Understanding How a TV Satellite Dish Works

Satellite television is very popular in the United States. It is seen as a vast improvement from the traditional broadcast television. Aside from having access to hundreds of television channels in one sitting, satellite television also offers more improved quality of picture and sound. Most households encounter problems with signal reception for broadcast television. Usually, this is due to the distance from the source of broadcast and obstruction along the direct line of sight of broadcast stations. This problem is remedied by the use of satellite television providers of satellites that are launched into geostationary orbit. These satellites receive signals from broadcast stations and transmit them back to Earth. These signals are received and picked up by a TV satellite dish.

To have a better understanding of how satellite television works one should be familiar about how a direct-to-home (DTH) satellite system operates. This satellite system makes it possible for a person to receive satellite TV signals right at his own home. A DTH system is consists of five components and these are: the broadcast center, the programming source, the TV satellite dish, the satellite and the satellite receiver.

Programming sources refer to the channels that offer television programs that will be broadcasted. They are not necessarily the ones who created these programs but they have the acquired right to broadcast programs through satellite. The broadcast center is where a satellite television provider picks up signals from programming sources and transmits these signals to satellites. Satellites then, retransmit these signals to Earth. A TV satellite dish picks up these signals and transfers this to the satellite receiver. Lastly, the satellite receiver processes the information and forwards it to a standard television.

A common TV satellite dish has a parabolic or surface that's shaped like bowl and a feed horn at the center. When a signal is transmitted, it is sent through the horn and reflected by parabolic dish. The TV satellite dish is focused to the direction where the signal will be transmitted. These signals are usually sent through a narrow beam. The transmitted signal is received by satellite dish of the signal destination. A receiving TV satellite dish can no longer resend any signal that it picks up. The narrow beam, which the signal hits the curved fraction of the satellite dish, is then reflected to the feed horn. The latter, in turn, passes this information to a receiver.

However, the process previously mentioned does not always take place. In some cases, a TV satellite dish is required by its system to receive signals from 2 or more satellites simultaneously. This is especially true when the transmitting satellites are too near each other making it possible for one feed horn to receive signals from both. When this happens, the quality of the signal is somewhat diminished. To rectify this problem, a new TV satellite dish model has been developed. This model has two feed horns that can pick up signals from multiple sources. A feed horn has a low noise blockdown (LNB) converter that removes noise from a signal received. The filtered signal is then passed on to the corresponding satellite receiver.