Two Types of Polarization

Circular Polarization

Circular polarization is a characteristic of radio waves that are transmitted from a satellite in space, in which the actual radio waves rotate in a spiral. The spiral of radio waves either rotates clockwise or counter clockwise. A great analogy of how circular radio waves approach your satellite dish (LNB) is by picturing an airplane propeller. The airplane propeller follows a specific path, but as it approaches the radio wave is spinning vertically.

Linear Polarization

Linear Polarization is the characteristic of radio wave in which the radio wave rotates on a single horizontal plane. A great analogy is instead of an airplane propeller, the radio wave approaches your satellite dish in the form of a helicopter rotor. The radio waves spin horizontally.

Besides the direction of the wave being either horizontal or vertical, satellite receivers usually only are able to work with one type of polarization. However, they are able to pick up both signals, the difference is about 50% loss in signal strength (-3dB).

Determining Polarization

Usually Linear Polarized LNB’s will use specific terms to describe their polarization. They are either “FSS” or “FTA”. You should also note that a Universal LNB is always linear. Circular polarized LNB’s usually use the terms “DSS” or “DBS” to denote that its satellite signal is polarized in nature.

The Ku band is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies ranging from 11.7 to 12.7GHz. (downlink frequencies) and 14 to 14.5GHz (uplink frequencies).

The most common Ku band digital reception format is DVB (main profile video format) .vs the studio profile digital video format or the full-blown Digicipher II 4DTV format.

The first commercial television network to extensively utilize the Ku Band for most of its affiliate feeds was NBC, back in 1983.

The ITU Region 2 segments covering the majority of the Americas are between 11.7 and 12.2 GHz, with over 21 FSS North American Ku-band satellites currently orbiting.

Each requires a 0.8-m to 1.5-m antenna and carries twelve to twenty four transponders, of which consume 20 to 120 watts (per transponder), for clear reception.

The 12.2 to 12.7 GHz segment of the Ku Band spectrum is allocated to the broadcasting satellite service (BSS). These direct broadcast satellites typically carry 16 to 32 transponders.

Each provides 27 MHz in bandwidth, and consumes 100 to 240 watts each, accommodating receiver antennas down to 450 mm (18 inches ).

The ITU Region 1 segments of the Ku spectrum represent Africa and Europe (11.45 to 11.7 GHz band range and 12.5 to 12.75 GHz band range) is reserved for the fixed satellite service (FSS), with the uplink frequency range between 14.0 and 14.5 GHz).

Ku Band Difficulties

When frequencies higher than 10 GHz are transmitted and received used in a heavy rain fall area, a noticeable degradation occurs, due to the problems caused by and proportional to the amount of rain fall (commonly known as known as “rain fade”).

This problem can be combatted, however, by deploying an appropriate link budget strategy when designing the satellite network, and allocating a higher power consumption to overcome rain fade loss. In terms of end-viewer TV reception,

it takes heavy rainfalls in excess of 100 mm per hour to have a noticeable effect.

The higher frequency spectrum of the Ku band is particularly susceptible to signal degradation- considerably more so than C band satellite frequency spectrum, though the Ku band is less vulnerable to rain fade than the Ka band frequency spectrum.

A similar phenomena, called “snow fade” (when snow accumulation significantly alters the focal point of your dish) can also occur during Winter Season.

Also, the Ku band satellites typically require considerably more power to transmit than the C band satellites. However, both Ku and Ka band satellite dishes to be smaller (varying in size from 2′ to 5′ in diameter.)

Ku Band Satellite Service Downlink Usage Frequency Range

The Ku band downlink uses frequencies between 11.7 and 12.7GHz.

The Ku band downlink frequencies are further subdivided according to their assigned use:

Ku Band Usage	Downlink
Fixed Satellite Service	11.7 – 12.2GHz
Broadcast Satellite Service	12.2 – 12.7GHz

Services that can be found on the Ku-band include educational networks, business networks, sports backhauls, tele- conferences, mobile news truck feeds, international programming, and various SCPC (Single Channel Per Carrier) transmissions of analog audio, as well as FM audio services.

If you already have a operational C-band system in place, you can retrofit it to accept Ku band frequencies.

In order to do so, you will need to obtain a Ku-band LNB as well as a C/Ku band feed-hon, plus some coax cable for your Ku-band LNB.

As for the coax cable recommended- RG-6 is optimal for low loss in the 950-1450 frequency range- what Ku-band LNB processes. However, if RG-59 is your only viable option, it’ll work in a pinch.

Ku Band Dish Antenna Compatibility

Iif you have a solid dish, you should have no problem converting from C band, to Ku band.

However, with a mesh dish- if the “holes” in the mesh are greater than a quarter inch, the chances of computability are not in your favor, due to the fact that your dish won’t reflect Ku-band signals properly.

Therefore, you’ll want to strongly consider upgrading to either a solid dish, or a mesh dish in which the hole size under 1/4″, and ideally you’ll want a dish that is 1 piece (or at least very few pieces); as 4 section dish is more optimal than an 8 section dish.

The fewer the sections, the more accurate your parabola shape is and thereby the more difficult it is for your dish to become warped (the smaller the number of seams- the better). And insofar as dish mounts go, the H2H (Horizon-to-Horizon) dish mount is more desirable than a polar mount.

This is due to the fact that the Ku-band demands that the dish antenna system is well-targeted and able to closely follow the orbital arc, of which the H2H mount does quite admirably, as compared to a polar mount. Also, bear in mind that you will be adjusting both the azimuth and elevation, which can be a bit tricky occasionally.

Importance of Satellite Antenna Dish Parabola

The parabolic shape of your dish is of critical importance, as warpage causes signal degradation via mis-reflection, seriously down-grading your overall system performance. Some tape and string is all that is required to do a quick warpage check and some tape.

Anchor a piece of string, stretched as tight as possible, “north” to “south” across your dish face, edge to edge. You’ll want to do the same thing again, with another piece of string, only “east” to “west” across the dish face- at 90 degree angles. Be sure that both strings are tight-

If the strings come together anywhere but the direct center, then your dish has sustained warp damage and needs to be bent back into proper parabola shape, for optimal performance. If they connect in the center of your dish, likely that your dish is not warped.

So therefore, you’ll want to use either the tri-supports or quad supports , as they will greatly assist in keeping your Ku-band feed-horn highly stable, even in high winds.

When your button-hook feed moving in the wind, your Ku-band reception can can easily drop out. By putting guy-wires on the button-hook feed, you’ll create the much-needed support, in the event you are not able to obtain a tri support or quad support.

Programming Source

The programming source is where it all begins for both satellite and cable TV. A programming source is a channel or station that offers its services to television providers. Some of the most popular programming sources are Scifi (now spelled SyFy), Fox, CNN, Lifetime, USA, and TNT. Programming sources pay writers and producers to create television shows and movies so that there is always something to watch on their channel. Television providers pay programming sources for the right to air their content along with content from other programming sources and sell the combined content to their customers.

Broadcast Center

The broadcast center is the grand central for television signals. The programming source beams its signal to its own satellite and then directs it back down to the television provider’s broadcast center. The broadcast center then interprets the data from the signal and makes modifications before beaming the signal up to its own satellite and then back down to thousands or even millions of individual homes around the world.

Satellite

The actual satellites used in satellite TV are very important considering both the programming source and the broadcast center rely on them to transfer data across extremely far distances. While satellites are not perfect and their signal can be interrupted by cloud cover, atmospheric conditions, and solar flares, they are the best means of technology that we have right now to transfer data across long distances without using cables. Furthermore, the higher the number of signals from different satellites that your dish can pick up at the same time, the better the reception will be.

Satellite Dish

The satellite dish is the device that sits on top of your home and it is responsible for picking up signals from one or more satellites, depending on how many the company have in the area. A satellite dish is just a large antenna that has been specifically designed for picking up signals from space. Satellite dishes used to take up the majority of a roof or yard but, thankfully, technology has allowed for us to compress them into the relatively small size that they are in today.

Receiver

The receiver is a small, usually black, box that is connected to your television set and is responsible for receiving signals from your satellite dish and then decoding them so that your TV can understand what the data means. The fta receiver often allows you to connect multiple TVs to it so that you do not have to have a separate receiver in each room of your house. The receiver and the satellite dish make up the “equipment” that your satellite TV provider may or not charge you for. Considering that this is a large part of the service that they are providing you with, it should not be an extra fee.

Encoding

As explained earlier, the broadcast center manipulates the data from the programming source before it beams it up to its satellites. One of the ways that it manipulates the data is by encoding it. Encoding refers to both converting the data to the MPEG-4 (MP4) file format as well compressing the data as much as possible to make data transfers faster and have better quality. While each satellite TV provider has its own methods of encoding the data, the general idea is the same.

Encryption

Another way that the broadcast center manipulates the data from the programming source is by encrypting the data. Encryption refers to scrambling the data so that people cannot access it without paying for the service. Encryption also uses security keys so that even if someone knew how to unscramble the data, they would still have to figure out the password. Imagine taking a picture of a beautiful landscape and then cutting the picture into hundreds of little pieces. You then write a number on the back of each piece so that you know which order they go in and then you put all of the tiny little pieces into a locked safe. That’s what encryption is.

•Homestream MPEG. Play movies from your PC on your Receiver via your Network
•Internet Movie. Download Movies from CNX Nano Premium website
•Internet Radio. Listen to online radio stations on your CNX Nano Premium
•WIFI READY. CNX Nano Premium can go wireless with optional WIFI adapter
•2x USB ports for MP3,JPEG viewer and PVR functions
•Built in LAN Internet Port
•High Quality Universal Remote
•Easy to use GUI / OSD

Features

• Home streaming
• Live IP Movie/Radio
• 2 x USB 2.0 Hosts (Access to HDD, USB memory, Others etc)
• Wi-Fi Ready (Optional)
• Universal Remote
• Built-In Ethernet Port
• MP3 File Play by USB 2.0
• PVR Ready via USB
• Recorded file play on PC
• Reservation Recoding by EPG function
• MPEG-II Digital & Fully DVB Compliant.
• C/KU band control for each antenna
• LNB Tone Switch 22KHz mode on/off’
• Multi-LNB controlled by DiSeqC =>DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and USALS
• Total 8,000 Channels Programmable
• Blind Scan
• Picture In Graphic (PIG)
• Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for On Screen Channel Information
• Multi-language supported for Menu and OSD
• Zoom Function by 2x…4x
• Parental Lock
• Closed Caption Support
• CVBS Video & Audio Output via RCA
• Component YUV Output via RCA
• 7-Segment(4-digit) Type of Front Panel Display
• Upgrade Software & Update Channel Database through USB 2.0 Port

There is many new features available on the Conaxsat Nano Premium including free movies over the internet, free radio over the internet as well as all of the usual free satellite TV channels. Get the New Conaxsat Nano Premium FTA FILES.

The price for a NFusion HD receiver at a time I purchased it was $450 and the price has dropped to $370 at this moment. Although the receiver is a HD receiver it needs additional equipment to receive HD channels, most satellite dealers now days will sell you the preinstalled 8Psk module for additional $60. At that time that the NFusion released this receiver they have been dealing with a lot of lawsuits from dish network and that is the reason why 8Psk module was not included in the price. Installing the module was very easy with the help of FTA professionals.

The black sleek finish is very pleasing on the eye and remote-control is very light and easy to use although the range of remote is very weak. But the only competitor Sonicview 8000 HD is dealing with the same remote control problems. Removing the front cover and adjusting the sensor helped out a little bit, some more expensive remote extenders will fix the problem.

After testing all the other FTA Satellite receivers I have to admit that this one is probably the easiest to set up. First thing you will see is your language option, then you will be asked if you would like to proceed using automated or manual set up. For first time users I would recommend the automated process as it makes it very simple, you will be asked to check mark the satellites that you have set up and then the receiver will automatically set up all your dish settings for you and scan for the available channels.

The menu display from factory settings is set up to orange but you can change it to blue in your user settings. The guide works very well and after pressing the F4 button it will populate seven day EPG which is very impressive compared to the other receivers. The channel surfing is very fast maybe even a little too fast but that can be adjusted in your user settings.

PVR option is also available and it works very well with all hard drives that I have tried, over the period of six months it failed to record about 10% of the shows programed to record. Yes it is not perfect but it will do the job.

USB plug-ins are available on the front and back which makes it much easier to hide your ugly cables for the hard drive in the back and use the front USB plug-in to update files when necessary. The receiver is equipped with the option to update files from the Internet but is not working very well so the best is just to use your USB stick. Simply go to FTA professionals NFusion HD files section and download the latest updated file to your USB stick and then using a remote-control update your receiver.

One of the most frequent question I have seen is if this receiver needs to be connected to Internet at all times?  And the answer is yes. Currently there is no standalone file available so the only option is Internet key sharing, Nfusion is running a public server so you will not need to pay any additional fees for that. Because this is a public server they are still having some issues when it becomes busy, mostly on weekends.

Another big question is how much freezing to expect?  Well overall it’s not bad, uptime is about 90% as long as you keep it up-to-date and have very good signal and quality from your dish you can expect little or no freezing.

And for the final commonly asked question, how safe are you using Internet key sharing? I would say if the providers start looking for your they will find you but there’s things you can do about it. One thing is to use a proxy, NFusion HD receiver has a option to use a proxy server so that you can hide your IP address even though the NFusion representatives are promising that the system is not keeping track of your IP address. You can get a free proxy but it may cause quite a bit of freezing you just have to try a few until you find the one that works well for you.

Considering the price I would rate this receiver 7/10 and the support at FTA professionals.tv 10/10.

The key features of the DM500 HD include the powerful 400 MHz processor as well as the Linux operating system. The 10/100 Mbit compatible Ethernet connection allows you to integrate the receiver in your home network, or to enjoy Internet connectivity.

The back panel provides the DVB-S2 tuner as well as a Mini-USB interface for software updates as well as an eSata connection, allowing you to expand the capabilities of the DM500 HD to that of a PVR by connecting to an external hard drive. In addition, the Dreambox comes equipped with an HDMI as well as with an optical digital sound output. The front panel provides a smartcard reader.

The compact size of the DM500 HD deserves special mention. Its dimensions of only 195 x 130 x 40 mm (WxDxH) make it particularly suitable for discreet installation in the living room. Its power consumption, too, is minimal, with a consumption of only twelve Watts during operation, and less than one Watt in standby mode.

Dream spokesperson Alpaslan Karasu: „Compact and powerful – those are the features of the DM500 HD. The new Dreambox provides HDTV with razor-sharp images and brilliant colours. The option of an external hard drive makes it child’s play to record television programmes.“

The Dream Multimedia HDD Case is an elegant eSata-USB solution for connecting external hard drives to a Dreambox or a personal computer. The case will fit a 3.5“ hard drive, and features the typical Dream design. A particular highlight is that the contents of the hard drive can be encrypted using either a numeric code or a smartcard.

The presentation at booth H40 will, however, focus on the new HDTV Dreamboxes. The DM800HD se features a new DVB-S2 tuner as well as a more powerful processor. In addition to two Smartcard readers it also comes equipped with an HDMI interface. An absolutely new feature in this second edition of the DM800HD is the multi-colour OLED display.

The prototype of the 7020HD, too, features an HDMI interface as well as an OLED display. This Dreambox comes equipped with a DVB-S2 tuner, and also has a socket for an additional plug-and-play tuner.
Appropriately, Dream will be presenting, for the first time, a plug-in DVB-S2 tuner module that can also be used in conjunction with the DM8000HD PVR.

Naturally Dream will also be showing other products at the Anga Cable show, such as the current best-selling Dreambox, the DM500HD and the flagship, the DM8000HD PVR. The Dreambox team looks forward to seeing you at our show booth, H40.

While the Viewsat V-Link has been rumored to be coming for many months, it is the Viewsat Weather Forecaster that has first shipped any units into the market. Some are confused by the two rumored devices. We have tested the Weather Forecaster with the V-Link loader and were unable to get the weather forecaster and V-Link loader to communicate, signaling in fact that they have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

The “Viewsat Weather Forecaster” as it is called is a serial to ethernet adapter that comes with its own 5 Volt power adapter and RS-232 cable. If you think it looks a bit familiar you are correct. At first glance you may think this dongle resembles the Sonicview iHub, but you would be wrong. In fact the Viewsat Weather Forecaster is an IX-X00 Dongle, that’s right, just like what is currently used for the CNX Nano 1, Mini, Duo and Trio!

While it remains to be seen what server the Viewsat Weather Forecaster solution will run on, many might be of the opinion that this will run on the same servers supporting the CNX, I-Link, Satzen and Topsat FTA receivers. Of course, this will all be known in time, should the files which are expected to be released this week get in the hands of those testers who have taken the premature leap in acquiring this new device.

As we have suggested in the past you should probably wait until the solution is tested and confirmed working before making any purchases.

Some are wondering since the Viewsat Weather Forecaster is currently selling for $109 USD if they could instead just get the CNX IX-X00 dongle.

Well the Viewsat Weather Forecaster has a serial number on it, just like the Sonicview iHub. I would think that this is not just for show. It is most likely going to be required to receive service on your Viewsats. So at this time I can not suggest anyone attempt to bypass the requirement by obtaining the CNX variation rather than the VS branded device.