Atsuko Natsume wrote in a message to All:
 AN> I'm kinda new to the Satellite TV scene.  Would someone mind
 AN> explaining to me exactly what a C-Band dish is?  In fact, what is
 AN> any-band dish.. Thank you,
I'll take the first shot at this, Kenny... I'm sure there will be more 
information from others (more versed than I) to follow. :)
A C-Band dish is 'basically' a receiving antenna (the parabola - or 'dish' 
being the concave reflector, and the 'feedhorn' being the driven element, or 
in this case the resonant active element adjusted to sit at the focal point 
of RF energy reflected by the 'dish', and the 'small signal amplifier' 
NB)).
I believe that the term "C-Band" actually refers to the frequency spectrum 
the transponder (satellite channel transmitter) transmits the video on (~4 to 
6 GHz for 'C-Band' / ~10 to 14 GHz for 'Ku-Band').  As you see the 'C-Band' 
spectrum is quite a bit lower than 'Ku-Band', so 'C' requires a much larger 
reflector (ie dish) surface to get the same signal gain as the smaller and 
higher frequency 'Ku-Band' - hence the bigger dishes (or 'BUD' - "Bug Ugly 
Dish" that some smart person coined a while back :).
That's a start - I'm sure you have more questions (as did I) so ask away.
I'm sure I've left out a LOT of important info, but I didn't want to cover a 
bunch of ground if you already knew it.  Somewhere around here I have a text 
file several pages long that does a VERY good job of explaining the minute 
details of the hobby and equipment.  If you are the sysop of the BBS you post 
from, or your sysop forwards netmail file attaches for download - I can send 
you the text file I can find, compressed in an archive file (ie ZIP or RAR).
Let me know if you'ld like me to do this. 
Sincerely,
           Bruce - kb6lwn@juno.com - http://www.qsl.net/kb6lwn
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