Antenna alignment apparatus and method utilizing the error condition of the received signal

Abstract

A satellite receiver for digitally encoded television signals includes apparatus for aligning the receiving antenna which is responsive to the number of errors contained in the digitally encoded television signals. Error correction is possible if the number of errors is below a threshold and not possible if the number of errors is above the threshold. The elevation of the antenna is set according to the location of the receiving site. Thereafter, the azimuth of the antenna is coarsely aligned by first rotating the antenna in small increments to locate a region in which error correction is possible. During this coarse alignment procedure, the tuner of the satellite receiver attempts to locate a tuning frequency at which and demodulation and error correction is possible. If no appropriate frequency is found after a range of frequencies have been searched, the antenna is rotated by a small increment. Once error correction is found to be possible, a fine alignment procedure is initiated in which the antenna is rotated to locate boundaries of an azimuth arc through which error correction is continuously possible. Thereafter, the antenna is set so that it is at least approximately midway between the two boundaries of the arc.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.