Microdyne Corporation

Michael S Balbes

Charles E Day

Robert L Hooper

Hank S Lin

John M Moore

A receive only, low cost, small size, frequency agile earth satellite ground station has the low noise amplifier, frequency agile receiver, head end modulator, motor control circuit and optional signal unscrambler disposed on circuit boards about a variable polarization antenna-to-low noise amplifier feed which together with the motor for controlling the feed polarization of the feed are all located in a weather insulating cannister at the focal point of the system antenna whereby the only elements of the system not located in the cannister are the antenna and a cable connected control console employed to select a desired channel and to select local or satellite reception located at the TV set. A motor control is provided which senses odd-or-even least significant bit of binary coded channel selection signals to determine if the feed polarization, control motor must be energized.

Receive only earth satellite ground station

This disclosure relates to electronic devices, such as a television receiver, whose bandwidth is automatically reduced when the signal-to-noise ratio of the incoming signals becomes lower. Two circuits respectively sample the received video signals and the noise. The outputs of these two circuits feed a divider which divides one output by the other. A tuned filter (which follows an IF stage of the television receiver), which varies its bandwidth according to a control voltage fed to it receives the varying output voltage of said divider. The video and noise signals, which are fed to the divider, are both derived from the sync signal of the television receiver. Timing circuits control the operation of the system. One of these circuits distinguishes the sync signals from the equalizing pulses and eliminates the latter thereby reducing the error in the noise measurements. Another timing circuit eliminates signals, that occur while video-intelligence is occurring, from entering into the signal-to-noise ratio determination. The system will perform for television signals in which the baseband signals satisfy the following:

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Rockville, MD, United States of America

Michael S Balbes