Its been a couple pretty frustrating days. Trying to get Dish Network ready for our trip south next month. Should be simple, but it's not. I have a Winegard Travler with Dish/Bell setup on the roof. The Bell satellite service has be great. Unfortunately once you get a hundred miles out of the border, it no longer picks up signal. I reconfigured the sat and now it picks up Dish signals. I ordered, received and setup a Dish Network VIP211 from Camping World. I called the number on the box (same as the one on my now connected TV) and they said they were not able to talk to me because I was Canadian. I never got to explain where or how it would be used.

Next I called DISHForMyRV.com who said they offered a pay as you go service for snowbirds and occasional users. Its pricey and the channels are limited but it is needed so they tried to set ii up. All went well until the asked for a US billing address to match my credit card. Ughhhh this went downhill from there. I tried to explain that I am still a Canadian resident and will only be using the Dish receiver when in the US. Eventually we both gave up.

Then last night I used Dish online chat to ask if the rep had any ideas. He suggested making friends with an American or finding someone who already has an account and pay through them. I asked if that was legal and the response was "how would we know?"

So I'm asking for any advice from my Canadian brethren that may have some experience and better yet success. If there is no way around this I will consider more nefarious means.

Thanks
John

John,

Can't help you with Bell/Dish systems, as we use Shaw Direct. I have the Wingard programmed to pick up Shaw's new digital sat and one of the older ones. In Indiana we had no problem picking up 2 Shaw sats, so our PVR worked.

Down in SoCal, the basic receiver will work, but for the PVR, I will have to re-program the Wingard box to pick up both of Shaw's older sats, as the digital one does not reach that far south. Might not get the Hi-Def channels?

Might want to check if Bell has any older sats, as they don't have the same ability to beam the signal, as with the newer sats. If they have at least 1 older sat you should be able to use a non-PVR receiver, assuming the Bell gear is similar to Shaw.

Hi Andy, I think that you meant that you would have to re-program the PVR to record programs on the two older sats. I find that in California if I choose a channel that is on the new satellite I get no reception, similar to what happens during a storm. I don't think that the Winegard box can be easily programmed.
Not sure, but think that the OP will be completely out of luck trying to receive Bell in the US.

When I installed my Winegard dish I was told by a Winegard tech that I would have to buy another complete unit if I wanted to move away from Shaw to a US service, so the OP is between a rock and a hard place.

I'm still picking up the new Shaw satellite here in Indiana on our way south for the winter.

Al your right. Bell does not have any other sats and does not beam beyond the borders. They do however share hardware and technology with dish. That’s why I went with that particular model of Travler. The problem is technical, it’s political. Dish and Bell have agreed not to poach each other’s customers and keep the borders as high as they can. Winegard told me the pay as you option was designed for just this case. but Dish network won’t accept Canadian billing addresses. I’m going to have find an American friend and buy them a subscrition.

Hi Andy, I think that you meant that you would have to re-program the PVR to record programs on the two older sats. I find that in California if I choose a channel that is on the new satellite I get no reception, similar to what happens during a storm. I don't think that the Winegard box can be easily programmed.
Not sure, but think that the OP will be completely out of luck trying to receive Bell in the US.

When I installed my Winegard dish I was told by a Winegard tech that I would have to buy another complete unit if I wanted to move away from Shaw to a US service, so the OP is between a rock and a hard place.

I'm still picking up the new Shaw satellite here in Indiana on our way south for the winter.

Al - with our system we have a manual option on the Winegard box. Haven't been far enough south since we installed the roof top system, so haven't actually used it. However, reading the instructions, I enter manual tuning mode and select the 2 older sats and the dish should align to them.

You could always setup an address with one of the US mail forwarding services. The GoodSam mail service out of Florida can be setup online.

Hi Andy, I think that you meant that you would have to re-program the PVR to record programs on the two older sats. I find that in California if I choose a channel that is on the new satellite I get no reception, similar to what happens during a storm. I don't think that the Winegard box can be easily programmed.
Not sure, but think that the OP will be completely out of luck trying to receive Bell in the US.

When I installed my Winegard dish I was told by a Winegard tech that I would have to buy another complete unit if I wanted to move away from Shaw to a US service, so the OP is between a rock and a hard place.

I'm still picking up the new Shaw satellite here in Indiana on our way south for the winter.

Al - with our system we have a manual option on the Winegard box. Haven't been far enough south since we installed the roof top system, so haven't actually used it. However, reading the instructions, I enter manual tuning mode and select the 2 older sats and the dish should align to them.

Hi Andy, I haven't pulled my Shaw instructions but I believe that the Winegard aims for the older Sat "B", when the new third sat was launched there was no need to re-aim our stationary dish at home to get the new satellite, it's looked after by the LNB on the dish. I wouldn't play with the Winegard settings, it works fine for us (except today when we are in the trees and I gave up after it tried for an hour to search unsuccessfully). Funny, we were in the same campsite last spring and it found the sats, too many leaves left on the trees this fall!

I've found there is a tremendous difference between Bell and Shaw, Bell used to cut you off if they found that you were in the US, Shaw says politely that they can't support you if you are in the US (but they probably will!). It's all politics and (mostly) the US networks giving the Canadian providers a hard time rebroadcasting their programs into the US via satellite