Dish in West Indies

[pyotrbee]

Ive read some of the post in the forums but many are dated. I know of some others here with Dish, but want to know what is required.

I go back and forth between the US and St Kitts. We are about 100 miles from the USVI max. If I get the receiver when Im in the US and bring it with me, what will I need to set up here? Do I need a bigger dish?

 

[jimdandyvi]

Dish is using 30" dishes in the USVI to pick up 110 & 119. The HD programming I believe is mostly on spot beams.

You will have to look at the satellite signal profile maps available on this site to see what will be available on St. Kitts. From what I remember you will be borderline for some of the signals.

Jim

 

[pyotrbee]

Is a 30" dish standard? For example, if I order it to my home in NY, will I get a 30" dish? If not I assume I can get one somehow?

Will such a receive be locked to northern satellites? If so must I order one through the USVI or other?

I looked for some maps, but I only found charts with lat lat and long. When we lived overseas we used to use actual coverage maps that showed where the beams hit and at what strength. Are these available on this site as well and I've just missed them?

I know of others here that have Dish Network, but not personally so I can't just call them up. The Marriott and other hotels use it too but I'm sure they have some pretty big dishes...

 

[jimdandyvi]

In the States is seems they are installing 1000.2 & 1000.4 dishes. These are not the 30" dish they currently use in the USVI.

If you go to the top of the page you will find the satellite maps tab. Look at the spot beams for PR and and CONUS on both 110 &119. You will see that for the transponders for those locations also cover Nevis & St Kitts but not in the center ring. I don't understand exactly what the various color bands represent in terms of DBs and signal strength.

I'm sure someone else on the board can help you interpret the relative signal strength and if it will be necessary for you to go to a dish even larger than 30". From the description on an equipment suppliers web site a 30" could work, but they also sell larger dishes up to 1.8 meters.

Jim

 

[pyotrbee]

I called a place in USVI today. They use 30" dishes. The problem is that its actually easier and less expensive to ship items here from Miami and the US than it is from USVI... but we're checking shipping options.

That failing, it looks like I can just sign up at my residence in the US, and then buy a 30" dish. I should be able to easily remount the LNB correct? Thanks for the maps, I cant believe I missed that. I clicked on downloads and then didn't look at the top menu again. The rings are the signal strength and are labeled. St Kitts is in a pretty good position it looks like.

And they don't lock to a satellite feed correct? So if I get a dish subscription for say Ohio, it will work ok with the PR sat beams?

 

[jimdandyvi]

Technically it should work, however the issue is that DISH and other broadband programmers don't have the rights to sell other people's programming in St. Kitts and elsewhere in the world. For instance when MLB sells the rights to the play offs they sell them for the 50 US States as a package. Puerto Rico, USVI, Guam and the Marshall Islands are blacked out even though they are American territories. Except for Puerto Rico, which has a population of four million, the programmers don't care and are not going to be bothered to negotiate a contract a small country such as St. Kitts/Nevis. On some Caribbean islands much of the programming is pirated by the cable company. The cable company has a single subscription to HBO, Showtime and includes it in their basic cable package for no additional charge.

Because the primary language in PR is Spanish Direct TV offers their Latin America package in the Caribbean. Another issue is that for various international and Latin American channels including ESPN football means soccer and not the NFL. Legal English language programming and American football means finding a source for USA programming packages.

What some people in the BVI do is set up a mailing address in the USVI at a Mail Boxes etc. and then install satellite equipment at their home in the BVI.

Good luck on getting what you want but you are dealing in a grey area in a region known for its notorious pirates.

Jim

 

[pyotrbee]

Ive been told that is what the cable company does here, but we have so many rumors here that one never knows. Occasionally we see a channel go off, or when the weather gets really bad we see dish network messages. But we only get about 50 channels and pay about $100 for that.

Registration isnt an issue, I can use my residence in the US and just reship the dish down myself. But my concern is if somehow the receivers are locked to a satellite or not. If I buy a dish in say Ohio and get the Ohio network feeds, will the receiver not work with the Caribbean satellites, or will the Caribbean sats not have the network feeds they allow me to see in Ohio?

To be clear, Im not looking to pirate the signal. I'll pay via my US residence. I'm also not a sports fan, so if I dont get any sports channels at all it won't bother me. Im mainly looking for network feeds and history, discovery, and some kids channels. Also the Russian channels.

If I cant get network feeds, I could always get basic cable here. But we are moving to a new house and the cable wants $700 just to install there as its in a new development! Thats a lot to pay for basic networks...

 

[jimdandyvi]

Yes DISH gets paid and they have the contract to sell you HBO, Showtime, ESPN, CNN, etc. in Ohio including all the programming these channels have the licensed to air in the USA and or at least the 50 states of the USA. Neither DISH or HBO, ESPN, etc. necessarily have the right air to air Sony's films, MGM's films, NFL games etc. in St Kitts unless these programmers specifically negotiated the rights for the St Kitts market with the right's owner.

While it happens all the time just as people rip and burn CDs all the time that doesn't make it legal. Because HBO, Showtime, etc. are to lazy to negotiate individual contracts for every piddly little country in the Caribbean with the rights owners this situation exists and you can't legally get the North American feed for lots of programming.

Jim

Jim

 

[pyotrbee]

Yes I realize there are some legal issues. But the cable company here probably is pirating it anyways. So Id rather give Dish my money, get more channels and be in a gray area than a total black area.

But the question is - lets say I register in OH and get OH network feeds. Are these network feeds on the carib sats? And will my receiver registered in OH be able to decode the Carib sats ok? or are they locked somehow and I *must* get a PR or USVI registered receiver?

 

[technoguy]

Yes I realize there are some legal issues. But the cable company here probably is pirating it anyways. So Id rather give Dish my money, get more channels and be in a gray area than a total black area.

But the question is - lets say I register in OH and get OH network feeds. Are these network feeds on the carib sats? And will my receiver registered in OH be able to decode the Carib sats ok? or are they locked somehow and I *must* get a PR or USVI registered receiver?

If you have and account in OH you can use it there however you might lose some channels(HD) and your locals because with the dish500pr setup the core sats are 110,119.

 

[mechanicman]

you are going to want a 4 foot minimum dish diameter. you peak the dish to 119 and will be able to attach a separate lnb to get 110. 3 foot will work but 110 will be a bit weak.. and will be gone in any heavy clouds. i am in st maarten.. which is very close by. 4 foot is the norm.. 6 foot if you can afford it..

bringing the subbed box will not be a problem . although against dishnets policy. it will be a big problem if you have more than one box on your account and you get a random audit as you wont be able to plug in phone line..

and unless you have a new york, puerto rico, chicago or any other very few conus address you will not get local channels.. and completely forget HD locals.. they are spotbeamed.

you can order a dish from most any sat shops in miami such as astro satellite or all things digital as they are used to doing business in caribbean or you could probably buy locally.