How do satellite dishes for tv (Direct TV for example) communicate with satellites when there so small and pointed at a small area in the sky?
In: Technology
Noteworthy effects:
– you are just receiving. That makes it easier.
– There is not a whole lot of stuff between your dish and the satellite’s antennas that send the signal down to it. Just ~100km of air, the rest is empty space. Even though ~36000km sounds like a lot of distance.
– the dish gathers more of the signal and focuses it on the actual receiver. The bigger the better.
– the satellite is always in roughly the same spot so you can focus on it.
– I cannot find the exact numbers right now, but the TV satellite sends with at least 50 watts per channel, and has antennas that focus the energy on only a part of the planet (a continent usually)
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