Bell Tv

[flteng]

I'm hearing that the new Bell satellite launch in May 2012 means no more signal south of the most northern states. Anyone out there know anything about it? If true there will be a mass migration of Canadian Bell subscribers to Shaw Direct.

[Canuck_Travelle]

almcc ; Thanks for the reply. Of course all this may be irrelevant if Shaw is shut off in the US....hope not, but if so I will put up a good Digital Antenna & save $75/Month.

"Its an ill wind that blows no one any good"---John Heywood
...LOL!

[almcc]

Regarding the skew angles, there has been some discussion over at datastormusers.com about having to play with the skew setting (away from the calculated values as provided on Look angle)to peak the signal in some areas of the US. This was for Hughes satellite internet but Shaw employs the same technology. So, you may have to move the skew around just like you do with the azimuth and elevation to peak the signal.

Canuck, on edit since I'm still topping up on caffeine this morning, I thought that I would throw in the coordinates of Sebring Fla (27.496, 81.440) that I got off Streets and Trips into the look angle program on my computer.

I get the following values for dish aiming (Shaw sat "B"):

Az: 236.5 (magnetic)
elevation: 44.3
Skew: 43.5, adding 90 for Shaw gives 133.5.

These seem to agree closely to the ones you found the sat at. I thought about getting the dishpointer app, now I'm haveing second thoughts if it's inaccurate!

[tilaplantel]

hey

i have also heard about the Bell satellite launch in May 2012 but i dnt have enough knowledge about it but through thus thread i got lots of useful information about it , it help me a lot.

Bell CA Locksmith

[Canuck_Travelle]

Success!!!!
Got the Shaw Direct signal here at 97 to 99 Percent.
Must say both Dishpointer & Satellite Look-Angle were both wrong on the Skew Angle.
I had the 2.0 inch outside diameter mast pipe Plumb and perfectly vertical (checked with a level)

Here is the Data from both & where I found the signal
Dishpointer;
Azimuth (true): 230.8°
Azimuth (mag.): 236.4° using Compass
Elevation: 44.2°
LNB Skew: 43.5°

Satellite Look Angle
Azimuth (true) 228.58
Azimuth (mag) 234.18
Elevation 45.6
Skew Angle 121.7

Where I found the Signal
Azimuth (mag) was about right
Elevation 45.5 About right
Skew Angle 133.5 Way Way off especially Dishpointer

So I don't know what to say on using the above guides to help, I have used dishpointer many times in the past with Expressvu but never had to use Skew in setting up the dish, the data was always correct for Magnetic Azimuth & Elevation.
So I guess we will have to feel our way along. I called Shaw re the values & they were about right on elevation & right on with the Skew. I also had the exact Lats & Longs for my position, they were using Sebring, Highlands County, Florida about five miles to the east from us & a tad south so this is close enough. Oh yeah they gave me different values for skew the first time & corrected it the second call as they said the 75 Cm Dish has a different skew from the regular one....does that seem funny to anyone? They were very helpful & what a great thing to be able to talk to your satellite provider rather than have the service cut off when the provider finds out you are south of the 49th Parallel...... not mentioning any names!
Anyway for what its worth that was my setup.
....Ernie

[Canuck_Travelle]

Just looked at another site to set coordinates, elevation & skew, this site does show readings for skew close to what you suggested in a previous message, only hitch is the Florida sites are not specific to an exact location, like Orlando, West Palm, Naples, Miami, etc but in general they range between 119 to 124 so will try those in the morning & see what I get, will let you know.
Here is this site:
http://www.kusat.com/install/calculator2.php

GLaidlaw wrote:
I am not sure. Maybe someone with more experience can respond. My system here at the house was professionally installed. I will be putting a dish at the cottage but with the rain and storms this week, I am not sure if I will do any outside fiddling. This will be my first install so I figured I would gather any info from experienced snowbirds first. I did try briefly earlier in the week, but did not have a secure vertical mount. That certainly did not work. I did order a tripod that can be set properly but it is not here yet. I have heard that the skew is not that important from north to south so using a skew closer to that in Ontario sounds good. I wonder if trying 118 and moving up slowly might help? I know the azimuth values from Ontario to Florida are not that much different- they were not with Bell either. Good luck and let me know how much success you have.

[GLaidlaw]

I am not sure. Maybe someone with more experience can respond. My system here at the house was professionally installed. I will be putting a dish at the cottage but with the rain and storms this week, I am not sure if I will do any outside fiddling. This will be my first install so I figured I would gather any info from experienced snowbirds first. I did try briefly earlier in the week, but did not have a secure vertical mount. That certainly did not work. I did order a tripod that can be set properly but it is not here yet. I have heard that the skew is not that important from north to south so using a skew closer to that in Ontario sounds good. I wonder if trying 118 and moving up slowly might help? I know the azimuth values from Ontario to Florida are not that much different- they were not with Bell either. Good luck and let me know how much success you have.

[Canuck_Travelle]

GLaidlaw wrote:
What channel do you use -252 or 700? I have the XKU Quad lnbf.

I am using 700, should I use 252?
If I switch to 252 the Green Block is red on it.

My LNBF is a Triple Satellite Quad Output Switchable xKu, the dish is a 75E Dish

[GLaidlaw]

What channel do you use -252 or 700? I have the XKU Quad lnbf.

[Canuck_Travelle]

Hi Glaidlaw, Thanks for the input,appreciate it, I have mine setup in Sebring in Tanglewood and the Skew is much different from what you suggested I will paste in mine from Dishpointer below, however at channel 700 as directed by the Shaw setup I have at the bottom of the screen beside T1: CH 700 one green block and all white across the bar. So no Signal yet but if I move the dish the Green Block turns red so something is close but without changing anything but the Azimuth the block turns red to the south & red to the north, will play with it tomorrow. Here is my info from dishpointer for Anik F2 Wildblue;

Your Location Satellite Data Dish Setup Data
Latitude: 27.5186°
Longitude: -81.5078° Name: 111.1W Anik F2 | Wildblue 1
Distance: 37469km Motor Latitude: 27.5°
Declination Angle: 4.6°
Dish Elevation: °
Elevation: 44.2°
Azimuth (true): 230.8°
Azimuth (mag.): 236.4° using Compass
LNB Skew: 43.5 (Is this possibly wrong & throwing me off?)

I could try your skew of 121.8 if you think it is good & see what happens, its dark now so will try tomorrow, please let me know how you got that skew.
Thanks....Ernie

GLaidlaw wrote:
I have just switched from Bell to Shaw and am also learning. Have not used Shaw in Florida yet but have a lot of experience with Bell. Using dispointer.com I found the following:

Put in your location which would be Sebring, Florida, choose multi-lnb setup, select Starchoice 107.3W and 111W.

This produces the following:

El 45.6
Az Mag 234.3
Skew 121.8

This seems a more appropriate number based on my skew in Toronto of 118.
I do know that using a mounting post that is vertical is critical. I tried playing with it without that and it is futile. I would appreciate any Shaw users posting here to help the rest of us learn how to aim Shaw dishes. They seem to be much more critical than Bell. I will be setting one up at the cottage in the next few days so will report back on my success or failure. I wonder if one did not need the HD channels on F1 if it would be possible to just use the one satellite F1R without skew. Will have to play with that. I did order a heavy duty tripod, fully adjustable to make level to make the job easier. Good luck.

[almcc]

GLaidlaw wrote:
I have just switched from Bell to Shaw and am also learning. Have not used Shaw in Florida yet but have a lot of experience with Bell. Using dispointer.com I found the following:

Put in your location which would be Sebring, Florida, choose multi-lnb setup, select Starchoice 107.3W and 111W.

This produces the following:

El 45.6
Az Mag 234.3
Skew 121.8

This seems a more appropriate number based on my skew in Toronto of 118.
I do know that using a mounting post that is vertical is critical. I tried playing with it without that and it is futile. I would appreciate any Shaw users posting here to help the rest of us learn how to aim Shaw dishes. They seem to be much more critical than Bell. I will be setting one up at the cottage in the next few days so will report back on my success or failure. I wonder if one did not need the HD channels on F1 if it would be possible to just use the one satellite F1R without skew. Will have to play with that. I did order a heavy duty tripod, fully adjustable to make level to make the job easier. Good luck.

I think that part of the reason that it seems more difficult to aim the Shaw dish is that the sats are close together, if you don't aim the dish for 111 and you hit 107 instead then you will have a problem. If you approach the aiming by swinging the dish from the 111 side it might help.

In terms of the skew/non-skew, Shaw uses a different satellite polarization technology than Bell, the skew setting is required so that the dish sits at the proper orientation to the sat (I believe that Shaw uses horizontal or vertical polarization depending on the sat, Bell uses circular polarization). Having said that, the skew adjustment isn't critical, you can be off by a few degrees and still get a good signal, it's the Azimuth and elevation that are critical.

I have a sat internet dish on a tripod that we carry when we travel, it uses the same technology as Shaw. Even though I'm aiming at one sat I have to set a skew angle.

[GLaidlaw]

I have just switched from Bell to Shaw and am also learning. Have not used Shaw in Florida yet but have a lot of experience with Bell. Using dispointer.com I found the following:

Put in your location which would be Sebring, Florida, choose multi-lnb setup, select Starchoice 107.3W and 111W.

This produces the following:

El 45.6
Az Mag 234.3
Skew 121.8

This seems a more appropriate number based on my skew in Toronto of 118.
I do know that using a mounting post that is vertical is critical. I tried playing with it without that and it is futile. I would appreciate any Shaw users posting here to help the rest of us learn how to aim Shaw dishes. They seem to be much more critical than Bell. I will be setting one up at the cottage in the next few days so will report back on my success or failure. I wonder if one did not need the HD channels on F1 if it would be possible to just use the one satellite F1R without skew. Will have to play with that. I did order a heavy duty tripod, fully adjustable to make level to make the job easier. Good luck.

[almcc]

Fizz is correct, as per Shaw's instructions you aim the dish for F2 at the 111.1 azimuth, and you set the skew for the that sat as well (Not an average). The skew does not have a great effect on signal strength, I have a Shaw lnb mounted on the side of my sat internet dish and I aim for the internet sat at 99 degrees west which has a different skew, the Shaw signal still comes in well even in Mexico!

I don't think that the new LNB has resulted in any change, when the installer put the new LNB on my dish at home he didn't make any changes to the dish position.

Detailed instructions are contained in the dish install manual which can be downloaded from the Shaw site at the bottom of this web page:

Shaw Link

[Fizz]

Canuck Travellers wrote:
Here is a question for the Shaw Direct users, I have a new Shaw Direct dish, it was sent to my home in Canada by Shaw for my use in the USA, it is the 75 Cm Elliptical Dish with the new LNB, (Man, that is a big dish!).

My question is in looking at Dish Pointer for my area (Sebring, Florida) it has Anik F1 and Anik F2 for Shaw but there are two slightly different coordinates ie:
Anik F1 is Elevation 47.1, Mag Azimuth 231.8 LNB Skew 39.9
Anik F2 is Elevation 44.2, Mag Azimuth 236.4 LNB Skew 43.5

So do I just half the difference between the two Anik 1 & Anik 2 values for Elevation, Azimuth and Skew to set up my dish?

Any info is greatly appreciated. I do have Shaw Direct info from their web site re tuning in after picking up the signal.
Thanks....Ernie

I always ligned up on F2 in Arizona. The skew is to catch that second bird.
You should have started a new topic with this, you're buried on page 3 of somebody elses topic.

[Canuck_Travelle]

Here is a question for the Shaw Direct users, I have a new Shaw Direct dish, it was sent to my home in Canada by Shaw for my use in the USA, it is the 75 Cm Elliptical Dish with the new LNB, (Man, that is a big dish!).

My question is in looking at Dish Pointer for my area (Sebring, Florida) it has Anik F1 and Anik F2 for Shaw but there are two slightly different coordinates ie:
Anik F1 is Elevation 47.1, Mag Azimuth 231.8 LNB Skew 39.9
Anik F2 is Elevation 44.2, Mag Azimuth 236.4 LNB Skew 43.5

So do I just half the difference between the two Anik 1 & Anik 2 values for Elevation, Azimuth and Skew to set up my dish?

Any info is greatly appreciated. I do have Shaw Direct info from their web site re tuning in after picking up the signal.
Thanks....Ernie