Satelite Television. Satelite Television: How Satelite TV Works, brief history and overview of Satelite Television, facts and more...

Satelite television, like other communications relayed by satelite, starts with a transmitting antenna located at an uplink facility. Uplink satelite dishes are directed toward the satellite that its signals will be transmitted to, and are very large, as much as 9 to 12 meters (30 to 40 feet) in diameter.

The satelite signal, quite weak after travelling through space, is collected by a parabolic receiving dish, which reflects the weak signal to the dish's focal point and is received, down-converted to a lower frequency band and amplified by a device called a low-noise block downconverter, or LNB (Direct broadcast satelite dishes use an LNBF, which integrates the feedhorn with the LNB).

The signal, now amplified, travels to a satelite receiver box through coaxial cable (RG-6 or RG-10; cannot be standard RG-59) and is converted by a local oscillator to the L-Band range of frequencies (approximately). Special on-board electronics in the receiver box help tune the signal and then convert it to a frequency that a standard television can use.