CHAPTER ONE
1.0                                                        INTRODUCTION
Satellite television is delivering television programming using signals relayed from space radio stations (e.g. DVB satellites). The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic reflector antenna usually referred to as a satellite dish and a low-noise block down converter (LNB). A satellite receiver then decodes the desired television programme for viewing on a television set. Receivers can be external set-top boxes, or a built-in television tuner. Satellite television provides a wide range of channels and services, especially to geographic areas without terrestrial television or cable television.
The most common method of reception is direct-broadcast satellite television (DBSTV), also known as "direct to home" (DTH). In DBSTV systems, signals are relayed from a direct broadcast satellite on the Ku wavelength and are completely digital. Satellite TV systems formerly used systems known as television receive-only. These systems received analog signals transmitted in the C-band spectrum from FSS type satellites, and required the use of large dishes. Consequently, these systems were nicknamed "big dish" systems, and were more expensive and less popular.
The direct-broadcast satellite television signals were earlier analog signals and later digital signals, both of which require a compatible receiver. Digital signals may include high-definition television (HDTV). Some transmissions and channels are unencrypted and therefore free-to-air or free-to-view, while many other channels are transmitted with encryption, requiring a subscription.
Satellite television, like other communications relayed by satellite, starts with a transmitting antenna located at an uplink facility. Uplink satellite dishes are very large, as much as 9 to 12 meters (30 to 40 feet) in diameter. The increased diameter results in more accurate aiming and increased signal strength at the satellite. The uplink dish is pointed toward a specific satellite and the uplinked signals are transmitted within a specific frequency range, so as to be received by one of the transponders tuned to that frequency range aboard that satellite. The transponder 'retransmits' the signals back to Earth but at a different frequency band (a process known as translation, used to avoid interference with the uplink signal), typically in the C-band (4–8 GHz) or Ku-band (12–18 GHz) or both. The leg of the signal path from the satellite to the receiving Earth station.
A typical satellite has up to 32 transponders for Ku-band and up to 24 for a C-band only satellite, or more for hybrid satellites. Typical transponders each have a bandwidth between 27 and 50 MHz. Each geostationary C-band satellite needs to be spaced 2° from the next satellite to avoid interference; for Ku the spacing can be 1°. This means that there is an upper limit of 360/2 = 180 geostationary C-band satellites or 360/1 = 360 geostationary Ku-band satellites. C-band transmission is susceptible to terrestrial interference while Ku-band transmission is affected by rain (as water is an excellent absorber of microwaves at this particular frequency). The latter is even more adversely affected by ice crystals in thunder clouds.
On occasion, sun outage will occur when the sun lines up directly behind the geostationary satellite the reception antenna is pointing to. The down linked satellite signal, quite weak after traveling the great distance is collected with a parabolic receiving dish, which reflects the weak signal to the dish's focal point. Mounted on brackets at the dish's focal point is a device called a feed horn or collector. The feed horn is essentially the flared front-end of a section of waveguide that gathers the signals at or near the focal point and 'conducts' them to a probe or pickup connected to a low-noise block down converter or LNB. The LNB amplifies the relatively weak signals, filters the block of frequencies in which the satellite television signals are transmitted, and converts the block of frequencies to a lower frequency range in the L-band range.
In this work, the frequency of free-to-air satellite was determined with foot print using KU band. The background of the free-to-air is discussed as below.

1.1                                         BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
Satellite TV has been around for years, as an avenue to watch 24hrs television with diverse programming, and also to listen to crystal clear radio with various content. For years, satellite TV in Africa meant DSTV, that very expensive, but unbelievably entertaining outfit from South Africa. But because most people couldn’t afford their setup, let alone the monthly subscription, people began looking at alternatives that was what drove the need for ‘Free-to-Air television’. While it was adequate for some purposes, it was very limited, one very annoying problems about arabsat was that it was analog so the pictures were pretty poor and sometimes some channels would cross into each other, and most of the channels were in Arabic, with very little entertainment value for us over here. It became known unofficially as the poor people’s DSTV.
These days however, when one talks of F.T.A, to someone who knows about it, it means a world of unbelievable and almost unlimited opportunities. The advent of what is termed D.V.B (digital video broadcasting) helped spur satellite TV to new heights and F.T.A also tagged along for the ride. While making the content on most satellite TV to be of crystal clear quality and unbelievable diversity, it also makes it possible to broadcast several streams on one ‘feed’, so that one provider can pay for just one frequency on a satellite and then broadcast and several ‘channels’ containing diverse programming, movies, music, news, documentaries, e.t.c, and that is just one frequency, you can have up to 40 frequencies from one particular satellite. However, most of these broadcasts are actually pay-tv, but there are always a few channels which are not encrypted so that one can get these at no cost.
So while a lot of people are into F.T.A because of the cost (or lack of it) a lot more, who may have the money, are in it just for the fun of it because apart from TV and radio, DVB also helps broadcast streams for internet traffic.
In this work, the frequency of satellite is determined with foot print, which  is the ground area that its transponders offer coverage, and determines the satellite dish diameter required to receive each transponder's signal. There is usually a different map for each transponder (or group of transponders), as each may be aimed to cover different areas. Footprint usually show either the estimated minimum satellite dish diameter required or the signal strength in each area measured in dBW.

1.2                                             OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
The main objective of this work is to determine frequency for free-to-air (FTA) satellite stations on all satellites with foot print covering a particular area on the KU-band.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
The main purpose of this work is to determine the frequency of free-to-air satellite on the ku-band. The ku band is used because Ku frequency is designated solely for communications use via satellite. That means no competition or signal interference from other communications systems.
Typically, the Ku band operates at a higher frequency (11.7 - 12.2Ghz) for downlinks and (14.0 - 14.5Ghz) for uplinks. This higher frequency produces a signal with a shorter wavelength that's more powerful and focused.
With greater power and a more focused signal, a smaller satellite dish can be used to receive service. Usually all that's needed is a 1.2 or 1.8 meter dish for most locations. That's about 4 or 6 feet in diameter, depending upon the service location in relation to the satellite delivering the signal. Consequently, the ku-band is excellent in delivering spot beam coverage from the satellite.

1.4                                         SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
This work is based on KU-band, Compared with C-band, KU band is not similarly restricted in power to avoid interference with terrestrial microwave systems, and the power of its uplinks and downlinks can be increased. This higher power also translates into smaller receiving dishes and points out a generalization between a satellite's transmission and a dish's size. As the power increases, the dish's size can decrease. This is because the purpose of the dish element of the antenna is to collect the incident waves over an area and focus them all onto the antenna's actual receiving element, mounted in front of the dish (and pointed back towards its face); if the waves are more intense, fewer of them need to be collected to achieve the same intensity at the receiving element.
Also, as frequencies increase, parabolic reflectors become more efficient at focusing them. The focusing is equivalent given the size of the reflector is the same with respect to the wavelength. At 12 GHz a 1-meter dish is capable of focusing on one satellite while sufficiently rejecting the signal from another satellite only 2 degrees away. This is important because satellites in FSS (Fixed Satellite Service) service (11.7-12.2 GHz are only 2 degrees apart. At 4 GHz (C-band) a 3-meter dish is required to achieve this narrow of a focus beam. Note the inverse linear correlation between dish size and frequency.
In determining the frequency of free-to-air, KU band also offers a user more flexibility. A smaller dish size and a KU band system's freedom from terrestrial operations simplify finding a suitable dish site. For the end users KU band is generally cheaper and enables smaller antennas (both because of the higher frequency and a more focused beam). KU band is also less vulnerable to rain fade than the Ka band frequency spectrum.
The satellite operator's Earth Station antenna does require more accurate position control when operating at KU band due to its much narrower focus beam compared to C band for a dish of a given size. Position feedback accuracies are higher and the antenna may require a closed loop control system to maintain position under wind loading of the dish surface.

1.5                                           LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT
There are, however, some disadvantages of KU band system. Especially at frequencies higher than 10 GHz in heavy rainfall areas, a noticeable degradation occurs, due to the problems caused by and proportional to the amount of rainfall (commonly known as "rain fade"). This problem can be mitigated, however, by deploying an appropriate link budget strategy when designing the satellite network, and allocating a higher power consumption to compensate rain fade loss. The KU band is not only used for television transmission, which some sources imply, but also very much for digital data transmission via satellites, and for voice/audio transmissions.
The higher frequency spectrum of the KU band is particularly susceptible to signal degradation, considerably more so than C-band satellite frequency spectrum. A similar phenomenon, called "snow fade" can also occur during winter precipitation. Also, the KU band satellites typically require considerably more power to transmit than the C-band satellites. Under both "rain fade" and "snow fade" conditions, Ka and KU band losses can be marginally reduced using super-hydrophobic Lotus effect coatings. Moreover, snow fade is caused not only by snow accumulation on the antenna, but also by attenuation caused by airborne snow along the RF signal path.
Ku-band satellite equipment costs about half as much as C-band equipment. Also, because KU service utilizes more powerful transponders on the satellite for operation, bandwidth capacity is more expensive which means that KU band service packages generally cost more.

REFERENCES

 

• "NASA Spacecraft Becomes First to Orbit a Dwarf Planet". NASA.
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• "Global Experts Agree Action Needed on Space Debris". European Space Agency. 25 April 2013.
• "UCS Satellite Database". UCS Satellite Database. Union of Concerned Scientists. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
• Cain, Fraser (24 October 2013). "How Many Satellites are in Space?". Universe Today.
• "Rockets in Science Fiction (Late 19th Century)". Marshall Space Flight Center. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
• Bleiler, Everett Franklin; Bleiler, Richard (1991). Science-fiction, the Early Years. Kent State University Press. p. 325. ISBN 978-0-87338-416-2.
• Rhodes, Richard (2000). Visions of Technology. Simon & Schuster. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-684-86311-5.
• "Is US Building A New Moon". Popular Science. May 1949.
• Gray, Tara; Garber, Steve (2 August 2004). "A Brief History of Animals in Space". NASA.
• "Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship". RAND. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
• Rosenthal, Alfred (1968). Venture Into Space: Early Years of Goddard Space Flight Center. NASA. p. 15.
• R.R. Carhart, Scientific Uses for a Satellite Vehicle, Project RAND Research Memorandum. (Rand Corporation, Santa Monica) February 12, 1954.
• 2. H.K Kallmann and W.W. Kellogg, Scientific Use of an Artificial Satellite, Project RAND Research Memorandum. (Rand Corporation, Santa Monica) June 8, 1955.
• Chang, Alicia (30 January 2008). "50th anniversary of first U.S. satellite launch celebrated". SFGate. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2008-02-01.
• Portree, David S. F.; Loftus, Jr, Joseph P. (1999). "Orbital Debris: A Chronology" (PDF). Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. p. 18. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
• "Orbital Debris Education Package" (PDF). Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 8, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
• "Spacecraft Query". NSSDC Master catalog. National Space Science Data Centre, NASA. Retrieved 2010-10-29. Note: In searching all satellites ("Spacecraft Name" = blank), a few near-future satellites are included in the results.

 

 

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