I would say for them, they do report to DirecTV. I have seen Earl post a number of times that if DirecTV requests them to remove a thread they will remove it.
They say they don't post unofficial information or stuff that does not come out from a press release.
If that is true, then can someone explain the CE program to me?
Don't get me wrong, I like and respect Earl. In fact I think that me and Earl are a lot alike. I enjoyed talking with him a few weeks ago, and its possible I may take a trip up to Chicago and meet with him in person (My wifes mother does not live to far from him)
I am enjoying the technical discussion on ths at DBSTalk, the work of folks like dcben and lamelefty deserves to be applauded. I don't know how to read TLE's I will be the first to admit it. But the information I was given was from folks who do and I trust these folks who have been long time members of the satellite community and their information matched what I was told by people in the industry.
I do need to take exception however to this comment made by LameLefty
Jeez, even if the sky really WAS falling (and I don't believe it is, speaking as a former spacecraft design engineer here), D11 is still almost ready to go itself, and D12 ain't far behind in its role as a ground spare.
Yes D11 is almost ready, but thats the EASY part.
They still need to launch it (we had another rocket failure last week) then test it and move it into proper orbit, and as we have seen with DirecTV 10, it has taken a long time. After all this is rocket science.
I also got to admit, I am very EXCITED by DirecTV 10 and can't wait for it to get there.