Automatic Tracking Satellite Dishes are
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 televisi ...
es used while a vehicle, boat or ship is in motion. Automatic tracking satellite dishes utilize
gyroscopes
A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rotat ...
,
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...
position sensors, and uses unique satellite identification data and an integrated
DVB decoder to aid in identification of the satellite that it is pointing at.
The dishes consist usually of
stepper motor
A stepper motor, also known as step motor or stepping motor, is a brushless DC electric motor that divides a full rotation into a number of equal steps. The motor's position can be commanded to move and hold at one of these steps without any po ...
s to drive and aim the dish,
gyroscopes
A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rotat ...
to detect changes in position while the vehicle is in motion, a
parabolic reflector
A parabolic (or paraboloid or paraboloidal) reflector (or dish or mirror) is a reflective surface used to collect or project energy such as light, sound, or radio waves. Its shape is part of a circular paraboloid, that is, the surface generat ...
,
low-noise block converter
A low-noise block downconverter (LNB) is the receiving device mounted on satellite dishes used for satellite TV reception, which collects the radio waves from the dish and converts them to a signal which is sent through a cable to the receiver ...
, and control unit.
They can use also shifted
Phased array
In antenna theory, a phased array usually means an electronically scanned array, a computer-controlled array of antennas which creates a beam of radio waves that can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving t ...
s. (example:
Starlink Dish).
Manufacturers
* Winegard Company
* KVH Industries
* Sea Tel
* Orbit Technology Group
* Ten-Haaft
Aerial Solutions Ivybridge
/ref>
* SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...
: Starlink Dish
See also
* USALS = Universal Satellites Automatic Location System
* DiSEqC = Digital Satellite Equipment Control
* SAT>IP end user consumer equipment that can switch different ip streams from different SAT>IP servers and facilitates selection of reception from different satellites
* Duo LNB
* Monoblock LNB
A monoblock (or monobloc) LNB is a type of low-noise block downconverter used in communications satellite reception, this multiple combined LNBs is the simplest solution to achieve multifeed reception for two, three or four satellites.
This desi ...
* DiSEqC
DiSEqC (; short for Digital Satellite Equipment Control) is a special communication protocol for use between a satellite receiver and a device such as a multi-dish switch or a small dish antenna rotor. DiSEqC was developed by European satellite ...
* Motor-driven Satellite dish
* Starlink Dish
* 6°oF
* Phased array
In antenna theory, a phased array usually means an electronically scanned array, a computer-controlled array of antennas which creates a beam of radio waves that can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving t ...
References
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Radio frequency antenna types
Satellite broadcasting
Antennas (radio)