The Waves of the Future

The Soviets shook us from the somnolent Fifties when they threw Sputnik up over our heads. Our national ears heard the thing beeping up there in the darkness, and we were sure somehow that all its flashing lights were angry red. That first artificial satellite sent us on a technological tear for a dozen years. We trained tons of astronauts and space-age engineers and won the race to the moon. We sent men there and brought them back; and when repetitions of that feat got boring, we (continued on page 242)Waves of the Future(continued from page 157) piped Richard Nixon's voice through the vacuum of space (eerily appropriate, that) and introduced lunar golf. Since then, we've been mostly content to let the outer limits sit there like a national park we've been to once and don't really care to see again.

But now the Eighties are here and the final frontier is showing signs of renewed life. Not surprisingly, it's television that has put the pace back in space, and if you're one of the millions of Americans with TV addiction, you'll never keep up with your Joneses without an earth station on your roof.

Satellite broadcasting, known generically as direct broadcasting satellite (DBS) service, is the phenomenon that may let you bypass the networks and undermine the cables. If DBS is successful, the TV addict circa 1988 will be able to aim the $300 antenna dish on his roof at any of a number of satellites in stationary orbit. He'll pick up relayed programing from Togo or Quito, South Africa or South Dakota.

Ten years ago, the idea of using satellites to send TV signals directly into the home seemed credible in theory but decades away in practice. That was when satellites were inefficient and so expensive only governments could launch them. Dish antennas were as big as buildings and cost nearly as much. Now engineers have gotten most of the bugs out of the birds. Electronic techniques similar to those that have made hi-fi higher and space games spacier are now making the process much more economical. The new satellites receive and transmit at higher frequencies than the old ones, opening up a whole new band of channels. And the new dish antennas cost less than Ford Pintos. They'll soon cost even less than that and be small enough to put on the roof in place of your old standard TV antenna.

Big businesses were first to jump at the chance to ride satellites. The Mormon Church plans to broadcast by celestial channels to believers who have dishes. Holiday Inns offer teleconferences in meeting rooms, so that businessmen can confer with associates thousands of miles away, almost in person, and never leave the nation's innkeeper. The world's largest music maker, Muzak, already soothes through space. Rather than ship tapes by mail to its customers. Muzak beams all that Mantovani from a Western Union satellite to dishes scattered across the country.

Ten years from now, though, we may all be reaping DBS benefits. Are you tired of having to choose between Hee Haw and Family Feud? Well, do you want to watch the Bolshoi live, or would a blue movie from la Cóte d'Azur be more to your liking? You just buys your dish and takes your choice.

Here's how it works: A live or videotaped picture is relayed horn a broadcaster anywhere on earth who has access to a satellite in geosynchronous orbit (the satellite whips through space, about 22,000 miles up, just fast enough to keep pace with a spot on the equator, remaining "stationary" over that spot). The bird boosts and refines the signal, then fires it back to earth. Anybody with a small, concave antenna called an earth station in the "footprint" of the satellite can beam down TV transmission. (The footprint is an area about the size of the United States on the same side of the planet as the satellite.)

The freedom, flexibility and potential low cost of DBS make it a threat to that other revolutionary, cable television. Satellite TV may soon be able to offer truly world-wide programing on hundreds of channels. It can transmit high--definition TV pictures or any other kind of information. And (at least right now) it's free for the home TV consumer--once you've got your earth station, you can point it at anything above your horizon. All the sky's your oyster.

Satellite broadcasters are not crazy about that last part of the deal. They intend to scramble signals so that receivers will have to buy or rent unscramblers. Don't root reflexively against them. If scrambler fees aren't part of the DBS future, then advertisers are back in the game, since commercials are the only other feasible means of financing nonsubscription TV.

So how about some aikido from Tokyo? An Amarillo rodeo? You can get the latest Heathkit catalog and send for a ten-foot dish that will launch you right into the world of satellite TV. Believe it or not, that do-it-yourselfer's guide to everything from radios to computers is offering an earth-station kit for $6995. All you need, we assume, is a soldering iron, a pair of pliers and the ghost of Wernher von Braun hovering over your shoulder (the ghost will probably cost extra).

If you don't want to do it yourself, you can have a large dish installed right now for less than $10,000. Until 1985 or so. when rooftop dishes are common and broadcasters start programing for people who have them. you'll have to watch commercial shows intended for retransmission over the air by network affiliates. You can also pick up cable programing such as Home Box Office as it is beamed from satellites to local cable outlets. While the legal implications of satellite antennas are still up in the air, many of the broadcasters may soon be suggesting that you pay them a fee for watching. But since they can't tell if you're watching or not and can't stop you until they put signal scramblers to work, they'll have a difficult time collecting if you forget to send your check.

A complete system includes a dish antenna, a low-noise signal amplifier and a receiver/modulator that links your dish to your TV set. Installed stations can cost from a few thousand dollars for fixed dishes to more than $15,000 for deluxe models that include remote-controlled motors that can zero in on several locations. The fixed dishes should soon be obsolete, since they shut out a lot of the action. When you take the plunge, we'd advise you to put out the extra bucks for a motorized one.

Before buying a station, be sure to get a professional site analysis. They're available from most of the installers (Heathkit offers one) and they're not very expensive, from $30 to around $100. Without one, you'll have no idea how many satellites are in range and which ones they are. If you want to watch the Bolshoi, there's no point in pointing at a Grand Ole Opry bird.

When shopping for a satellite system, compare only the "installed" prices, unless you have a touch of engineering know-how. A pile of bargain parts left on the doorstep by the mailman could leave you with nothing more serviceable than a ten-foot salad bowl.

Since your dish has to have unobstructed line of "sight" to the satellite, you may have to chop down a tree or level a high-rise or two. If you live in the open country, though, you'll have no problem receiving dozens of channels on the North American satellites already up there.

And remember--whatever you bring to your screen today, it's only the teaser in the tale of DBS and the coming TV revolution.

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There is something a little discomfiting about using the final frontier as the medium for a great argument for human banality. The wags are certain to ask why we have to send Morris the Cat scampering out through the cosmos or what objective is served by letting the world in on reruns of I Love Lucy in Swahili. But DBS can offer greater flexibility in television than there has ever been. It may release the medium from the need to appeal to the lowest common denominator. With hundreds of channels to choose from, surely there will be as many repertory companies as Three's Companys, as much Shakespeare as Shake 'n Bake.

Since its inception, television has been spewing outward from earth in all directions--the atmosphere is transparent to TV's part of the radio spectrum. Somewhere out there, on a planet 25 light-years away, some bewildered creature is catching his first glimpse of Uncle Miltie in drag. Maybe if we start sending out a little more stimulating fare, in another 25 years he'll feel like getting in touch with us.

While cooler heads may prevail upon you to wait five years to see if the satellite revolution really takes off, satellite hotheads have already made the following earth stations hot items in their price ranges.

Microdyne's Megastar: Twelve feet in diameter, this is a dish with an internal rotator. It's been advertised in the American Express catalog and costs $12,500 installed by a distributor. (Microdyne Corporation, P.O. Box 7213, Ocala, Florida 32672.)

Microwave Associates' 12-foot antenna: Retails for $8665, but you have to have it installed through a distributor. Rotates. (Microwave Associates Communications, 63 Third Avenue, Burlington, Massachusetts 01803.)

Heathkit Earth Station: Three-meter nonrotating antenna can be adjusted to pick up various satellites. Antenna itself made by Scientific Atlanta, a good name in the business. Offers a "Space Command Remote Control" (which is an armchair control panel) for Buck Rogers fans and costs $6995. You have to put it together yourself. (Heath Company, Benton Harbor, Michigan 49022.)

Global TV Electronics' earth station: Global is a small operation in Maitland, Florida, but it's a good example of the mom-and-pop business' entry into the field. A complete 13-foot antenna system retails for $3875. It does rotate, but you will have to install it yourself or pay somebody to do it. Global also sells plans for its earth stations for $50 for those of you with access to NASA's junk pile. Cavent emptor, but this could be a great deal for a home installer with some technical expertise. (Global TV Electronics, Inc., 235 South Maitland Avenue, Maitland, Florida 32751.)