nearly five meters above his chimney.
“If you could see the connection between a Starlink satellite and your Starlink, it would look like a single beam between the two objects. As the satellite moves, the beam also moves. The area within which this beam moves is the ‘field of view’”, the Starlink website explains.
“Some obstructions are worse than others. Obstructions low in the sky will cause more outages because satellites are in this area of the sky more frequently. The best guidance we can give is to install your Starlink at the highest elevation possible where it is safe to do so, with a clear view of the sky.” Starlink also notes that “a single tree” can interrupt users’ service.