Would a 25ft dish work for DirecPC??? For XM?

Sorry, I read DirecPC as DirecTV. Ignore me. I'll still leave this here for others thinking about trying DirecTV in Nicaragua.

I'll start with the fact that I worked for DirecTV as a customer service rep for 3 months, on the Spanish line, which meant I dealt with all kinds of people trying this. After I quit working there, I started hacking the heck out of my free equipment, and generally involving myself in the Satellite TV community.

You're not going to get a signal from US DirecTV satellites below about halfway down in mexico with the standard dish. DirecTV signals are sent in a spiral polarization, as opposed to a simple horizontal or vertical polarization, largely meaning efforts to get yourself a larger dish will be met with varying degrees of success. A typical DirecTV system is also aligned with 3 seperate satelites, at 101, 110, and 119. Most programming comes off the 101, but HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc come off the 119. Local channels are sent in a spot beam to where they need to be. Local channels are largely the ones you want, as in the major networks, not cable stations. You can't subscribe to LA/NY feeds (which aren't spot beams) unless you're already subscribed as of 3 (I think) years ago. Thus meaning that you wouldn't get CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, UPN, etc.

All that said, DirecTV does offer service to Central America. http://www.directv.com.ni/

I asked them if I could still use my Tivo in Nicaragua and how much it would cost. They quoted me 90 dollars a month, have to buy new receivers (it uses different satellites, so the old IRDs won't work) for 300 dollars each, no Tivo whatsoever, and by the way, it's a lame channel line up. Yes, the prices were in dollars...I emailed back to make sure I didn't just misunderstand.

Anyway, that said, get cable. :-) As far as XM, I have no clue. I know XM bought an old DirecTV satellite or 4, so you're probably stuck with the same problems. :-)

Im not sure where your located but Nicaragua, if your in any of the metro-areas, DSL might just be coming to your town. Direct PC is ok but we have had trouble when the weather get bad. Its resold at a premium because its third partied through existing vendors in the United States. The dream has been to order the service in the states and bring a dish down, using a US billed account. I understand the Nicaraguan Goverment frowns on this however. Not really sure how much they care though.

Pete

Direcway will work at least in parts of Nicaragua with a 1.8 meter dish. If you look at the footprints you are absolutely right. Central America is relatively neglected because there is not much land nor people that can afford a computer, much less 24/7 connectivity. (BTW, that's Ku band, not K band. A very different thing.)

Adding antenna gain (or transmit power) for transmitting can help if you are outside the footprint but there is a limit to how much you can do on the receive end. A bigger antenna means you are picking up more noise as well as more signal from the sat.