BEV in San Francisco

[Gundamy2k]

I live in the San Francisco and was thinking doing grey market sub to BEV. But I want to know if any had successfully getting it in San Francisco using their receiver before order the equipment. Thx.

 

[Mr Tony]

welcome

Although I'm not in SF, there are people who are in thw SF area 9and California in General) who have ExpressVu.

There is one minor issue and that is Nimiq3, which is at the same spot in the sky as Nimiq1 (which is the main ExpressVu satellite). ExpressVu split up the channels to both satellites to prolong the satellites

check http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=88451 for info on what channels you won't be able to receive due to them being on Nimiq3

 

[Gundamy2k]

It's okay, I can live with that. The only pain in the axx is to point the 22 inches dish to the right direction. Any hint?

 

[rkrenicki]

DBS dishes are cake, you wont have much problem pointing it yourself as long as you have a level pole, and the skew and elevation set right, then you just swing it around (slowly) until you get a lock.

 

[rkrenicki]

Another thing I feel I should mention, is that Starchoice (BEVs competitor) does not have nearly as many restrictions for service. You can have two recievers without connecting them to a phone line, you will get all transponders in your location, slightly lower overall cost, and a much higher picture quality (they dont call it CompressVu for nothing). The only major drawback is there is less HD channels available, but they are free to the standard package.

 

[traceya]

No problem in SJ

We have no problem getting our dish locked on the 91 satellite in San Jose.

 

[Gundamy2k]

What kind of Dish are you using in SJ? I already have a legacy Dish500 dual LNB. I am thinking if I could use it to point to the 91w and all I left to buy is just the BEV receiver. That would save me some bucks.

 

[rkrenicki]

Its not just the 91 position, but most odd transponders on 91.

Both Nimiq1 and 3 are at 91, but the footprints for the two satellites are very different.

 

[Mr Tony]

Its not all the odds...just 8 of them

I posted the link in my first post

 

[rkrenicki]

If you are buying equipment new.. try KuSat, they do not charge additional for the dish, you just have to pay the additional shipping. (which is about $15-20 more or so)

That way you save yourself the bucks

 

[rkrenicki]

Oh, I thought there were 10, which is why I said "most" still, a sizable portion of them regardless.

 

[Mr Tony]

yep 1/2 the odds are on N3
All evens are on N1

 

[rkrenicki]

Apparently now, BEV has a new policy of not selling receivers, but renting them only (kind of like Dish does now)

This is another thing to keep in mind.

 

[Gundamy2k]

So, according to the list, Fairchild TV will not be available in SF?

 

[Mr Tony]

Fairchild is on N2, which you can get.

N1 is at 91 degrees west
N2 is at 82 degrees west
N3 is co-located with N1 at 91 (these are the channels you won't get due to the satellite footprint)

 

[Gundamy2k]

I can get 82w in San Francisco?

 

[rkrenicki]

Yes, 82 's footprint covers all of the US.. its just N3 which doesnt (8 odd transponders at 91).

I highly recommend looking at the thread that Iceberg linked to. It will give you all of the details you need.

 

[Gundamy2k]

I am getting BEV 82w in SF, however the signal stays at around 50% which is crappy. I set my skew at default on 90 degree. Do I need to adjust the skew to get the best signal?

 

[snidely]

Am in the East Bay. I use an 18" for 91 (of course now only get 1/2 the channels) and a 30" for 82.
With the 30" signal on 82 is about 80 on most channels. Mainly got BEV 4 years ago for HD. Do like other offerings, tho.
My guess is that you maybe should get a reading of 60 w. a small dish which doesn't give much margin of error.

...mike