In England for example this is from the middle of Africa to way over Iceland. The whole pass from horizon to horizon will take about 15 minutes and the area where you are situated will probably take the middle 5 minutes. Each satellite overlaps each pass and you can expect 2 good passes from each satellite twice a day, so 4 passes per satellite per day. There are two series of satellites, the afternoon NOAAs like NOAA 14 that pass over at about 2 o'clock after midnight and after midday. So with 3 operational satellites there are 12 good images a day.
Soviet activity is usually fairly constant but can be unreliable and difficult to predict.
APT is so strong that a fixed antenna will receive nearly all of the pass and certainly much more than you would ever want. So APT is easy and you do not need to move or track the small antenna at all. In the late 70's it became obvious that a satellite transmitting 24 hours a day would be desirable. A satellite 40,000km away will orbit the earth once every 24 hours, exactly the same rate as the earth rotates, so from a fixed point on the earth the satellite appears stationary. A geostationary satellite is much further away from the earth than a polar orbiting type and often the resolution is not as good.