A shaped reflector design for the DirecTv direct broadcast satellite for the United States

A design for the DirecTv DBS (direct broadcast satellite) coverage of the United States using a single shaped reflector is presented. This design is interesting and challenging because of the high ratio of the area of the coverage to the area of the pencil beam obtained using an unshaped reflector (>40). For the initial multifeed study, a parabolic reflector with a diameter of 96" was considered. After a detailed trade-off study, a design with a 56-element feed array was chosen. For the shaped reflector approach, a diameter of 85" was chosen after an initial trade-off study. A sensitivity study using a 'potato-chip' distortion model was conducted.<<ETX>>