What's the difference???

[Jimmy J]

Just wondering what's the difference between a spotbeam & a transponder?

 

[JimK2]

A transponder can be CONUS (continental united states) or Spotbeam. A Satellite usually has 26 CONUS transponder's, by using Spotbeam's they can have 60 or more transponder's by re-using TP frequency's in that band.

EchoStar X
http://www.lyngsat.com/echo10.html

 

[Jimmy J]

Reason I ask is I was messing around with the point dish feature. Had it on the 110 SAT and was toggling the transponders and some of them changed to spotbeams after locking.

 

[Smith P.]

That's Dish terminology - should be type of transponder: 'conus' and 'spot beam'; a transponder still doing same functions, but a shape of antenna is different.

 

[kstuart]

The spotbeams are only visible in certain "spots" on the earth, just like pointing a flashlight on the wall, there is a circular spot of light.

So, local channels are only beamed to the areas that can normally receiver those channels.