Dish vs Direct Satellites

Each sat. providers satellites are on geo sychronous orbit, equally high in the sky. DirectTv sat's are on more of an eastern arc, so here in western SD their center aiming piont is 169 degrees. They may also have a western arc aim point. I do not know.
Dish has both western and eastern arc satellites, here the aim point centers at 185 degrees for the western arc.
When you are trying to tune in to multiple satellites, think that its not enough to have a clear view of the southern sky, you also need to know which portion of that sky.
For Dish, here, to recieve all western arc 110, 119, 129 , we need a clear view of te sky from 178 to 245 degrees of the western sky. Thats not just a clear view of just the southern sky, its a big portion of the south to southwest sky. DirectTv would require a more eastern view for their multiple satellites from here.
There is a misconception about elevation. When you look at a dish it seems to be pointing low with its pick up ( the lnb) lower. thats the pool ball bank effect, the sat. is much higher in the sky. I made up an astrolabe with a level and an angle finder to see the true angle of the satellites above the trees.

And Dish has two sets of satellites AKA the Eastern Arc and the Western arc. One advantage of DirecTV is their satellites are located close to each other in the sky (99,101,103). If you get 101, you should also gave the others. Dish has a 19 degree spread (110, 119, 129) in their satellites so more open space is required.

Acording to DishPointer.com the DTV SL3 dish uses sats at 99, 101, and 103 degrees. The DTV 3 LNB dish uses 101, 110, and 119, and the 5 LNB dish uses 99, 101, 103, 110, and 119. The Dish western arc sats are at 110, 119, and 129, and the Dish eastern arc sats are at 61.5, 72.7, and 77 degrees. Having mostly the same program on the two arcs, the Dish setup offers more aiming opportunities in heavily treed parks than DTV.

DTV is the one over Texas.

I think I read somewhere that the DIRECTV SAT is due south of SanDIego CA in a orbit above the equator. The DISH SAT is due south of DALLAS TX in a orbit above the equator...

Don't quote me on this haha...

Roy Ken

Dish point south south west depending on how far west you are. The one good point I hear about Direct TV is that their sats. are a little higher in the sky so there's less chance of trees blocking their signal vs. Dish.