why are low carrier frequencies problematic for satellite TV?

Question

wireless communication

Answer 1

By 'low' do you mean less than 1,000 MHz? or do you mean low in comparison with other satellite systems i.e. older systems that operate in the range of ~4,000 to 6,000 MHz versus newer systems that operate at ~18,000 MHz?

In the first case (less than 1000 MHz) there are several problems:
1. Interference with almost every ground-based system there is (cell phones, police/fire radios, UHF TV broadcasts, VHF and FM radio, etc)
2. The antenna dish size would be impractical for home use.
3. The bandwidth and number of channels that can be carried drops as the carrier frequency drops (for a given amount of frequency space)

If you are speaking of the 2nd situation (18,000 vs 4,000), then the problem is quite the opposite
1) The dish size may be smaller, but
2) The path loss actually gets worse as the carrier frequency goes up, so you need higher power transmitters, more sensitive receivers, and lower noise receivers.

.