I think this is a tremendous improvement. I do have a bone to pick regarding the finish. Powder coating aluminum is rarely a good choice in the marine environment, especially in tropical regions. The problem is that, unless applied perfectly, powder coating is porous, and salt air will initiate corrosion. Very good hard anodizing is a better solution, as evidenced by various sailboat hardware, such as winches, etc. Sadly, just like powder coating, not every anodizing facility does a perfect job, but the probability that the job is done well is much higher.
I had not thought about this - I was probably just super excited to see the improvements they made overall
This is a very good point. There are a lot of vendors that have moved away from this approach because of failures. It will be interesting to see how this fares.
A reader sent me a note regarding the DC power connector. It looks like it is an XT60 connector, albeit with a waterproof end on it.
So, in a pinch, you could probably use an off the shelf cable as long as you’re OK with it not being waterproof at the power supply end. And, this also means you could likely get a male end cable and extend the provided cable further, or change the end without cutting it.
Starlink is a game changer for cruisers, fur sur. Thx for the review of this nice bit of new kit. I’ll be curious how it stacks up long term. But… $2000, oouch. If it last then it could be worth it for those who could get a lot of use out of it, ie. liveaboards.
The Flat High Performance dish was $2500, so I suppose now that they’ve dialed in a hardware platform that is better for in-motion and marine use, $2000 seems pretty “reasonable”
Hopefully as other vendors slowly enter this market, we’ll get some cheaper options.
