Am I a hopeless case??

[TomorrowHERD]

I live on the island of Saipan, in the Northern Marianas Islands in the Western Pacific ocean. A U.S. Commonwealth, 90 miles north of Guam and 1200 miles southeast of Tokyo.

Our cable "bites" here worse than it does most places in the US. Had Dish net when I was in the states, and I miss it greatly.

Is there ANY way that I could get satellite broadcast reception here from ANY provider!?!?!? Dish, DTV, SKY, or one that I do not even know about.

Any clues would be greatly apprecianted.

Saipan coordinates::
15 degrees North lattitude, 145 degree East longitude.

Zip Code:: 96950

[scooper]

There is absolutely no way you're going to get any US DBS. I don't know about other sources...

[Mike500]

There is a lot of FTA (free to air) English programming in non-English native language countries;

Try:

http://www.lyngsat.com/freetv/

[RJS1111111]

From http://www.brilliantstar.org/saipan-dailylife.html :

Television: Cable TV is widely available on Saipan. Programming is primarily taped on a delay basis on the west coast and shipped out to be carried about a week later. Unfortunately the CNMI is on the edge of most satellite "foot prints," making it a difficult and expensive proposition to bring in live programming. CNN International is carried live. A daily local newscast is prepared on Saipan and local news coverage from nearby Guam is carried on a one-day delay. Some live programming, particularly sports, is brought in by satellite to Guam and then replayed on the Saipan system. Personal satellite dishes are uncommon so far.

It looks as though you'll need a BUD (as large as possible), but you might be able to pick up programming (some in the clear) from:

Intelset 701 at 180 E
Intelsat 804 at 176 E
Intelsat 802 at 174 E
PAS 2 at 169 E
PAS 8 at 166 E
Optus A3 at 164 E (Ku, DVB FTA, beam unspecified, highly inclined)
JCSAT 2A at 154 E
Apstar 1 at 138 E
Apstar 1A at 134 E
JCSAT 3 at 128 E
Thaicom 1A at 120 E
Palapa C2 at 113 E
AAP 1 at 108.2 E
Asiasat 3S at 105.5 E
Asiasat 2 at 100.5 E
Measat 1 at 91.5 E
Insat 2E/3B at 83 E
Thaicom 2/3 at 78.5 E
Apstar 2R at 76.5 E
LMI 1 at 75 E