All about antennas Beam width As the gain of the antenna increases, so does the antenna's ability to focus

radio waves into a narrow beam. A very large antenna will produce a very large gain and a very narrow "pencil beam". On the downside, the beam will need to be precisely pointed towards the satellite to ensure that full advantage can be taken of the high gain. In contrast, a small antenna will produce a wider beam, and also lower gain, but demands far less precision when it is pointed towards the satellite. In addition to providing larger gain, a narrower beamwidth provides greater resistance to interference from other satellites that are located close to the wanted satellite, because it will collect less of the energy radiated by those satellites. This is one factor to be considered in the choice of antenna size. The antenna's beamwidth is inversely proportional to the reflector diameter and the antenna's operating frequency. It is usually expressed as the angle between the directions of radiation at which the beam strength falls to half of its maximum value. For example, when transmitting with a 6 m antenna, the beamwidth is approximately 0.25 degrees at the typical transmit frequency (14 GHz). For a 60 cm antenna the beamwidth increases tenfold to about 2.5 degrees. At the lower frequencies used for reception the beamwidths are slightly larger, at about 3 degrees for the typical 60cm dish used for receiving satellite TV.

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