: ''For the Soviet animation studio see page Studio Ekran'' Ekran (, meaning ''"Screen"'') was a Soviet-Russian type of geostationary satellite, developed for a national system of Direct-To-Home

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

. The first satellite of Ekran series was launched on 26 October 1976. Each satellite in the Ekran series was designed to provide one TV and two

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

program channels to

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...

s throughout the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and to individual home receivers in northern Siberia. Ekran's downlink is in the

Ultra high frequency Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

(UHF) range. Early Ekran satellites used orbital positions in the range from 48° East to 95° East, but recent Ekran, including the current Ekran 20, have been stationed at 99° East. These 3-axis stabilized satellites carry a single 24

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

, 200

watts Watts is plural for ''watt'', the unit of power. Watts may also refer to: People *Watts (surname), a list of people with the surname Watts Fictional characters *Albie Watts, a fictional character in the British soap opera ''EastEnders'' *Angie ...

transponder, feeding a 28 dB gain antenna transmitting on right-hand circular polarization to produce in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

in the range 50 to 55 dBW at 714 MHz. The corresponding feeder link uses left-hand circular polarization at 6200 MHz. Therefore, almost every householder could receive the TV signal at home from Ekran's

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

using a simple

Yagi–Uda antenna A Yagi–Uda antenna, or simply Yagi antenna, is a directional antenna consisting of two or more parallel Antenna (radio)#Resonant antennas, resonant antenna elements in an Antenna array#Types, end-fire array; these elements are most often metal ...

. There were also various kinds of collective or individual satellite receivers, such as Ekran-KR10 and Ekran-KR01. Latest version of the receiver represents a simple individual TV

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable converter box, cable box, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a Tuner (radio)#Television, TV tuner inpu ...

itself. A modified version of Ekran was called Ekran-M. Ekran satellites have been replaced by improved geostationary craft for DBS, such as

Gorizont Gorizont (, ), GRAU index 11F662, was a series of 35 Russian, previously Soviet, geosynchronous communications satellites launched between 1978 and 2000. The program was started in order to develop a satellite system to relay coverage of the 1 ...

, Gals, and

Ekspress Ekspress ( meaning Express), is a series of geostationary communications satellites owned by Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC). The first satellite of this kind was launched on 13 October 1994. The satellites are produced by the ...

. On 23 June 1978, the Ekran-2 spacecraft exploded due to a catastrophic discharge of its battery, contributing to the increase in

space debris Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in spaceprincipally in Earth orbitwhich no longer serve a useful function. These include dere ...

in the

Geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular orbit, circular geosynchronous or ...

. On 1 February 2009, the last satellite from the Ekran series, Ekran-M at 99° East, stopped transmitting.

References

External links

Ekran satellite

- in Russian

* ttp://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1983eosa.proc...50S&db_key=PHY&data_type=HTML&format=Abstract
Pacific Telecommunications Review
Communications satellites Earth observation satellites of the Soviet Union Television in the Soviet Union Satellite television Communications satellites of the Soviet Union Satellites using the KAUR bus Spacecraft that broke apart in space {{USSR-spacecraft-stub