satellite dishes

[Allan Adler]

I'd like to read about satellite dishes as devices in their own right,
rather than from the standpoint of their applications. In other words,
their design, construction, circuitry (simple as it probably is),
characteristics and anything else you might want to know before
connecting them to a circuit. I've been searching on the web and
basically what I find are sites that will sell or lend you a satellite
dish for some application, or which will advise you on how to select
one for that purposes. I don't find sites that simply talk about what
it is in all detail and what you can get away with in building or using
one. If there is a book devoted to this, I'd like to know about it,
but maybe that's like asking for a book on what a resistor is.

I think that a satellite dish is basically a certain kind of antenna
with some additional circuitry that one doesn't find in other antennas
and maybe also some mechanical features such as motors to control its
orientation. I don't know if all of that would be adequately described
in a book on antennas.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler <ara@zurich.csail.mit.edu>
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.

 

[Bob Myers]

"Allan Adler" <ara@nestle.csail.mit.edu> wrote in message
news:y93llg9ydmu.fsf@nestle.csail.mit.edu...

I think that a satellite dish is basically a certain kind of antenna
with some additional circuitry that one doesn't find in other antennas
and maybe also some mechanical features such as motors to control its
orientation. I don't know if all of that would be adequately described
in a book on antennas.

Yes, it's basically an antenna with a built-in amplifier, in
most cases. The reflector is either parabolic or spherical
(both should be discussed in any decent book covering
antennas for UHF and above), and that reflector directs
signals to one of several possibilities at its focus. Whatever
picks up the signal there (for really high frequency stuff,
often a horn feeding into a waveguide), it generally
winds up going through an "LNA" (low-noise amplifier,
or sometimes referred to as an "LNB," low-noise
buffer) for amplification before being stuffed into the cable
to be sent to the receiver. In some more elaborate systems
at the really high frquencies, the signal may be downconverted
at the antenna, so what winds up on the cable isn't the same
frequency stuff as what comes into the reflector in the first
place.

Bob M.

--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler <ara@zurich.csail.mit.edu
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions
and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near
Boston.

 

[Ken Taylor]

"Allan Adler" <ara@nestle.csail.mit.edu> wrote in message
news:y93llg9ydmu.fsf@nestle.csail.mit.edu...

I'd like to read about satellite dishes as devices in their own right,
rather than from the standpoint of their applications. In other words,
their design, construction, circuitry (simple as it probably is),
characteristics and anything else you might want to know before
connecting them to a circuit. I've been searching on the web and
basically what I find are sites that will sell or lend you a satellite
dish for some application, or which will advise you on how to select
one for that purposes. I don't find sites that simply talk about what
it is in all detail and what you can get away with in building or using
one. If there is a book devoted to this, I'd like to know about it,
but maybe that's like asking for a book on what a resistor is.

I think that a satellite dish is basically a certain kind of antenna
with some additional circuitry that one doesn't find in other antennas
and maybe also some mechanical features such as motors to control its
orientation. I don't know if all of that would be adequately described
in a book on antennas.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler

The dish is just a dish antenna; the system is 'different'. Anyway,
semantics aside, a good reference book wood be Satellite Communications by
Roddy
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071371761/qid=1093208094/sr=ka-1/re
f=pd_ka_1/103-5465902-3310269)
If you just want to surf for the moment, have you seen this page:
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/constellations/

Ken