Technically, there is no such thing as a satellite dish that’s best for a specific service provider like DirecTV or Dish Network. Satellite TV providers don’t even design satellite dishes specific only to their services, and any Dish Network satellite dish will surely work well with DirecTV systems and vice versa.

The most important factor of any satellite TV dish is size, obviously the larger the dish size, the better it is on gathering the signals beamed by the satellites. However, the bigger the satellite dish the more prominent it stands out, and rarely a home will have space or the interest for a nine foot eyesore bolted on their house. Therefore, the best satellite dish will be a balance of functionality and compactness.

A smaller satellite dish will work well close to the equator whereas the farther the household is from the equator and the geosynchronous orbiting of the satellites, the larger the satellite dish size will be necessary for an effective signal capture. Also, the larger dish size will be more resistant to “rain fade”, a phenomenon that has plagued satellite TV ever since. Rain fade is the absorption of the satellite TV signals—the microwave Radio Frequency (RF) above 11 GHz—due to atmospheric rain, snow or ice, since water is an excellent absorber of microwaves at this particular frequency. Since the larger dish size can collect more signal strength from the atmosphere, it can offset the signal loss effected by the rain fade.

There are ways to combat rain fade though, aside from the satellite dishes larger than the required size for normal weather conditions. These are hydrophobic coatings; only super hydrophobic, lotus effect surfaces repel snow and ice.