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 We
have been asked if it is worth having a satellite dish and
which one should I buy. If you enjoy watching your television
and keeping in touch with home it is worth having a satellite
dish. Why did we go to a satellite dish? We were happy with
our cable supplier, our picture on the screen was very good,
and the sound was fine. Only problem was, when we went away
in our motor home, our cable stayed home and we were still
paying for it. With the satellite dish, we had a choice;
we could take it with us or leave it at home.
In the summer we like to go to Sauble Beach,
Ontario for a couple of weeks of R&R. Our TV antenna on
our motor home would only pickup a couple of TV stations
and that was on good days. With our satellite dish we get
135 channels and all are crystal clear and the sound is
great. When we travel south of the border into the United
States, the satellite dish keeps us in touch with home.
We know that you are not supposed to use it in the United
States, but after talking to Canadian Customs and the United
State Customs, we learned that when an American comes into
Canada and has a satellite dish on their RV, Customs knows
they are coming in as a tourist and will be returning to
the United States at the end of their vacation. The same
is true for Canadians visiting the United States. So usually
there are no problems although, no guarantees.
If you were to go down to the United States
to live, and put up a Canadian Satellite Dish permanently,
you might have a problem.
As to which system is best for the RV, there
are two satellite companies in Canada. Both are very good
for your homes. Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice are very
close in programming and the picture and sound is very good.
As for your RV, you already know that we
run Rallies and Caravans throughout North America. We have
seen both satellite dishes at our RV Adventures. Here is
what we have found.
• Bell ExpressVu customers appear
to find it easier to setup and find the signal.
• Bell ExpressVu seems to have a stronger signal.
• When traveling in the United States, people who owned
Bell ExpressVu told us that Bell was easier to find than
Star Choice.
We bought Bell ExpressVu for our satellite
system. We have it in our home and in our motor home. We
found it worked all across North America and the nice thing
about our satellite is, we can keep in touch with home.
The only time Canada in mentioned is when they need someone
to blame for the cold weather or when someone uses that
M word. Thanks to our satellite system, we now can keep
in touch with Canada.
We did not put the dish on the roof of our
motor home; instead, we bought a stand, 50 feet of satellite
cable and put the dish on the stand outside out motor home.
The reason for this, if we had the dish on the roof and
parked in a campsite that had trees around it, we might
not be able to get the signal through the trees. With the
stand and the 50 feet of cable, we can move our dish around
to find the signal and not have to move the motor home.
We have found we can have the dish setup in about 15 minutes.
As for carrying the stand and dish, we put it in an old
sleeping bag and put it in the shower. We know that no one
will be taking a shower as we travel down the highway and
the dish and stand will go outside when we arrive at the
campsite.
On the Bell ExpressVu receiver are two hookups,
one for the satellite cable, and one for your TV antenna.
When you shut off your satellite receiver, your TV antenna
will take over and your local channels in the area come
in. The best of both worlds.
New to Bell ExpressVu is the Interactive
Weather Channel. This is a great feature for RVers. Say
you were going to Florida and it is the middle of January.
Now this is not the best time to drive an RV on Highway
401 and I-75. Leaving from Toronto, the night before you
should check your Interactive Weather Channel on your Bell
ExpressVu System and check London, Detroit and Cincinnati.
This will give you the five-day forecast for each city.
You now have an idea of what the weather will be like on
your first days drive. When you get into your campground
that evening, you check the next days travel on your Interactive
Weather Channel for Knoxville and Atlanta, and you should
know what your weather will be like the next day. For those
of you who live in the west, it works just the same. I added
this channel to my Bell ExpressVu System and it works great.
Thanks to Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice,
we now have Canadian Television that travels with you. Satellite
TV the only way to stay in touch with home. We would like
to thank the many RV Clubs who sent us invitations to come
to their Rallies. We are sorry we could not make them all,
but to the ones we did, we had a great time.
If you would like to get more information
from us or see what we have planned, just send us your e-mail
address to: rvtours@interlog.com (Page
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