Welcome to the Satellite Coverage Maps page! Satellite coverage areas are also known as Footprints.

Satellite Naming
In general, satellites that have names starting with "SES-Americom" (AMC), previously had names that started with "General Electric" (GE). Likewise, satellites with names starting with "Intelsat Americas" (IA) were earlier named starting with "Telstar" (T). Some of these satellites again changed names to those starting with "Galaxy" (G). Later, some Galaxy designated satellites were renamed again. In some cases, the number following the name also changed and in other cases, it stayed the same.

Power From Satellite
The maps indicate power output from each satellite, listed in dBW. Power roughly doubles, with each 3 dBW change. So, for example, if you are somewhere that is 50 dBW, and you move to an edge where it is 47 dBW, there will be about half the power. A problem with footprint maps is that they are inexact in several ways:

• First, nobody has gone to all of the locations in North America and actually measured signal strength.
• Second, no two transponders on a given satellite have the same output, so the map is, at best, an average.
• Third, there are coverage “holes” associated with all satellites and they have also not been precisely mapped.

Signal Quality vs Signal Strength & What the Number Means
Signal strength refers to the strength of the signal produced by a radio transmitter at a particular location. It is usually expressed as microvolts or millivolts per meter of effective receiving antenna height. Signal quality includes signal strength, but it also includes the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the bit error rate and channel multi-path distortion. The HughesNet "signal-strength" display actually shows signal quality.

If one of the maps shows a location at 49 dBW, it will almost certainly work with the standard satellite Internet dish (.74 or .75 meter). At 44 dBW, it probably won't. Everything in-between is a “maybe”.

The 46 dBW line is a fairly accurate cut off point for use of the standard-size dishes. Based on relative reflective surface area, the equivalent signal should be achieved at about 44 dBW and 42 dBW, respectively, with the .98 meter and 1.2 meter dishes.

When the lines start getting close together, just like on a topology map, the signal strength drops off dramatically and quickly. This is called the cliff effect.

How the LNB Can Help
The dBW values discussed are valid with an LNB that has a noise figure of .8. You will do better if your noise figure is less than that. In general, it is best to get an LNB figure of .7 or below, with .5 being the best.

Below is a list of satellites used in the US for consumer Internet services. There are links by each satellite, to satellite coverage or footprint maps. All satellites are list in longitudinal numerical order.

The Satellite Footprint Maps
Also linked to is a list of the satellites, with a few details about each one, and a visual representation of the longitudes and latitudes in the US.