2. Satellite Television

3. A very brief history of satellites Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite launched by the Russians on October 4, 1957. It contained a thermometer, a battery, a radio transmitter and some nitrogen gas to maintain the pressure. Its story ended 92 days later when gravity finally took over and Sputnik burned in the atmosphere. This is a modern television satellite, used to transmit signals it received from the earth to another location on the planet.

4. Some facts about TV satellites Television satellites are geostationary Geostationary objects orbit at an altitude of 35,786 km above Earth with a velocity of about 11,300 kph (orbit time: 24h) [Moon: 384,400 km; 3,700 kph; orbit time 27.322 days] The most important part of a TV satellite is the transponder – it receives data on one frequency, amplifies it and sends it back to Earth on another frequency. A typical satellite contains thousands of transponders.

5. How does Satellite TV work? (Part 1) footprint: geographical area covered by a satellite, as shown in the graphic The closer you live to the centre of the footprint, the better reception you get – which means you need a smaller satellite dish than users located in the outer areas of the footprint.

6. How does Satellite TV work? (Part 2) broadcast station uplink downlink satellite (amplifies the received signals and sends them to his footprint area) home user using a satellite dish to receive the signals

7. To watch satellite TV, you need the following: satellite dish (radius depending of location) receiver (decodes the signal and makes sure you pay for what you get by regularly contacting the service provider) TV set (to watch the stuff you‘re receiving all day) How does Satellite TV work? (Part 3) +- worldwide availabilitypricey equipment hundreds of channels outages may occur during rainy days (when you need it most...) good picture quality

8. THE END.