Satellite identification and antenna alignment

Abstract

A satellite identification system for identifying a communications satellite from which a broadcast communication signal is being received by an antenna, wherein the communication signal includes data identifying a programmer that broadcast the communication signal and/or an uplink location from which the communication signal is broadcast. The system includes a memory storing a look-up table correlating satellite identification data for a plurality of satellites with the programmer identification data and/or the uplink location data for the plurality of satellites; means for detecting the programmer identification data and/or the uplink location data from a communication signal received by the antenna from one of the plurality of satellites; and means for accessing the look-up table in response to the detected programmer identification data and/or the uplink location data to retrieve the satellite identification data for the satellite from which the communication signal is received. The satellite identification system is included in a satellite antenna alignment system for automatically identifying reference satellites. The satellite antenna alignment system also automatically aligns the antenna to a position at which optimum quality is achieved for a communication signal received from a reference satellite; and the alignment positions of the antenna are measured and stored for at least two reference satellites to which the antenna is automatically aligned. Current correlated data is provided in the look-up tables by detecting updated correlated data in a communication signal received by the antenna and loading the updated correlated data into the look-up tables.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.