Earth stations for satellite communications

Limitation to the trend toward smaller earth stations antennas in communication satellite systems are evaluated. As the size of the earth stations antennas is reduced, the reflector area and the gain decrease as the square of the diameter, and the beamwidth expands by the inverse ratio. The increased beamwidth indicates acceptance of additional interference sources, and at the same time, a decreasing carrier level due to gain loss. Consideration is given to antenna cancellation techniques and the methods of offsetting the lower gain, and to large geostationary communications stations which can consolidate many satellites into a few large space stations.