wod said:
yeah just wondering why so many dishes are needed ?
A combination of the things like the number of satellites you need to view and how efficiently you can split the receive signal from the same satellite to different modems.
On transmit you have to be careful how many signals and what types are mixed due to intermodulation so its easier to have another dish sometimes. Also depends how much transmitter power you have to play with. Not a lot of power with Solid State Power Amplifiers.
Also different size dishes are needed for different satellite receiver sensitivities and transmitter powers.
All in all you then you can end up with a field full of dishes at a busy site, nice to look at though