TELEsatélite - TELE-satellite International Magazine

CITY REPORT
■
Satellite Reception in Shanghai, China
Satellite Dishes
in Shanghai
Shanghai is a city with a
population of 20 million
people and if you decide
to take a walk one day
and look around you’ll find
satellite dishes ranging in
size from the newest 35cm
DTH antennas to all the
way up to extremely large
20-meter monstrosities. But
let’s not forget that officially
satellite dishes are prohibited
in China. Hong Bo, born
and raised in Shanghai and
also an enthusiastic HDTV
satellite fan, took us on a
small tour of Shanghai’s
world of satellite antennas.
Xinzhuang Satellite Station’s
two 20-meter monster dishes in
Shanghai, China.
140 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 12-01/2011 — www.TELE-satellite.com
Hong Bo, who uses the
nickname Homeboy in
the Internet, first took us
southwest about 20 km
from downtown Shanghai.
The immense satellite
antennas of Shanghai’s
Xinzhuang satellite station
are located right next to
the RT market shopping
center. “Former US President
Richard Nixon brought
those two 20-meter
dishes with him in 1972”,
explained Hong Bo who
then confirmed that these
two antennas are used by
the Chinese military.
But a number of smaller
dish antennas are located
alongside the two large
Shanghai
dishes. “These are used to
uplink Shanghai’s local TV
channels to CHINASAT 6 at
115° east”, explains Hong
Bo.
Using Shanghai’s elevated
roadways that at
many intersections tend to
be stacked on top of each
other, we continued our
tour with a stop at one of
China’s most modern and
sophisticated walled-in residential
areas: Mandarine
City in western Shanghai.
Wang Yinchung is the
technician in charge of the
TV system and, not surprisingly,
is also a satellite
DXer. In his case he man-