Why the super-sized Dish and Direct dishes?

[Toonses]

Just got back from a few day trip to Puerto Rico. One of the first things I noticed was all the 3'-5' dishes on every house. Some were Dish, some Direct TV, and some were Ku band. Why the large dishes? I can only conclude that the location is in the fringe of the foot print of the used satellites? I sure was a-wishin' I could have brought home a truckload of the unused large dishes I saw. Toonses

 

[madmadworld]

think your right
any pictures ?

 

[navychop]

:duh

 

[Mr Tony]

One of the first things I noticed was all the 3'-5' dishes on every house. Some were Dish, some Direct TV, and some were Ku band. Why the large dishes? I can only conclude that the location is in the fringe of the foot print of the used satellites?

correct. While Dish has upgraded their satellite fleet so Puerto Rico can use a 30" dish the older satellites they were on the fringe so they needed 4-6 foot dishes.
Directv has Direct Latin America which is KU Band (95W) so that would be why

 

[Tron]

I just wish the Dish and Direct dishes in the CONUS were that useful ...

 

[jimdandyvi]

I am located further East than PR in the USVI and have no problems picking up 110 & 119 with the 30" dish. Have had very few problems with rain fade. There are a few channels that are not available in PR & the USVI but we still have 60+ HD channels inlcuding network locals.

We do get charged the same as everyone else for fewer channels in our packages which is a legitimate bitch.

I also wonder when I go to PR why some many people use the very large dishes.