Big ugly dish
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A big ugly dish (often abbreviated to BUD) is a colloquial name for a satellite dish used to receive satellite television signals on the C band. BUDs are usually about ten feet or three metres in diameter and have been a source of much consternation (even local zoning disputes) to neighbors of those with the dishes. Although some dishes are made of fiberglass, a common alternative is a metal mesh – such BUDs shed snow and suffer reduced wind loads; in addition, some critics consider them less unsightly.
Recently, direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services – such as DirecTV in North America and Astra and Hotbird in Europe – have reduced or eliminated the need for BUDs. DBS signals, located in the Ku band, are higher in power and therefore require smaller dishes than C band, and the digital signals now used require far less signal strength at the receiver. For this reason, small dishes of roughly 18" or 50 cm in diameter are now used for DBS and one-metre dishes are used for free to air Ku-band reception.
A dual-band or Ku-band LNB may be retrofitted to some big dishes, however there is a more restrictive maximum mesh size if anything other than a solid dish is used at these shorter wavelengths.