Shaw Direct UPDATE News:
March 10, 2018
Receiver Changes:
As of last July, 2017, Shaw Direct upgraded their signals to a higher level of compression (MPEG-2 to MPEG-4). This meant Shaw customers have been gradually no longer able to see some HD channels on their older 500 series receivers. These old 500 series customers needed to upgrade to a 600 series (or higher~newer) receiver.
Satellite Changes:
In Canada & the northern USA, Shaw clients had been getting their channels from three different satellites. Shaw’s third satellite was launched in 2013 and has a much tighter beam footprint (wasting less signal with better focused beams that service only Canada with strong signals). This means some of the HD signals from Shaw’s newer 2013 Satellite (ANIK G1) may not be received in Mexico, especially after Oct. 2019.
The relatively ‘new’ Anik G1 satellite has the capabilities of beaming just the highly-compressed MPEG-4 signals to a much more narrow foot-print … saving lots of power, by POSSIBLY no longer broadcasting to the USA or Mexico. ??
Until recently, people in Mexico (illegally) filching Shaw signals got their Shaw Direct signals from the two older satellites (2004 & 2005 … Anik F2 & F1R). These 2 old satellites unintentionally bled (leaked) signal all the way through Mexico and just into northern Central America. That’s changing now as Shaw upgrades their service to meet Canadian law, gradually moving more HD channels to the new ANIK G1 satellite.
Losing Channels?
**Even if you have a 600 series receiver, note that as Shaw upgrades channels, Shaw is moving them to their newer satellite that CAN NOT be received in Mexico.
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Old Dish Network Changes:
The changeover from Echostar 7 to Echostar 14 at the 119W satellite position has whacked some US Dish Network clients with a big stick, eliminating access to many channels across much of Mexico. There is nothing people in Mexico can do.**
After moving Echostar 14 satellite into position to replace the old Echostar 7 at 119W, last week Dish Network started tightening up their broadcast coverage, allowing less signal to bleed south into Mexico from their “new” 119W satellite. Reliable sources report that Dish Network will continue to make significant adjustments and changes to their signal for the next 2 weeks or so. Dish Network will continue adjusting and changing the footprints of their 119W its signals transponder by transponder (adjusting signal strengths and coverage areas), which changes signal strengths almost daily this past week.
When they have finished tweaking coverage maps, they’ll also change formats of their Forward Error Correction (FEC from 5/6 to 7/8), which will limit receiver’s future ability to lock on weak signals.
As a result of these changes, reliable sources report that dishes receiving signals from the new Echostar 14 at 119W will see varying performance and varying signal strengths for the next few weeks. June 16 is the projected completion date for changes, so, any changes you make now may not work in 3 weeks.
If you are a Dish Network customer, depending on where you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you may find that you will either continue to get good service from 119W, or you will need to change equipment, or change satellites, or change providers.
Dish Network USA Users in Guadalajara, Jalisco, & Lake Chapala area report that 1.8 m dishes are currently working with much weaker signals in some locations, but that 1.8 m dishes lose some transponders after 11:00 at night due to too weak of signals. Users with smaller dishes in these areas are reporting total loss of signals.
While no one can accurately predict the future all the time, it appears that 2.4m or larger dishes in those areas will likely be able to continue to receive Dish Network’s 119W CONUS beamed signals.
Dish Network customers in Yucatan w/ 1.8 meter dish report full signal strength (35% – 40%) on 119W transponders with valuable channels like the Jewelry Channels, Weight Loss Gimmicks, Fads ‘R Us, et al, while transponders with unimportant channels like ESPN, Discovery, Animal Planet, TVLand, etc have no usable signals even with a well-peaked 1.8 m dish.
Some folks are giving up on 119W and going to 110W or 129W, though it takes a 2.4 m dish in much of Mexico and HD service to receive many of the CONUS beam channels on 129W. See CONUS beamed channels on 129W at http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/dish129.html . Note that it takes a different LNB to get HD programming: either the Dish Pro or Eagle Aspen LNBs work for receiving Dish Network’s HD signals, and you have to have an mpeg4 receiver like the Dish Network VIP series to support HD signals, where the old mepg2 receivers like 311’s & 322’s, 6000’s, & 811’s offer only Standard Definition (SD) signals.
As before, 110W continues to supply consistent strong CONUS beamed signals for lots of SD programming and some HD programming, and some people report that well peaked 1.1m dishes are sufficient to receive decent signal strengths SOB (40% and higher). Sidelight: 62W has some Dish HD programming, but they are phasing out the 62W HD broadcasts.
For purely scientific reasons, we’d love for people from around North America report their locations, dish size, and 119W signal strengths by transponder number as things change over the next few weeks.
Reader feedback about Shaw Direct?
What a great hobby!
* * * *
Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry
Read-on MacDuff . . .
Surviving Yucatan 
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I am in San Miguel de Allende and currently have the 6000 reciever with the small dish and have lost all the signal. I am hoping someone here will try the big dish and let me know if that works….
I am in SMA and I have the big dish. Works well. I am moving in January to another part of the country and might want to sell the dish. Also have two 800 receivers and one 600. Works great with the Shaw large dish. Contact me if interested. Texasbber@yahoo.com
Can you check your signal strength? Are you using the KU or XKU LNB?
Hey Mike,
I’m just following up to see if you’re still interested in some combination of either the big 10 ft dish & base (mfg in Guadalajara) … or the 8 ft precision made parabolic … or the 110 cm Channelmaster (the one that’s so sweet for Dish Network & even Shaw Direct)
Steve
999 9 08 41 49
Steve, let’s chat via email
Hodamayo@ Hotmail.com
Keep less clutter on the forum
Have you adjusted your small dish to attempt to get 110W? (Echostar 10/11)
I am not familiar with 110W’s coverage & signal strength in San Miguel Allende, but since adjusting the dish is free, and risks no harm, then it seems like a reasonable thing to try, to get a broad selection of DN programming. Here’s a free site that uses Google Earth to directly zoom in on your home for determining where to point your dish: http://www.dishpointer.com/.
If you prefer to manually enter your GPS coordinates, then you can use this site to calculate where to point your dish: http://www.satsig.net/ssazelm.htm.
If you want to get a really big dish and try to get 2 satellites with one dish, then check out this website for general instructions: http://www.satsig.net/pointing/multi-lnb-dish-pointing.htm and use this site for coordinates for aiming the dish: http://www.satcalculator.net/.
Thank you a lot for this information, i have many time trying to reach the 119w In Chetumal Mexico, now i know is time to search for other sat, i have 110w In a 1.20 dish, and i have a 2.4 antenna and i will try to get the 129w. Thanks i will ley you know id it was possible.
thanks for this Post is very helpful.
Based on our latest satellite dish set-ups in the north Yucatan, it takes at least a very very carefully adjusted 1.8m dish to get most of the available 119W transponders, and it takes a 2.4m good quality dish to get them more easily and reliably.
steve
–
Before moving to Merida do you have any recommendation what satellite system and hardware to get in the US?
Meir
I live in the Yucatan and I am locked into 61.5 and 110W satelites. You can receive cbs,abc and nbc off of 61.5, you will have to change your address with Dish to lake charles. La.
Lee,
Good to know that there are other options here. Do you think the 61.5W has a better selection of channels available in Yucatan than 119W? What size dish do you use for the 61.5W – 2.4m? For readers who only have 1.8m dishes, do you know what selection of channels can be received on 61.5W?
THANKS,
steve
Steve, I use a 1.8 meter dish and I get a very strong signal. They have just moved a lot of locals off of 77w to 61.5 and i have changed my locals to Monroe Louisiana because I can receive more locals including Fox. The 61.5 has some great programing and it is in HD and the programming is pretty close to 119W.
Lee,
Good update. A friend just described how a 1.4m parabolic dish also gets 61.5W very well now here in Merida – and he’s offering a switch to mix the signals from all 3: 61.5W, 110W, and 119W. The signals on some of the 119W transponders are very weak with a 1.8M dish, so, it might be worth adding the 3’rd dish & satellite.
steve
I was contemplating going to Dish Network but with all the problems of reception and setting up the account to circumvent being in Mexico, I elected to go with Shaw Direct instead. .If you can put up with the Canadian programming ( too much hockey and curling ) and live with the U.S. network programming that they provide then they are by far the best bet and I receive perfect reception in Vera Cruz state about 600 miles south of Brownsville using a .75M dish.
Also Shaw doesn’t ask any questions about your physical location … just use one of many itermediaries to provide a Canadian billing address and pay with a U.S. credit card
I have brought my shaw direct dish and receiver and LNB with me. Where can I find an installer for this system. We live near Tekax, Yucatan, about and 1 hour drive south of Merida. Please help. I can be reached @ wilmerpond@yahoo.com Thanks, Yvonne Wilmer.
Ricardo Medina installs them for about $75 USD in Merida. Tekax? I don’t know the cost.
I just sent Ricardo a text message. He replied “yes”…
call or text him at 999-217-1220
steve
If you have any problem finding a signal satellute I am sending you a recommendation for this site locator satellute
http://www.sat-locator.com/
i have a 6 foot dish and direct tv 110 i live near corazol belize and would like to convert from direct to shaw. any advice on where to purch
ase needed equipment.
RM Leonard,
From the Lyngsat maps, I think you can get both 107.3W and 111.1W (Anik F1 andd Anik F2) signals.
This means you need to decide if the SD programs on Anik F1 suit your needs, or if you also want the HD programming that lives on Anik F2.
1. If SD programs on F1 are sufficient, then you only need a different Shaw Direct compatible LNB – and move your dish a tiny bit: rotating it just 3 degrees south and tipping it just 2 degrees back => which means just a few millimeters in each direction at the attachment to the base.
2. If you want both SD and HD programs, then you need to add a small dish (90 cm – 110 cm) and buy 2 LNBs and a Shaw compatible disk equalization switch to combine the signals from the 2 LNBs. Aim your big dish at 111.1W Anik F2 (for HD programming), and aim the new small dish at 107.3W Anik F1.
In either case, you’ll also need a Shaw Direct receiver. If you want HD, be sure to get a Shaw receiver that accepts HD. There was a fellow on Mexconnect in central Mexico who did not quite know how to set up such systems, and he wound up with an extra receiver – so you might check there?
I think that about covers it,
steve
Tekax is near Oxcutzcab. We are about an hours drive south of Merida. Easy to find. Take the hwy to Cancun, follow the exit to Chetumal, then go 87 kms(look for the km sign) and enter Xaya. In Xaya, in the centro, turn right on a dirt road, and go about 5 kms. Rancho San Juan is on the left hand side of the road. Is a hacienda. We are the only Canadians around this area. Hopefully your friend can contact us. My email is wilmerpond@yahoo.com … Best to call around 7 pm in the evening. Thanks for you help. Yvonne Wilmer.
Steven, We previously had Direct TV using a BIG satellite dish. It was very expensive here and ABC would not even come in when it got real hot, so we went to Roku. We have 20 internet megas but still experience a lot of freezing on all channels, particularly ABC, NBC, CBS. Is there any thing better you might recommend of which we are unaware? Do you know anything about the Amazon Fire Stick; would that work here? Thank you for helping, Stephanie
Hi Stephanie,
We have not tried Amazon Fire Stick, and have not read any reports on it.
Your freezing on ROKU sounds very strange. We use ROKU for a year (last year), with just 5 Mb download speeds (much slower than your 20 Mb service), but our ROKU worked well *until a lightning strike on our internet cable fried the ROKU box*.
Are there possibly small/miniscule dropouts going on with your internet service – so small that you don’t notice them but enough that it messes up ROKU? Maybe a corroded connector on the pole or where it comes into the house?
We were watching some USTVNOW by Roku, and that worked OK, but we mostly watched a Mexican service called Nano (previously called Nanoflix). Nano worked well at times for streaming live TV, but when their servers got overloaded with too many clients watching a particular show/channel, Nano’s ROKU signal would freeze.
A friend who has been running ROKU, recently with Nano for his streaming of US broadcast TV, says the current Nano/ROKU combination has been very stable and very reliable this last month, so it looks like Nano has resolved it’s earlier freezing problems – and is working very well on ROKU.
When your ROKU “freezes”, what channel / what service are you watching?
=========================
We’ve been using a combination of Slingbox, paired with free USTVNOW service over our computer to watch US tv.
You could try other TV services on ROKU box, or try your ROKU box at someone elses home (with a different internet provider), to see whether the problem is with:
a. your ROKU box (unlikely – but possible if you have an old version of ROKU or the ROKU-stick version)
or
b. your internet service (corroded connectors or mildly erratic service)
or
c. your choice of TV providers on ROKU.
Come back and tell us more,
steve
We just moved to Merida and would like to get shaw tv, do you have the name of someone in Merida that we can contact to get this service set up? We don’t have a dish.
Thanks Nancy
Hi Nancy,
There are 2 Shaw vendors in the area that we know of: Carlos (out at the beach) and Ricardo Medina here in Merida.
Ricardo’s cell phone is 999 217-12-20 .
Good Luck,
steve
Thanks so much Steve.
Steve,
Do you have any contact info for Carlos (out at the beach)
Thanks
Mike
I’m in the USA visiting grandkids, so, I’m away from my stack of business cards.
Enjoy, steve
The contact I have for Carlos(Charlie) is 999-192-9710. Yvonne.
Thanks Yvonne, and Steve, enjoy your visit.
Mike
Hello, i sell and install all kind of sat tv Shawdirect, Directv, Dish in Cancun, mayan riviera, Tulum, isla mujeres etc call me at +5219981808700 with whatsapp or write email cdcancun@hotmail.com
Roberto zetina que numero tienes
9988458267 cel whatsapp – 9982551799 office
Robert,
I have the 8 ‘ dish here in SMA and have lost 90 percent off my channels. Same for my friends.
We are all VPN and HuLu now. What happened to US dish?
Btian
Hello Brian, i am not sure where are you living San Miguel de Allende Guanajuato ? . If so i know
thay you can only get the echostar 110 sat in that zone and maybe sats 129 and 61.5 for hd. In the north of Yucatan and Quintana Roo states you can get american dish easily with a 8 to 6 foot fiberglass antenna (119 ) and with a 4 foot antenna the stronger satellite 110 west. The satellite 129 for hd channels is not available to get in the Yucatan Peninsula. Here we just get 110. 119, 61.5 for american dish. Also sats 110, 119, 101, 99 and 103 for Directv but big antennas of 6 foot is needed to get the a good signal but not excelent. Shaw diirect is the best option to get american national channels in high definition using just an eliptical dish or two separate 4 foot antennas joined with a special multiswitch. Anybody can contact me : Roberto Zetina +5219988458267, +5219981808700 of local +5219982551799. We sell and install all kind of satellite service, Rokus, Kodi, Audiovisual and home theater audio systems. Computers networks, laptop repair, home automation, tv repair etc.
Hi Roberto, Do you also install internet connections? I have a ranch near Tunkas, and when we come back at the end of September, we may be looking for someone to install high speed internet at my ranch. I have the tower installed on the roof, just need the proper connections. Thanks, Yvonne.
Sure, anything you need. We also sell and install Hughesnet and others satellite based internet providers. Best. Roberto Zetina
It is now Mar.8, 2018. We’ve received ShawDirect.Ca for the last 8 years and now we see the HD channels are failing. Shaw reps say it is because they are changing to new satelite, ANIK G1. Apparently, it will not be available in Mexico, especially Yucatan. Is this information correct?
Receiver Changes:
As of last July Shaw Direct upgraded their signals to a higher level of compression (MPEG-2 to MPEG-4). This meant Shaw customers no longer be able to see some HD channels on their older 500 series receivers. These old 500 series customers need to upgrade to a 600 series receiver.
Satellite Changes:
In Canada & the Northern Shaw clients get their channels from three different satellites, The third satellite was launched in 2013 and has a much tighter beam footprint (wasting less signal with better focused beams). Signals from Shaw’s 2013 Satellite (ANIK G1) CAN NOT BE RECEIVED in Mexico.
Until recently, people in Mexico (illegally) filching Shaw signals got their Shaw Direct signals from the two older satellites (2004 & 2005). These 2 old satellites unintentionally bled (leaked) signal all the way through Mexico and just into northern Central America.
Losing Channels?
If you have a 600 series receiver note that as Shaw upgrades channels, Shaw is moving them to the new satellite that CAN NOT be received in Mexico.
I may have overlooked this site. I have been living in the Cancun area for 17 years and I sell, install US Dish Network all over Mexico. It works well with only a 60 cm antenna(2) I can make just about anything happen if anyone has questions, please feel free to contact me
Mike Mayo
Maya Media Systems
Puerto Morelos, Mexico
mike@nuevodynamics.com
Hey Mike,
You’ve had a good reputation for the last 12 years that we’ve followed your advice & your work.
For the 8 years that we watched Dish Network here, Mike’s knowledge was spot-on, every time.
We’ve shifted to Slingbox … so, Mike, If you have a customer in Merida who wants~needs a big 6 ft high quality parabolic dish, or a 1.1m high quality Channel master, or the big old fibreglass 3m dish out of Guadalajara, I’ve got them available, with base-mounts – for you or your customer to install.
steve
Hey Steve, do you have any pictures of the antennas you have? I was just in Merida last week doing a site survey. I think I am going to be looking for 110 and 77, not sure if 119 will even work. Can you contact me at my email or hodamayo@hotmail.com I might be able to take 2 of those from you.
Thank you and Happy New Year.
Hi Mike,
I have 4 antennas, and a friend also has one he asked me to sell for him.
I have 2 of the very nice 120 Channelmasters, (one with base and one without) – The 120 Channelmaster (fiberglass) is the high quality version (originally installed for Mexzcan DirecTV) that produces a lot of signal for Dish Networks 110 satellite or for Shaws satellite at that position.
I also have a smaller Sky + base at 86 cm. Plus, a high quality precision steel 2m parabolic dish + base that worked for both Dish Network & Shaws other satellites.
Finally, the friend has asked me to sell his big 8 ft (or 10 ft) fiberglass dish made in Guadalajara, with base. That;s the size of dish we need here to get DirecTV’s CONUS beam from the USA.
I’ll send fotos by email,
steve
Seems like the industry had died. Have not had any inquiries for over 2 months.
It’s hard to compete against the various internet options (as VPN – IP masking has become stronger).
It’s hard to compete against the various internet options (as VPN – IP masking has become stronger).
Hello
I’m looking for someone that can install a dish and lnbs on my roof for Shaw direst tv .
My receivers a 830 and 600 are already activated please call me 331-402-4223
Where are you?
Typically only local vendors set them up… e.g. different ones in Merida, than on the Yucatan Beach Coast, than over on the Caribbean coast, than Puerta Vallarta, etc.