A hop is the distance away from a card.
Hop one = 1 step away, ie: card server, receiver.
hop 2 = 2 steps away, card server, server, receiver.
Hop 3 = card server, server, server , receiver.
And on and on.
Anything above hop 4/5 is virtually unwatchable as the time it takes for ecm to reach you would surpass the ecm change (on 0963 anyway)
If I were to card share for people what do you think the most people I should share for before it will be not good quality