What exactly is spot beam? does it only work for certain dishes and someone said that a swm 3 dish will not get it and a swm 5 will ? will that give me locals? in my area?
All locals are delivered via spotbeams. Think of them as flashlight beams, coming down from the satellite and pointed at different parts of the earth's surface. So "your" spotbeams deliver the locals for your service address. There are different spotbeams for SD and HD - SD spotbeams are on the 101 and 119 satellite, HD spotbeams are on 99 and 103.
The dish you need will depend on your location. You will need a slimline 3 to get HD and SD locals if your SD locals come from 101, if SD locals come from 119 you will need a slimline 5.
You do not get a choice of locals, the ones you get are based on your service address. And if you move outside your spotbeam (with an RV for example), you will lose your locals.
What's your zip code, we can tall you which satellites you need and which dish will work for you?