"Richard Harrison" wrote in message
...
Roger, ZR3RC wrote:
"These dishes also have very narrow beamwidth making their aiming very
precise."

You are right. Even an 18-invh dish needs a pretty good elevation angle
in the UK to get best reception in the KU band from a satellite parked
over the equator. I checked the Direct TV website. A geostationary
synchronous bird flys at more than 22 000 miles above the earth`s
surface. The horizontal distance is always a fraction of the altitude of
the satellite, so the elevation angle for line of sight is substantial
no matter what the azimuth. I am still puzzled as to why so many dishes
I saw in Scotland were aimed so low.



Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI

Richard

I suspect that you have confused yourself about the distance and elevation
angle to satellites. I'm sure you can clear up the situation if you
consider the distance to the geostationary satellite 22,300 miles above the
equator when it is viewed from somewhere near the North or South Pole.

Jerry