Television receive-only (TVRO) is a term used chiefly in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
,
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...
to refer to the reception of
satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna com ...
from
FSS-type satellites, generally on
C-band analog;
free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...
and unconnected to a commercial
DBS provider. TVRO was the main means of consumer satellite reception in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
until the mid-1990s with the arrival of
direct-broadcast satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...
services such as
PrimeStar
PrimeStar was a U.S. direct broadcast satellite broadcasting company formed in 1991 by a consortium of cable television system operators ( TCI Satellite Entertainment Group, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Comcast and MediaOne) and GE A ...
,
USSB,
Bell Satellite TV
Bell Satellite TV (french: Bell Télé; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite television ser ...
,
DirecTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...
,
Dish Network
DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling ...
,
Sky TV that transmit K
u signals. While these services are at least theoretically based on open standards (
DVB-S
Digital Video Broadcasting – Satellite (DVB-S) is the original DVB standard for Satellite Television and dates from 1995, in its first release, while development lasted from 1993 to 1997. The first commercial applications was by Star TV in Asia ...
,
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 (a.k.a. H.222/H.262 as was defined by the ITU) is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods, ...
,
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related t ...
), the majority of services are encrypted and require proprietary decoder hardware. TVRO systems relied on feeds being transmitted unencrypted and using open standards, which heavily contrasts to DBS systems in the region.
The term is also used to refer to receiving digital television "
backhaul" feeds from FSS-type satellites. Reception of free-to-air satellite signals, generally
Ku band Digital Video Broadcasting
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) ...
, for home viewing is still common in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
, although the TVRO nomenclature was never used there. Free-to-air satellite signals are also very common in the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
, as many rural locations cannot receive
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
and solely rely on satellites to deliver television signals to individual homes.
"Big ugly dish"
The term "BUD" (big ugly dish) is a
colloquialism
Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conversa ...
for
C-Band satellite dish
A satellite dish is a dish-shaped type of parabolic antenna designed to receive or transmit information by radio waves to or from a communication satellite. The term most commonly means a dish which receives direct-broadcast satellite televisio ...
es used by TVRO systems. BUDs range from 4 to 16 feet in diameter, with the most popular large size being 10 feet. The name comes from their perception as an
eyesore.
History
TVRO systems were originally marketed in the late 1970s. On October 18, 1979, the FCC began allowing people to have home satellite earth stations without a federal government license.
[The "Glory Days" of Satellite](_blank)
The dishes were nearly in diameter,
were remote controlled,
and could only pick up HBO signals from one of two satellites.
Originally, the dishes used for satellite TV reception were 12 to 16 feet in diameter and made of solid
fiberglass
Fiberglass ( American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cl ...
with an embedded metal coating, with later models being 4 to 10 feet and made of
wire
Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm
A wire is a flexible strand of metal.
Wire is co ...
mesh
A mesh is a barrier made of connected strands of metal, fiber, or other flexible or ductile materials. A mesh is similar to a web or a net in that it has many attached or woven strands.
Types
* A plastic mesh may be extruded, oriented, exp ...
and solid
steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...
or
aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
.
[ Early dishes cost more than $5,000, and sometimes as much as $10,000. The wider the dish was, the better its ability to provide adequate channel reception. Programming sent from ground stations was relayed from 18 satellites in ]geostationary orbit
A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitu ...
located 22,300 miles above the Earth. The dish had to be pointed directly at the satellite, with nothing blocking the signal. Weaker signals required larger dishes.
The dishes worked by receiving a low-power C-Band (3.7–4.2 GHz) frequency-modulated analog signal directly from the original distribution satellite – the same signal received by cable television headends. Because analog channels took up an entire transponder
In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''.
In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...
on the satellite, and each satellite had a fixed number of transponders, dishes were usually equipped with a modified polar mount and actuator
An actuator is a component of a machine that is responsible for moving and controlling a mechanism or system, for example by opening a valve. In simple terms, it is a "mover".
An actuator requires a control device (controlled by control signal) a ...
to sweep the dish across the horizon to receive channels from multiple satellites. Switching between horizontal and vertical polarization was accomplished by a small electric servo motor that moved a probe inside the feedhorn
A feed horn (or feedhorn) is a small horn antenna used to couple a waveguide to e.g. a parabolic dish antenna or offset dish antenna for reception or transmission of microwave. A typical application is the use for satellite television rece ...
throat at the command of the receiver (commonly called a "polarotor" setup). Higher-end receivers did this transparently, switching polarization and moving the dish automatically as the user changed channels.
By Spring of 1984, 18 C-Band satellites were in use for United States domestic communications, owned by five different companies.
The retail price for satellite receivers soon dropped, with some dishes costing as little as $2,000 by mid-1984. Dishes pointing to one satellite were even cheaper. Once a user paid for a dish, it was possible to receive even premium movie channels, raw feeds of news broadcasts or television stations from other areas. People in areas without local broadcast stations, and people in areas without cable television, could obtain good-quality reception with no monthly fees. Two open questions existed about this practice: whether the Communications Act of 1934
The Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal law signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 19, 1934 and codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, et seq. The Act replaced the Federal Radio Commission wit ...
applied as a case of "unauthorized reception" by TVRO consumers; and to what it extent it was legal for a service provider to encrypt their signals in an effort to prevent its reception.
The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984
The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 (codified at ) was an act of Congress passed on October 30, 1984 to promote competition and deregulate the cable television industry. The act established a national policy for the regulation of cable tel ...
clarified all of these matters, making the following legal:
* Reception of unencrypted satellite signals by a consumer
* Reception of encrypted satellite signals by a consumer, when they have received authorization to legally decrypt it
This created a framework for the wide deployment of encryption on analog satellite signals. It further created a framework (and implicit mandate to provide) subscription services to TVRO consumers to allow legal decryption of those signals. HBO and Cinemax became the first two services to announce intent to encrypt their satellite feeds late in 1984. Others were strongly considering doing so as well. Where cable providers could compete with TVRO subscription options, it was thought this would provide sufficient incentive for competition.
HBO and Cinemax began encrypting their west coast feeds services with VideoCipher II
VideoCipher is a brand name of analog scrambling and de-scrambling equipment for cable and satellite television invented primarily to enforce Television receive-only (TVRO) satellite equipment to only receive TV programming on a subscription basis ...
12 hours a day early in 1985, then did the same with their east coast feeds by August. The two networks began scrambling full time on January 15, 1986, which in many contemporary news reports was called "S-Day". This met with much protest from owners of big-dish systems, most of which had no other option at the time for receiving such channels. As required by the Cable Communications Policy act of 1984, HBO allowed dish owners to subscribe directly to their service, although at a price ($12.95 per month) higher than what cable subscribers were paying. This sentiment, and a collapse in the sales of TVRO equipment in early 1986, led to the April 1986 attack on HBO's transponder on Galaxy 1
Galaxy 1 was the first in a line of Galaxy communications satellites launched by Hughes Communications in 1983.
It helped fill a hole in satellite broadcasting bandwidth created by the loss of RCA's Satcom 3 in 1979. Unlike satellite owners ...
. Dish sales went down from 600,000 in 1985 to 350,000 in 1986, but pay television services were seeing dishes as something positive since some people would never have cable service, and the industry was starting to recover as a result. Through 1986, other channels that began full time encryption included Showtime and The Movie Channel
The Movie Channel (TMC) is an American premium television network owned by Showtime Networks, a subsidiary of Paramount Global operated through its Media Networks unit. The network's programming mainly features first-run theatrically released ...
on May 27, and CNN and CNN Headline News
HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the network primarily carries true crime programming.
The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982 by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News ...
on July 1. Scrambling would also lead to the development of pay-per-view
Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast.
Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program g ...
, as demonstrated by the early adoption of encryption by Request Television, and Viewer's Choice. Channels scrambled (encrypted) with VideoCipher and VideoCipher II could be defeated, and there was a black market
A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the ...
for illegal descramblers.
By the end of 1987, 16 channels had employed encryption with another 7 planned in the first half of 1988. Packages that offered reduced rates for channels in bulk had begun to appear. At this time, the vast majority of analog satellite TV transponders still were not encrypted. On November 1, 1988, NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
began scrambling its C-band signal but left its Ku band signal unencrypted in order for affiliates to not lose viewers who could not see their advertising. Most of the two million satellite dish users in the United States still used C-band. ABC and CBS were considering scrambling, though CBS was reluctant due to the number of people unable to receive local network affiliate
In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or ...
s.
The growth of dishes receiving Ku band signals in North America was limited by the Challenger disaster, since 75 satellites were to be launched prior to the suspension of the Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program n ...
program. Only seven Ku band satellites were in use.
In addition to encryption, DBS services such as PrimeStar
PrimeStar was a U.S. direct broadcast satellite broadcasting company formed in 1991 by a consortium of cable television system operators ( TCI Satellite Entertainment Group, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Comcast and MediaOne) and GE A ...
had been reducing the popularity for TVRO systems since the early 1990s. Signals from DBS satellites (operating in the more recent Ku band) are higher in both frequency and power (due to improvements in the solar panel
A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...
s and energy efficiency of modern satellites) and therefore require much smaller dishes than C-band, and the digital
Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits.
Technology and computing Hardware
*Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals
** Digital camera, which captures and stores digital ...
signals now used require far less signal strength
In telecommunications, particularly in radio frequency engineering, signal strength refers to the transmitter power output as received by a reference antenna at a distance from the transmitting antenna. High-powered transmissions, such as those u ...
at the receiver, resulting in a lower cost of entry. Each satellite also can carry up to 32 transponders in the Ku band, but only 24 in the C band, and several digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compres ...
s can be multiplex
Multiplex may refer to:
* Multiplex (automobile), a former American car make
* Multiplex (comics), a DC comic book supervillain
* Multiplex (company), a global contracting and development company
* Multiplex (assay), a biological assay which measu ...
ed (MCPC) or carried separately ( SCPC) on a single transponder. General advances, such as HEMT
A high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT), also known as heterostructure FET (HFET) or modulation-doped FET (MODFET), is a field-effect transistor incorporating a junction between two materials with different band gaps (i.e. a heterojunction ...
, in noise reduction
Noise reduction is the process of removing noise from a signal. Noise reduction techniques exist for audio and images. Noise reduction algorithms may distort the signal to some degree. Noise rejection is the ability of a circuit to isolate an u ...
at microwave frequencies have also had an effect. However, a consequence of the higher frequency used for DBS services is rain fade Rain fade refers primarily to the absorption of a microwave radio frequency (RF) signal by atmospheric rain, snow
Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, ...
where viewers lose signal during a heavy downpour. C-band's immunity to rain fade is one of the major reasons the system is still used as the preferred method for television broadcasters to distribute their signal.
Popularity
TVRO systems were most popular in rural
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are de ...
areas, beyond the broadcast range
A broadcast range (also listening range or listening area for radio, or viewing range or viewing area for television) is the service area that a broadcast station or other transmission covers via radio waves (or possibly infrared light, which is ...
of most local television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...
s. The mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...
ous terrain
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...
of West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
, for example, makes reception of over-the-air television broadcast
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wi ...
s (especially in the higher UHF
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
frequencies) very difficult. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s DBS systems were not available, and cable television systems of the time only carried a few channels, resulting in a boom in sales of systems in the area, which led to the systems being termed the "West Virginia state flower". The term was regional, known mostly to those living in West Virginia and surrounding areas. Another reason was the large sizes of the dishes. The first satellite systems consisted of "BUDs" twelve to sixteen feet in diameter. They became much more popular in the mid-1980s when dish sizes decreased to about six to ten feet, but have always been a source of much consternation (even local zoning
Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...
disputes) due to their perception as an eyesore. Neighborhood
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...
s with restrictive covenant
A covenant, in its most general sense and historical sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. Under historical English common law, a covenant was distinguished from an ordinary contract by the presence of a s ...
s usually still prohibit this size of dish, except where such restrictions are illegal. Support for systems dried up when strong encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can d ...
was introduced around 1994. Many long-disconnected dishes still occupy their original spots.
TVRO on ships
The term TVRO has been in use on ships since it was introduced in the 1980s. One early provider of equipment was SeaTel with its first generation of stabilized satellite antennas that was launched in 1985, the TV-at-Sea 8885 system. Until this time ships had not been able to receive television signals from satellites due to their rocking motion rendering reception impossible. The SeaTel antenna however was stabilized using electrically driven gyroscopes and thus made it possible to point to the satellite accurately enough, that is to within 2°, in order to receive a signal. The successful implementation of stabilised TVRO systems on ships immediately led to the development of maritime VSAT
A very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) is a two-way satellite ground station with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3.8 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range from 75 cm to 1.2 m. Bit rates, in most cases, range from 4 kbit/s up to 1 ...
systems. The second generation of SeaTel TVRO systems came in 1994 and was the 2494 antenna, which got its gyro signal from the ship rather than its own gyros, improving accuracy and reducing maintenance.
As of 2010, SeaTel continues to dominate the market for stabilized TVRO systems and has according to the Comsys group, a market share of 75%. Other established providers of stabilised satellite antennas are Intellian, KNS, Orbit, EPAK and KVH.
Current uses
Most of the free analogue channels that BUDs were built to receive have been taken offline. Due to the number of systems in existence, their lack of usefulness, and because many people consider them an eyesore, used BUDs can be purchased for very little money. As of 2009, there are 23 C-band satellites and 38 Ku/Ka band satellites.
There were over 150 channels for people who want to receive subscription channels on a C-band dish via Motorola's 4DTV equipment via two vendor
Satellite Receivers Ltd (SRL)
an
Skyvision
The 4DTV subscription system shutdown on August 16, 2016.
The dishes themselves can be modified to receive free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...
and DBS signals. The stock
In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a compan ...
LNBs fitted to typical BUDs will usually need to be replaced with one of a lower noise temperature
In electronics, noise temperature is one way of expressing the level of available noise power introduced by a component or source. (This is to be distinguished from Temperature Noise in Thermodynamics or Principal Interferrometric Analysis Over C ...
to receive digital broadcasts. With a suitable replacement LNB (provided there is no warping of the reflector) a BUD can be used to receive free-to-air (FTA) and DBS signals. Several companies market LNBs, LNBFs, and adaptor collars for big-dish systems. For receiving FTA signals the replacement should be capable of dual C/Ku reception with linear polarization
In electrodynamics, linear polarization or plane polarization of electromagnetic radiation is a confinement of the electric field vector or magnetic field vector to a given plane along the direction of propagation. The term ''linear polarizati ...
, for DBS it will need a high band Ku LNBF using circular polarization
In electrodynamics, circular polarization of an electromagnetic wave is a polarization state in which, at each point, the electromagnetic field of the wave has a constant magnitude and is rotating at a constant rate in a plane perpendicular to ...
. Older mesh dishes with perforations larger than 5mm are inefficient at Ku frequencies, because the smaller wavelength
In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats.
It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tr ...
s will pass through them. Solid fiberglass dishes usually contain metal mesh with large-diameter perforations as a reflector and are usually unsuitable for anything other than C band.
Large dishes have higher antenna gain
In electromagnetics, an antenna's gain is a key performance parameter which combines the antenna's directivity and radiation efficiency. The term ''power gain'' has been deprecated by IEEE. In a transmitting antenna, the gain describes ho ...
, which can be an advantage when used with DBS signals such as Dish Network
DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling ...
and DirecTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...
, virtually eliminating rain fade. Restored dishes fitted with block upconverters can be used to transmit signals as well. BUDs can still be seen at antenna farms for these reasons, so that video
Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) sy ...
and backhauls can be sent to and from the television network
A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid ...
with which a station is affiliated, without interruption due to inclement weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the ...
. BUDs are also still useful for picking-up weak signals at the edge of a satellite's broadcast "footprint" – the area at which a particular satellite is aimed. For this reason, BUDs are helpful in places like Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...
, or parts of the Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...
.
Modern equivalents
Large parabolic antenna
A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called a dish antenna or par ...
s similar to BUDs are still in production. New dishes differ in their construction and materials. New mesh dishes have much smaller perforations and solid dishes are now made with steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...
instead of fiberglass. New systems usually include a universal LNB that is switched electronically between horizontal and vertical polarization, obviating the need for a failure-prone polar rotor. As a complete system they have a much lower noise temperature than old BUDs, and are generally better for digital Ku reception. The prices of these dishes have fallen dramatically since the first BUDs were produced for several thousand dollars to as little as $200 for an 8 ft mesh started BUD sold on eBay or amazon as of 2014.6.5' Fortec Star with Polar Mount
/ref> Typical uses for these systems include receiving free-to-air and subscription services.
See also
*Direct-broadcast satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...
* Polar mount
References
External links
rec.video.satellite.tvro FAQ
Part 4
* ttp://www.geo-orbit.org/sizepgs/tuningp2.html How to set up and align a BUDbr>North American seller of 8ft, 10ft, 12ft and 13.5ft mesh TVRO antennas
US satellite TV subscription provider for BUDs
Canadian satellite TV subscription provider for BUDs
Satellite Charts and Forum for C-Band Satellite users in North America
{{DEFAULTSORT:Television Receive-Only
Television technology
Broadcast engineering
Radio frequency antenna types
Antennas (radio)
Satellite television
History of television
Television terminology