SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING LOCAL ORIGINATING SIGNALS WITH DIRECT BROADCAST SATELLITE TELEVISION SIGNALS

摘要

An apparatus for providing local programming with direct broadcast satellite transmission includes a terrestrial transmitter (14) fo r transmitting converted local channel signals in a first frequency band. The first frequency band is contained within a satellite bro adcast frequency band in which the direct broadcast satellite channels are transmit ted. The apparatus also includes at each user or subscri ber location, a first antenna (34) for receiving the converted local channel sig nals from the terrestrial transmitter and a second anten na (38) for receiving a direct broadcast satellite channel signals from the satellite. T he apparatus further includes a combiner (44) for combin ing the converted local channel signals and the direct broadcast satellite channel s ignals on a single propagation path. A signal processor/ decoder (18) processes the combined signals on the single propagation path to produc e a desired channel output to drive a television set (20 ). To the processor/decoder (18) the combined channel signal appears as if it h ad been all broadcast directly from the satellite. There fore, the apparatus requires no additional receiver for receiving local programmin g along with regional and national programming provided by satellite transmission.