A Very Unscientific Answer To How Does Satellite TV Work

There is a long, very scientific answer to the question, how does satellite TV work. There is also a shorter version that is way more interesting. We're going to go with the shorter version and apologize in advance to the scientific types who will cringe when they read this. As far as most people thinking that dishes are new, well they are not. The first satellite for TV was shot into space in'62.

Back then people who wanted satellite for their televisions had to use a nine foot dish that they put in their back yards. They were really big, ugly, and gave an incredible variety of channels from other countries that made them totally worth the effort. Some people still have those dishes in their back yards. When somebody wants to get channels from a different country they call the neighbors to help them move the dish a tad. There were remotes included with the dishes but those were lost years ago.

At that time, and for several years after, no one who owned the dishes really knew which satellites were plugged into which countries. So, you would move the dish until you picked up a country that looked good and watch it for a few days or months until you moved the dish again. Sometimes you landed on your own country, most times you didn't. But, it was fun and all countries have unique television programs that aren't seen in other countries.

The popularity of satellite television started to explode when people became aware of the channels and capabilities of the satellite systems. That's when the providers of satellite television got busy. They sent up a bunch of geostationary satellites that orbit at the same speed as earth. So, they don't move, well they move but not really. Anyway, the ability to pick up channels got lots easier and the reception got way better. Very cool stuff for people who had become addicted to satellite early on.

Well, nine foot dishes just have never really caught on as a yard ornament in cities and they wanted satellite television also. So, satellite providers came up with little'" dishes that could be put just about anywhere on a house with a clear southern exposure and started beaming programs from all of the satellites to the dishes. No more calling the neighbors to move the dish, just a little dish stuck on the side of a building that was easy to move and 500 or so channels to choose from.

Cities had a problem with the little dishes because hardly anybody has an unblocked south view. That's when they came up with "spot beams." So, the satellites shoot a signal to the spot beam, that shoots a signal to the dish, that shoots a signal to a television. Okay, it's way more scientific than that, but this is the short version, and you get the picture.

The system runs on radio signals that are sent digitally encoded. The guys figured out that they could send more channels through the same bandwidth using this strategies. This is why over five hundred channels are available at any time, twenty-four hours a day. Improvements and advancements continue to be made that are making the dishes smaller and more powerful. It's actually amazing how the whole system works.

So there you have it. The very unscientific answer to the question how does satellite TV work.

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