Ezzie

Here is a link to a web site that provides motion charts regarding the drift of the satellite. Getting to be a beast to aim at accurately. https://www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/satellitemotion.php?26/171/0/28378

Here is a link that has a chart to show what the orbit inclination is and the rate of decline. https://in-the-sky.org/spacecraft.php?id=28378

The reason why some people are losing all signals and others do not have to do with your dish size and how accurately the dish is aimed. As the Anik F2 satellite continues a slow death, it's orbit will continuing to decay. It is in what is referred to as an "inclined" orbit . It now has a latitude/longitude deviation of 0.8 degrees which means you may notice reception outages for a period of time during the day, depending on how large your dish is. In this case, bigger is NOT better. The larger dishes have a much more narrow beam reception and the satellite falls out of the "center-of-box" as the inclination deviation increases. In my case, I have a larger dish and lose all reception from about 7PM to 4AM each day. Those with smaller dishes (such as the 75cm. ones), can receive signals for longer periods. This however will continue to become worse over the next few months. For more information, check out these links. https://www.shawbroadcast.com/Content/US/Anik.htm

Starlink is a quite expensive option as well. $8,300 for the equipment, $1,100 per mo. for service and then you have the cost of additional software such as a VPN and the fees of the providers (such as Netflix, etc.) that you want to stream.

WOW!! That is a bit rich for those receivers. I don't understamd what is so special about them that would make them cost that much. The cost of set-top boxes with similar technology on AliExpress is in the range of $30-40 US. I have been researching FTA satellite and just received a Chinese DVB-S2 box that cost me only $568 MX including shipping from China. It is a kU band receiver that has HEVC encoding support as well so is the same technology that most of the satellite broadcasters (including Kiwisat) are now using. The one I am experimenting with is the GT Media V9 Prime.

In follow up with the first installation I have seen in this area, the user has reported an issue that is a bit troubling. The video is very good and seems to be clear and with a decent resolution. There have been a few times he has seen some pixilation, may be the result of weather or a slight dish mis-alignment issue. The other problem he has reported is that at times the audio is out of sync wit the video. This is noticeable if someone is talking and the voice doesn't match the lip movements. I expect that ths may be a receiver problem and I would want to see if it happens on another install/receiver so am awaiting knowledge of another install somewhere. The receivers they are using seem to be a low cost Chinese made box so makes me suspicious. Similar units sell on AliExpress for about $30-40 US. It would be useful to get Mike Merriman's input if he has seen this on any other installs.

True, even an 800 series box will be a boat anchor here at some point in 2024. If you get one, you will have to take it back to Canada to resell it. Shaw Direct don't even sell them anymore, only rentals. If you have an account in Canada and don't currently have any 800 series on your account, they will give you the first one free.

Have now lost 213, 214 & 216 a couple of days ago. They have been switched to HEVC encoding now along with the local stations in the 100 series. You can only get them now if you have an 800 series set top box. As far as the health of the Anik F2 satellite, it's orbit is continuing to decay. It is in what is referred to as an "inclined" orbit . It now has a latitude/longitude deviation of 0.8 degrees which means you may notice reception outages for a period of time during the day, depending on how large your dish is. In this case, bigger is not better. The larger dishes have a much more narrow beam reception and the satellite falls out of the "center-of-box" as the inclination deviation increases. In my case, I have a larger dish and lose all reception from about 8PM to 4AM each day now.

Your welcome. Hopefully you found the information useful. A couple of my friends are going to be ordering it shortly.

Note: The receiver that was delivered with this "kit" is a Kiwisat brand labelled product of unknown Chinese manufacture. It is called a MICO-P6plus. Very small box, about 4" x 4" x 1" high. I could not see any other identifying labelling on it - does not appear to be any FCC approvals. Kiwisat LLC did get a previous receiver approved by the FCC, it was their older model called the TELE-P6 which was manufactured by a large Chinese set-top box manufacturer called Regent Electron (Dongguang) Co. Ltd. FCC ID: 2AR5S-TELE-P6. That company shows a subsidiary (or related company) called Tele System which has a manufacturing facility and office location in Estado de Mexico.

Today I had the opportunity to take a look at, what I think, is the first Kiwisat installation in this area on the north shore of Lake Chapala. Here is what I learned. The subscriber ordered the service directly from Kiwisat in Florida using his local Mexico address. The "kit" he received consisted of a new LNB, receiver, remote control and an HDMI cable. It was shipped to a location in California for transport down here by a friend. Ajijic Electronics (Mario) reused the old aftermarket dish that the subscriber had been using for Shaw Direct, installed the new LNB on the old dish, aimed it in the direction of the satellite that Kiwisat uses (SES-10 @ 67W) and hooked it up to the receiver and TV. He then called Kiwisat in Florida to get the receiver activated. It started to work immediately - 160 channels on this package, almost all US English stations. So Kiwisat definitely knows it is a Mexican install and don't seem to care. Cost is $65 US per month for the prepaid channel package. The account is prepaid for 6 months and then will renew monthly with a credit card auto-pay. No cancellation fees or contract required. There is a one time fee of $150 for each receiver and the user owns the receivers. They also charged $100 shipping cost and for some reason FL sales tax on the whole order of 11.14%. I went through the menus and you can use a standard USB stick to record programs for playback later. I checked out a few channels I like and they seemed OK but there was some pixelation at times - not sure what that is all about. The signal strength and signal quality numbers seemed fine though. Could be an uplink issue with the feeds going up to the satellite or a weather problem? Something I would like to investigate a bit more before I am truly excited about it. It would seem to me that we can call Kiwisat in Miami directly to set up an account and then get the equipment sent via a US forwarding address such as iShop in Laredo. Then we could either set it up ourselves or get Mario to come out and do it.

On the package I have, there are still 7 of the "200" range channels I can still get. 213 CBC Vancouver (CBUT) 214 CTV Vancouver (CBUT) 216 CityTV Vancouver (CKVU) 226 OMNI Pacific 252 The Weather Network 255 CBC News Network 256 CTV News Channel

... if you have a decent internet speed at your place. Some of us don't. Remember, to stream video you need at least 7mbps down. I only have 3 mbps where I live.

There are two things going on with our Shaw Direct reception IF you are located here in central Mexico. 1. Receiver migration. If you are still using a 600 series receiver, you will have noticed that you lost most of the US channels this morning and got a message about a receiver upgrade needed that can support the newer HEVC video compression algorithm. If you have an 800 series, you are fine forr a bit. 2. Our signals here come from the Anik F2 satellite and it is slowly dying. For more info about this, go to this link to read all about it. Likely won't get much after about February 2024. https://www.shawbroadcast.com/Content/English/Anik.htm So as I said before, start looking for an alternative folks.

??? Oxxo currently charges a paynent handling fee of $15 pesos to do a payment transaction for you. I have never tried to do a Netflix payment with them but use them for Mercado Libre payments quite frequently.

I agree, IPTV streaming is the way to go IF you have the internet service to support it. Some of us have no alternative other than Telmex DSL and where I live, 3 meg down just won't cut it. The other alternative is Starlink now - but kind of a pricey solution.

From the information I have been able to research so far, it looks like the equipment they use is fairly standard "state-of-the-art" technology that the FTA (free-to-air) industry uses. The receivers they are using have the newer physical layer for satellite communications, a standard called DVB-S2 and the HEVC compression algorith and QPSK, 8PSK demodulation. Note: HEVC is what Shaw Direct is just switching to with their 800 series receivers to replace the older MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 algorithms. The polarity switching is done by DC voltages, 13-14V for Vertical and 18-19V for horizontal. But it looks like Kiwisat supply the receiver as part of the monthly package and don't sell them outright. Something like the GT Media V7 or V8 type receivers (available on Amazon) that are quite inexpensive Chinese made receivers but the Kiwisat receivers are probably coded for only their services. The existing dish you have for Shaw or Dish should work fine but you will need a new LNBF. The LNBF I think they would use is a standard linear, polarized unit for the frequency range 9,750 - 10,600 Mhz that is also fairly common and readily available on Amazon, eBay, etc. The cautionary thing here is that Kiwisat is probably not licensed for Mexico (yet) and so will operate illegally much like Shaw Direct and Dish USA are. So don't count on any astounding customer service so you would need to work with a competent dealer in this area.

As you know, Shaw Direct will no longer be available to Mexican located subscribers as of around next February 2024. A possible replacement of a similar service to get English US television is a company called Kiwisat with offices in Miami, FL and Puerto Rico. The company uses the SES-10 satellite and has Ku band transponders that beam signals directly over Central Mexico. The satellite is located at Longitude -67W so should be very compatible with the satellite dishes we have used to receive Shaw Direct from the Anik F2 satellite. All that should be required is Kiwisat's receiver, a replacement LNB for your dish and a realignment of the dish. From the research I have done, it appears that Kiwisat is forming a dealership network in Mexico to expand into this market. There is a dealer in Cabo called Cabosat offering the service and I have recently heard that Ajijic Electronics (Mike Merrymen) may be reselling subscriptions to their service. The web site though is not very informative with any technical information. Does anyone here have this service and can give a recommendation?

Last year I found a pull box (rejistro in the ground) between the meter and the house that had a problem. Ants had completely filled it with their "excavations" and when the soil got moist created a large leakage of current (about 5 amps) from one of the phases directly to ground. I found it by turning off the main breaker in the house and then putting a clamp-on ammeter over each low voltage phase of the the service entrance. Underground wiring ducts here are prone to filling up with water and if you have any exposed conductors, splices or cracked insulation you can expect such problems.

Z-gas just filled my 300 ltr. tank this week and I was charged $8.31/ltr.

Seems clear to me. They are going to add a second lane to the right hand exit off the libramiento to head west toward Ajijic on the main carretera (across the carretera from the Autozone store). It will connect with the lateral along in front of Tobolandia and merge into the glorieta at La Floresta.

Why would you need to send the UPS back to the manufacturer with the battery installed in it anyway? Batteries are considered as a consumeable, not something that the manufacturer would typically replace under warranty anyway. When you get your replacement UPS back, just reinstall the battery in the new unit and you are good to go.

I am taking a nearly empty 5' x 10' enclosed cargo trailer to S.W. Ontario leaving around July 15. Willing to drop off for you along the 402/401/403 corridor from Sarnia to Kingston. Financial assistance with fuel costs appreciated.

OK. Since Shaw Direct is leaving us high & dry over the course of the next 2 years (due to the mothballing of the Anik F2 satellite), I want to investigate migrating to IPTV in the future. Very important to me is the recording function of the Shaw DVR so that I can record specific live programs for viewing later. I hate watching TV on a computer screen so I use Roku players on my TV's for watching Netflix, Prime, etc. now. Does anyone here have any success with any of the cloud DVR services for recording live TV sports or news channels? My favorite live TV programs ar things like F1 racing and BBC News.

Most of the labs lakeside will do basic biological testing if you take them a sample. They test for coliforms (total & fecal). If you want more info such as metals, etc., you have to use labs in Guadalajara. All of the Municipalities that have registered wells with Conagua are supposed to have a complete test done by the state water authority (Agua Jalisco) at least once per year and should be able to give you a copy of the results for the well from which you get your water.