Satellite Dish Reception

[richarfg]

I have heard that when travelling to Alaska; at some point, because of where the satellites are located, I will lose reception on my satellite dish. Can someone confirm or refute this claim based on actual experience? If I do lose reception, at what point, geographically, does this occur?

[2gypsies1]

We certainly didn't worry about getting t.v. or watching the news. We were up there to enjoy the new, awesome surroundings. We didn't miss a thing.

[joe_b_]

Depending on how important it is for a person traveling through Canada on their way to Alaska, to have TV coverage,there are ways to accomplish this. The three largest North American countries all have their own satellite communications systems. The US has one , Canada has the Anik System and Mexico has the Morelos System and the MexSat System.

Two of the larger Canadian providers are Bell Dish and Shaw Direct. Both systems use a larger dish to receive their signals. Winegard makes larger dishes for their Canidian customers. I would think these larger dishes would work just fine when connected to a US receiver. When in Canada, just subscribe to Bell or Shaw for service.

For a number of years, while living in Nenana Alaska, we watched TV, mainly off the Anik Canadian system. At that time we had to have a 5 or 6 meter, in diameter dish to get the signal. We had two of these large dishes, that could be electrically aimed from our house. Way to big to use on an RV. Once the started scrambling the signals, I bought service from a local dealer in southern Alberta and used his store address as my home address, to deal with some residency issues. Bought my US service from a dealer in Tennessee, for the same residency issues. At that time they wouldn't sell service to Alaska residents as they claimed service wasn't available.

The Morelos service wasn't scrambled, so didn't have to buy service.

I think my satellite system was where I got my early understanding of Canadians, watching and listening to the satellite radio broadcasts of the Red Green Show and the Possum Lodge group. Plus add in all the hours I listened to Stuart Mclain and the Vinyl Cafe Show. Both are high class shows with a lot of Canadian culture being taught. LOL

Windy weather plaid havoc with the large dishes I was using as it didn't take much movement to lose the satellite signal. The 2 1/2 years we full timed, in a Class A, we had a roof top satellite dish in place but never drove that rig to Alaska. Neither of our current RVs have satellite systems. Never missed having it on our trips to Alaska.

[2hams2alaska]

Worrying about TV reception was the last thing we did on our three trips north. And you know what, we didn't miss it at all. Once north of the border we had too much to do to spend time watching TV. Taking in the scenery, making new friends around the evening campfire, watching the wildlife, walking the campground to view the various rigs, and reviewing each days experiences and planning for tomorrow left us with little free time for TV. That said, I do have to admit however,that there were a night or two with rain pounding on the roof, that we did put a DVD movie on while we played Yatzee.

Mike

[Big_Katuna]

When we were in Northern Michigan, I had a small DTV dish. Every night around an hour after dark, I would lose signal.

Another problem is that the sats are stationary more or less over the equator and you are aiming pretty much at the horizon so trees dont have to be very close to interfere with the signal.

I have heard of people taking the bigger one meter dish on a tripod with them.

[Chiefelectusn]

JimM68 wrote:
Does anyone know how far north a winegard trav'ler on dish will work?

So many variables, atmosphere, weather, elevation; what works one day won't the next.

[CA_Traveler]

DTV Beam Map

[JimM68]

Does anyone know how far north a winegard trav'ler on dish will work?

[CA_Traveler]

CA Traveler wrote:
My DTV worked at all of the major Alaska towns.

I have a RF Mogul dish which is a full array dish. HR44 receiver. It's doubtful to me that a dome dish with it's smaller antenna would be effective in the northern areas of Canada and Alaska. For me it was national channels as I made no attempt to get local channels.

[okgc]

Fputnam wrote:
We spent last summer (2014) in Alaska. We have Dish satellite and never lost reception traveling from Chicken to Homer to Valdez. We always received Sats 119 and 110. We lost 129 around Edmonton.

It would be helpful if those that had reception this far north would post what type of dish receiver they have.
thx

[CA_Traveler]

My DTV worked at all of the major Alaska towns.

[Fputnam]

We spent last summer (2014) in Alaska. We have Dish satellite and never lost reception traveling from Chicken to Homer to Valdez. We always received Sats 119 and 110. We lost 129 around Edmonton.

[dbbls]

traveylin wrote:
We lost Sirius radio reception north of Whitehorse going to Anchorage. Satellite gets behind the curve of the earth.

I only lost satellite radio when I was on the north side of a mountain. Otherwise it worked fine, even in Fairbanks.

[SCVJeff]

EEWally wrote:
Yep, Geostationary satellites over the north pole spinning axis are tough to achieve.

And if you find one, its in real trouble or you're watching a spy sat

[traveylin]

We lost Sirius radio reception north of Whitehorse going to Anchorage. Satellite gets behind the curve of the earth.