The invention provides a cutting method and a cutting apparatus that cuts without chipping a composite material consisting of laminated layers of crystal material and amorphous material, in which the amorphous material is cut with an ultrasonically vibrated cutting blade and the crystal material is cut with a cutting blade that does not ultrasonically vibrate. The transmission member changes a direction of an urging force transmitted to the valve body such that the urging force is oblique to a pressure action direction X. An elastic mechanism mounted between the active sensing surface and the sensor body allows movement between the active sensing surface and the sensor body. The intermediate image comprises chrominance and luminance values. A system for de-multiplexing the channel blocks in a link as received by one of the components of a satellite communications system is also disclosed, where the de-multiplexed link signals are then used to generate commands for use within the receiving component or to generate communications in another link.