I'm guessing the directv is line of sight EHF on a 3 ais motor in a dome. We do lose it when we do circles. At any rate, when I accidentally leave my cell on during flight, my emal and voicemails pop up around 5K. Another guess is that I am picking up a tower really far away and not the closest tower.
Yes - mechanically steered/aligned phased array antennae for in-flight reception. Obviously not an all-aspect receiver ;-)