« Satellites Today in Business | Home | Why Use Satellites For Communications? »
What Does a Satellite Do?
By Editor | May 30, 2009
Most communications satellites carry active microwave repeaters, or transponders. The satellite receives signals from an earth transmitter, amplifies them, translates them to another frequency, and then retransmits the signals back down to one or more earth stations.
The signal transmitted by a ground terminal is degraded by the signal’s long distance path through the atmosphere on its way up to the satellite. Amplification onboard the satellite ensures that the received signal is restored so an accurate signal with sufficient strength will be relayed back down to the earth. The signal returning to earth will lose a lot of signal strength.
Equipment in the ground station amplifies the weak signal received from the satellite, processes it, and provides a signal that is sufficiently clear to the recipient.
Topics: Satellite Communications | 2 Comments »


November 9th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
who and what will recieve the collected signals i dont realy understand.;)
November 10th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
The signals would be recieved by earth terminals. It could be GPS, satellite radio or satellite TV to name a few.