A Starlink antenna placement survey should be treated as an RF and installation task, not as a casual deck-mount decision. The terminal needs a suitable sky view, safe cable route, reliable power, maintainable location, and a network handover that does not bypass the yacht's firewall policy.

The survey should be completed before permanent mounting and repeated after mast changes, domes, cranes, tender storage changes, awnings, refits, or new radar/SatCom equipment. A good survey records not only where the terminal works, but where it fails and why.

Physical Survey

What to inspect

  • Sky view: Mast shadow, domes, radar arch, cranes, antennas, awnings, sail structure, exhaust stacks, and deck furniture.
  • Vessel movement: Heel, pitch, roll, heading changes, close-quarter manoeuvring, and marina mooring orientation.
  • Interference and separation: Other antennas, radar, GNSS, VHF, VSAT domes, and bridge equipment.
  • Mounting: Mechanical support, vibration, service access, water exposure, drainage, corrosion, and cleaning access.
  • Cable route: Penetrations, glands, bend radius, chafe protection, fire/watertight boundaries, labels, and future replacement.
  • Power: UPS need, breaker identification, power cycling method, and emergency shutdown considerations.

Acceptance Test

Record the actual behaviour

  1. Test candidate locations: Record service status, obstruction indication, throughput, latency, and packet loss at each location.
  2. Test headings: Check whether mast or superstructure shadowing appears on common headings at anchor and alongside.
  3. Test guest traffic: Confirm video calls, streaming, owner VPN, monitoring, and remote support through the normal firewall path.
  4. Test cable and power recovery: Confirm the crew can identify the power feed, restart safely, and inspect the cable route.
  5. Store evidence: Photos, location diagram, cable route, terminal serial, account owner, network port, and acceptance result.

Common Mistakes

  • Mounting where it looks tidy rather than where it has the best sky view.
  • Routing the terminal directly into a guest router without firewall control.
  • Forgetting that new domes, cranes, tenders, or awnings may later block the view.
  • Leaving no service access for cleaning, replacement, or fault diagnosis.
  • Treating speed tests as acceptance without testing real guest and owner services.

References