American programming. Please Help...

[Gregges]

Hey guys. I recently moved to Suriname, South America and have become very bored with the Latin American programming here. Most satellites that beam to this region have spanish with occasional english content. Is there a satellite with a north american feed that beams to this area?? Haven't been able to find one yet. And will it be possible with the current 1.2m dish i have now.

Thanx

 

[rocket69]

satbeams.com will show what you can get but most stuff will require a C-band And bigger is better. Dont skimp out find a good used one around your parts should not be hard. Larger dish is better so you can hunt for signals. Pulling in and subbing to a US sat provider would require a solid dish Vs. Mesh and have not seen any one that far south try and pull it in .

I did see on a board from the dark side that they can pull in single sats from 119 and 110 on a 15' solid in nicaragua.

Sky , Claro & Directv Lat dont have much english programing ?

 

[cyberham]

I agree your only hope may be C-band. I checked my favourite Ku-band sats, and I couldn't find a single footprint that extended as far south as Suriname. If C-band isn't possible due to necessary dish size, maybe you can install a slingbox at a friend's house in US/Canada to stream stations to you via high-speed Internet, or you can access the Internet directly yourself to receive stations from that source.

 

[Bob2011]

The english programming on the Cuban channels on 30w and the American cable news channel on 15w is about all I could see you having a shot at on Ku.

 

[cyberham]

Footprints of MSNBC on Telstar 12 at 15W and also Hispasat at 30W seem to fall outside Suriname to its west. Could always try but probably a slim chance.

 

[Gregges]

Ok thanx guys. I guess it's gonna be difficult to get what i want here. I also looked into internet streaming, but the DSL prices here are just to damn high. For a 2Mbps connection i would be paying $250 a month. So i thought that maybe i would have a bit more luck with satellite TV. Guess not. I'll check the prices of C-band dishes here. What size dish would you guys recommend for this region??

 

[Gregges]

And btw, Sky does have some english movies and series, but they're not dependable. One minute i'm watching an english movie, next minute i'm watching a spanish one. All sports channels are in spanish and portugese. Very irritating.

 

[FaT Air]

Many over here do pretty well with a 6ft, but miss some DVB-S2. Bigger is better 7.5ft, 8-9's but a 10 ft is, what I'd call, the size to have for a C band dish. As long as you're in the footprint, a 10 would get all the DVB-S2. With DSL $250/m there, I can only imagine what it's going to cost for a BUD. (Big Useful Dish)
A while back, there was a (I think German) fellow somewhere in Brazil, watching European footprint signals. But there he used a home built, I think, 26ft dish.
So, I'd bet it is possible, to watch some N.A. footprint satellites, If you have the right resources.

 

[Bob2011]

Footprints of MSNBC on Telstar 12 at 15W and also Hispasat at 30W seem to fall outside Suriname to its west. Could always try but probably a slim chance.

A close look at the footprint for Hispasat 1D where the Cuban networks are shows the signal strength to be about 44 dBW. Should be able to watch on a 30 inch dish. Channels like KTV2 are on Hispasat 1E which end coverage at the Venezuelan border. I think Press TV is the only english channel on Hispasat 1C and that one is weak in eastern Suriname at 38 dBW. Still watchable on the 1.2 meter dish though.

Telstar 12 shows 42 dBW in western Suriname but no coverage for Paramaribo. My guess is there is probably a signal there but it is probably in the mid 30s. I'm sure someone who has done DXing on out of footprint satellite signals would have a better feel for this.

 

[cyberham]

I've never had much luck when trying to catch signals near the edge of a footprint. I think these calculated footprints are sometimes overly optimistic. Anyway, best way is to contact somebody in the area already receiving satellite TV. Gregges: In 1982, I pulled the name of an amateur radio operator from a ham database, looked up his name in the local phone book in Paramaribo, then phoned him. He invited me over and we had a great visit, him showing me his radio station. You can try the same except roam the streets looking for sat dishes. Just knock on the door and say hello.

 

[Gregges]

Ok. Thanx everybody. Appreciate your help a lot. I'll look into your suggestions. If i have more questions, i won't hesitate to ask them here. This is a very good forum. Anyway, thanks again.

 

[guacharaca]

I was living close to the northern tip of Colombia and I was thinking I might be able to get DN with a 4 ft dish as some members in Panama could receive DN from 110W. However, you are further east and further south. I did test and you can get some free Chavez channels with a Captiveworks STB pointed at Amazonas. But unless you are into futbol, those channels suck. You can always download for free from the internet all the regular American TV programs these days if you know where to look.

 

[freezy]

he said the broadband down there is very expensive. So a slingbox wouldn't be very useful. I'm not sure about the legality but you could have a friend burn your shows onto a disc and mail them down. Not very current but much cheaper than other options.

 

[cyberham]

Also, about downloading via Internet, once outside the U.S., my experience is that downloading of American shows from American web sites may be blocked via IP address analysis due to copyright restrictions. In Canada (and Japan too), for example, we must download from the Canadian TV network's website that runs a show, but then those sites may not have the shows available for download.