Regarding the design of C-Band

[lilyarbie]

As far as I know, C-Band dishes since the 1970's have always been huge dishes. It makes sense to me that a high frequency signal in the upper GHZ range would need more surface to get a usable signal thus requiring a lot of metal surface for to collect the signal and bounce it back into the feedhorn. However, the Ku Band is a much higher frequency and only requires around 30 inches to have a good signal compared to a 72 to 96 inch C-band Dish (6-8feet). So why would a high frequency such as the Ku band require a smaller dish than that of the C-band? I know that the higher you go in frequency the more problems you have with getting a good signal due to attenuation. I also know that since satellite radios operate in the 2.3ghz S Band, they are able to have much smaller antennas. 2.3GHZ is not too far apart on the frequency spectrum from 3.0GHZ right? (difference of .07Ghz or 700mhz) so how do you go from a small antenna in the S-Band to a huge antenna in the C-Band to a much smaller than C-band but bigger than S-Band antenna for the Ku-Band? Just a couple of questions I've been pondering. Notice I don't have a degree in Physics or have a degree in calculus, so I might not understand signal pickup correctly????

 

[oljim]

POWER OUTPUT
some c band under 10 w DBS 100 -200 w

 

[lilyarbie]

Oh, ok it's dependent upon that?

So, it's basically dependent on the amount of power being used to push the signal out. Ku band has much more wattage backing its signal than C-band basically? Why don't they just increase the power on the sats? Was this original designated design for C-band was much lower wattage as to not interrupt other communications around that frequency, or is this just a standard that satellite producers adopted since the early 1970s?

 

[mkm4]

So, it's basically dependent on the amount of power being used to push the signal out. Ku band has much more wattage backing its signal than C-band basically? Why don't they just increase the power on the sats?

Because they won't last as long.

Was this original designated design for C-band was much lower wattage as to not interrupt other communications around that frequency, or is this just a standard that satellite producers adopted since the early 1970s?

Don't forget, it was never originally designed for the home viewer. Size didn't matter that much.