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Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla
This sort of thing also helps cure the geostationary satellite crowding problem, too, which is slowly getting worse: collecting the various comsat and navsat services into fewer, somewhat larger platforms gets the jobs done and clears the way for more later. This Jacob's Ladder makes one helluva cell phone antenna, no?
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If the geosynchronous crowding problem was due to too many physical bodies, then Urbane Guerrilla would be correct. But then we apply realities.
The space between many satellites in the same slot is so large as to make that claim completely irrelevant. Meanwhile, as satellites aged (and lose functions), then multiple satellites moved into the same slot.
Restrictions on satellites are due to some factors listed below:
Slot size. Last time I looked, a satellite dish typically focused only to something like 2 degrees. That meant there were geosynchronous 180 slots around the earth.
Frequency: In each slot are specific frequencies which were divided into channels. For example, C band had twelve channels.
Polarization: each transmitted signal on each channel is polarized in horizontal and in vertical - for a total of 24 channels.
12 frequencies times 2 polarizations times 180 means a maximum 4320 transponders were available around the world just for C band. We do same for S band, Ku band, etc.
Satellites were limited by number of frequencies and by how focused antennas on both bird and earth could be focused. Those who only assumed would believe a larger platform would solve the congestion problem. No matter how large that platform (the bird), limitations of frequency and antenna pattern are the congestion.
Just another example of learning details so that speculation does not become fact.