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In the early days of C band, the two most critical components of a satellite system were the downconverter and the LNA, or Low Noise Amplifier. The next generation of systems went from the single conversion downconverters to block downconversion. The LNA and block converter were joined either by a piece of low loss coax or an "N connector" coupler. A way to counter the loss between the LNA and the downconverter led to the joining of those two devices, called a Low Noise Block converter (LNB). A waveguide is a metal channel that "guides" the signal from the opening at the mouth of the feedhorn to the pickup probes in the throat of the LNB. Just like coax, waveguides can be lossy, so a way was developed to counter this loss by joining the LNB together with the feedhorn into a single unit. This is what we know today as an LNBF, or Low Noise Block converter Feed.

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