Dale, I had the Dish satellite for 3 years, and only had one day of bad reception, and that was when the snow was a real wet sticky snow. Climbed up with a push broom and brushed off the dish, and it worked fine. Not sure if they still offer it, but they use to have a deal, if you paid 11 months in advance, you got the 12 month free. The one hokey thing they advertised was so many channels more than cable. But half of them were ad channels with jewlery and womens clothing.
The only reason I went back to cable, was, at the time, phone lines here were dial up with no hi speed internet. As it worked out, my cable bill for TV and 'puter is $2 cheaper than phone line and satellite. So for now, will stick with cable, but if a real cheap deal came up with Dish, I wouldn't hesitat to go back. gypsyman