Our caravan parked at the Grand Canyon Trailer Village in Grand Canyon National Park. Our satellite dish brought the signal in perfectly.

When traveling down the highway listening to our satellite radio, it is always nice to arrive at the campground, get set up, sit back and enjoy a leisurely evening.  We checked in at the campground office and are directed to our site. We usually ask for a pull thru with full hookups. In our campsite we level our motor home, hookup our water, electric and sewer and bring out the slide. We setup our satellite dish and Karen plans dinner. After dinner we usually go for a walk with our dog, Dakota.
            If the campground has WiFi we usually check our e-mail and then sit back and enjoy a night of entertainment on our satellite TV.
            When we first started RV'ing, we would listen to the radio in the dash of the motor home. Every so often we would have to find a new station, as we would lose the signal of the station we were listening to. At the campground we would raise our TV antenna and watch the local TV station. If we were lucky, we might get more then one TV channel. Traveling across Canada, we could always keep up with current events in our own country, but when we travelled into the United States, it was as if Canada did not exist.
             My goodness, how the world of RV’ing has changed over the years! Today we have GPS, satellite radio, satellite TV and WiFi and so much more. The latest RV’s are built so well and filled with so much technology that you could live in them all year long.
            Today, while traveling the highways of North America, we can listen to our satellite radio and not have to worry about looking for a new station every few minutes. We can listen to Canadian programming or American programming. We can get the weather for North America and it does not matter if you are travelling in the United States or Canada.
            Satellite radio is perfect for RV'ers, truckers and four wheelers. It has everyone covered. We are happy to say we chose Sirius satellite radio and they have treated us just great. There are no rules restricting the use of the radio in the United States, and their programming is perfect for RV'ers travelling throughout North America. We can use our satellite radio in our car, motorhome and our house. We really enjoy it…so much that we bought a lifetime subscription so we don’t have a monthly bill.
            Now, satellite TV is an entirely different story in Canada. There are so many rules... you cannot use it in the United States, and a Canadian cannot buy American satellite TV. So when we travel in the United States as Canadians, in effect, you can’t have satellite TV. Another rule by one of the two satellite companies in Canada stipulates that you can’t use your satellite system outside of your home province.
            In Canada, the two satellite TV companies are licensed to broadcast in Canada by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The CRTC is an independent agency responsible for regulating Canada's broadcasting and telecommunications systems. The CRTC reports to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage.
            From what we can discover through contacting the FCC in the United States, neither of these two satellite companies has been licensed in the United States. So technically, if you receive a signal from either of these two Canadian companies while you are in the United States, you are receiving a foreign unlicensed satellite signal.
            The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency, directly responsible to Congress. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. The FCC's jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. possessions.
            In researching this article, we contacted both companies. Each time we phoned we got an answering machine, and each time we would leave a message. One company got back to us and provided us with a list of new equipment that they had on the market. The other sent us about 500 flyers. We decided to go to the Internet to do our research.
            We are told that as Canadians we cannot use our satellite system in the United States, and our American friends cannot use their satellite System in Canada. If we do, we will be shut off. We have to question this. Our friends from the United States came up to Ontario and camped with us at one of the local campgrounds. They could not find the signal for their satellite TV, so they called their U.S. satellite company and they were not only told how to find the satellite, but in just a few minutes they had the signal. On one of our caravans in the United States, one of our Canadian friends could not find the signal and they called the satellite company in Canada, and the company told them which way to point their dish… in a few minutes they had the signal. If we had called the other Canadian satellite company and told them that we were in the United States, we would have been shut off.
            What is really ironic about all this is that our two satellite companies don’t seem to have any difficulty bringing us American television. You can enjoy multiple stations within the various networks - CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, CNN and lots more. We even get the speeches by the President of the United States; I do not see the American stations carrying speeches by the Prime Minster of Canada.
            It is time for these two satellite companies to realize that we live in North America, and as Canadians, we travel throughout North America. We want to stay in touch with home; we want to enjoy our Canadian TV just as our American friends want to enjoy their TV.
            We live in a world that allows people from other countries to keep in touch with their home countries by satellite TV, and Canadians should be allowed the same privilege.
            Free Trade between Canada and the United States should be just that. We want our Canadian TV no matter where we travel in North America, and if we go into the United States for a week or six months it should not matter. When Americans come into Canada they also want to continue to receive their own programming.
            With today’s technology, the perfect satellite company would offer full coverage of North America, and you would receive all your Canadian stations at home, and when you travel to the United States you could request the American stations you wanted from the state you are going to be in. I realize this is a dream today, but I am convinced that one day it will happen.
            Satellite TV is an all-digital signal and if you have HDTV, you will never have to go to the movies again. With the new PVR for HDTV 9200 by Bell ExpressVu, in our opinion, the picture is better than the screens in the movie theatres.  

          For those who have Bell ExpressVu, like us, we found this information on the internet: “Previously, the Nimiq 1 signal was available to most of North America. However the launch of Nimiq 3 cut off access to most transponders below the Canadian border. ExpressVu made this modification to (1) boost signal on most transponders of Nimiq 1 to combat rain fade and (2) prevent American residents and mostly snowbirds in Florida from using its service. The use of ExpressVu's service in the United States is not illegal; however it remains a contentious issue.”

            There is no doubt about it; traveling North America in your RV is the best way to see the continent. Staying in touch with home is so much easier today and will get even easier in time. North America has become an “endless RV Adventure”.

Take care & happy RV'ing
M.B. & Karen Wilson
Wagon Masters
E-Mail wagontrains@msn.com