A Dish For Europe

54 EE November 1988 The dish aerial designed by STS is a low- cost, 65-cm aperture off-set type which is claimed to deliver CCIR grade-4 qual- ity signals in areas with 50 dBW EIRP coverage, and CCIR grade-3 quality signals in areas with 49 dBW EIRP coverage (CCIR grade-4 is defined as `good% grade-3 as "fair", or roughly equivalent to a good-quality VCR). The 49 and 50 dBW areas house over 90% of the European population. The profiling and sizing of the aerial have been calculated to allow the use of low-cost LNBs with noise figures up to 2.2 dB (Tr.--, 200 K) in the centre of Astra"s footprint, without degrading perform- ance. The STS dish can be deployed through- out Europe: ■ Areas within 52 dBW contour: LNB noise figure 1.9 dB; C/N 13 dB = CCIR grade-4. France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, West Germany, East Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Eastern Poland, Northern Italy, England and wales, Northern Ireland, Western half of Eire. ■ Areas within 50 dBW contour: ...