Observations from my balcony Pt 1

I am fortunate enough to have a balcony off the side of my home office. During the day I will get up several times and walk outside to look around a bit. I can see the ocean, although it is an obstructed view, but it gives me time to think and relax before returning to work.

The other day as I was standing there looking over my neighborhood, it struck me how many satellite dishes I saw. I mean, there were a lot of them.

With the advent of DirecTV and digital cable, most large dishes in the US have been relegated to Dickerson Road type trailer parks. Not so in Brazil.

We have two pay satellite services, DirecTV and Sky, who have recently merged into one. Many people opt for one of these instead of cable because there are more channels.

But regular satellite service is different. You pay no monthly fee. You just buy a dish and receiver (about US$150), set them up and you get 18 channels for free. Forever.

This happened because there are many regions of the country where there is no reception because there are not enough transmitter towers. So they developed a co-op satellite system with the networks to provide basic programing via satellite to the whole country.

Here in Balneário Camboriú, which is one of the most modern cities in Brazil, we can't pick up any broadcast channel well, including the powerhouse network Globo so most of my neighbors have opted for a dish. Here is the proof. All of these photos were taken from my balcony.

This one is mine. You can see many more dishes that I can see from my balcony at my Flickr site. From time to time, I'll be updating and adding more dish photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo/sets/72157594480671078/