Having installed my new dish on my roof I was wondering a few things about the satellites up there.
How many satellites do they use? Do they “orbit” the earth?
How are they kept above the U.S.? Are they synched with the earths rotation so they appear stationary but are orbiting at the same speed the earths rotating?
Are they even above the U.S.? Even having a dish in Florida it was still pointed south even though the elevation angle was higher.
The two major satellite TV operators in the US are Echostar (Dish Network) and DirecTV. They both use satellites which are in geosynchronous orbit, meaning they stay in the same place above the ground, which is why your dish does not need to move.
Echostar has a total of eight satellites . Most of them were launched from China and Khazakstan. Each satellite has a line-of-site to a certain geographical area on the ground.
DirecTV has five satellites, also in geosynchronous orbit. Three of them were DirecTV’s original DBS satellites, and the other two were acquired from PrimeStar.
Oops, I forgot your last question. Geosynchronous satellites must be directly above the equator, so anyone in the US would point their dish south in order to receive the signal.