Cband uplink satellites

Sammughal

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Feb 7, 2020
68
26
Toronto Ontario Canada
How big are cband uplink satellite dishes ? Are they usually solid white dishes or can they be mesh dishes as well? How is a signal transmitted? like is an amplifier connected to the dish ? How powerful are uplink dishes? whats the difference between analog and digital uplink dishes? Are the actual dishes the same and the amplification equipment that is different or are the actual satellite dishes difference for analog a digital uplinks? Just trying to learn on how the technology works.
 
whats the difference between analog and digital uplink dishes?

Sam, they are the same! They just send send a signal! They never retired a dish to put up a new one to transmit digital!
 
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whats the difference between analog and digital uplink dishes?

Sam, they are the same! They just send send a signal! They never retired a dish to put up a new one to transmit digital!

Sorry I’m new to the hobby so I’m just learning slowly. Good to know about the information. I’m waiting to put up my purchased cband system with a 10 foot quadstar Winegard and chaparral cortor with c and ku lnb and venture actuator. Now I also picked up a small mesh 6 foot dish I can’t put up my dish for another few months but thinking to mess around with the little 6 foot dish and pointing it to AMC 11 at 131 W and seeing if I can view cspan it has a old LNA mounted on it and I can either use my GI or 922 for the analog signal gonna pull it out today.
 
There are no hard answers to part of your questions. Dish size for uplink varies by the composite bandwidth and power requirements and link budget calculations. The uplink can be a single small circuit, or hundreds of circuits. Yes they use microwave amplifiers in the 6 Ghz range. If you uplink hundreds of circuits, the power requirements would be huge if you do not have a very large dish. I have not seen one that did not have a solid surface, but mesh dishes may be out there if they can meet the tight standards required. Not all C band uplinks are for video, here in Alaska we use the band for telephony throughout the state there are no fiber backhauls to speak of. We use 15 meter dishes for the major uplinks, with most remote sites being 4.5 meters and the smallest at 2.4 meters.
 
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If you actually only have an LNA you need a downconverter between it and the receiver. That was my very first dish setup. You might just as well get a new LNB if this is the case.
 

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