Digital Ku-Band Mini Dish Frequencies and Channels
Contents
SID
The SID corresponds to the Channel number of the digital provider. For example, on EchoStar 7 the NASA channel SID is 213. If you tune your Dish Network receiver to channel 213 you will receive the NASA channel.
Transponder
The abbreviation or acronym often used is TP. The word Transponder is itself the abbreviated concatenation of two words, transmitter and responder. The transponder on a satellite in space receives signals from the earth and transmits signals back to the earth, usually on another frequency.
Multiple channels can now be put on the same transponder frequency as a result of compression technology. For example, the NASA channel is one of 13 total channels on transponder 11 at frequency 12370 of the satellite EchoStar 7.
Transponder frequency is typically in Mhz (Megahertz). There is also polarity to be observed when tuning a receiver. The polarity can be denoted as L = Left, R = right for circularly polarized DBS satellites and H = horizontal, V = vertical for linearly polarized satellites.
With DBS Satellite the frequency 12.224 GHz is Transponder 1. Transponder 3 is 12.253, TP 5 is 12.228, and so forth all the way to TP 31. Each transponder is separated by 29 Mhz(rounded off). Each Satellite Transponder needs .29 GHz or 29 MHz of bandwidth.
FEC
FEC is Forward Error Correction, which is an encoding scheme to sense and correct errors in the digital bit stream segments as received and decoded by the receiver. Convolutional coding is stated as a fraction.
Due to noise issues there can be many errors during the reception of a satellite broadcast. The receiver cannot notify the transmitter about the error since a receiver can only receive. So error correction data is also sent along with the regular satellite signal, it is provided without the receiver even asking.
SR
SR is the Symbol Rate, the rate in MHz in which segments of digital data are transmitted and received. This can be compared to the term "bitrate" or "baud" used in the computer world.
Example 1: The NASA FTA Channel on EchoStar 7
NASA Channel reception info:
- Satellite: EchoStar 7
- Transponder Number: 11
- Transponder Frequency: 12370
- Transponder Polarity: Vertical
- SR and FEC: 20000, 5/6
- Encryption: none
- SID: 213
Example 2: The FOX News Channel on EchoStar 7
Fox News Channel reception info:
- Satellite: EchoStar 7
- Transponder Number: 6
- Transponder Frequency: 12297
- Transponder Polarity: Horizontal
- SR and FEC: 20000, 5/6
- Encryption: Nagravision 2/3
- SID: 205
12297/H/20000/5/6
References
Troubleshooting
- Sonicview Transponder Off-By-One Glitch - For some reason, Sonicview receivers are frequently off in frequency, as in the correct transponder frequency doesn't seem to pull in the channels, but adjusting by 1 will resolve. Fox News on ES7 has a transponder frequency of 12297, however, when scanning the transponder the channel doesn't appear. Adjusting the transponder to 12298 results in positive signal quality and proper reception of Fox News, even though it shout be 12297.
LyngSat Chart for EchoStar 7 and EchoStar 8/10
The most up to date information can be found at LyngSat.
LyngSat Lingo
* Lyngsat denotes an R for vertical and L for horizontal polarity for the DN LNB.
- Freq. Tp = Transponder Frequency and Number
- Channel Name = Channel Name
- Enc. system = Encryption which is the scrambling technology being used
- SID = Station ID (typically the channel number)
- VPID = Video Package Identifier
- APID = Audio package Identifier
- Beam = Where the signal is directed downward towards the Earth.
LyngSat Beam
Referring to what is indicated under the BEAM column you can determine if you are able to receive the TP Frequency or not. The same satellite may have beams directed in different directions, some broad and some narrow. They can dictate what regions they will allow reception from.
Partial List:
- Ku -
- NorthWest - specific U.S. state or region
- South california - specific U.S. state or region
- Central Plains - narrow beam mostly U.S. state of Oklahoma
- North East - specific U.S. state or region
- South Florida - specific U.S. state or region
- Conus - refers to the 48 contiguous states
- North West - specific U.S. state or region
- North California - specific U.S. state or region
- Arizona - specific U.S. state or region
- Midwest - specific U.S. state or region
- Texas - specific U.S. state or region
- carolinas - specific U.S. state or region
- Hawaii - non conus U.S. state
- Alaska - non conus U.S. state
- Utah - specific U.S. state or region
- Deep south - specific U.S. state or region
Increasing the size of your dish will allow you to pull in TP frequencies close to but outside of your standard beam area.