If a satellite-based educational networking and delivery system is to find wide acceptance in the United States and is to be economically viable, it must be capable of interconnecting many headends or nodes on the ground and of delivering quantities of diverse program material. A large number of TV-equivalent bandwidth channels will be required to meet even the most modest educational needs. A basic problem in all communication engineering is to obtain the proper balance between investment in the link itself and investment in the terminal equipment. A systems analysis of the 12 GHz multicarrier earth-terminal which attempts to achieve that balance is presented. The analysis considers baseband signal, picture quality, downlink frequency plan and receiver system. The technical aspects of a multi-carrier receiver are described in some detail. Special attention is given to the down converter design, with respect to mixer design, microstrip filters, local oscillator, 1GHz IF amplifier, branching network, and second mixer and local oscillator. (JY)