DEFINITIONS

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A
Analog - Used to transmit audio, such as voice, radio, stereo, and control
tones.
Antenna - The device used to radiate or receive signals through the air,
sometimes called a "dish."
Availability - The amount of time (generally expressed as a percentage) that
a satellite signal is above threshold at a given downlink locations, on average.
Also expressed as 99.9% ("three nine" availability) or as 99.99% ("four nine"
availability). Downtime is due to rain outage per site per year on average over
5 years. (99.9% = 8 hours and 53 minutes outage per year.)

B
Backhaul - Means by which audio or data is transmitted to an uplink facility,
i.e. SCPC, dedicated leased line (phone line), video carrier.
Band - A unit for designating a specific frequency or range of frequencies in
the electromagnetic spectrum. Satellite communications most commonly use
the C-band (6/4 GHz) or Ku-band (14/11 and 14/12 GHz) frequencies. Future
satellite systems will make use of bands above 20 GHz to gain additional
capacity and to avoid congestion and interference with systems operating at
lower frequencies.
Bandwidth - A means of capacity that indicates the amount of frequency
spectrum required by a telecommunications service or system. The range of
frequencies available for signaling. Services requiring bandwidth greater than
200 KHz are known as "broadband." Those requiring less capacity are
"narrowband". Also, the numerical difference in Hertz (Hz) between the
highest and lowest in use.
Baud - Unit of signaling speed. The speed in baud is the number of discrete
conditions or events per second.

C
C-band - The 3.7 to 4.2 GHz downlink and 5.925 to 6.425 GHz uplink band of
frequencies at which some broadcast satellites operate. SpaceCom provides Cband FM Squared, which is basically immune to rainfade.
Channel - A one-way communications link.

Circuit - A two-way communications link.

CIT - The Chicago International Teleport, a $15 million redundant uplink facility
owned and operated by SpaceCom, located in Monee, IL.
Communications Satellite - A space vehicle launched into orbit to relay
audio, data or video signals as part of a telecommunications network. Signals
are transmitted to the satellite from earth station antennas, amplified and sent
back to earth for reception by other earth station antennas. Satellites are
capable of linking two points, one point with many others, or multiple locations
with other multiple locations. Commonly called a "bird."

D
Decibel (dB) - A measurement of transmission loss or gain in the form of a
ratio between two voltages, currents, or powers. 3dB=double the power,
10dB=10 times the power. Decibels relative to one watt or milliwatt are
abbreviated as dBw and dBm, respectively. FM Cubed is 44.3 to 48.3 dBw EIRP.
Ku-band FM Squared is 41.3 to 45.3 dBw EIRP while SCPC systems are typically
14 to 21 dBw and are normally restricted by the FCC to be 6 dB per 4 KHz.
Digital - A means for encoding information in a communications signal
through the use of bits (binary digits). Digital transmission is increasingly
replacing analog transmission because it provides more efficiency and
flexibility for networking.
Downlink Antenna - The part of the satellite communication system by
which information is received from the satellite. Also the earth station receive
antenna.
DVB (digital video broadcasting) - An MPEG-2 compliant technology for
digital audio and video or high bandwidth applications. SpaceCom is launching
a C-band DVB satellite technology called FM Quad. SpaceCom's DVB will have
half rate forward error correction (FEC) and QPSK (quadrature phase shift key)
modulation.

E
Encryption - The technique of modifying a known bit stream on a
transmission line such that it appears to be a random sequence of bits to an
unauthorized observer.

F
Fiber Optics - Transmission lines made of thin glass fibers optimized to carry
light waves. It is possible to carry information on light waves in the same way
it is possible to carry information on radio waves.
Focal Length - The distance from the center of the reflector to the feed
opening.

Footprint - The portion of the earth's surface covered by the signal from a
communications satellite; the area within which a satellite's signal can be
received.
FM Cubed - A Ku-band time division multiplexing satellite technology using
frequency modulation invented by SpaceCom for digital applications. FM
Cubed has the strongest signal strength and therefore the highest availability
achievable for commercial satellite applications.
FM Squared - A Ku-band or C-band frequency division multiplexing satellite
technology using frequency modulation invented by SpaceCom for analog,
audio and digital applications.
FM QuadTM - A SpaceCom provided C-band packet division multiplexing
satellite technology using QPSK (quadrature phase shift key) modulation. It is
DVB MPEG-2 compliant (see also DVB).
Footprint Map - A satellite coverage map that expresses the area of a
satellite beam via a series of contours which delineate decreasing value of
antenna sizes, power flux-density (PFD) levels, EIRP, or G/T.
Frequency - The number of cycles per second of an electromagnetic signal
expressed in Hertz (Hz).
Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) - The division of a given bandwidth
into various subdivisions, each having enough bandwidth to carry one voice or
data connection, such as FM Squared.
Frequency Modulation (FM) - The process of changing a "carrier" wave so
that the frequency of the "carrier" wave varies relative to the information to be
transmitted.

G
GigaHertz (GHz) - A unit of frequency equal to one billion cycles per second.

H
Hertz (Hz) - A unit of frequency equal to one cycle per second. Named after
the 19th century German physicist Heinrich Hertz.

I
International Telecommunications Satellite Organization - An
organization formed by 91 countries for managing global communications
satellite systems (commonly known as Intelsat

K
KiloHertz (KHz) - One thousand cycles per second.
Ku-band - The microwave frequency band between 11.7 and 12.2 GHz
receive, 14.0 to 14.5 GHz transmit. It is more susceptible to rainfade

(compared to C-band); however, it allows substantially smaller antennas and it

is much more immune to terrestrial interference and noise.

L
Low Noise Block Down Converter (LNB) - Also called low noise amplifier
(LNA). Down converts the whole 500 MHz satellite bandwidth to one
intermediate, usually L-band, frequency range.
L-band - The frequency band between 950 to 1450 KHz.

M
MegaHertz (MHz) - a unit of frequency equal to one million cycles per second.
Microwave - The frequency range from approximately 500 MegaHertz (MHz)
to 30 GigaHertz (GHz).
Modulation - The method by which data or audio is imprinted onto a carrier.
FM Squared and FM Cubed use Frequency Shift Key (FSK) modulation. Other
methods of modulation are Quadrature Phase Shift Key (QPSK), Binary Phase
Shift Key (BPSK) and Minimum Shift Key (MSK).
Multiplexing - Combining two or more message channels for simultaneous
transmission over a common path; analog systems use frequency-division
multiplexing, while digital systems employ time-division multiplexing.

N
Noise - An unwanted signal which interferes with reception of the desired information. Noise is
often expressed in degrees Kelvin or decibels

P
Parity Bit - A bit that is set at "0" or "1" in a character to ensure that the total
number of 1 bits in the data field is even or odd. Used for error detection.
Polarization - A characteristic of the electromagnetic wave. Four senses of polarization are used in
satellite transmissions: horizontal; vertical, right-hand circular; and left-hand circular. LNB's have
a polarization setting to match the transponder orientation. SpaceCom's Ku-band FM Squared and
FM Cubed are both horizontally polarized.

R
Real Time - A telecommunications or data processing system that responds
immediately, in the same time frame as the user provides input.
Redundancy - Backup equipment or capacity to ensure continuity of service
in case of malfunction. Backup satellites are sometimes called "spares."

S
Satellite Receiver - The indoors electronic component of an earth station
which down converts, processes (by demultiplexing and demodulating) and
prepares satellite signals for viewing or listening.
Single Channel Per Carrier (SCPC) - A satellite system that employs a
separate carrier for each channel, as opposed to frequency division
multiplexing (FM Squared, sometimes called FM/FM) that combines many
channels on a single carrier.
Space Segment - Term which usually identifies the bandwidth and power for
a satellite communications channel.
Subcarriers - An auxiliary carrier, linked to the main carrier in a
communications systems, which can carry audio or data information.
Subcarriers are frequently broadcast on the unused portion of video (TV)
transponders. Like SCPC, they may be used for backhaul or primary
distribution.

T
Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) - The division of a digital transmission
channel into multiple slower speed channels by allocating a particular time
slot to the slower speed channels. FM Cubed is a TDM system and is similar to
a T-1 phone line. (e.g. customer #1 gets bit 1, 65, and 129, etc. and customer
#2 gets bit 2, 66, and 130, etc.)
Teleport - The name commonly given to the satellite communications uplink
facility.
Transponder - The portion of a communications satellite that receives audio,
data and video signals from earth, alters their frequency, amplifies the signals
and retransmits them to earth. Satellites carry numerous transponders on
board.

U
Uplink - The earth station electronics and antenna which transmits
information to the communication satellite.

V
VSAT - Very Small Aperture Terminal. Frequently used as another name for
two-way satellite technology.