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I'm an electrical engineer - I don't understand how what you said can be true at a wide and effective scale. Of course any device can interfere with something e

I'm an electrical engineer - I don't understand how what you said can be true at a wide and effective scale. Of course any device can interfere with something else - But what kind of evidence exists that starlink terminals, and in particular the pattern steering and bands use, actually cause interference in a meaningful way to activly used marine system used on these kinds of crafts. Starlink used Ku and Ka bands, so we are talking about 10-12Ghz and 37-42Ghz downlinks, and 14Ghz and 47-51Ghz uplink. This is highly directional radiation, and even with beam forming and reflections is not likely to have any specific high interference risk. Clearly the downlink transmission from the satellite is exceptionally low power at the ground, even with the beamforming used in the satellites. I would love to learn that this is a real problem with actual tested data.

GJim 2y ago
> This is highly directional radiation That's the entire point! A poorly set up antenna can cause havoc. This is historically the reason for denying passengers use of radio transceivers. Maybe Starlink is harmless, I don't know. But if it is, it will still take time for international maritime safety legislation to catch up. Source: Marine enginner
- sponaugle 2y ago
  I fully understand the risk of highly directional radiation - but that is why I was asking if there was some actual specific testing done. I believe the software in the Starlink (and the beamforming) is designed to only transmit when it knows where it is pointing ( it uses receiver information and ephemeris data to know where and how to transmit ). I would suspect that if the dish was instead pointing directly at someone with no direct satellite reception there would not be high transmit power. Again, of course it could be catastrophic in unheard of ways, but is there any evidence of that as a real outcome, potential and likely outcome, or even likely theoretical outcome? I can understand it takes time for legislation to catch up, although that is far more a 'choice' than a requirement.

GJim 2y ago

> This is highly directional radiation That's the entire point! A poorly set up antenna can cause havoc. This is historically the reason for denying passengers use of radio transceivers. Maybe Starlink is harmless, I don't know. But if it is, it will still take time for international maritime safety legislation to catch up. Source: Marine enginner

sponaugle 2y ago
I fully understand the risk of highly directional radiation - but that is why I was asking if there was some actual specific testing done. I believe the software in the Starlink (and the beamforming) is designed to only transmit when it knows where it is pointing ( it uses receiver information and ephemeris data to know where and how to transmit ). I would suspect that if the dish was instead pointing directly at someone with no direct satellite reception there would not be high transmit power. Again, of course it could be catastrophic in unheard of ways, but is there any evidence of that as a real outcome, potential and likely outcome, or even likely theoretical outcome? I can understand it takes time for legislation to catch up, although that is far more a 'choice' than a requirement.