Ku band
The Ku band stands for Kurtz-under band, and it is used for broadcasting satellite television. It is split into multiple segments broken down into geographical regions, determined by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union). The 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.
It is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave frequencies ranging from 11.7 to 12.7GHz. (downlink frequencies) and 14 to 14.5GHz (uplink frequencies).
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).
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.
They require a 0.8-m to 1.5-m antenna and carry twelve to twenty four transponders which consume 20 to 120 watts (per transponder) for clear reception. The 12.2 to 12.7 GHz segment of the Ku Band is allocated to the broadcasting satellite service (BSS). These direct broadcast satellites carry 16 to 32 transponders which provide 27 MHz in bandwidth, consume 100 to 240 watts each, and they accommodate receiver antennas down to 450 mm (18 inches ).
The Difficulties of Ku Band
The higher frequency spectrum of the Ku band is particularly susceptible to signal degradation, when the frequencies are higher than 10 GHz, transmitted and received in a heavy rain fall area, a degradation occurs due to the problems caused by the amount of rain fall (called “rain fade”).
This problem can be fought by deploying an appropriate link strategy when designing the satellite network and allocating a higher power consumption to overcome rain fade loss.
Another phenomena, when snow accumulation alters the focal point of the dish is called “snow fade” and can occur during the Winter Season.
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 on the Ku-band include educational networks, business networks, sports backhauls, tele-conferences, mobile news truck feeds, international programming, various SCPC (Single Channel Per Carrier) transmissions of analog audio, and FM audio services.
Dish Antenna Compatibility of Ku Band
A solid dish lets you convert from C band, to Ku band, but a mesh dish with “holes” in the mesh larger than a quarter inch won’t reflect Ku-band signals properly.
Yo should consider upgrading to a solid dish or a mesh dish in which the hole size under 1/4″. Besides a 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 H2H (Horizon-to-Horizon) dish mount is better for Ku Band than a polar mount
since the Ku-band demands that the dish antenna system is well-targeted and able to closely follow the orbital arc, something that the H2H mount does better than a polar mount.
Satellite Antenna Dish Parabola and Ku Band
The parabolic shape of your dish is very important, because warpage causes signal degradation through mis-reflection, down-grading your system performance.
To solve this anchor a piece of string, stretched as tight as possible, “north” to “south” across your dish face, edge to edge, and another piece of string, “east” to “west” across the dish face.
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.
Use either the tri-supports or quad supports, they will assist in keeping your Ku-band feed-horn stable in high winds that can cause Ku-band reception to drop out.
