Running the app’s obstruction scan takes a minute. Running it in a way that tells you the truth takes a little more care, and that care is the difference between a dish that works from day one and a pole you have to move next spring. This is a practical, do-it-yourself survey method: which check to use for your situation, exactly where to stand and how to hold the phone, how to survey several spots and compare them, how to test a roof or pole height without climbing up with the dish, how to check a property you can’t visit yet, how to check without the app at all, and when it’s worth paying someone to do it.
Eight Quick Answers
The short versions. Each is covered properly further down.
Yes. The Starlink app’s Check for Obstructions tool runs on your phone’s camera and motion sensors; you don’t need a dish, an account or a subscription.
Where the dish will go, holding the phone at the height the dish’s face will be. Scanning at chest height on the lawn tells you nothing about a roof mount.
As the app instructs, then turn slowly through a full circle, taking around 30–60 seconds, without tilting it up and down as you go.
Under about 2% is good for everything, including video calls. 2–5% suits streaming. Over 5% means look for a better spot or more height.
The iOS app supports iPhone and iPad running version 16.4 or later. A phone is usually easier to hold up at dish height.
Not with the app, but satellite and street imagery, public lidar elevation data, and asking neighbours or the seller can give you a good first read.
Yes, roughly. Use a free clinometer app to measure the angle up to each treetop from the dish spot. Anything rising above about 35° is inside a level dish’s view.
Only if the best spot needs roof work or a tall pole. Starlink’s US installs are reported at $199 on lower tiers and included with Residential Max; independent installers commonly charge $200–$600.
Which Check Fits Your Situation?
There are four ways to check for obstructions. Most people only need one or two of them.
| Your situation | Best check | Time | Cost | How reliable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deciding whether to buy | App scan at 3–5 spots | 15–20 min | Free | Good if done at dish height |
| Dish already arrived | Temporary setup + live map | Overnight | Free | Best: real satellite data |
| Planning a roof or pole mount | App scan from that height | 30 min | Ladder or a pole for the phone | Good; safety matters |
| Property you can’t visit yet | Imagery, lidar data, local questions | 1 hour | Free | A first read only |
| App won’t run, or a second opinion | Clinometer angle method | 20 min | Free app | Rough, but useful |
| RV or campsite | Quick app scan per pitch | 2 min a site | Free | Good enough to choose a pitch |
The App Scan, Done Properly
The tool is simple. The mistakes people make with it are about where they stand and how they move.
Before you start
- Install the Starlink app and update it. On Apple devices it needs iOS or iPadOS 16.4 or later.
- Allow camera access for the app when asked, or in your phone’s settings. The scan won’t start without it.
- Pick a bright, dry time. The camera needs to see edges to track itself; dusk and fog make results patchy.
- Choose the dish model you have or plan to buy, because the scan uses that model’s field of view. Standard and Mini dishes are both listed at 110° in published specs.
Running the scan
- Open Check for Obstructions in the app. Depending on your app version it may be on the main screen before setup, or under the obstructions settings.
- Stand exactly where the dish will go. If you can’t stand there, for example a roof, see the section on heights below.
- Hold the phone where the dish’s face will be, in the orientation the app asks for.
- Turn your body slowly and steadily through a full circle. Published guides suggest 30 to 60 seconds. Keep the phone’s angle constant; don’t sweep it up and down.
- When the app finishes, it shows a round sky map with obstructions in red, an obstruction percentage and an estimate of how often you’d lose connection.
- Screenshot the result before you move. Label it with the spot and the height, for example “B – garage roof edge, 3 m.”
Walking while you turn moves the scan point. Holding the phone too close to your face puts your head in the sky map. Standing right next to a wall, car or RV records them as obstructions that might not matter at the final mount. And scanning on a bare winter day around deciduous trees understates the summer result.
Survey Several Spots, Then Compare
A single scan answers “is this spot good?” A survey of several answers the question you actually care about: “where is the best spot I can reasonably use?”
- Sketch the property on paper or a screenshot of a map app. Mark north, the house, outbuildings and tall trees.
- Pick three to five candidate spots that you could realistically mount a dish at: a clear patch of lawn, a garage or shed roof, the main roof ridge, a gable end, the end of the driveway.
- Scan each one at its real mounting height and screenshot the result.
- Write the percentage next to each spot on your sketch, plus a note on practicality: cable distance to the router, ladder needed, HOA visibility.
- Shortlist the best two. Often the cleanest spot isn’t the easiest, and a spot one or two points worse but on the ground is the smarter choice.
If two spots tie, choose the one that will be easier to reach for clearing snow or checking cables later. Keep the cable in mind while choosing. The Standard kit comes with a cable of about 15 metres (50 feet), and longer Starlink cables are sold separately. A perfect spot at the far end of the property may need a longer cable and protected routing.
Checking a Roof or Pole Height Without Risking a Fall
Height often fixes obstructions, but you need to scan from that height first, and you don’t need to haul a dish up a ladder to do it.
For a roof mount, an upper-floor window on the same side gives a reasonable approximation. Lean the phone out at arm’s length, away from the wall, and scan the half of the sky you can see. It won’t see behind the house, but it tells you whether the side the dish faces is clear.
Tape or clamp the phone to the top of a painter’s extension pole, a length of pipe or a telescopic window-cleaning pole, raise it to the planned height and turn the pole slowly. Start a screen recording first, so you can review what the app said. It’s awkward, but it gets you to pole-mount height from the ground.
If you scan from a ladder, have someone foot it, set an extension ladder at about a 75° angle as safety agencies recommend, keep three points of contact, and don’t turn your whole body on the top rungs. Scan only the half of the sky you can see safely, then reposition. NIOSH, part of the CDC, offers a free Ladder Safety app that helps you set the angle. If the planned spot is on a steep roof, leave it to an installer.
After the Dish Arrives: The Temporary-Setup Test
The scan is a prediction from your phone. The dish’s own live map is the measurement. Use the dish to confirm before you drill, pour concrete or call a tree service.
- Set the dish up temporarily at your best candidate spot: on its kickstand on the ground, on a sturdy table, or held securely at roof-edge height on a ladder bracket or a temporary pole. Make sure it can’t blow over.
- Run the cable loosely to the router and power. Keep it out of doorways and away from mowers.
- Complete setup in the app and follow its instructions for which way to face the dish.
- Leave it running for at least six hours, ideally overnight. The live map fills in as satellites cross the sky.
- Check two screens: the obstruction map, for where red appears, and the statistics view, for how often the connection actually dropped because of obstructions.
- If you’re testing a second spot, move the dish, reset the obstruction map so old data doesn’t mislead you, and repeat.
If you bought the kit directly from Starlink, the 30-day trial is your safety net: if no spot at your property gets a clean enough view, you can return it. Do the temporary-setup test early in that window, not in week four.
The No-App Method: Measuring Angles With a Clinometer
When the app won’t cooperate, or you want a second opinion, a simple angle measurement tells you whether a tree or building is likely inside the dish’s view.
- Install a free clinometer or inclinometer app (many phones’ built-in measure or level tools can show angles too).
- Stand at the dish spot and hold the phone at dish height.
- Sight along the phone’s edge to the top of each tall object nearby: trees, roof ridges, chimneys, poles. Note each angle and its compass direction.
- Compare with the zones. Above about 35°: inside the view. About 25–35°: borderline, especially in the direction the dish will face, which is roughly north across most of the US. Below about 25°: generally clear.
- Use it to compare spots, not as a pass-fail test. If one spot has three trees above 35° to the north and another has none, you know which to favour.
Phone compasses point to magnetic north, which can differ from true north by a noticeable amount depending on where you live; in parts of the US the gap exceeds 10 degrees. For a rough survey that’s fine, but if you’re deciding which side of a tree line matters, NOAA’s free online magnetic field calculator gives the correction for your ZIP code. Once the dish is running, the arrow on the app’s obstruction map shows its actual facing direction, which may be northwest or northeast rather than due north.
| Object | Direction | Angle from dish spot | Zone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Example: oak | North-northwest | 41° | In the view |
| Example: roof ridge | East | 28° | Caution |
| Example: pine row | South | 22° | Likely clear |
| Your object | … | … | … |
Take each reading twice and use the average; it smooths out a shaky hand. Copy that table onto paper and fill it in for your own property. It’s also a handy record to show a tree service which specific trees are the problem.
Checking a Property You Can’t Visit Yet
Buying a rural home, renting a cabin for the season, or helping a parent from another state? You can get a useful first read before anyone stands in the yard.
Look at the property from above in a mapping app, ideally in a 3D view, and at street level where available. Note where tall trees sit relative to the house, and whether there’s a clearing or roof area with open sky to the north. Check the imagery date, since trees grow and get cut.
The US Geological Survey’s 3D Elevation Program publishes lidar data, laser-measured elevation that often captures tree canopy heights. The USGS points to its Lidar Availability Viewer, LidarExplorer and The National Map download client to see coverage. Many county GIS portals also publish lidar-derived maps. For tech-comfortable buyers, this can reveal how tall the trees around a property really are.
Ask the seller, landlord or listing agent whether the property has, or had, Starlink, and where the dish was. Neighbours are often happy to say whether their Starlink works and where they mounted it. A dish already on a pole at the ridge is strong evidence that someone solved the problem.
An inspector, agent or friend visiting the property can run the free app scan at the spots you choose. Send them a sketch with labelled spots and ask for screenshots at each. It takes them a quarter of an hour.
If the property will be your work-from-home base, add a final check: look up what other internet options serve the address on the FCC’s National Broadband Map, and ask about mobile signal inside the house. A site with poor sky view and no other options is a real risk to price into your decision.
Checking at Campsites and RV Parks
On the road, the goal is different: you’re choosing between pitches in a few minutes, not planning a permanent mount.
- Scan before you unhitch. Walk the candidate pitches with the app and pick the one with the cleanest sky to the north.
- Plan to set the dish away from the rig. Scan from where the dish will sit, not from the RV door, and keep it a few metres from the vehicle or above its roofline.
- Reset the obstruction map when you set up at each new site, so the previous site’s data doesn’t confuse you.
- Accept a trade-off. Shady, tree-lined sites are popular for a reason. If you need reliable connection, an open pitch or a longer cable to a clearing beats the prettiest spot.
Should You Pay a Professional?
Checking obstructions is a do-it-yourself job for most people. Mounting at height sometimes isn’t.
Pay a professional when the only clean spot needs work on a steep or high roof, a tall pole that needs concrete and guy wires, a long cable run through walls or an attic, or when ladders aren’t safe for you. Ask any installer to scan your candidate spots before they mount, and to show you the result. A good installer will move the plan if the scan disagrees with what you expected.
For Starlink’s own US installation service, a consumer guide reports a $199 fee on the Residential 100 and 200 Mbps plans, included at no extra cost with Residential Max, ordered at checkout and scheduled through the app, with availability varying by region. Independent installers commonly charge $200 to $600 depending on the mount and cable run; a handyman doing only the mounting and cabling may charge less.
How Long a Proper Check Takes
People skip steps because they assume a thorough survey is a weekend project. It isn’t. A careful scan at one spot takes about a minute plus the time to label the screenshot. Walking a typical suburban or rural yard and scanning five spots takes fifteen to twenty minutes. Adding an upstairs-window scan and a pole-height scan adds another quarter of an hour. The clinometer cross-check, if you want it, takes about twenty minutes for the three or four tallest trees. The temporary-setup test with a real dish is mostly waiting: ten minutes to set up, then an overnight run while you sleep.
Against that, compare the cost of getting it wrong: a mount drilled into the roof in the wrong place, a pole set in concrete a metre too short, a tree-service bill for the wrong tree, or months of frozen video calls. An hour of checking is cheap insurance.
Turning Results Into a Decision
Once you have numbers, here’s how to act on them.
| Best spot scans | What you’ll likely experience | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1% | Smooth for everything | Go ahead |
| 1–2% | Very occasional freezes | Go ahead; recheck in leaf season |
| 2–5% | Streaming fine, calls stutter now and then | Fine for most; remote workers try for more height |
| 5–10% | Noticeable drops; calls frustrating | Raise, move or trim before committing |
| Over 10% | Spotty | Relocate, clear the view, or consider other internet |
Remember that the percentage isn’t the whole story. Red on the side the dish faces, or near the center of the map, costs more than the same amount of red low down behind the dish. When two spots are close, choose the one whose red is lower and farther from the facing direction.
Printable survey record
- Date, time and weather of the survey; leaves on or off.
- Phone used and app version.
- For each spot: label, description, height, obstruction %, where the red sits, cable distance to the router, practicality notes.
- Angles to the three tallest nearby objects, with directions, if you used the clinometer method.
- Chosen spot, and the date to recheck: next leaf season.
What a Scan Can’t Tell You
Even a careful survey has blind spots. Knowing them stops a good scan from giving you false confidence.
Power lines, guy wires, thin flagpoles and bare twigs can be hard for a phone camera to pick out against the sky, yet they can still cause brief drops. After installing, look for thin red lines on the live map and trace them back to these.
A scan shows today. Young, fast-growing trees within a few metres of the dish, a neighbour’s planned extension, or a new barn can all move into the view. If you can, pick a spot with some margin, not one that only just passes.
In snow country, a ground-level spot that scans perfectly in September can be buried by drifts or plough spoil by January, and branches bend lower under snow load. Choose a spot that stays clear and accessible in winter, and plan for a short pole if drifts are common.
The app maps the sky around you, but it can’t know what the final mount will look like. A wall bracket puts the house wall right behind the dish; a roof mount puts the ridge or a chimney nearby. If the mount itself will sit next to a structure, scan as close to that structure as the dish will be.
Using Your Survey as Evidence
Screenshots from a careful survey are more than a personal record. They help in several conversations people find difficult.
| Who you’re talking to | What to show | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| HOA or architectural committee | Scans from the low, hidden spot vs the higher, visible spot | Shows the visible spot is a genuine need, not a preference |
| Landlord | Your shortlist, with mount method and cable route | Makes approval easier and shows you’ve thought about the building |
| Tree service | Map with red patches, plus angle readings to specific trees | Lets them quote for specific limbs, not a full trim |
| Installer | Your preferred spot and its result | Saves time on site and avoids mounting in the wrong place |
| Starlink support | Scan, live map, statistics and photos toward the red | Speeds up any diagnosis or return discussion |
| Seller when buying a home | Scans showing poor sky view | Supports pricing in a mount, trimming or other internet |
In the US, the FCC’s Over-the-Air Reception Devices rule generally restricts HOAs and landlords from banning small antennas on property you control or unreasonably impairing reception. Showing that the alternative spots leave you heavily obstructed is exactly the kind of evidence that makes that rule useful in practice.
When to Check Again
- First leaf season after installing, if you installed with bare deciduous trees around.
- After any big storm, to confirm the dish is still level and no branches have bent into the view.
- After moving the dish, even a metre or two: reset the obstruction map and let it rebuild.
- When nearby construction finishes, such as a neighbour’s extension, new outbuilding or utility pole.
- Whenever drops increase without an obvious cause. Look at the statistics screen first, then the map.
- Once a year, as routine. Compare with your original survey screenshots.
Sending Someone Else to Do the Survey
Adult children helping parents, buyers relying on an agent, landlords checking a rental: often the person who needs the answer isn’t the one standing in the yard. A short brief gets you useful results.
- Send a sketch of the property with three to five spots labelled A to E, and say how high each scan should be (ground, ladder height, upstairs window).
- Ask them to install the Starlink app beforehand and allow camera access, so they’re not fiddling with permissions on site.
- Ask for daylight, ideally midday, and a dry day.
- Explain the technique in one line: “Stand on the spot, hold the phone up at the height I gave you, and turn slowly in a full circle without tilting it.”
- Ask for a screenshot of each result and one ordinary photo looking north from each spot. The photo often explains the red.
- Ask them not to climb anything unsafe. Upstairs windows and a phone taped to a pole are fine; roofs are not.
When the screenshots come back, read them the same way you would your own: the percentage first, then where the red sits relative to north. If every spot shows heavy red on the north side, you’ve learned something important before spending a cent on hardware.
Situations That Need a Different Approach
Neighbouring buildings and your own walls block a lot of sky. Scan from any outdoor space you control: a balcony, a rooftop terrace if you’re allowed, or the back garden. If the only clear spot is a shared roof, you’ll need permission from the building’s owner or HOA, and in the US the FCC’s antenna rule generally doesn’t cover common areas.
Bare branches block far less than leaves. A clean winter scan can turn red by June. Either wait for leaf season, or note which deciduous trees sit in the northern part of the view and assume they’ll matter. Evergreens look about the same all year, so winter scans around pines and firs are more representative.
Check camera permission, update the app, scan in daylight, turn more slowly, and make sure your arm isn’t blocking the camera. Try another phone or an iPad if it still fails. As a fallback, use the clinometer method to compare spots, then confirm with the dish’s live map once it arrives.
Hold out for under about 2% at the final mount, confirmed by the live map and statistics over a few working days, not just one scan. If you can’t get there, plan a backup connection that takes over automatically.
Questions People Still Ask
How do I check for Starlink obstructions?
Use the Starlink app’s Check for Obstructions tool. Stand where the dish will go, hold the phone at the dish’s height, and turn slowly through a full circle. The app shows red where the sky is blocked and gives an obstruction percentage.
Do I need to buy Starlink before checking for obstructions?
No. The app’s scan works without a dish, an account or a subscription, so you can check your property before ordering.
How accurate is the Starlink obstruction checker?
It’s a good prediction if you scan at the right height and season, but the dish’s live obstruction map after installation is more reliable. Use both: the scan to choose a spot, the live map to confirm it.
How do I check obstructions for a roof mount?
Scan from as close to the planned height as you can safely get: an upstairs window, a phone fixed to a pole, or a ladder with a helper. Leave steep roofs to a professional installer.
Can I check for obstructions without the app?
Roughly. Use a clinometer app to measure the angle to each treetop from the dish spot. Objects higher than about 35° above the horizon are likely inside the dish’s view, especially toward the north.
Why does the obstruction checker give different results each time?
Small changes in where you stand, how high you hold the phone, how fast you turn and the light all affect the result. Mark the exact spot, hold the phone at a consistent height, and scan two or three times; use the typical result, not the best one.
Should I check for obstructions in summer or winter?
For deciduous trees, check in summer when leaves are out, because that’s the worst case. Evergreens look about the same all year. In snowy areas, also think about winter drifts and branches bending under snow.
What obstruction percentage is acceptable?
Under about 2% is good for everything. 2–5% is usually fine for streaming. Above 5% you’ll notice drops; above 10% you should relocate or raise the dish.
How this page was checked. Scan steps and percentage bands come from published obstruction-check guides and the Starlink app’s documented behaviour; field-of-view figures from published hardware specifications; iOS compatibility from the App Store listing; live-map fill time from DISHYtech; installation prices from a September consumer cost guide; lidar data sources from the USGS; ladder angle guidance from NIOSH; and the angle thresholds are our own geometry, labelled as rules of thumb. Survey and spot results in figures are illustrative. Checked October 21.
This page is independent and is not affiliated with Starlink or SpaceX. App menus change between versions; if a label differs, look under the app’s obstruction settings.
Key sources: Starlink app · USGS 3D Elevation Program · NIOSH ladder safety guidance · NOAA magnetic field calculators · FCC National Broadband Map