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How does satellite TV work? There is a long version that is very scientific and a shorter version that is more interesting. We’ll stick with the shorter version. The very first satellite for TV was shot into orbit in’62. So, there has been a lot of advances made to the technology behind satellites since then. And, we have benefited from all of those advances.

The old nine foot satellite dishes came with remote controls that were quickly lost. These satellites are still around because they have a forever life expectancy and work great. People who use them now just have the neighbors come over and help move the dish when they want to change satellites. They sit as a monument in most back yards. Big, grey, daunting. But, they have, and continue to, provide a superb picture on any television.

The really great thing about these dishes, besides the fact that it was a great excuse not to mow half the back yard, was that you could get programs from other countries. For instance, someone in California could get programming from Canada. Or, when the satellites shifted you could get programs from other countries depending on which satellite you landed on.

Once the satellites became more popular, providers started shooting satellites with transponders up regularly. These geostationary satellites orbit at the same speed as the earth so they don’t seem to be moving. This made reception even better and it was lots easier to find channels and countries because the satellites were identified. As people became more knowledgeable about where satellites were located they started creating their own programming guides. Those have now been replaced with the onscreen guides provided by the satellites.

Well, nine foot dishes just have never really caught on as a yard ornament in cities and they wanted satellite television also. So, satellite providers came up with little’” dishes that could be put just about anywhere on a house with a clear southern exposure and started beaming programs from all of the satellites to the dishes. No more calling the neighbors to move the dish, just a little dish stuck on the side of a building that was easy to move and 500 or so channels to choose from.

In cities however, obstruction was a problem and that is how “spot beams” were born. The satellites beam a signal to the spot beam, that beams a signal to the dish, that beams a signal to the receiver. This solved the problem of getting a signal just about anywhere in a metropolitan area easily.

The system runs on radio signals that are sent digitally encoded. The guys figured out that they could send more channels through the same bandwidth using this strategies. This is why over five hundred channels are available at any time, twenty-four hours a day. Improvements and advancements continue to be made that are making the dishes smaller and more powerful. It’s actually amazing how the whole system works.

If you’d like to learn more about how does satellite TV work there are many websites that have all of the scientific information about each part of the system. However, sometimes a short version followed by a satellite broadcast movie is better.

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