First:
SunBursts and hurricane wilma and all the garbage before she was a hurricane, have/had great influence on all satellite signals from the SouthWest
Second:
DirecTV and Dishnetworks have USA licenses only, that means outside USA territory reception is ILLIGAL !
Even if you have a legit receiver and legal card.
There is a DirecTV por Todos, a Spanish version for DirecTV for South America.
Third:
To get a better service for the USA Virgin Islands and less pirates in the Caribbean , DirecTV moved already some transponder signals more to the east in the direction of Puerto Rico / Virgin, thus leaving the Dom.Rep.
The main carrier is still visible, so a dominican installer with his little satfinder with a needle "thinks" there is still a signal, but that is just a beacon/carrier he sees.
DishNetworks/Echostar is doing the same but in a slower rate, they are still very busy with their blue/yellow (N1/N2) cardswap.
Than there is a scam going on as well.
Some "official" (impossible according to the DTV/Dish rules) DTV/Dish sellers are selling a special DishNetworks receiver that does not need a card.
And the story is that you don't need to pay for the programs
The truth is:
This is a model 311 (looks the same as the 301) and has a buildin card, which is activated, on non excisting addresses in the USA or PR, for 3 months with most packages installed.
After those 3 months, your screen wil go black, and than you have to do the things yourself -USA creditcard, USA Soc.Sec.nr, USA address and phone etc- without that, you are on your own. (and never tell them you're outside the USA, they will disconnect your receiver)
If you brought in your own legit receiver from the usa, have fun as long as it takes, don't let them scam you , that you need bigger dishes (6ft-1.8m max)
Another solution to watch tv is IPTV, tv over internet, for those with a good internet connection, boxes are around $300 in the USA, will be around $500 in the DR after shipping and customs.
Almost forgot this:
NO, you cannot use a DTV receiver and card for Dish, those 2 systems are completely different