Webmasters: You may reprint this article in its entirety, providing you leave Byline and About Author sections intact, including links to Dish Network Satellite TV. Satellite TV may seem quite new, but its history actually spans over a fifty year period.

The original concept of satellite television is often attributed to writer Arthur C. Clarke, who was first to suggest a worldwide satellite communications system. Funding for satellite technology in U.S. began in 1950s, amidst space race, and Russian launching of satellite Sputnik in 1957.

The first communication satellite was developed by a group of businesses and government entities in 1963. Syncom II orbited at 22,300 miles over Atlantic; first satellite communication was on July 26, 1963, between a U.S. Navy ship in Lagos, Nigeria and U.S. Army naval station in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Overloaded land based distribution methods had telephone companies utilizing satellite communication way before television industry even came into picture. In fact, it was not until 1978 that satellite communication was officially used by television industry.

In 1975, RWT's co-founder and BBC transmitter engineer Stephen Birkill built an experimental system for receiving Satellite Instructional Television Experiment TV (SITE) transmissions, beamed to Indian villages, from a NASA geostationary satellite.

Birkill extended his system, receiving TV pictures from Intelsat, Raduga, Molniya and others. In 1978, Birkill met up with Bob Cooper, a cable TV technical journalist and amateur radio enthusiast in U.S., who invited him to a cable TV operators' conference and trade show, CCOS-78. It was there that Birkill met with other satellite TV enthusiasts, who were interested, and ready to help develop, Birkill’s experiments.

Interest in Television Receive Only (TVRO) satellite technology burst forward. The American TVRO boom caught attention of premium cable programmers, who began to realize potential of satellite TV. Back in mid-1970s, TV reception was under control of international operators, Intelsat and Intersputnik.

Webmasters: You may reprint this article in its entirety, providing you leave Byline and About Author sections intact, including links to Dish Network Satellite TV. How To Program Your Satellite TV Receiver

Setting up your satellite system isn’t as difficult as you might think. In addition to installing dish itself, you’ll need to program that little black box known as your satellite receiver. Don’t know where to start? Not to worry… just follow these steps and you’ll be up and running in no time at all.

Assuming your dish is already installed and your receiver is properly connected, turn your receiver and your television set ON. You’ll see a screen called “Point Dish/Signal Strength Setup” where you’re going to test reception from your satellites.

Choose “Check Switch” option and you’ll see a new screen. Choose “Check” or “Test” and you’ll get a message that your system check is in progress. When test is complete, you’ll see an Installation Summary on your screen that shows reception details for two satellites. DISH Network customers will see data for two satellites: 110 West and 119 West. Transponders should show “ALL” and message “Satellite Reception Verified” in status area. You can exit this screen.