Yes running 2 seperate Dish's is normal for extreme fringe locations like yours.

I would be looking at a minimum of 75cm or even 1m Dish for each bird, depending on your exact location.

Cabling is just the same as using 2 x LNBF's on 1 Dish, just run 2 lines from each Dish/LNBF to an SW44 or SW21's etc, again depending on the receivers you are using.

For aiming, try to bring a small TV and Receiver out near the Dish, so much easier.

I would stick with Legacy Equipment and not even think of DP or DPP Equipment.

 

You didn't say which comunity you are moving to but buddy in Rankin uses a 1 meter for the 91 bird and a 75cm for the 82 bird. He does lose 82 due to rain fade at times. I'm in yellowknife, NT and use 1 meter dishes for each sat and never have rain fade. Legacy lnb's too.

 

Thanks for that info, I would then agree with you that 1m Dish's would be the way to go.

 

Thanks so much for the quick response. Great forum by the way. I'm a member of many forums and this is the fastest response I've gotten yet.

The community is called Igloolik.

My co-workers up there told me that they don't have sat at this time because they can only get it at certain times of the year. Would this be true or is it because there only running one dish?

 

Legacy equipment is the older LNBF's and switch's that Bell TV have used for many many years.

For pointing details I would look at dishpointer dot com, then choose your location and select 91 which is the main bird, then again choose 82 for the HD bird.

It looks like you are incredibly low, at 11.8 Degrees of inclination for 91 and 12.1 for 82 degrees.

Any kind of obstruction is going to be problematic for your aiming.

 

Thanks again. There's no trees up there so there shouldn't be a problem.

for now 'm only going to be running 1 HD receiver. Should I use a SW44 or two SW21's and what's the main difference?

Also can anyone answer whether or not I will get service for 12 months of the year or not?

 

I am guessing you plan on a 9241, Dual Tuner HDPVR, if so, 2 x SW21's will work just fine.

As for service, that I have no idea about at all.

 

Thanks again, and yes it's a 9241.

I will defiantly pick up two sw21's.

Is there anywhere to find out if I will get reception for the whole year?

Because this is a completly new install I will have to buy new coaxial cable as well. Is there a specific kind or will any do?

I was planning on getting 6, 50' lengths. Two running from each sat to the sw21 and then one from each sw21 to my receiver.

 

I can't think of a reason why and have never heard tell of a place only getting seasonal reception.
the cable needs to be rg6, don't skimp on this buy a good quality cable.
when buying the dishes make sure they come with or can mount circular not linear polarity lnb's.

 

Ok so a computer store where I live have 100' rolls of RG6 cable for fifteen dollars. Then they have twist on connectors. Does this sound like it will meet my needs?

I do appreciate all the feedback. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you guys.

 

NO. Do not use twist on connectors, you will regret it sooner or later.....

You need at least 2.4Ghz rated RG6 cable and as for Connectors, I like Thomas & Betts Snap & Seal, although there are lots of other good 'compression' connectors out there.

Where are you locted right now Mike.?

 

Right now I'm in northern Saskatchewan. A little community called Wollaston Lake. It's a place where I can get TV from one dish. lol

Can you recommend a good place to buy the cable online? I don't have anywhere to shop up here. lol

If your familiar with Saskatchewan, I am going to Regina and Saskatoon next week so I could probably buy it there.

My big problem is that if I don't get the right things now, I won't be able to get it easily later.

How much should this cable cost me?

 

The only reason I can think of that you would have loss of signal part of the year is during sun transit times. This is that at certain points the sun interferes with satellite communication that far north as it is pretty much directly behind the satellites and overpowers the signal.
Long distance phone calls are affected at the same time as I believe Igloolik is on sat uplink for long distance (can't remember for sure it's been awhile since I was there, but I thinks it's on Baffin Island so it probably is). Phones aren't affected as much since NorthwesTel uses big dishes like 30' rather than the 1m tv ones. If you can find any of the 120cm or 150cm dishes that would work much better. The phone outages were I believe usually around noon for a few hours, TV ones could be longer and possibly for a few days potentially.

Also while it will seem counter-intuitive you will be pointing the dishes towards the ground. Also not sure exactly why but in Iqaluit which is quite a bit north we tended to mount the dishes almost on the ground. Can't remember if it was a declination thing or a wind protection one.

Also while you're in Regina, OTV off Albert St. at 8th Ave (purple building) usually has bulk cable and compression ends and are the cheapest in town if not Home Depot or any electrical supply store should have both. Home Depot also sells a decent little tool set with a cutter, stripper and end compressor.

 

Thanks for the response. Igloolik is actually to the North West of Iqaluit on it's own island. Are the TV outages tolerable? Right now it seems that large dishes are hard to get I have managed to locate two 1M dishes in Regina that I plan on getting while I there. Is the OTV cable any good? I actually shop at the Saskatoon one quite frequently.

 

Right couldn't remember if it was on Baffin or not. Never actually lived that far north for any extended period spent most of my time in Yellowknife and Iqaluit had satellite in YK (no sun fade) but cable in IQ (apartment building). Most people just get cable in the communities if it's available, they use big dishes too.

Telesat's outage calculator say 10 minutes - 1 hour for 2 weeks in spring and 2 in the fall right around noon. I'm actually interested in the people saying they get poor service I'm thinking they must only be putting up one dish because that would certainly make the signal a less stable.

Won't Bell still supply you with new dishes even though there's no installers they used to mail them north all the time - even just if you had crap signal because your dish was too small.


OTV cable is pretty much the same as anyone else's although all the stuff in my house I bought from an electrical supplier 'cause OTV wasn't open here when I bought my house.

 

I'm thinking that no one wanted to take on the extra effort to get the sat to work . However since we have lived in isolation for the past two years I know how important TV actually is.

Does that say it could be out for 2 weeks? or up to an hour each day for two weeks?

Thanks again, my Wife and I are happy this is all going to come together.

 

up to an hour each day for 2 weeks - assuming a 92cm dish so anything bigger could potentially reduce that outage.