Retrofitting The C-Band Downlinks: A Daunting Task

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.tvtechnology.com/opinions/retrofitting-the-downlinks-a-daunting-task

Wow I never thought of C-Band that much in the last decade though. The last time I heard of C-Band was prior to the Digital TV transition and it was a decade ago though and they were mentioned as alternatives to Dish, Directv and Local cable at the time.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—While the FCC could wave its wand and turn all C-band downlinks into just so much scrap metal, optimism runs high that the CBA’s proposal for reapportionment of the 500 MHz spectrum and band sharing will be the outcome—if 5G does have to be accommodated.

Many C-band TVRO systems have received little or no maintenance since their installation. Rusty, bent, broken or missing parts have the potential to greatly complicate and slow down retrofitting efforts.


However, that approach involves the addition of an LNB filter, and likely will require retuning receivers and moving dishes to different satellites. This sounds easy enough, but when you consider that upwards of 14,500 downlink sites are involved, and that many of these have multiple antennas—some as many as a dozen—the effort becomes rather mind-boggling.

In its proposal, the CBA estimates that the necessary work could be completed in “a period of only 18 to 36 months from the time of a final FCC order.” However, based on his long experience with earth stations, John Joslin, director of sales and marketing for satellite vendor Dawnco, is somewhat skeptical.

“Under good conditions [ground-mounted antennas], it should take 20 to 40 minutes to install one filter, and perhaps an hour to install four,” he said. “Under worst-case scenarios such as mountaintop downlinks, rooftop installations, or high-security locations, it could take much longer.”

Part of this is the 5G allocation thats been in talks is the reason why C Band is discussed again.