This would be interesting to investigate if you are interested in doing a bit of work.
If you still happen to have that receiver hooked up (or handy) it would be interesting to go into the receiver setup menu and go to the Signal Strength screen. Write down the series of numbers that show up there for the 3 satellites and let us know what you find. It might help explain how that receiver is able to do what other receivers cannot.
By the way, thanks for the PM and I look forward to a healthy discussion.