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Message: <blockquote data-quote="2old4this" data-source="post: 20019" data-attributes="member: 174998">Thanks Haga.It should also be noted that many satellites transmit on several beams, each of which may be aimed at a different location, and each of which may be of different strength. The different beams carry different channels.In general, it is only possible to say that your dish needs to be a particular size to receive a particular beam, rather than a particular satellite (if indeed it can be received at all from your location).So here are the steps you need to go through:- decide which channels you want to receive- find out on which satellite(s) they are carried- determine on which beam(s) on the respective satellite(s)- check the footprint of the beam(s) (i.e. the area of the Earth's surface covered)- if the footprint does not cover your location, you will not be able to receive the channel(s) at all. However: the published footprint info is not always accurate, and does not account for signal bleed. So if you are not too far outside the footprint, you may still be lucky (especially if you have a large dish).- if the footprint covers your location, you need to use the footprint map to find out the actual predicted signal strength at your actual location. The closer you are to the centre of the beam, the stronger the signal. Most footprint maps show contour lines of variying signal strength (or EIRP), expressed in "dbW" units. - use a conversion table/chart to determine how big a typical dish needs to be to receive a reliable signal for a given signal strength. IE a dbW to cm(diameter) conversion. Some footprint maps label their contours directly with the required dish size, so this conversion would not be necessary.Here are some useful links to help achieve the above:<a href="http://www.lyngsat.com/" target="_blank">http://www.lyngsat.com/</a><a href="http://www.mlesat.com/calculat.html" target="_blank">http://www.mlesat.com/calculat.html</a>Of course, having determined whether or not you can receive the channel's signal is just the first step. Next you need to determine whether you can decode it. That means finding out whether it's analogue or digital, whether it's PAL, SECAM, or NTSC; whether its compressed using MPEG, ADR, PowerVu; whether it's encrypted or FTA; if encrypted, under which system (D2MAC, Syster, Nagravision, Mediaguard, Irdeto, Betacrypt, Cryptoworks, Videoguard, Conax, etc.); and whether you have a means of decrypting it (can you get an official subscription at your location? Is there a pirate-card solution? Which cards, CAMs, receivers, patches, etc might you need to achieve decryption....).2old</blockquote>

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