Best Sat Tv Service in Alaska and Canada

I wish there were a "thank you" button. Thank you for all your responses so far. But I am beginning to get the idea that a Sat system may not be worth the trouble this year.

We have a rooftop Wingard DirecTv and we found that we lost service in northern Canada. And HD went away first. We could lock onto the satellites but not with a strong enough signal. Dishes in Alaska look like they are pointing at the ground. We had a bunch of dvds with us. It never occurred to us to try to watch tv with our over the air antenna. Our Verizon hotspot worked well and since we have an unlimited 4g hotspot, we could have used that to stream but we did not do that either. We were just on busy having fun to watch much TV.

The issue will be your antenna, it will not go low enough to get a signal. and it may not be large enough. We have Dish, and a lot of people have Direct. Both work with the right antenna.

There are basically 3 sets of TV satellites that hang out over North America. The first of these was the Canadian Avik 1, then Anvik II was launched, followed by the US And Mexican Morelos satellites. The Us satellites are the farthest south, over the equator, generally speaking.

Most of the 13 years I lived in Nenana Alaska, I watched TV received using a 6.1 meter dish, about 20 ft. At that time none of the satellite signals were scrambled so we tuned in directly. After the scrambled the signals, I bought service for a dealer in Tennessee and used his address as the satellite TC companies wouldn't sell me service in Alaska as they claimed I couldn't receive their signal. Duh? So my family watched US programming, Canadian TV, loved the Red Green show, Vinyl Cafe with McClain and the Mexican shows.

If I had an interest in watching TV in Canada, I would figure out a way through Shaw Direct or Bell TV , etc to buy one of their larger dishes, a receiver and the level of programming I wanted. Probably have to create a Canadian address to make this idea work. Sure there would be many Shaw dealers happy to have you business. Not going to be cheap but very workable. Last summer we were camped next to a Canadian couple in western Colorado that were able to watch their local Canadian news shows over their satellite. Their roof mounted dish was close to twice the diameter of most US ones we have had in the past. It was remotely controlled from inside their RV and auto locked on to the Canadian satellite.

Lots of DVDs would be the best answer (or whatever media you prefer). Actually, I might also include a video game console, if only because it's interactive. Bonus points for losing to your kids at Mario Kart. (And double bonus points for beating the kids at Mario Kart, but I suspect that's not very likely to happen!)

2gypsies wrote:
You're supposed to be out exploring - not sitting in front of a t.v.! :)

Agreed but getting the kids out of the RV is like pulling teeth! And I can only take so much of "there's nothing to do" whining before deciding to feed them to the bears. So, get them TV or feed the bears! That is the question. Tv is easier and I kind of like them!!

2gypsies wrote:
You're supposed to be out exploring - not sitting in front of a t.v.! :)

Exactly - it never gets dark right?

get out - no excuses :-)

You're supposed to be out exploring - not sitting in front of a t.v.! :)

In my experience, the furthe rnorth you go, the more dicey satellite service gets as the reception angle gets lower as the latitude gets higher.
Once as far north as Anchorage it's real low so you'd have to be set up with the right view of the SE skyline for satellite.

This link will get you to a lot of information on this subject.TV In Alaska