FTA Fever Free-To-Air Satellite Learning Center

Digital Satellite Equipment Control (DiSEqC) Primer

DiSEqC (Digital Satellite Equipment Control) is a communication protocol which allows will allow your Free-To-Air satellite receiver to communicate with peripheral devices such LNBs, multi-dish switches, or antenna positioners or rotors. (It's pronounced die-sec, in case you're curious.) European satellite provider Eutelsat developed the DiSEqC standard and released it to the public as an open standard.

The DiSEqC protocol will allow your FTA satellite receiver to control your DiSEqC switch remotely. A DiSEqC switch is a device that enables you to connect multiple LNBs to a satellite receiver.

DiSEqC uses your coaxial cable to transmit both bidirectional data/signals and power. DiSEqC is said to be more flexible than 13/18 volt and 22 kHz tone or ToneBurst/MiniDiSEqC techniques. DiSEqC is also compatible with the actuators used to rotate large C band dishes, if used with a DiSEqC positioner.

A number of variations of DiSEqC exist:

• DiSEqC 1.0: allows switching between up to 4 satellite sources
• DiSEqC 1.1: allows switching between up to 16 sources
• DiSEqC 1.2: allows switching between up to 16 sources, and control of a simple horizontal-panning satellite motor
• DiSEqC 2.0: adds bi-directional communications to DiSEqC 1.0
• DiSEqC 2.1: adds bi-directional communications to DiSEqC 1.1
• DiSEqC 2.2: adds bi-directional communications to DiSEqC 1.2

The later versions are backwards-compatible with the lower revisions, but the lower revisions are, of course, not forward-compatible with the higher revision numbers. A 1.x receiver cannot receive communication from a switch or motor, though this is often irrelevant; the switch or motor can often be controlled by the receiver.

All receivers supporting DiSEqC are certified to bear a logo specifying the version of DiSEqC they support.

Please note that all FTAFever FTA satellite receivers use the modern DiSEqC 2.x standard.