Guess I'm stuck trying FTA here in Mexico, eh? Not what I wanted !!!

[bigmutt]

Well, after MONTHS of reading these forums & doing my research, you guys ALMOST convinced me to jump in to FTA (probably with a Fortec receiver) but the sort of antenna I'll need is still an open question.

I live in Mexico City, fairly high with unobstructed view of sky, and I need to know how big the dish has to be to pick up the main satellites with English programming.

Please help:
I'm dying here, due to lack of english-language programming. (Sky sat service here has a few english channels and I subscribed previously, but they have no provision for suspending service for the 5 months out of each year that I'm in the U.S.; their 18-month minimum is totally inflexible, so to hell with them!).

btw, I do subscribe to DishNet in San Diego and tried to figure out how to continue receiving their programming here (legally) but when I brought my DishNet box here, it was unable to receive any Dish signal, even though a local "satellite guy" screwed around with it for an hour, using a Sky TV satellite dish. Anyone have any suggestions with THAT?

I don't want to steal any signals or get something for nothing; I just want some english-language programming (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, Fox, HistoryChannel, etc.), and am willing to pay the going rate for it.

please help.

Rick

 

[PSB]

WELCOME to the SatelliteGuys.US FTA forum.

Moving to the MAIN FTA area....

 

[PSB]

Have a look at the footprint for the G10R satellite, thats where you will get the most US Networks FTA....

http://www.panamsat.com/global_network/galaxy10R_ku.asp

Then have a look at Sadouns Satellite Dish size area....

http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/Dish-Size.htm

 

[jayelem]

EIRP looks like 40-42 in D.F. , what are your chances of picking up a 120 cm or bigger dish.

 

[anik]

I don't want to steal any signals or get something for nothing; I just want some english-language programming (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, Fox, HistoryChannel, etc.), and am willing to pay the going rate for it.
please help.
Rick

It's not stealing signals if they are up there unscrambled - that's what we talk about here, the Free-To-Air stuff.
Now, if you had a big C-band dish, with a C & Ku band feedhorn, and a clear view to the south, you could pick up at least Eastern time zone feeds of all of the networks, free (plus feeds of at least some of the networks form other time zones). They won't necessarily have the greatest quality video or sound, but they will be free.
But if you don't want to get a big dish and don't mind paying, I would suggest you look at getting "grey market" satellite service using a broker in either the U.S. or Canada. Note, I do NOT know if it is legal to do this in Mexico. I think only one of the Canadian services (can't remember which one) has coverage that includes Mexico, the other has a "footprint" that only covers the northern part of North America, again if I remember correctly.
So you can either go the free route or the pay route. For free and with a single Ku band dish pointed at G10R you can get some network stations but not all of them (no CBS or NBC). For free and with a big C-band dish and positioner, you can get all the networks and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff (even more if you also have an analog receiver, though those analog feeds may soon go away). Free stations are NOT guaranteed to stay free, as we discovered the hard way late last fall - they can start scrambling at any time.
With pay service you can get by with one or two small dishes that stay fixed on single satellites, but since you are not in the U.S. or Canada you're looking at "grey market" service and that may or may not be illegal where you are. For info on the Canadian "grey market" see this area: http://www.satelliteguys.us/forumdisplay.php?f=28
Again, bear in mind that at least one, and possibly both of the Canadian services may not put a usable signal into your location.
I'm sure others will have more to add to this...