Hey everyone. I'm looking to find a sat finder for Shaw. Sat is in Caribbean area. And any direction is helpful too. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Shaw Satellite Finder
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Sorry, that was not very helpful!
I'm looking to buy a satellite locator for Shaw Direct. I'm helping someone setup a dish and we are trying to find the signal. Have not had any luck yet. Thank you for your help.
I'm looking to buy a satellite locator for Shaw Direct. I'm helping someone setup a dish and we are trying to find the signal. Have not had any luck yet. Thank you for your help.
Shaw satellites use the same intermediate frequency as everyone else so pretty much any of the satellite finders you see will work for signal levels.
Is your dish stationary or do you move around a lot?
@ Harshness, that is not completely correct. Since Shaw uses digicypher and now Turbo 8psk transponders, only the newest Birddog and expensive Applied Instruments meters will get a signal. I checked about this a few months back. There was an inexpensive "sqauker meter" that Shaw used to recommend on their website.
Catamount
I was referring to any of the inexpensive squawk meters (typically less than 20% of the cost of a replacement battery for a Birddog). They aren't confounded by modulation or encryption schemes as they're looking only for a carrier.
I use my Sathero SH-500G to align Shawdirect and it works fine. Yes, the signal bounces a bit more on the Turbo but it gets the job done.
No personal experience, but the coverage maps at satbeams.com for 107W and 111W are somewhat grim (Anik G1 doesn't go beyond the mid US).
Trust the maps. The only satellite that will be working at all in a few months for Caribbean coverage would be Anik F2, and it does not go very far to the east. You would do well to find some sort of high speed internet and use a Roku or other device to view programming, rather than rely upon extremely weak signals from Shaw Direct in this region, that will vanish without warning whenever it rains. There is little signal to begin with, and putting up a 1.8 or 2.4 m offset dish will buy you very little margin, if any at all.
Thanks guys, I appreciate your input. There are folks in the same area that have good signal at the moment with Shaw so that is why I ask. Plus, internet speeds and reliability are sketchy at best in this location unfortunately.
So with that said, does anybody have any tips to get a dish aligned? Last time we were there we could not get a signal at all with a 60E dish and a new xKu lnb. Next try will be with a 75E and xKu lnb.
A 75E is the only model you should consider using. 60E models are useless on weaker HD signals, which may be an issue on a few channels found on F2. Before you waste too much time looking for an unknown signal, connect your receiver to someone's working system and make sure that you have some authorized channels actually working on your receiver. Then connect to a new dish, first confirming that you have the same type of LNBF as on their system, so there is a match.
Also, please give us your coordinates or actual location (city and country) that you are trying to use, so that a second opinion could be derived from accurate footprint maps.
Latitude 17.7429
Longitude -88.0243
Settings tried already:
Elevation 65.4
Azimuth 234.5
Skew 140.8
Longitude -88.0243
Settings tried already:
Elevation 65.4
Azimuth 234.5
Skew 140.8
That translates to BELIZE.
You are in a transition zone, from strong signals in the northern part, to lower levels as you head south towards Honduras. Depending upon whose map you look at, I have seen EIRP levels in the +41 to +42 dBw area for your location. Please tell me what sized antennas are being successfully used by others right now in that location, and confirm whether these channels are on Anik F1R (very few channels left), or Anik F2?
You have the skew correct, but your elevation is way off.
I would recommend a 1.2 meter regular Ku-band offset dish with single or dual output Ku-band LNBF with 10750 MHz local oscillator, and try elevation of 56.4 degrees. Anik F2 will be the only game in town in a short while, and one of these dishes is much easier to align. Polarity or skew rotation is done with a simple twist of the LNBF. Looking at the front of the dish, a 140 degree skew setting on a Shaw XKu or Quad Ku dish translates to +50 degrees (or right side) of the scale on a conventional LNBF. It would appear to be pointing close to the 4:30 clock position (+45 is 4:30, as viewed from the front).
Since offset dishes have built in offset angles typically in the 22 to 25 degree range, trust a properly installed dish on a perfectly vertical pole, using the scale setting of 56 elevation degrees to start.
Anik F2 channels do not have the XKu setup, so a regular Ku LNBF will work well on this dish,
and if a receiver has already been setup on an existing XKu system, with Anik F2 channels mapped in,
it should work without further remapping. Just confirm receiver's operation on a working system first, and then transfer to your antenna.
You might be able to make a well tuned 90 cm offset dish work here, but bigger is better, and I would expect it will take at least a 1.2 meter (4 foot) model for average reliability. Measure what the neighbors are using.
We are currently in So Florida and knew the satellite was moved and we were able to lock on with no probllem.. however, this last week it went dead. We learned that Shaw was focusing on the oil fields up north and moved the satellite. We were able to relocate the signal, but all of a sudden it went off line. Word is they are not supporting anything south of the border and will be a Canada only provider. We have not be able to get a reasonable answer from the company yet....
Nothing of the sort! Someone is telling you a big Fib. Satellites don't move for one and until F1 & F2 need to be replaced it will never be a Canada only thing. (If then even) Especially When the Shaw boys own a house in Phoneix. If that was the case my phone would be ringing off the hook and every single customer would need their dish re aimed. 
Nothing of the sort! Someone is telling you a big Fib. Satellites don't move for one and until F1 & F2 need to be replaced it will never be a Canada only thing. (If then even) Especially When the Shaw boys own a house in Phoneix. If that was the case my phone would be ringing off the hook and every single customer would need their dish re aimed.
Anik F1R will not be replaced, and is going to be out of service sometime no later than 2021. Shaw saw little reason to spend money on a new satellite. Most traffic has already been moved to Anik F2 or Anik G1. F2 has an end of life sometime in the 2027 or 2028 area. G1 was launched in 2013, so should be around longer than that. Shaw Direct made a conscious decision several years ago to switch to MPEG-4 to effectively double their channel capacity. Getting rid of standard definition signals helped create more space, as almost all Canadian locals were converted to HD. Shaw split their local signals between G1, with limited coverage, and F2, which covers well into northern Central America. If you check which local signals are on F2, one should find Toronto and Vancouver markets well represented, so there is an East Coast as well as a West Coast presence for snowbirds. A few selected other CDN locals can also be found on F2, but the majority of stations are on limited coverage Anik G1. US HD networks are now limited to Seattle and Detroit, with PBS Spokane and Buffalo also being available. What has resulted is a mix where most popular channels are available on at least one channel for Snowbirds, on Anik F2. It was a complicated balancing act, but it means that two satellites will be used for the foreseeable future.
An XKu LNBF only changes the frequency configuration on the 107 satellite (Anik F1R/G1), but leaves the 111 satellite (Anik F2) in the same frequency setup as a regular Ku-band LNBF. Once traffic is completely removed from Anik F1R, those folks in Phoenix and elsewhere in the southern provinces will be limited to Anik F2. With the exception of some minor future channel shuffling, that is already in place. Existing installations with 60E or 75E antennas that are now working will continue to work. If you took ANY equal or larger sized offset Ku-band antenna, equipped with a regular Ku LNB F w/10750 local oscillator, and pointed it at Anik F2 (111 West), it would pick up everything that is transmitting on F2. As long as the receiver is setup with an authorized subscription and mapped for F2, there should be nothing else to worry about.
Added info....I agree with you on the answer to the poster from FLA. Existing satellites will not be redirected while everything is in normal operation. What may have happened is that there may have been a recent channel shuffle affecting just a few signals, and in the remapping...there could have been a hiccup getting to the final satellite and channel configuration. As more traffic is offloaded from F1R as it ends its operational lifetime, there will be transitions to F2 and G1. If you cannot receive G1, any channel that transitions to that satellite will be lost to "southern" viewers.
Satellites can't change their coverage patterns by moving to a different location. Satellites can't move north or south in any case.
Some satellites may be able to change their coverage area either by tilting the satellite or redirecting their horns so it is possible that Shaw is engaging in that activity.
That the dish siting has been so vague makes it very difficult to offer advice.
Thinking about the new HD stack plan, I wonder if it can be emulated with multiple dishes.
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