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> So they're going to trade off signal:noise to get 99.99%, but not 99.99999%.

Depends on where you are in the footprint as well, but of course, totally forgot about the suits.

I should have said it's entirely possible to make Ku withstand the worst weather conditions known to mankind, which is not the case for Ka.

Trivia: Ku stands for K-under, and Ka stands for K-above, where K-band is IIRC something between 18-27 GHz. Electromagnetic transmissions in this spectrum are absorbed by water vapour, so it's a very bad idea to use this spectrum for satellite. Again IIRC, above 70Ghz, the atmosphere stops being radio-transparent.

Ka is way more efficient, but you need a ground station, a satellite and modems that are built from ground up to cope with rainfade. The tricks that work with Ku won't work with Ka.



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