The satellite acts as a Repeater station to boost the signal strength and transmit it back to an earth station near the call s final destination. Satellites are in geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the earth. This means that satellites revolve around the earth at exactly the same speed that the earth rotates, always remaining above the same spot on earth at all times. The Antenna of the earth station does not have to move continually to point to the satellite. Since microwave signals operate on a line of site, they are ideally suited to communicate with the fixed point of a satellite.
Satellite communication is able to serve a wide portion of the earth s surface.
A satellite can easily transmit a call from New York to an earth station in Hawaii 8,000 miles away. Each portion of the process takes nearly a quarter of a second. As a result, callers must wait a quarter of a second for a signal to reach its destination and another quarter of a second to receive a reply. The half-second delay annoys most callers. But while satellite transmission may not be the best medium for telephone calls, it is ideally suited for television broadcasting.