Hitting Hawaii with AMC1?

[Baylink]

My new gig uses a C-band uplink to AMC1. One of the cable systems that carries us is Time Warner Hawaii, which apparently regularly has trouble getting a clean MPEG2(5/6) receiver lock from AMC1's 103W position. Yesterday, their master control guy said he could see us on the spectrum analyzer, and we were on-freq, but only 6db C/N, which his receiver wouldn't lock on.

Is this something I should expect?

We had to play avoid-the-zombie a few weeks back, when G15 passed our slot, but my understanding is this is a fairly regular thing with TWCH, and predates any adjustments we might have made for that, so I'm assuming that we're on-power and on-pole; it's a fixed 5-meter (I think) dish.

[Kelly]

If you have an uplink, then you hopefully have a spectrum analyzer looking at the downlink side from the sat to confirm carrier level and bandwidth. If so and your carrier looks clean at the proper level and centered in the slot correctly, then you should be fine. If you know of someone else who is looking at AMC-1, you could have them look at your carrier to double check what you're seeing. Your space provider can also check your carrier and s/n level with a phone call.

I can't count how many times some cable head end claims my carrier on some transponder isn't receivable, eventually finding out it was because of a problem at the downlink or some tech that couldn't operate an IRD or RF router.

Good luck!

Kelly

[NECRAT]

According to this site http://www.satbeams.com/footprints?beam=5439 Hawaii, is on the edge of the footprint.

SES-Americom, operators of AMC 1, provide a more generic map.

http://www.ses.com/ses/footerPages/Pop-ups/SatelliteFleet.php

Call SES Americom and inquire about Hawaiian downlinking. It may be that the receive has too small of a dish to get a reliable signal.

[Baylink]

Just so I'm clear, 3 Bright House headends, 20 other TWC headends, and Dish and Direct all pick us up fine; Dish and Direct being the ones I would really have expected a complaint from if we weren't looking good on the bird.

I've escalated it internally to our guy who deals with Americom to look into, but I expected I'd find it was just that Hawaii's off the edge of the planet.

(And, amusingly, Mike, that SES page, when you click to AMC1, and then try to click through to details, points you 404.

[NECRAT]

(And, amusingly, Mike, that SES page, when you click to AMC1, and then try to click through to details, points you 404.

That is pretty funny.

Find out what size dish the cable co. in question is using. When I was doing the engineering for WAPA America, it was amazing some of the crap some of the cable operators were using to pick up.

[Baylink]

I'll do it, assuming it lands back in my lap. I was hired to provide a little more engineering background than they presently have, but I'm still in operations training, myself, so...

[Baylink]

And, while I'm about it, does anyone have any good sat-industry websites, mailing lists, or primers I should be looking at, as the incipient Uplink Guy?

I've already found, and read That Guy's 265ish page SNG truck primer, but I'm sure there's more...

[NECRAT]

Well lyngsat is a great site for helping to identify satellites.

Most of the satellite groups online tend to be home user geek types who post about what free to air stuff there is.

There is a satellite convention every year for SNG people (I believe called satcon).

[Baylink]

I'd seen lyngsat, yeah.

Is there actually enough FTA stuff on C-band that people still *have* dishes?

But I was more looking for where the sat operators and their clients hang out; there must be a cabal somewhere, right?

[Baylink]

I'm told that we had our uplink guy out to recheck everything, since AMC1 was one of the birds that had had to evade G15 before they recovered it...

and he discovered something that was only barely in-spec, and corrected it.

Oceanic is reportedly picking us up ok again.