Satellite radio - Canada vs USA

[markwick]

Question - Can't seem to get an answer from the dealers -
If I buy a satellite radio system in Canada (Sirius or XM) will I be able to receive signals from anywhere in North America - Conversely if I buy a system in the US will it work in Canada??
The reason I am asking is thet the available radio channels are different if you buy in US or Canada.
I would like to get my hockey games when in Palm Springs!!!
Anyone out there have an answer??

[OntMont]

Hello there.

I think I can answer your question. We have Sirius, mostly because it carries CBC radio. I bought my reciever when we were in Texas, but subscribed to the Canadian version of the service. What happened is that my US receiver will not pick up all the Canadian stations that are available if you buy your reciever in Canada. The American recievers do not carry all the Canadian channels, and I suspect the Canadian recievers don't pick up all the American channels.

Otherwise the receivers work fine in either country, it just that each country's recievers have a slightly different version of the programming, and that does not change when you cross the border. Most of the channels are identical. If you want the hockey games though, I would buy in Canada.

[markwick]

Thanks OntMont - I was hoping that was the way it works. A satellite signal should be able to be picked up anywhere. I will go with the Canadian service

[Tom Gina 06]

Satellite radio is no differant than Sat. TV. The signal is beamed from space to earth and when that signal reaches the earth it is called a foot print. Depending on which satellite and where it is located how strong the signal is will define the footprint and where it is located. Satellite radio uses very large footprints, that way they do not have to rent extra space to broadcast their signals. Foot prints do not know country borders but I bet the footprint probably is lined up to run along the edge of that border. Also the recievers for Canada and USA probably use a different type code (signal) so it maybe the same company but have to use different coding systems. My guess is because each country has it's own government agency setting the criteria for type of signal and where the footprints are assigned.

I just got a portable dish (Direct TV) and found out that they have the local channels footprint narrowed down to specific areas. If you have a mail forwarding address and get local channels the local channels will only work in the foot print that is established around that zip code. So in our case because we have a South Dakota address we cannot recieve the SD local channels because we are outside of the footprint. Now you can sign a RV waver and recieve the locals for the footprint you are in. However you have to sign that waver before the company you subscribe to can legally do it. This can only be done by the old pony express way. So plan on at least an extra month to get the locals for the area you are staying once you get hooked up.

Hope I helped explain this and didn't confuse everyone..... I am not the expert by any means just a courious person that asks many questions so I could understand how all this works.