I'm sure this has been asked before, but I can't find it. I have two questions. Firstly, I live in southwest Oregon, directly off of Interstate-5 about 30 miles north of California. Would I be able to receive Bell TV at my location? I've heard in the past that my area can receive all bell satellites except for the one(s) responsible for HD channels, is this true? I really want to try to get Bell as opposed to Shaw because I wouldn't have to pay the extra shipping for the dish, I could use a Dish Network one. And I heard that Ku dishes (Shaw) are harder to point than Bell. I also want to know if anyone has contact info for a broker? I've heard good things of TVM so that'd be cool. I guess I could go with Shaw if I had to, but Bell seems to be a better fit.
Bell TV Signal Strength
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Thanks, looks to be a definate no on Bell. Any suggestions on minimizing shipping cost for Shaw? Possibly import the receiver and LNB and use a 75cm eliptical from domestic sources? The weight of the dish itself seems to greatly affect the shipping cost. Any recommendations or a step-by-step tutorial on the process? Still looking for a PM with broker info as well. Thank you.
I have two generic dishes, one pointed at each sat with external switch. these can be purchased through any sat dealer in the US. You may even have one near you in Oregon. PM also sent
@Frenchophile (or anyone else who can answer this). Can I use any old Ku LNB or are they proprietary enough to need a Shaw one (same with switch?)? What size dish do you recommend considering I'm in a 75-E area?
If you use 2 separate dishes, any old KU LNB will work but they have to be standard LNB's not universal
The Shaw 75e LNB will only work with that dish
When I had my 4 footer set up for both sats, I used a couple dual LNB's (Im in Minneapolis) and ghetto rigged it
The Shaw 75e LNB will only work with that dish
When I had my 4 footer set up for both sats, I used a couple dual LNB's (Im in Minneapolis) and ghetto rigged it
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Thanks for the info. I may just order the official Shaw dish because I'm not too comfortable with a custom install and after buying all the parts seperately will probably end up costing the same anyway. Luckily I have a pre-existing domestic dish I can use the wiring from.
You might even be able to use the existing mast. The Shaw dish uses a 2" OD pipe and dish is a VERY tight fit, even with the clamp loosened.
There isn't very much "play" in the clamp, but if your existing mast is 1-7/8" OD you might be ok. My old mast was 1-3/4" OD, and with the clamp tightened completely it was still too loose. So I had to use the Shaw mount and abandon the old mount.
I was actually planning on going cheap first to be safe. I was going to buy a 319 or 209 first which will be moved to a different room w/o an HDTV once I make sure I can setup correctly and determine I even like the service. Then I'll take the plunge into a more expensive HD or HDPVR model and have two receivers. I'm not too worried about testing HD, I don't even have an HD receiver hooked up to my HDTV right now (blasphemy, I know), it's just not huge deal for me. It's definately nice to have, just not a sell-all for me. Am I correct in assuming that there's no problem having multiple receivers? I heard of Bell doing location verification calls but not Shaw.
Edit: P.S. Will KuSat allow me to order the receiver and dish combo ("for new customers only") or is that some sort of promo they don't consider me to qualify for since I'm a "southern" Canadian?
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They prefer you order both....The "kit" is designed for us folks in the states....If you were in Canada the installer would bring the dish with them to install. Thats why you cant walk into Future Shop or BB and get the whole setup.
I agree.....
I think the term "new customers" means those who are in the US and who do not already have an existing Shaw account.
I recently did business with these folks, but because I already had an existing Shaw account (brokered by others), I had to order the dish and the receiver separately. By the time all was said & done, the dish ended up costing about $250 with the freight and customs fees. (I had previously used a generic dish and wanted to upgrade, plus upgrade my receiver to 8PSK compatible). I purchased a DSR-319 at a price that was discounted at the time, and I'm not sure why, although it has the old Star Choice Logo on it. I notice the current price of the DSR-319 is no longer discounted.
By the way, KuSat was very good to do business with, very helpful, very cooperative, and delivered as promised.
I also think you might be wise to keep the number of active receivers at a minimum. My broker will only allow two. I have read where accounts having many receivers active have been checked by Shaw to be sure they're all at the same address. In the case of southern subs, such an investigation might be unpleasant......
I think your plan to order a SDef receiver now is a good one.....they may be saying that the 6xx will be available soon, but if history is any indication..........
I can't comment on the comparison between Shaw & Bell. For me, the worst part of getting the dish up was mounting the bracket, due to the nature of the wall of the house. I was able to point the dish accurately enough using Dishpointer, such that I was on the satellite even before I plugged in the receiver. Then getting the dish peaked was just a matter of a little patience for 15 minutes. And I'm not a professional at this.
But most of the trouble people on this forum have had pointing the dish seem to result from mistakes with the basics: mast not plumb, incorrect settings for elevation & skew, blocked line of sight, and the most troublesome of all is dealing with a magnetic compass, which can be eliminated by using Dishpointer.
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