ANIK F2 - Thy End Is Near

[nelson61]

Shaw has updated details for their transistion plan (FEb 13).
Finish date remains at Feb 27

https://www.shawbroadcast.com/Documents/2024/feb/13/February%2013%202024%20Updated%20Final%20Step%20Transition%20of%20Signals%20to%20HEVC-AAC.pdf

 

[-Jim-]

Thanks nelson. I'm surprised Shaw Direct has been so cryptic about this with their Customers.

 

[harshness]

I'm surprised Shaw Direct has been so cryptic about this with their Customers.

It isn't an issue for their legitimate customers. Any changes happen in the background -- without subscriber intervention (including those in the far North that are currently having problems with Anik F2).

Some of the elements of what determines a "legitimate customer" are:

3. Restrictions. You acknowledge and agree that:
(a) the Services will only be provided to you in Canada;
(b) the service address associated with your account is located in Canada;
(c) you will not directly or indirectly use a single account in connection with more than one (1)
service address;
(d) you will keep Shaw Direct advised of your service address, contact email and phone
number(s) associated with your account at all times;
(e) no Shaw Direct – owned Equipment shall be removed from your current service address
without the consent of Shaw Direct;

 

[-Jim-]

It isn't an issue for their legitimate customers. Any changes happen in the background -- without subscriber intervention (including those in the far North that are currently having problems with Anik F2).

Some of the elements of what determines a "legitimate customer" are:

Well that may be the case but our situation is a bit different than "normal".

We have Shaw Direct at our seasonal Family Cabin at a Lake in BC surrounded by mountains which we installed over a decade ago ourselves as it was far outside the coverage area Shaw provided installation support for. We were told by the local Shaw tech (in Kamloops) that it wasn't possible to get both birds reliably due to the steep (Harper) mountain side. But I'm a bit of a geek, and not one to shy away from this challenge. I was able to find a "window" 300+ feet away from the Cabin where I got both Birds due to a "saddle" in the mountain behind us. Once I had proof of concept, a neighbor who lives next door (another 250 feet or so away) partnered with me on putting the system in place. As he lives there year round with his wife, the reliability of the system is more important to him than us. We trenched the cable run and eventually got it up and running. Each has their own Shaw Direct Account and channel package, but we share the incoming hardware and cabling to each house.

About 8 years after install (sorry - long story...) a neighbor between us and the Dish was doing some construction, and my partner forgot to advise him of the cable run even though we had discussed the pending construction and the need for a warning. Anyway he cut it during construction of a driveway. (It was springtime long before we vacation there. Up to this time all of the feeds from the Dish to the Multiswitch 300+ feet away were continuous uncut /un-spliced home runs.) I was urgently summoned to fix it, which me and one of my brothers did even though we are hundreds of miles away in Metro Vancouver. We patched and sealed it as best we could. The patch lasted about 18 months when water ingress during the spring thaw caused two of the 4 repaired cables to fail. Again I went up and we tried to fix the two damaged cables. I was successful with one of them but I suspect the water ingress traveled down the other cable and caused an internal short some distance away from where it was cut. I was under pressure from the neighbor who had initially cut the cable to get it done as he had B&B customers coming that night, so I abandoned further repair leaving me & my partner with only 3 "good" cables to work with.

Having only 3 good cables really wasn't much of a hardship as there was only one channel on G1 Vertical (13v/0 Khz - Sat A on the Multiswitch) at the time (AMC as I remember?) which was my neighbor's favorite. The rest of them weren't much of a concern. His wife (we all know wives really drive the Bus) wanted all the channels on F2 (especially Blue Jays Baseball on Sportsnet - which still amazes me as by now she's about 80 and still watches them religiously), and she wanted those (at the time) some other channels on G1 Horizontal (18v/0 Khz). In the meantime I bought enough RG6 Quad shield cable to replace the feeds from the dish to the Multiswitch.

Right after that I got confirmation that F2, was going away and everything was going to migrate to G1 after a move from MPEG-4 to HEVC/AAC. This would be done over a series of months starting last year and ending in February 2024. I also figured that you'd only need 2 cables for one bird feeding the Multiswitch. That would leave us with one "spare" cable.

Now the issue is just one of timing. We need to move one of the F2 feeds to G1 Vertical (13v/0 Khz - Sat A on the Multiswitch) as soon as Dual Feed is over as not to impact my Partner, and especially his wife's enjoyment of Major League Baseball's Spring Training. Most of what they watch will be impacted with the demise of F2.

It will be months before I get there but I can walk my Partner through moving a cable or two on the Multiswitch. These folks rely on these signals for much of their entertainment through the long, and sometimes cold, winters. I'm just trying to help them through this transition.

 

[harshness]

If you can't get LoS, you already know what's going on and why. That doesn't rise to the level of writing an expository report on theoretical workarounds for all to read.

 

[navychop]

If you can't get LoS, you already know what's going on and why. That doesn't rise to the level of writing an expository report on theoretical workarounds for all to read.

That was unkind. And I LOVED his post!

 

[harshness]

That was unkind.

How so?

What would you expect Shaw to do about it?

 

[navychop]

It’s been posted on this site. I am on cruise and don’t care to look it up for you.

 

[-Jim-]

I was going to update again after G1 becomes the sole channel provider when F2 goes dark in about a week.

But I'm a bit early, as my neighbor decided to follow my new connection instructions earlier than he had told me yesterday. He switched one of the F2 feeds to the open G1 Vertical (13v/0 Khz - Sat A on the Multiswitch). When he got to his home (the Multiswitch is at the Cabin) his wife remarked "Wow there are lots of new channels!". So they are happy.

I'll remove the other F2 feed in the Spring when I get there. I'll get some caps to put on the unused input inputs - not those 75 ohm screw on terminators as they would cause issues.

 

[ElectronPusher]

The last little bit of info I see in the guide on 101 and 701 says "this satellite set-top box will soon be decommissioned...". Is Shaw going to (can they, even...) brick it remotely? Or, are they simply going to leave it useless with no programming it can receive? All that e-waste... at least I'm left with a nice little power supply to use with something else and I suppose I can put an antenna of some sort on the dish mount.

 

[harshness]

Is Shaw going to (can they, even...) brick it remotely? Or, are they simply going to leave it useless with no programming it can receive?

What's the difference?

Shaw must move forward.

 

[-Jim-]

The last little bit of info I see in the guide on 101 and 701 says "this satellite set-top box will soon be decommissioned...". Is Shaw going to (can they, even...) brick it remotely? Or, are they simply going to leave it useless with no programming it can receive? All that e-waste... at least I'm left with a nice little power supply to use with something else and I suppose I can put an antenna of some sort on the dish mount.

It's all done in software in the background that you don't see. Shaw has been turning off 6xx series boxes for weeks (according to another Site I frequent). We moved everything to 8xx boxes last summer in anticipation of an earlier demise of F2. So save the PSU, and recycle the rest after yours goes dark.

 

[nelson61]

Ended productive life with a N/S offset of +/- 1.1 degrees.

 

[-Jim-]

My understanding is F2 is supposed to be viable for some channels until February 27 with Dual Feeds on going. I may be splitting hairs here with only one day to go, but it will be interesting if they really switch them off as stated. Shaw Broadcast Services Charts

 

[nelson61]

At 10:05am, EST, today, February 27, 2024, Anik F2 has officially gone dark. Only G1 exists now, so take that into consideration when pointing your dish... a sad day for CDN ex-pats indeed

The end is here.

 

[ElectronPusher]

I wonder if I could leave my 600-series box plugged in on the shelf under the TV and use the USB port on the front to charge my phone?

 

[bajasat]

I guess you could.

 

[harshness]

I wonder if I could leave my 600-series box plugged in on the shelf under the TV and use the USB port on the front to charge my phone?

You could, but you would be consuming 1.4KW/year in power in doing so where a charger consumes almost nothing when it isn't charging.

At 500mA, the receiver would charge a lot slower than any charger.

 

[ElectronPusher]

You could, but you would be consuming 1.4KW/year in power in doing so where a charger consumes almost nothing when it isn't charging.

At 500mA, the receiver would charge a lot slower than any charger.

You do realize that was a joke, right?

 

[harshness]

You do realize that was a joke, right?

It is so far from funny that it deserved an answer.