ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the design practices that are applicable to the earth station types commonly used for the transmission and distribution of radio and television programming. Establishing the desired specifications for system performance and availability is an essential first step in the design of satellite earth stations. It involves a careful consideration of the trade-offs between system cost, electrical performance, and reliability. The chapter also describes commonly accepted industry standards for performance and availability that can serve as guidelines for earth station design. The design of earth station facilities requires calculation of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and fade margin of the satellite link. The uplink earth station determines all of the properties of the downlink signal except for the effective isotropic radiated power, which is determined by the satellite. The downlink earth station determines the SNR and fade margin of the link, within the parameters established by the uplink and the satellite.
