The story of microwave and satellite transmission is about harnessing the power of high intensity radio waves and focussing them between fixed points on Earth - or in Space.
We may think that these are 'Space Age' technologies but their story starts well over 70 years ago.
In a sense, microwave and satellite links go right back to one of the ancient principles of primitive signal beacons - that you need a line of sight between two points.
The start of the space age can be dated from two separate events towards the end of World War Two. First was the development of rockets that could escape the Earth's atmosphere - and with it, the potential to fire ...
The theory of satellites was simple enough - shoot something out into space at the right speed and on the correct trajectory and it will stay up there, orbiting Earth, for years - if not forever.
The technological challenges faced by the pioneers in satellite communications were enormous. They had to find ways of tracking relatively tiny objects in space - objects that were moving at thousands of miles an hour. ...