Starlink (how to secure Dishy to a pole)
(Note- to skip straight to what you’re probably looking for, click here.)
Hello Starlink!
So, you’ve been waiting what seems like forever for your Starlink kit to arrive. Now it’s time to give it a permanent home. If you’re like me, you did as much prep work as possible in anticipation for this date. Unfortunately, SpaceX doesn’t allow access to the Starlink Shop until your order is ready to ship. Initially, this frustrated me, but after seeing how far out some of the ship dates were for particular items, it made sense. There are too many people (non Starlink owners) that would buy things they never intended on using, but only bought it to flip on eBay for a ridiculous price. I mean, check eBay and you’ll see things like Starlink cables or ethernet adapters being sold for 10-20 times their original price. Enough about that though. Let’s not go down that rabbit hole right now.
Don’t Let Dishy McFlatface Fly Away
I’m not going to waste a lot of your time here, so I’ll get straight to the point. This article is written for those of you that plan on mounting Dishy McFlatface to a pole. Not just necessarily a pole that you place in the ground, but maybe one that you plan on putting on a roof, or the side of a house. In my case, I went ahead and purchased the pole kit directly from Starlink. It was only a few dollars more than the pipe kit. I love the sleek look of the pole too, and wanted an easy setup.
Now it’s time to mount Dishy McFlatface. OK, that’s easy enough— I don’t need to go into anymore details, because I’m sure anyone reading this has researched it a million times over. I know I did. One thing I never planned on though was the possibility of Dishy flying into the next county during high winds. Sure, it’s not supposed to do that, but all your hope is in the hands of what seems to be a somewhat fragile connection between dishy and your pole (or pipe kit). On a side note, there is also a bit of slop (or play) with Dishy. This doesn’t affect its performance, but does seem a bit strange. It’s odd that when it’s mounted onto the pole, Dishy can rotate back and forth by about 1/8”. It even does this in the standard mount that it ships with.
Ok, so what do you need to keep Dishy safe and secure, even during crazy winds? A $27 dollar adapter is all. Here’s a photo of my setup.
Please ignore the metal fence I temporarily have around the base. My dog loves dirt (and digging holes), and the fence was in place for a couple of weeks until the grass seed had a chance to grow.
If you notice at the top of the pole, I have an adapter that keeps Dishy nice and secure, and as I mentioned earlier, it also removes the slop from wiggling back and forth. Here’s a close up of the front, and back.
If Dishy is coming off now, it’s going to have to take 2’ feet of concrete with it. :)
Don’t crank down on the nuts too tight when securing the bracket. You don’t want to damage your pole, or more importantly the pole that’s part of Dishy McFlatface. Just tighten it snug enough to keep the two pieces from getting separated during high winds.
As you can tell from my photos, the adapter almost looks like something that would ship with your Starlink kit. I feel much more comfortable now knowing that there is a very solid connection between Dishy, and the pole that I have securely mounted into the ground. On a side note, this adapter also prevents someone from easily detaching Dishy, unless they typically walk around with a crescent wrench in their pocket.
Where Can I Get One
I found the adapter on Amazon. The adapter wasn’t designed for Starlink, but the company markets them as being compatible. I’m very happy with the purchase and can’t recommend it enough. You can order it here, or by clicking on the link below.
Before I go, I’d also recommend this for protecting your Starlink cable, especially if you’re running the cable through some sharp flashing, or any other areas where you don’t trust the cable being directly exposed. It’s a lot tougher than it looks in the photos you see on Amazon.
That’s all! I hope this may have helped some of you out that might have been looking for a secure way to protect your investment. Enjoy! Go Starlink!!! :)