One algorithm for automatic satellite identification

There are many types of analog satellite receivers, but only with limited possibilities in C/Ku band satellite antenna navigation. Usually, an installer has to find a few satellites (at least 3) in pseudo-automatic mode by using an infrared or UHF remote controller to manually navigate the antenna and observe pattern on selected video. This requires that the particular video program is on. Later on, some of the currently available receivers are able to calculate positions of other satellites by using longitude coordinates stored in EPROM or FLASH memories and known number of pulses from dish actuator between east and west limits of antenna. Even then, the accuracy of calculated satellite positions is not very high, which is important in the case of Ku band antennas. Our Star*Trak 800 consumer satellite receiver recognizes automatically about 12 of 44 North American C/Ku band satellites by adjusting IF audio processing circuits at frequency of 7.02/7.11 MHz. An embedded host microcontroller in the satellite receiver digitizes analog audio signals and executes slide window real time sequence recognition to recognize a particular satellite. By this method, our receiver is able to move the antenna from east to west limit, to find and to record maximums of signal strength on both polarities and on reverse dish motion to stop on peaked positions, then to listen to the Morse code and to identify the satellite. The whole process usually takes about 20 min.