[jcanavera]

JAG,

I just checked the elevation between Direct TV and Dish and in my location Direct is about 5 degrees higher in the sky than Dish. This is fairly minor although may be enough in some areas to cause Dish's signal to be interrupted by the tree canopy.

I remember reading that the satellites cruise in orbit over the equator which would mean that the further south you go the higher in the sky you point your dish. Trees give satellite users more problems, especially as you go north since the satellite "sits" lower in the horizon. Again as you have to lower the angle to the horizon, trees become a much bigger issue.

Dish Networks also use a multi satellite dish which allows you to pick up two satellites with one dish. That dish is labeled "Dish 500". Most new users and many old users migrated to this dish a couple of years ago. To successfully align this dish you have three settings to make. The additional alignment is called skew and tends to make the dish, which is somewhat eliptical, tilt to one side. This type of dish would be more difficult in setting up and if you don't hit the skew quite right could cause a loss of channels provided by one of the two satellites.

If your friend has a Dish 500 dish, this could be the cause of his aiming difficulities.

Jack