1982-August - The Old CATV Equipment Museum

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SATELLITEDICEST 'AGE
1/csD/8.82
AUGUST 1 982
WESTAR5 maywellhavea seriousimpacton
the RCA hold (since1975)on the cableTV
business;
gainedby Western
butanyadvantage
Unionwill be temporary,
with new Hughes
Galaxyservicedue in 1983.Thefirst reportsof
W5serviceshouldbe comingin as youreadthis
(havingreplacedW2 at 123west)andwe'lllook
at themin the SeptemberCSD.
VIDEOProcessing,
one of the lastareasin
receiverdesignwhereinnovation
can still have
an impacton the consumerpicture,without
addingbigdollarsto thecostof thehometerminal, getsanotherlookthismonth.JackTrollman
warnsreceivertweekers
to besurewhattheyare
doingbeforetheytearintoa carefullyworkedout
design!
TERRESTRIAL
television
maybe dying.No
joke.NBC,CBS,ABCratingsdropped
suddenty
thispastwinter,and networknewsshowswere
especially
hardhit.We figurethe networksmay
nowhavegoodreasonto runscared,andso we
aretrottingouta historicallookat howall of this
started;beginningin this issue.lf you really
understandwhat transpiredbefore satellites,
youwill bettergraspthe monumental
evolution
nowtakingplace.
SPACEis holdingtheirfirsttradeshowthis
monthin Omaha.The emphasisis on training
and if you are new to the industry,you should
giveseriousconsideration
to attending.
Thiswill
be thefirstgatheringof membersandwould-be
membersunderthe umbrellaof an organized
tradegroupandlikeallindustryshows,willprove
educational
and informative.
cooP's
(
SATELLITE €
DIGEST K,4i
COOP'S
COMMENT
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p2a g e
EVALUATING
(JackTrollman)
TVROVIDEOPROCESSING
page 4
page 6
.........
COOPON TVROBASICS(TheLNA)..
I
50
dB
I
I
I
30
dB
LNAGAINUSE
i-o-o-e-r-oR--CABLELOSS
35dB/TO
ESTABLISH
NOISE
FIGURE
30 dB TO
ESTABLISH
NOISE
FIGURE
#1) FORFULL
INDOORRECEIVER
#2) FORLNC
(OUTDOOR
DOWN
CONVERSION)
(PartOne)
WETTING
AMERICA'S
APPETITE
FORTELEVISION
page22
page30
CORRESPOT\DENCE....
BIRDOPERATIONAL
NOTES
....page36
COOP'S SATELLITE DIGEST published monthly by West Indies Video,
Ltd, a Turks & Caicos Corporation with corporate olfices localed at Grace
B a y , P r o v i d e n c i a l e sT, u r k s& C a i c o s l s l a n d s( W e s tI n d i e s ) .U . S .o f f i c e sa r e
m a i n t a i n e da t F t . L a u d e r d a l e ,F l o r i d a .A l l m a i l i n c l u d i n g s u b s c r i p t i o n s ,
advertising inquiries,reports and lettersshould be addressed to CSD, P.C.
B o x 10 0 8 5 8 , F l . L a u d e r d a l e F
, L 3 3 3 10 . C S D o l l i c e h o u r s i n F t . L a u d e r d a l e
a r e M o n d a y - F r i d a y9 : 0 0 A M t o 4 : 0 0 P M . T e l e p h o n e( 3 0 5 )7 7 1- 0 5 0 5 .C S D
i s m a i l e dw o r l d w i d eo n o r b e l o r et h e 1s t o t e a c h m o n t h .l i r s t - c l a s s{ a i r m a i l ) .
A n n u a l s u b s c r i p t i o nr a t e s a r e $ 5 0 ( U S f u n d s ) l o r U S A , C a n a d a , M e x i c o ;
$ 7 5 ( U S l u n d s )e l s e w h e r e .E n t i r ec o n l e n t s c o p y r i g h t19 8 2 b y W e s t l n d i e s
V i d e o ,L l d ' B o b e r t 8 . , S u s a n T . , K e v i n P . ,a n d T a s h a A . C o o p e r .
PAGE2/CSD/8-82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
)
cooP's
SATELLITE
COMMENT
BEWARE/Theldes Of June
June was a very strange month for the give and take battles
involvingscramblingof privatesatelliteservicetransmissions.The
trendwas for more and more obviouseffortsto thwart unauthorized
'sensitive'or 'cash-critical'
but the extransmissions,
viewingof
ception(s)were notable.
Firstcomes CBS with a new programto scramblevariousnews
(W4,TR10,earlymorningET).Thesewere the
feed transmissions
samefeedsyou see virtuallyanytimeof day (or night)spreadas they
are over every bird from Intelsatto Anik and Ghorizont,and all between.Why wouldCBS botherto scramble,sincenewsfeedsare by
theirnaturedone on shortnoticeand to insurethat such feedsget to
every possibleuser locationin the best shape, while they are still
of
news,thereis seldomif ever time to arrangefor the distribution
equipment.The only logicalansweris that CBS was
descrambling
'testing'.
of TR10on W4; not
Forthatanalysisis the unusualselection
yournormalnewsfeedtransponder.Still,the effortwas madeand one
mustassumetherewas a purposein mind.
Then comes the ABC answer to unauthorizedviewing. lt all
startedway back in 1978or so when ABC began using satellitesto
Max Robinsonnightlyoutof Chicagoto NewYork.
feedthevenerable
Justin caseyou are newto the game,since1978 Max has heldthefort
in Chicagosippingon hisdrinksand beratingthosepoorunfortunales
He sitstherefor up to a
who workunderhim for theirincompetence.
'jumpin'witha leadinto
coupleol hourspernight,waitingfor hiscueto
this or that news story. lf you have any doubtsabout the American
'warmup announcers'
intoimagesof
newssystem,and how it turns
of the depthof the day's
menwithgreatwisdom,and understanding
news stories, a few hours spent watching Max should end your
doubts.
'78
ABC was contractingwith RCAto use a feed
Nowway back in
when
the cable industrywas still using F2 (for you
F2.
This
was
on
newcomers,cablestartedlile on F2, movedto F1 in 1979'and thento
F3Rin lateDecemberof 1981).Theywereslottedon TR16'whichat
that time was in use by a Houstonbased regionalmovie and sports
channelservicecalled FANFARE.But, Fantaredidn't start service
*
*
i
3 METERCLAIMS
QUESTIONABLE
PROVOIN NOVEMBER?
(!)
w4 rN BRASTL
until early eveningCT so ABC by RCA assignmentgot to use the
transponderfor the Max Robinsonwarm up. Max was no lesssure oJ
abusiveto subordinates
himselfthen,than now.He was belligerent,
andquickof temperif somebodymoveda pencilor didn'tchillhisdrink
to the prescribedtemperature.
as now,and
ln that era, cablesystemswere not as sophisticated
manydidn'thaveany equipmentto turnon the satellitefeedto their
subscriberswhen Fanfarestartedservice;they just ran the outputof
'full
'l6
theirtransoonder satellitereceiverintoa modulator time'.That
plugged Max Robinsonand his less than dignifiedantics into
thousandsof homesthroughoutthe southwestevery afternoon.
Well,it was boundto happen.One day a littleold lady in a small
town in the panhandleof Texas happenedto twist her dial and she
came uoonMax Robinsonaboutan hour aheadof the time when the
'l
COOP'SSATELLITE
DICEST
JLJ
3
littleoldladywasaccustomed
toseeingMax.Shesatdowntowatch.lt
tookherabouttenminutes
to figureoutthat"thisMaxRobinson"
was
notthesamedignified,
astute,pleasing
manshenormally
watched.
lt
tookher aboutten moreminutesto get her Congressman
on the
telephone.
Shewas,it turnedout,themotherof a Congressman
and
she wasveryupsetto hearMax Robinson
suggestiigto a young
(white)girlthatshe was onlyfit for sleepingwith(colorotherthan
white)'pigs',
andtellinga (fellowblack)makeuppersonwherecertain
'acts'couldbe procured
'by mentioning
my name'.
TheCongressman
andtheFCCsortedit alloutinshortorder,and
in an unusualrushof paperwork
theFCCwarnedeveryone
involved
thatitwastheresponsibilig
ofthecablefirmstakinga service
(suchas
Fanfare)
to insurethatthe ONLYservicetheirsubscribers
actually
sawin theirhomeswasthe Fanfareservice;not anyotherswhich
mighthappento be (shared)
on thesametransponder.
RCAmoved
Maxandcrewto anothertransoonder.
I
PAGE 3/CSD/8-82
Robinson.
Finally,in June,ABC decidedto take it a step further.Apparently
there were too many of us reading Max's lips. And they began to
experimentwith droppingboth the audio and the video betweenthe
actualChicagoto New York feeds,replacingthe live uneditedstudio
cameralook at Max and crew with a pieceof artworkthat told those
who mightstumbleon by they were seeinga transmissionfrom ABC
News in Chicago.
lf ABC stlcks with this tormat, so ends the saga of one of the
more colorfulpiecesof early satellitehistory.There are some great
'out-take'
tapes of Max at his best floatingabout, and they will undoubtedlybecomecollectoritemson the satellitecircuit.lt is a pitywe
may be losing,or already have lost, Max and his antics. Brief oftcameralooksat Jane Pauleyor DavidBrinkleywill nevercome up lo
thecaliberof the razoredgetongueof Max Robinson.Gone,perhaps,
but hardlyforgotten.
I
o
o
Otfbythemselves
onfirstoneandthenanother
Westar,Maxand
theChicago
crewhavebeenallowed
todoprettymuchwhattheywant
years.Thiswas,afterall,
inensuing
a privatefeedfromABCChicago
toABCNewYorkandanyonethathappened
acrossit wasobviously
trespassing
anyhow.But somebody'upstairs'at ABC was plainly
woniedaboutallofthis,andinas muchas Maxis notknownto bean
easy'talent'to
rationalize
with,wecanenvision
a scenario
whereABC
finallydecided
thatif Maxwasgoingto act likeMax,no matterhow
theytalkedwithhim,thatit wasgoingto be upto ABCto makesure
thatnobodyhadtheirdelicatesensesottended.
SoABCtookto cuttingout the audiobeforeand afterthe actual
Robinson
feeds;creating
forsomebody
employment
whohadto sitat
anaudiocontrol
boardinChicago
andpunchupbackground
musicto
gowiththeunpurged
videoof Maxsittingaroundmakingfacialgesturesandgenerally
looking
mean.Theirreasoning,
I amsure,wasthat
onlylipreaders
wouldcontinue
to be 'otfended'
by Maxif theycutout
theaudio.
ThiswasABC'sfirststepat'scrambling'the
unpurged
Max
lf themajorcommercial
networks
haveslowlybecomemoreconsciousof theiron-satellite
non-broadcast
segments,
a surprising
Don
King(THEgreatfightpromoter)
maybe comingabouttheopposite
way.DonKingsurprised
many,myselfincluded,
by takinghis midJune$50,000,000
Cooney/Holmes
fightdirectlyto RCAF4 (TR11)
andleavingit unscrambled
fornotonlytheprelimsbutthemainbout
as well.PerhapsKingfelthe couldaffordto be generous.
Thetakefromthefightreportedly
wasthelargestever.Certainly
it
wasa bunchof moneyand Kingis ontoa newpromotion
scheme
'licensing'
involving
cableTVsystems
to carryfuturefightsandentertainment
specials.
Heplansto havea fighteverymonth(nextwasJuly
21st)andto augment
thatwithshowbizspecials.
Healsoplansto use
the satellite
to feedhis sportsand entertainment
specialsto cable
systems
whicharellcensedto carrythefeeds.Certainly
onewayto
capture
theattentionol thecableindustry
istothrowtheeventsupon
(CONTINUED/ page 40)
PAGE 4/CSD/8-82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
TVRO
EVALUATING
VIDEO
PROCESSING
to a
I readwith interestthe Aprilissqeof CSD wherea modification
workhorsevideo bandpassfilter wbsproposed.
For those unfamiliarwith the conte-Xtofthe article,the filter in
questionfirst appearedin Tay Howard'soriginalreceiverdesignand
has subsequently,
as was mentioned,beenusedin manyreceiversin
TechnologyCorp.(2446Wat
itsoriginalform.SinceMicroelectronics
son Ct., Palo Alto, Ca. 94303) producesthis filter togetherwith its
companionde-emphasisnetworkknownas 2U15T04and lconsultfor
themon TVRO applications,I was awarethat the performanceol the
filterin its originalform was optimum.I was curiousas to how it could
be improvedsubstantially.
Usingan HP 85078 NetworkAnalyzerand a filtermade of parts
carefullyselectedto have the specifiedvalues, I swept both the
originaland the modifieddesignsand came up with the resultsdescribedbelow.
The responseof the originaldesignis picturedin Figure 1. The X
axis is 0 to 10 MHz. And the Y axis is 5 dB/Div.There is a diamondshapedmarkerat 4.2 MHz (the upperlimitof the NTSC video spectrum).Sincethe analyzerdoes not startoperatinguntilit reaches500
KHz,thereis a smallgap in thetraceneartheleftend of the passband.
In orderto makethe responseacrossthe passbandmorevisible,
the Y axis was changedto 2 dB/Div.This can be seen in Figure 2.
i l::.I:i
Ui:iIil1.irfil...[ ]:1...
AN ANALYSISOF THEBARKERMODIFICATION
TO THEVIDEOPASSFILTER
by
Jack Trollman
ConsultlngEngineer
TechnologyCorp.
Microelectronics
2446WatsonCourt
PaloAlto. Calit'94303
Notethe passbandis llat to withina 0.5 dB out to 4 MHz then startsto
rolloff rapidly.At 4.2MHz, we can see the responseis only down by
slightlyless than 1 dB from midbandwhile attenuationof unwanted
audiosubcaniersin the 6.2 and 6.8 MHz range is approximately12
dB.
Next we installedthe 10 ohm resistorand the 2.7 microhenry
inductoras suggestedby the articleand the result is as shown in
Flgure 3. Herethe verticalscalewas again2 dB per Cm. and we lind
end is indeedemphasizedslightly'peaking
that the high-frequency
broadlyat around3 MHz but lessthan 1 dB abovethe responseat 500
KHz.More significantlywe see that the rejectionof audio subcarrier
signalsabove5.5 MHz has been reducedto roughly8 dB contraryto
Figure1 of the articlewherethe rejectionof the revisedfilteris claimed
to be approximately6 dB BETTERat these frequencies.
usingthe
In Figure4the two responsesareshownsimultaneously
2 dB/Div.verticalscale.Herethe markeris againset at 4.2 MHz.lt can
be seenthatthe originalfilterrollsoff very slowlyand is down perhaps
0.2dB at 3.6 MHz.The modifieddesignhowevershowsonlyabout0.8
dB higheroutputat this frequencywith nearlycoincidentresponseat
4.2MHz.
coNcLusloNs
1. There is some tendencyto favor the high-frequencyvideo
componentsby the modifieddesign but by less than 1 dB. A more
effectivemeans of achievinghigh{requencypeaking is described
below.
2. Reiectionof audiosubcarriercomponentsby the revisedfilter
is about4 dB poorerthan the originaldesign.This potentiallyhas a
muchmoreseriousimpacton videoqualitythan mightappearat first
o
COOP'SSATELLITE
DICEST
I
JLJ
glanceandis reasonenoughto retaintheoriginal
filterdesign.
Audio
subcaniers
shouldbeattenuated
significantly
beforebeingallowed
to
enterthevideo(picture)
circuitry.
PAGE 5/CSD/8.82
H O WC A NI T E L LI F M Y
RECEIVER
HASA PROBLEM?
lf your.receiver
is producing
a "washed-out',
colorpictureor you
suspectit hasvideohigh-frequency
rolloff,
findyourselia goodwideband,scope(10 MHzverticalresponseminimum)and lookat the
Multiburst
VerticalInterval
TestSignal.Thisis available
on several
F3Rsources
suchasWGN,WTBS,USANetwork
amongothersand
typically
appears
on Kine17of Field1. lt shouldlooksimilarto Flgure
6. All six frequencies
are (or sholdbe) transmitted
at the slme
amplitude
asshown.lf yourreceiver
is operating
properly
youshould
seethissamewaveform
atyourvideooutput.Actualliit'da goodidea
to lookatthissignalastransmitted
bya numberofdifferent
sources
to
be certainthesourceis notfaulty.
M U L T I B U R S T E S TS I G N A L
( F I E L D1 , L t N E1 7 )
70-
4.2
0 . 5 1 . 2 5 2 . 0 3 . 03 . 5 8 M H z
40_
WHYTAKEOUTTHESUBCARRIERS?
YOUCAN'T"SEE''THEM.
Thereisgoodreasonto keeptheaudiosubcarriers
outofthevideo
channeleventhoughtheyappearto be "invisible"
to the eye.The
problem
comesaboutif thereexistnon-linearities
in thevideoampli(PLUDiscriminator)
fierchainbetween
thedemodulator
andtheCRT.
products
It theseexist,thirdorderintermodulation
canbe generated
"sound
thatwillfallintothe videospectrum
causingcrosshatching,
graininess
picture.
bars"or a
in the
For examplethe secondharmonicof the chrominance
carrier
(2x3.58MHz)canmixwith6.2or 6.8 MHzaudiocarriersproducing
productsat 2x3.58-6.2:960KHz and 2x3.58visiblevideo-band
6.8:360 KHz.Otheraudiocarrierswillproducesimilarresponses.
I
I
z
100
l
LrJ
(r -40
3 CYCLES
MIN
3.58 MHz
COLORSYNC
BURST
F I G U R E6 M U L T I B U R S T
High-frequency
rolloffwill showup in the waveformsimilarto
Flgure7.
10 0 _
70
Csc
II
@
F
MULTIBURSTTEST SIGNAL
( F t E L D1 , L t N E 1 7 1
0.5
't.25 2.0
3.0
I
x2
-
I
40
I
I
I
7.'t6
3.58
AND
,^ 10
t 0
z
l
LU
E -qo
: 960 KHz
'E {i:^.
3 CYCLES
MIN
3.58MHz
COLORSYNC
BURST
F I G U R E7 M U L T I B U R S T
7.16
6.2
I N T E R M O D U L A T I OP
NR O D U C T S
Anotherpotentialsourceof intermodproductsoccursif the audio
carriers
areallowed
to reacha modulator.
Ininexpensive
modulators
thereis no attemptto band-limit
thevideo(low-passfilter)to prevent
lrequencies
above4.2 MHzfrom modulating
the TV channelRF
canier.Thismeansthatif theaudiosubcanieris noteffectively
filtered
outinthereceiver,
it couldalsomodulate
theTVchannelcarrieralong
withthevideo.Thiscanbeatwiththe4.5MHzsoundcarrieroscillator
alsogenerating
a response
withinthevideopassband.
Forexample
6.2-4.5:1.7 MHz.
The originallow-passfilter designis very effectivein reducing
levelsin the videoto insignificance.
audiosubcanier
In viewof the
potential,
intermod
changing
thisfilterto achieve
is
chromaemphasis
notthe bestapproach.
Forthoseutilizingthe 592 VideoAmplifieras described
in the
Howarddesignor similarcircuit,a simplehigh-frequency
peaking
circuitcan be installedwithoutalteringthe low-passfilter.This is
shownin Flgure8.
lnstalltheseries5K potand82 Ptcombination
in parallel
withthe
VideoGaincontrol.
Watchthe multi-burst
displayandadjustthepot
for equalamplitude
on all six frequencies.
lt may be necessary
to
increasethe capacitor
valueif higherlevelsof compensation
are
required.
RELATED
OBSERVATIONS
Externalaudioprocessors
shouldbe connected
directlyto the
PLUDiscriminator
outputaheadof allde emphasis/filter
networks.
lf
youareoperatingan audioprocessorfromthevideooutputyoumay
benoticing
noisyorgarbledaudiodepending
onthelrequency.
Since
the de emphasis/lowpass
filteris betweenthisoutputandthe PLU
Discriminator,
the audiosubcaniers
amplitudes
havebeenreduced
PAGE5/CSD/8.82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
H I G HF R E Q U E N C Y
P E A K I N GC I R C U I T
COOPON TVRO
BASICS
(The LNA)
F I G U R E8 . A D D - I ) N P E A K I N GC I R C U I TF O R 5 9 2 O P
AMP.
significantly.lf the receiverhas no outputdesignatedspecificallylor
externalaudio processorsand you are uncertainas to where the
He
properpickoffpointis, it wouldbe bestto contactthe manufacturer.
will be ableto suggestwherethis connectionshouldbe made.
FIGURE
9 MTC
2U'5T04
-
IO Dt]/DIV
filter
Figure 9 illustratesthe compositede emphasis/low-pass
responseol the networkin the MTC 2U15T04moduleas wired for
525/60operation.The sweep range is from 10 KHz to 10 MHz. and
the verticalscaleis 10 dB/Div.The markeris againat 4.2 MHz.(onthe
horizontallineat -23.4dB). Herewe see the combinedresponseof de
emphasisplus low-passfiltering.Audiosubcarriersabove5 MHz are
attenualedin excessof 20 dB belowthe visualvideospectrumby the
filter action.
compositede emphasis/low-pass
THE LNA STORY
Of the three essentialpartsfor a typicalTVRO terminal,the LNA
hasseenthe mostdramaticchangesin performanceand pricingsince
the first cable systems in Mississippiand Floridaioined the HBO
'satellite
network'back on September30, 1975;therebyputtingthe
presentrevolutioninto gear.
LNA. What is it, and why is it so important?LNA is shorthandfor
Low Noise Amplifier.lf you rememberthe early days of terrestrial
television,you may realla gadgetthat stuckfirst at the dntenna,and
antennamounting
thenon the antenna,calleda'signalbooster.'The
signalboosterwas (andstillis sincemanyarestillsold)the pre-spaceage equivalentof today's LNA.
Anytimewe have a weak signalcomingto an antenna,and the
frequencyof lhe signalis in the VHF (veryhigh frequency)region,or
above (abovemeanshigherin lrequency),thereis a concernthatthe
weak signalget amplified,as soon as possible,before it begansto
traveldown the transmissioncableto the attachedreceiver(demod-'
linesare
ulator).All transmissionslines lose signal.Transmission
like pipes in water systems;they carry the signalas pipes carry the
'source'(the antennafeed)to the receiver.However,
water,from the
thereis one significantditferencebetweencoaxialcableandthe water
'loss';that is, some portionof the
pipe analogy.Coaxialcable has
'in' nevergets to the 'out' (end).This is causedby
signalthat you pul
'resistance'of the cable; a functionof cable diameter(size)and
the
design.Smallercable alwayshas higherlossesthan largercable, if
the two cablesbeingcomparedare of equivalentdesign.Cable loss
'friction,'orresistance.Cablesthat carryradiotrequency
comesfrom
(RF) signals are designedto have as low resistanceas possible;
copper,tor example,coatsthe surfaceof the signalcarryingportionof
the wires.Copperhas a lower'resistance'tothe flow ol RF than does
steel,or aluminum.
Any length of cable has loss; even one inch.And, more importantthanlength,is the frequencyof the signal.The higherthe frequency of the signal,the greaterthe loss or equivalentresistanceof the
cable to the flow of RF. The exceedinglyhigh lrequency(SHF lor
super high frequency)microwavesignals have very high losses in
cable.One ol the ways to measureloss is to determinethe power
availablefrom the antenna(feed,in a TVRO),and then measurehow
much of that power (whateverthe originalamountmay have been)
"3
reachesthe oppositeend. lf, for example,a lengthof cablehas dB
of loss" between the input and the output, and the cable length
thatat
happens
to be 100feet,thenthecablemanufacturerwilltellyou
"cable loss is 3 dB." lf you don't know a dB
that certain frequency
from a tuna sandwich,that may not mean much to you. The dB
'function';meaning,it
(decibel)is a measurementtool. lt is a log
changesor varieson a non-linearcurve.ThreedB is the equivalentto
losingone-halfof the originalsignal.The same dB works in antenna
measurementas well. Increasingthe signalgain of an antennaby 3
dB meansthat the antennawill capturetwice as much signal.
Someof the morepopular(forhomeTVRO's)cablelosesnot 3dB
(per100feet)butas muchas 25 dB (!)per 100feet.Ouch.That'sreally
a doubleouch since we are a log function.How's that? Well, if you
have3 dB of cablelossbetweenthe inputand the output,you'llend up
withone halfthe satellitesignalat the outputas you startedwith at the
input.Butif youhave6dB of cableloss,nowyouwillend upwith 1/4th
the originalsignal.A cablewith 20 dB of loss?Well, it works out this
way:
3 dB loss: 1/2 signal left
6 dB loss:1/4th signalleft
9 dB loss:1/8th signalleft
12 dB loss: 1/16th signalleft
15 dB loss= 1/32ndsignal lefl
18 dB loss:1/64th signalleft
20 dB loss:1/107thsignalleft
That is, and should(sound)prettyfrightening!
The same type of numbers apply to all transmissionlines,and
the onlyrealvariableis thefrequency of the signal(s)beingcaniedby
the cable.The higherthe frequency,the greaterthe loss.And cable
PutMoreLife lnto
c VDurSatelliteRec Mer
I
... and End GostlyFilter
Tuningwith CTI'sCompact
SAWFilters
Now,any satellitereceiver's
reception
can be greatlyimproved
*designingwitha singleoperation
outthebulkyLCfilterand replacing
witha CrystalTechnology
SAWfilter.
Bydesigning-in
our solid-state
SAWfilters,yournextsatellitereceiverwill
rejectunwantedsignalsby
40dBormore.Groupdelayvariations
of +10 nanoseconds
will be typical.
Andthebuilt-infixedinterdigital
transducer
meansnotime-consuming,
error-prone
tuningwill be required.
What'smore,CTI'sSAWfilterswill
simplifyassemblyin bothcommercialandhomeTVROreceivers.
Ournewmaintenance-free
SAW
filterlineincludes70MHzfilterswith
bandwidthsfrom16MHzto 36MHz
and UHFfiltersat 590MHz,610MHz
and 880MHz.
All are PC-boardcompatible
anddo notrequireexternalshielding.
They'retotallyself-contained
in
smallmetalTO-8packagesabout
the diameterof a oennv.
It all adds up to betterreliability,
cost efficiencyand optimumsignal
reception.
Wewill be pleasedto provide
technicalliteratureand adviceon
circuitdesignto startthe operation
thatwill put morelife intoyour next
satellitereceiver.
Writeor callthe companythat
first developedand mass-produced
SAWfiltersfor commercialuse:
CrystalTechnology,
1035East
MeadowCircle,PaloAlto,CA 94303,
TWX910-379-6625,
Phone(415)
856-7911.
Ask for our SAWSates
Department.
CrystalTechnology
A M e m b e ro f t h e S e i m e n sG r o u p
PAGE 8/CSD/8.82
COOP'SSATELLITE
DICEST
suppliersrate their cable losses,on a chart, which usuallyshows
cableloss up and down alongthe verticaledge,and frequencyleftto
rightalongthe horizontaledge.The line slopes;less loss on the left
hand (lower frequency edge); more loss at the higher frequency
edge. Not all cable, in use for TVRO installations,is rated by the
manufacturerat the 4 GHz frequencyband. That ought to tell you
something;namely,that if the manufacturerstops his 'chart'at 3,000
MHz(3 GHz),for example,thathe doesnotbelievethecableis useful
at 4 GHz.
All of this leadsus up to the rationalebehindtoday'sversionof the
LNA.The LNA needsto amplifythe (very)weak TVRO signalsas
quicklyas possible,in the chain of the system.Some very early
*o*
N O I S ES O U R C E S
*
*
*
S K Y- A P P R O X I M A T E L Y
4 KELVIN
€
EARTH- APPROXIMATELY
3 O O "K E L V I N
(
>
\,,
A N T E N N A ." S E E S ' 'E A R T H
TYPICALLY
IN20'K TO
1 O OK
" REGION
L N A . C R E A T ET
SH E R M A L
N O T S rEN 7 0" K T O 1 5 0 ' K
REGION
l-coo.ill
N O I S ET E M P- D O W NT O 1 5 K
I P A R A M E T RIT C cosT - uP To $75,000
I A M P I
I uNCoo{-EDlN O I S -ET E M P- 1 0 0 "t o 2 0 0 ' K
I P A R A M E T R T CcosT
I
I A M P I
l-FiRr7-_l
I r:oa" rtrT I
*
*
1975/6 LNA CHOTCES
*
I
I A M P I
uP To $20,000
NOISETEMP- 200"rO 220"K
cosr - uP To $7,500
l- BtrPoLAR-l N O I S ET E M P- 3 O OT" O 4 O O ' K
I T R A N S T S T IO R cosT - uP To $s,000
AN/P
I
I
systemsinstalledthe LNA in a positionwhere cable had to run from
the feed antennato the LNA input.That cable,no matterhow good,
had loss and that loss, if it occurs beJorethe LNA, is 'loss'forever.
There is no way to get signalloss that occursbeforethe LNA back.
Thereis a way to get signallossafter the LNA, back intothe system.
We'llsee what this meansshortly.
The first LNAs had two specificationsof interest.One was their
noisefigure,and the otherwas theirgain.Noisefigure? Well,while
signalgain soundslike it mightbe a prettyimportantfeature,there is
an even more importantfeature;noisefigure,or as we have come to
call it in the TVRO world, noise temperature.The two can be interchanged,as terminology,
for our purposeshere.
Noise temperature/figureis a qualitativemeasurement.The dB
is a'relative'
term,sinceit saysthatthegainor loss,in decibels,
willnot
be a hardsignalvoltagegainor loss;ratherit willbe a percentage
or
function of what we began with. Remember,3 dB of loss is the
equivalentto losingone halfof the signal;and 3 dB of additionalgainis
the equivalentto addingor doublingthe signal to twice its original
varue.
Noisetemperaturehas alwaysbeen a rigid specilication.lt tells
us,whenwe knowthe number,how much noise the ampliliercircuit
contributesto the signalwe are tryingto amplity.Noise? Well,thereis
noiseall aroundus. The earthbelowyou is a sourceof noise.At our 4
GHz band,it you turnedan LNA plusfeedhorndirectlydowntowards
thebareground,youwould'see'anoisesourceequalto approximately 300 degreesKelvin.The treeshavenoise.And noise,in caseyou
missedthe point,is 'anti-matter'
for TVROinstallations.
Noise,in one
form or another,causes sparklies.And poor audio.
Now back in the 1975 era, the only marketfor LNAs were the
Intelsatpeopleand a handfulof commercialterminalsassociatedwith
ANIK,Westarand Satcom.There were no privateterminals,and by
volume if the whole satelliteuniversejumped ahead by ten new
terminalinstallations
in a singlemonth,thatwas considered
big time
stuff.And sincemost installations,
even the commercialones,only
requirea coupleof LNAs,there was not much of a marketfor LNAs.
Thefewthatwerebuiltwereliterally
handbuilt,andthetechnology
tor
LNAs was straightout of Intelsat.
All Intelsatinstallations
use LNAs. But they are not the type of
LNAswe are acquaintedwith.They are somethingcalled"parametric
amplifiers,"a very complexpieceof electronicsbuiltwith jewelrylike
precision.And, costingin 1975,upwardsof $50,000per piece.A
parametricamplifieris a low noise amplilier(noisetemperaturesas
low as 15 degreesKelvinare possible)of a very specialbreed.lt uses
electronicblack magicto generatea microwavesignalfour or more
timeshigherin frequencythan the intendedreceivesignal,and then it
designed(di zindJ,adj.made or done by desigpr;intended; planned.
Very simply stated,the (actuator)was (designed)...fromthe ground
be a linear drive system
for (SatelliteEarthStation)antennas.
It was not (designed)to be a gardentractor bladelifter, or a door opener,or a steeringgear.
We believe this is most important...because
it gives you, the consumer(valueengineering)-that's
importantbecauseyour investmentin an earth station is sizeable.-Your
should be (reliable)
component's
and (effective).
The equipmentshouldsuit your applicationbest-notsomeoneelse's.
(Wouldyou use your LNA rotor to turn chickenon your barbeque?)
SPECIFICATIONS
o Available
in 117VAC or 24V DC Units
o 3/4 inchACMEDrive
o Weatherproof
NECNEMA12 Housing
o Mountsto existingHourArm
o Mountsto optionalBasePlate
a LESSthan60 secondArc Traverse
O RINGSEAL
WEARBUSHING
IN STEEL
WEARBUSHING
I N A C M EG U I D EN U T
o CompleteThrustand Compression
Bearings
. StaticBearingLoad2690lbs, Dynamic1770lbs.
o All movingshaftshaveTeflonWearBearings
3/4"-6ACMETHREAD
DRYFILMLUBRICATED
O ALLUNTTS
WTH NEWAT{TIJAI/CLUTCFI
SYSIEM
ECUIPPED
o StandardThrows 24 inchand 42 inch
o Any lengththrowon Specialorder
o LinearThrust 24 inch unit3500lbs.
42 inchunit1070lbs.
o Solidstateor relaycontrols
WEARBUSHING
A N T I J A MD R I V EN U T
A N T I J A MR I N G
o All unitsshippedcompletewith powersupply
and controls
package
o Sendfor completespecification
NEEDLEBEARINGS
CONTROL BOARD
SAFETY PIN
LOVEJOYASSEMBLY
1 / 1 5o r 1 / 1 0H P A . C .o r D . C .
1 4 G A . N E M A1 2 H O U S I N G
1 1 2 ' K . OW
. ATERTIGHT
CORDENTRANCE
For more information
call or write
TEL Vl Communications
1307West Lark IndustrialBlvd.
St. Louis, Missouri63026
314 343-9977
I
AVCOM intoduces
Receivers!
NEWHighPerformance
COM.2
.. ATrcOM
ANDVERSATILITY
VALUE
OUALITY,
':,ffi:"l"fiff,ffIotecontror-
I
,
I
UI
I
:cl;d;;:.=-;;,;#;=
El,=...rF*,H
coM'2
.
|
SYSTEM
DOWNCONVERTER
AIrcOMBLOCK
I
I
'
l##**'
h€;: *#:rnba#'*t]I
;:il:ffiownconverter
I
Semi-Agile
with U
selector
GroupChannel
. HIGH STABILITY
' .'MPATIBLE
[
I
I
I
ciunn"tselector BDC-60
)tvf
nrcoill|
estem
^.1
'm
nnc'ot'
:7
t'Tl:.|;:,i:1,*1
PeopleAreAsking. . .
t,,,.n,n,,,,?r
l
I
LNC us.LN A lDownconuerter?
ff',,H;1fltt:",:
r{iiqrfi,$:trfi
IIm*m
Ilgff*ffi|
I I
L.<-B\
I'
'ir Y-^)
1. The separatedownconverterallowsuse
of any noile temperature and brand LNA,
resultingin easysystemupgradeand repairs.
2. With an LNA/Downconverter,additional
receiverscan be added for systemexpansion'
3. The tunable oscillatorin an LNC is
exposedto extremetemperaturechangesat
the focal point of the dish. Result-a
tendencyto extremedrift.
"L" in your LNC fails,you're
4. When the
up the creek!
l ^ #*eary*n;3;-#m
I
DealerInquiries
I
o
8o4's+2
o
t
PAGE12|CSD/8-82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
'marries'the internallygeneratedsuper-superhigh frequencysignal
with the receivedsignalthrougha system employingan electronic
'pump.'Thereare two typesof parametricamplifiers;thosethat oper
ate in the normalair temperature('ambient'),and, thosethat operate
in a cooledenvironment.The cooledones work best.
went aheadwith their 10 and 11 meter
The firstcableinstallations
dish antennasfrom firms such as ScientificAtlantaor Andrews(the
dishesin that periodpricedout near$55,000),and their Intelsatgrade
(Microdyneor SA or Tenacom) receivers;and an LNA. A tew went
ahead and purchaseduncooledparametricamplifiers,and for their
$20,000or so (thecooledones were more expensive)they got noise
figuresin the 100or so degreerange.At the sametime the firstcable
weregoingin, and spending$100,000up per installation,
installations
therewas a new technologyevolving.lt was based upon something
calledGalliumArsenide;a syntheticmaterialcr-eatedby chemistsih
laboratories.
lt was knownthat GalliumArsenidedid, in 1975-6or so,
havethe capabilityof beingusedin a specialtypeof transistorcalleda
'field
effecttransistor,'andwhen you used it in a fieldeffecttransistor
you then had a device known as a Gallium Arsenide Field Effect
Transistor.Nobody liked the long name, so shortly it was called
GaAs-FETwith the funnymixtureof largeand smallletterssignitying
the chemicalpropertiesof the materialin the transistor.
The advantageto GaAs-FETswas that they had the promiseof
beingvery low noise amplifyingdevices.Wlthout belng externally
cooled. The drsadvantage
of the newdevicewas the fewerthana half
dozen peoplein two firmsworldwideknew how to make the Gallium
Arsenidematerialwhichwent intothe transistors.A furtherdisadvantage,as lateas 1978,was that eventhosewho knewhowto makethe
materialfrequentlyhadtroubleduplicatingfrom one'batch'tothe next
19 7 8 G a A s F E T L N A
PRODUCTION/ PARTTWO
SECONDARYGRADING
-Lr-
o lrL
OF GaAsFET
MARRIAGE
TO LNAFIRST-STAGES
C I R C U IB
TOARD.
C H E C KO F
C I R C U IB
TOARD
19 7 9 G a A sF E T L N A
PRODUCTION
/ P A R TO N E
MIX CHEMICALBATCH
ADJUSTMENT
N O I S EF I G U R E
ANDLNAOUALIFICATION
FORGAIN,NOISESPEC
..BAKE''
IN OVENTO
..CRISP
WAFER''
120"
. . D I C EI'N
' T OI N D I V I D U A
CLH I P S
FINALMODELSPEC,
BASEDON NOISE
TEMPERATURE
PRELIMINAR
GY
RADING
(VISUAL)
\
\
\-
R\T
\ r v \
' \ \
BONDING
OF LEADWIRES,
APACSULATION
OF CHIP
'batch'theprecisemixturethatproduced quality
high
GalliumArsenide.
Theflrst GaAs-FETs
werea Japaneseproduct.Andas recently
as 1978,in a verygoodmonth,no morethan300of theGaAs-FETs
leftJapanandanivedintheUnitedStates.Thosethatdidanivehere
wereexpensive;upwardsof $300each!And it took at leasttwo of
them,in an LNA,to makean LNAwork.
T h e s e c o m p a n i e sh a v e t a k e n t h e l e a d i n o u r t r a d e a s s o c i a t i o na n d i n t h e e a r t h s t a t i o n i n d u s t r y .B y j o i n i n g
S P A C E a s P I O N E E Ro r D E A L E Rm e m b e r s ,t h e s e c o m p a n i e s h a v e e n s u r e d t h a t t h e y w i l l b e o n t o p o f t h e
d e v e l o p m e n t sw h i c h a f f e c t t h e e a r t h s t a t i o n i n d u s t r y .P I O N E E Ra n d D E A L E Rm e m b e r s o f S P A C E r e c e i v e
s p e c i a l i z e dn e w s l e t t e r s ,s u c h a s t h e w e e k l v I n s i d e S P A C E f o r P I O N E E R Sa n d S A T V I S I O N t o r D E A L E R S .
T h e s e n e w s l e t t e r sa r e d e s i g n e d t o m a k e s u r e t h a t t h e P I O N E E Ra n d D E A L E R m e m b e r s h a v e u p - t o - d a t e
a n d i n d e p t h i n t o r m a t i o no n i n d u s t r yd e v e l o p m e n t s- - i n f o r m a t i o nw h i c h i s e s s e n t i a lr n a n i n d u s t r yl i k e o u r s
w h i c h i s d e v e l o p i n gs o r a p i d l y .
S P A C Ei s h o n o r e dt o b e s u p p o r t e db y s u c h d i s t i n g u i s h e dm e m b e r sa n d l o o k sf o r w a r dt o t h e i rc o n t i n u e de f f o r t
t o b r i n g t h e b e n e f i t so f e a r t h s t a t i o nt e c h n o l o g yt o a l l A m e r i c a n s .
P I O I { E E RT E T B E R S
(Manufacturers)
AMpLrcA.rNc.
DrscoM sATELLrraardftta,
ARUNTAENGINEERING
CO.
OEXCEL,INCORPORATED
KLM ELECTFONICS
SATELLITE
SERVICES
BUREAU
AUTOMATION
TECHNIOUES.
INC.
EARTHSTATIONS,
INC,
MICROWAVE
ASSOCIATES
SATELLITE
SUPPLIES,
INC,
AVCOMOF VIRGINIA.
INC-
EARTHTERMINALS.
INC.
MICROTECH
NATIONAL
SATELLITE
SYSTEMSUNLIMITED
BIEDVIEW
SATELLITE
COMM,,INC,
HARRELLS
SOUTHSIOE
WELDING
INC.
NEWTONELECTRONICS,
SATELLITE
TECHNOLOGY
SVCS,,INC.
BOMANINOUSTRIES
HASTINGS
ANTENNACOMPANY,INC,
MANUFACTURING,
INC.
PARADIGM
SATELLITE
TELEVISION
TECHNOLOGY
oHANNELMASTER(Div.of Avnet,Inc.)
HERo coMMUNlcATloNs
R. L. DRAKEco.
|NTERNAT|oNAL,
tNc.
CHAPARRAL
COMMUNICATIONS,
INC.
INTERNATIONAL
CRYSTALMFG..INC,
SAT.TECSYSTEMS
STARVISION
SYSTEMS
,"a.
TNTERSAT
coRpoRA.oN
'ATELTN.
D E A L E RT E T B E R S
(Dealersin earthstationequipment)
ACTIONEARTH.SAIELLITE
CORPORATION DETTZ
ELECTRONICS
SERVICE
AGAICULTURAL
ENTERPR./dba
FTiendly
Fie
DELCITYMUSTC
AJAKINDUSTRIES,
INC,
DICOMM
ALBINRADIO& TV SERVICE,
INC.
E.M.V.COMPANY
AMERICAN
TELEVISION
SYSTEMS,INC.
E.T,L.CORP.
ANTENNASERVICECO,
EAGLESYSTEMSBY GMR
ANTENNAS
UNLIMITEO,
LTD,
EARTHSTATIONSOF COLUMBIA,
INC.
AFNOLDPOOLCOMPANY
EASTERNMICROTECH,
INC.
AUOIOVIDEO
ELECTRONTC
ANALYSIS& REPAIR
AUDIOVIDEOSYSTEMS
ELECTRONIC
MEDIASERVICES,
INC.
AURORACOMMUNICATIONS
ELECTRONICS-BY-HECK
BEN'SW & APPLIANCE
ENERGYSYSTEMS,LTD.
SERVICECENTER
BERTZ(T.V.}SALES& RENTALS
STEVEESSLINGER
BIRDSELLS
T,V.
G/C ELECTRONICS
BOONETV & ELECTRONICS
FMNLIN EI,ECTRONICS
BRANCIO
GEMINIMARKETING
ASSOCIATES,
INC,
ENTERPRISES
GENE'STV
BUCKHANAN
SUPPLY,lNC.
GERMANCORNERTV SALES& SERVICE
C.A.L.E.
COMMUNICATIONS,
INC.
CAPITOLELECTRONICS
GHERE'SOF MANHATTAN
GLENTRONICS,
lNC.
CARBONCOUNWT.V.& RADIOSHACK
GREATEGGEARTHSTATIONS
CASABLANCAVIDEO
GREELEYGAS & ELECTRIC,INC.
CHANNELONE
H & H ELEcTRtcALsysTEMs, rNc.
cHAMNESS
w & AppLtANcEs
HAYESTV, INC.
CHUCK'STV & MICROWAVECENTER
HOMEVIEW MICROWAVE
CNI SA1ELLITE
SYSTEMS,INC.
HOUSEOF TELEVISION
COLORADOSATELLITESYSTEMS
HOUSE'SGOOOHOUSKEEPINGSHOPPE
COMSTOCKT.V,
HUBERTSII, INC.
CONSUMER
SATELLITESYSTEMS,INC.
INC,
CROSSCURTISMATHESSHOWROOM,INC. INDESAT,
INSTRUCTIONAL
MEDIAASSOCIATES
CUSTOMsoUNDs
JERRYHALIS
D & D ELECTFONICS
JERSEYJIM TOWERSTV
O & L SPECIALTIES
KING'SANTENNASERVICE
ROBEFTKROHLEIN
LAKESIDE
TELEVISION
LEWISTV SERVICE
LINDLYTV & APPLIANCE
LOGSDENMAGNOVOX
LORENSON
PLUMBING
& APPLIANCE
MASTERANTENNAS,
INC.
MCCANNELECTRONICS
MEL'ST.V.
METSAT(Metro Satellite Systems)
MICHAEL's
FOTOSHOP
MICRO.LINKTECHNOLOGY
MICROSTAR
MIDWESTCOMMUNICATIONS
MIDWESTCOMMUNICATIONS
MOORETV,lNC.
MORTECINOUSTRIES,
INC,
NATIONALSATELLITE
COMMUNTCATTONS
CORPORATTON
NEISTADT,
INC.
NORMANANTENNA.INC.
NUNNERY
ELEcrRoNtcs
ODOMANTENNAS,INC.
F.K. PENDARVIS
PFEIFFERFEEO& SEED,INC.
PIONEERSATELLITESYSTEMS,INC.
POTOMACSATELLITEsYsTEMs
RAYNEL'S,
INC.
sAT-coM MARKETING.INc.
SATELLITECONCEPTS.INC.
SATELLITEHOME ENTERTAINMENT.
INC.
RECEPTION
SATELLITE
SYSTEMS
SATELLITE
SUPPLY,INC.
TECHNOLOGY,
SATELLITE
INC
TELEVISION
SATELLITE
SYSTEMS
SATELLITE
VIDEOSUPPLY
SHAFERTV
INC,
SOLIDSTATECOMMUNICATIONS,
SOONERTV
SPERRYTV
STAN'SELECTRONICS
STAR-COMSATELLITESYSTEMS
STARTECH.
lNC.
STEGERT.V. RADIOCORP.
STELLARVIEW
SATELLITE
SYSTEMS,INC.
STEREOCITY WAREHOUSE
SWITLIK'SEAGLEELECTRONICS
TABLERFURNITURE,
lNC.
TELE.SAT.
INC.
TELSTARENTERPRISES
TRANSLATOR
TV. tNC.
TRI.LAKES
ELECTRONICS,
INC
TULSATCORPORATION
HoME SATELL|TE
UN|VERSAL
VERN'STV & RADIO
THE VIDEOCENTER
VIDEOKINGDOM
lHE VIDEOSET
VIoEo TECHNoLoGY, INc.
VIDTECHCOMMUNICATIONS,
INC.
wALToN SATELLITETV
WEST WINOSCONSTRUCTION
WORLDSAT . DIVISIONOF LAWHORN,INC,
For informationon SPACE,pleasewrite or call:
SPACE,1920N Street,N.W.,Suite510,Washington,
D.C.20036 (202)887-0605
SATELLITE
TELEVISIclN
SYSiTEMS
WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSOLD!!
Antennas,
CompleteSystefirs,
Receivers,
LNA's& Accessories
CALL US TODAY!
812-238-1456
"Nation'sLargest
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lotaI Communications
OTERRE
47803
INDIANA
HAUTE,
P.O.BOX33OO
PAGE 16/CSD/8.82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
The first non-parametric
low noiseamplifiers,
builtusingGaAsFETs,werein the 280 degreeKelvinnoisetemperature
region,when
they reachedthe US cableTV marketplace.
Theycosttypically$5000
or so each.ln 1977, fewerthan200 permonthof the basicGaAs-FETs
were beingproduced,and shippedinto the USA,and with a pairof
'100
devicesin each LNA, that said that there were no more than
complete LNAs possible in any single month. So in additionto
beingexpensive,
theywerein veryshortsupply.The priceaside,there
couldnothavebeena homeTVROindustryin 1977or 1978 because
the LNA devicesto supportthe industrysimplydid not exist.
Whenyou boughtan LNAin 1978,youstoodin linewitha number,
waitingfor your turn to take delivery.Then you rushedto open the
cartonto see howthe particular LNA you received'measuredup.' lf it
was rated as a 220 degree device, you were a very proud cable
oDerator.
By the end of 1978,severalthingshappenedto LNAs.Firstof all,
the bottleneck
in GaAs-FETs
was brokenwhenseveralfirms(including a few in the USA) figuredout how to makethe chemistrywork.
GaAs-FETsare made in ultra clean rooms and they start otf as
preparedGalliumandArsenidemixturesspread(litersuper-carefully
ally, but still carefully)on a cookie-likesheet.The raw materialis
'oven'
placedintoan
likedevicewherethe mixtureis'baked.'lt is the
combinationof just the properbalanceof raw materials,just the right
'thickness'
of the materialon the 'cookie sheet' and just the right
'baking
baking,
time'thatproducesthe large'wafers.'After
amountof
the wafersare removedtrom the oven and eventuallythey are cut or
'diced'up intotiny (microscopic)
equalsections.Thesesmallpieces
are so tinythatworkershandlingthemworkwithspecialtweezersand
spendthe day peeringat the dicedsectionsthroughlargemagnifying
lens.
tinypieceswerethenrunthrough
In 1978and 1979,thewaJerized
'no-go')
test,and passed
a veryelementarytypeof electronic('go'and
on to anothercrewthatspentthe day peeringthroughmicroscopesto
assemblethe tiny wafer piecesinto transistors.This involvedencashousing,
thetinypieceof GaAsintoa miniature
ing (orencapsulating)
'bonding'tothe appropriate
metallic
spotson the'chip'thenecessary
'go'
'no-go'test.
and
lead wires, and then once again performinga
And then the real fun began. At this point, all of the really
deJectivechips had been found and those that remainedwere now
marriedto a containerwith leadsstickingout.Aboutten percentof the
the prooriginalwaferizedchipssurvivedto this pointin production;
cess was so criticalthat the rate of failurewas exceedinglyhigh.
fortime,one did notwalkinto
Andto putallof thisintoperspective
work in the morning,whip out a mixingbowl and startstirringup a
'batter'
ol Galliumand Arsenide.Preparingthe originalmixture,lor
'baking,'was a ten day to two week process.The 'batches'were
measuredin grams,not ouncesor pounds.
On many occasionsthe whole mixturewas bad; somethingthat
was not discovereduntilafter the mixturehad gone all the way past
bakingand was now diced.That meant,sincethe dollarsinvestedup
to thatpointwas high,thatnot onlywerethe dollarslost,butthe time
requiredto get to that point (perhapstwo weeks)was lost. lt had to
happen;one month,in 1977,bothof the plantsin theworld('Chemis'plant')that knewthe 'recipe'
try Labs'wouldbe a moreapt namethan
for GaAs FETs had bad months.And NO GaAs-FETsarrivedin the
USAthe followingmonth.That meantthat nobodygot any new LNAs
yet the following(third)month,and in that monthno new cableTVRO
installations
went in.
Withthe GaAs-FETsnow lookingliketiny-tinytransistors(i.e.in a
case and with leads stickingout), the real test was ahead. Keep in
mind fewer than 10% made it this far.
Electronicengineers,capableof takingthe new GaAs-FETtransistor devicesand creatinglow noise amplifiers,were few and far
between.Probablyfewer than a dozen,worldwide.Each was facing
the same problem,however.They had attemptedto buildGaAs-FET
'testjigs'; specialtestingchambersdesignedso the miniaturelead
wiresof the GaAs-FETcould be connectedto a test system,and the
You see,
for performance.
individualGaAs-FETtransistors'checked'
no two workedalike!
'pre{est'the GaAsThere were two solid reasons for wantingto
FETs beforethey got into the LNA produclionsection:
1) lf you had to wait untilafterthe GaAs-FETwas installedinto a
'test' the GaAs-FET(and the whole LNA)'
completedLNA to
selectedby
you ran the riskthat the individual
GaAs-FET(s)
randomchoicefor that particularLNA were going to be substandard.Yetyou werenotfindingthisout until99% of the labor
and 100% of the materialsgoing into the productwere exoended.lt was not a desirablesituationat all!
'match' GaAs-FETsof similarcharacteristics,
2) lf you could
'pair' requiredfor each LNA, you could imtogether,into the
'matchprovethe chancesfor a goodperformingLNA.Without
crap
giant,
part
big
buck
GaAs-FET
in
you
a
were
taking
ing'
shoot.
WitheachLNA supplier(SCl,Avantek,Amplicawereearlyin the
gamein the USA)havingonlya handfulof GaAs-FETsto workwith
'lose'any. Butfor all ot 1977,1978
per month,they couldnot affordto
and on into 1979,this is preciselywhat happened.The LNAswere
andtested.Onewouldhavea 120degreenoisetemperaassembled
ture, and the next one would be 220 degrees.Both had exactlythe
samenumberof dollarsandcentsand hoursin themto thatpoint.Yet
the 120was obviouslyworthmorein the marketplacethanthe 220.So
the finalgrading,or noisefiguretesting,becamethe pointwhere
modelnumbers(ditfferentnumbersfor differentnoisetemperatures)
were assrgned.
By late in 1978, anotherthing was happening.Every now and
again,outol perhapsa coupleof hundredLNAsbeingproduced'here
That meanta noisefigure
wouldcome a unitthatwas extra-ordinary.
or temperaturein the 75 to 90 degreeregion.Mostof thoseendedup
so apiece'SCI oncespent
at RCAor WesternUnionsites,at $7500or
'comeup'outof theirnormal
fourmonthswaitingforfoursuchunitsto
productionrun, to fill an order for an RCA system.
'hot
one' every now and again,there was obviously
lf you got a
some specialchemistryinvolved.Now, if you could only figure out
what that chemistrywas, and turn that formula into the formulafor
every GaAs-FETand LNA beingproduced;you wouldhavethe world
by the tail.
The reallygoodones
During1979,thisis exactlywhathappened.
were heldbackfrom shipment,and withthe ever improvingtechnology and analysisequipment,they were disassembledbackto the raw
wafer diced chip to see what parametershad gone into that unit to
makeit workso well.Fromthat 1979researchcamethe groundwork
that leadto today'sLNAswhere 120degreesis the worstcase unit(s)
and the reallygood ones are . . . still around75 to B0 degrees.
The technology linally caught up with the chemistry whenthe
knowledgegainedby takingapartthe hot onesof 1978 and 1979 was
appliedto the day to day productionof all units.Butthe lawsof physics
remainedprettymuch the same, and when it becamepracticaland
possibleto turnout 120 and even100 degreeunitswiththe sameease
that280 degreeunitswerebeingturnedoul in 1976and 1977'it also
becameapparentthat GaAs-FETtechnologyhad just aboutreached
the end of the line.
No singleadvancein LNA technologychangedthe worldwe now
know;but one singlemarkettorcedid.And thatwas massproduction.
As longas the marketplacewas for 100or 200 LNAsper month,there
was no realincentiveto soendthe millionsof dollarsit tookto bringthe
the'yield'up.The big researchand develop'
noisefigure'down'and
'optimization
techniques'to
mentdollarsthatwentintofiguringout the
improveGaAs-FETtechnologywas spent in 1978and 1979.But the
new technologywas not really applied until 1980 or so' when it
becameapparentthatthe'LNAuniverse'wasgoingto be thousands
of unitsper month,quickly.
Throughoutall of this,the pricesslowlycame down.By 1979' 120
degree units were almost standardalthoughmany 150s were still
beingsold.The price hoveredaround$1800 for an LNA with a 120
degreenoisefigurewhen the first SPTScame along,althoughsome
$995 unitswith lower gain (30 dB) were shown at SPTS. One year
laterthe pricesfor 120 degree/SodB gain unitshaddroppedto around
$800 at the TVRO dealer level.Today they are under $400.
We said early on that there were two considerations for the
LNA; the noisetemperatureor noisefigure,and,the gain' The noise
temperaturewas the essentialingredientsince it directlytranslated
into smallerantennas,or betterpictureswith a fixed antennasize. lt
works this way.
For all practicalpurposes,at a given locationon earththe TVRO
I
COOP'S SATELLITEDICEST 'AGE17tcsDts.s2
'sees'
a stable,non-changingsignalstrengthleveltrom the satellite.
To be sure,thereare minorchangesin signallevelwhenthereis a
heavythunderstormdirectlyin the path,or if the satellitedeviatesout
of positionslightly,butthesechangesare usuallyveryshortlived.The
only other change worth making note of is the linear reductionin
satellitesignalpoweras the satelliteages.A new satellite,workingas
intended,may losefrom 2 to 3 dB of on-earthsignalstrengthbefoieit
is takenout of service(in NorthAmerica;RussianGhorizontbirdsmav
drop 6 dB or more betorebeingreplaced).
lf the signalis, for shortperiodsof time such as a vear or tess.
stable,then it is up to the TVRO systemdesignerto figureout whathe
can do withthe signalthat is present.A properlydesignedbig antenna
willcapturemoresignalthana properlydesignedsm-allantenna.
That
is a variablein the designer'shands.lt alsoturnsout thata properly
designedbig antennawill captureless of the noise alwayspresent
from the earth and trees surroundingthe antenna,than a properly
designedsmallerantenna.
And, it alsoturnsout that becausethe satellitesignalis so weak,
that it can be coveredup (or eliminated)by noisetrom the earth plus
noisecontributed
by the LNA.Thereare,therefore,numerouscombinationspossiblebetweenantennasize and gain and LNA noise
temperature
whichwill resultin noiselree televisionpictureson lhe
screen.You can use a big antenna,whichcapturesmoresiqnal,and
an LNA that is not so good; it works becauseyou have moie signal
available(from the antenna)to 'drown out' the more noise coriino
from the LNA.
Or, you can use a smaller antenna and a better(i.e. ,lower
noise')LNA.But,thereare limitsto thistradeoff sequence.part of the
limitation
comesfromlhe anlennaitself; thereis a practicalsize,
below
which, the antenna feed system begins to contributeappreciable
amountsof earth noise.Noise,whetherit comesfromthe LNA,or the
earth,or both,is the same noise.With the presentantennatechnology,thesmall-end
antennasizelimit,belowwhichearth-noise
fromlhe
antennafeed system begins to become a problem,is someorace
g
aroundB to feet antennaaperture(distanceacross).yes, smaller
antennasdo producesignal,buttheyalsohavea built-innoisefactor
whichcannotbe overcomewith a betterLNA.Remember,noiseis the
samewhetherit comesfrom the LNA or antenna,and even a oerfect
LNA (i.e.one with no noise)cannotmake up for an antennathat is
contributing
noise.
85.degreeunit,but lhe systemnoisetemperatureat that pointwill be
oetermtnedby the higherearth noise; not the LNA norse.
lt.is almostimpossible
to have such q poorlydesignedanlenna
.
plus.feedthat your 'system noise temperature; (defined
as the net
result of LNA temperaturepLUS antenna receivednoise/temperature) is the same as the earth noise. However, poorly designed
antennafeedscan see 'around'the dish surface,to ihe earth behinO
and belowthe dish, and producenoisefrom the earthwhichis strong
enough to make the LNA's own noise temperatureless a factor in
overall'systemnoiseremperature.'we wiil iook at this portionof the
system in a subsequentpart of this series.
The importantelementto understandhere is that at some pointin
the designof the system,a better(i.e. lower noise)LNA witt nof
rmprovethe performanceof the system itself. Whyi Becausethe
noise temperatureof the antennaiplus feed) becomesthe primary
noise contributionelement,and this systemis only as good as the
'weal(est
element in the chain.,lf the antenna contributednoise is
greater than the noise from the LNA, then improved LNA noise
temperature
will buy you nothingadditional.
And lhis says that a small dish, while still perhaps producing
suitablelevelsof signar,is arsoproducingunsuitabre
reversof noisel
And in thetinalanalysis,whatdeterminesihequalityof the pictureswe
receiveis a "ratio"; the differencein signalstrengtnat tire receiver
betweenthe desiredproduct(the satellitesignals)-and
the undesired
product(noise).
This'ratio'is representedin TVRO technicaltermsby a measuremenl factortermed"Carrier-To-NoiseRatio.', lt is abbreviatedCNR
for short.And CNR is simplythe afore-mentioned
differenceDetween
the goodguylthe canier)and the bad guy (thenoise;any noise,from
anysource).ThetypicalsystemCNRisestablished,
onceandforallin
the system,by the LNA.Morespecifically,it is establishedby the ultra
low noise GaAs-FETstagesof the LNA.
300"
250"
200'
IIJ
T R A D EO F F O P T I O N S
I
o 15 0 '
z
(\_"_
\
LNA
10 0 "
ANTENNA
.
50'
/
\-'-
300'
B I G ( R E L A T I V ED) I S H ,
AVERAGETO BELOW PAR LNA
f\*-.
l
-
250"
200"
UJ
/
\/
2
o
z
150"
P-
100'
ll cc
?x
50'
SMALLER(RELATIVE)DISH.
ABOVE AVERAGELNA
R.ecall
that if you pointan LNA with feed antennaattacheddown,
..
directlyat the earth,the feed antennawill see ,noise.'That noisewill
becloseto 300degreesKelvin.The LNA may wellbe a .,|20or evenan
LNA gain is a measurementof how manytimesthe original(input)
signalpower is amplifiedor increased.lt uses the same measunng
stick,the dB (decibel)as the antennagain. Gain is importantfor two
reasons:
1 You needsomegain,in the LNA at 4 GHz,to establisha svstem
noisetemperalure.you musthaveamplifier ,stages'or sections
PAGE18/CSD/8.82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
made up of transistorsto get that gain.
2) You needto compensateJorthe lossol signalwhichwill occur
as the amplifiedsignalis carriedthroughcablefrom the feedhorn/LNAto the receiverProper'
The veryfirsthomereceiversofferedfor salehadvaryingamounts
Early Paul ShuchdesignedICM receivers,for
of LNA-required-gain.
example,oftenOiOjust finewith LNAsin the 30 dB gainregionThis
causedDexcel,withtheirfirsthome-TVROproducts(Dexcelwas the
homemarket),to bringouta
to'recognize'the
firstLNAmanufacturer
lowerpricedLNA with30 dB of gain.lt was intendedas the LNA-mate
to the earlyICM receivers.
'balancedgain'
ICM'sPaulShuchbelievedin somethingcalled
Paul'searly ICM receiversattemptedto balancethe total LNA plus
the electronic
receivergain betweenthe three primary portionsol 'lF'
receiversystem;the LNA,the 1200MHz upperor high andthe70
MHz lowei'lF.'This will makemoresensewhenwe takethis series
aheadinto receiverhistoryand design.Shuchtold receiverusersnot
to selectLNAswith morethan 30/35dB of gain,but he alsotold them
thatthey couldnot toleratemore than 5 to 6 dB of cablelossbetween
the LNA and the receiverproper.This told the user,if he understood
have to use some ot the then (and
what he was doing,that he would
'hardline'cablesince normalflexible
now) expensiveone-halfinch
type'cableshad tar too much lossif the run trom LNfufeedto receiver
was more than 25 to 30 Jeet.
Anotherearly home receiverpioneer,Andy Hatfieldof AVCOM'
took a differentapproach.Andy felt that hardlinewas not only expensive (up to $2 a foot)but the specialconnectorswere alsoexpensive,
that the
and diificultto installproperlyfor a novice.Andy also saw'kink'
and
hardlinehad to be installedvery carelullyor the user could
damageit. Andy thereforesuggestedto usersthat they use a slandard'50 dB gain LNA,but substitutethe far lessexpensiveflexible
cable and less difficultto work with type N connectors.In Hatfield's
eye,spendingmoremoneytor the LNA,but lessfor the cable,was a
Jairtrade.
path,andsimplyuse a 50 dB gainratedLNA,surethatsincethat is the
most gain commonlyavailable,that shoulddo the job.
Witn tne early ICM receivers,if you placeda 50 dB gain LNA in
front ot the receiver,you usuallyended up with badly distortedpictures.The receiverwas designedfor lessLNAgain'andwhenyou had
simplycouldnot handle
50 dB of LNAgainthe receiver'slatterstages
'voltage.'They were 'overloaded'by the excessthe additionalsignal
'simple'fieldf ix if you foundyourselfwithone of
signal.Buttherewas a
thosereceiversand too muchgain;yousimplyextendedthe lengthof
thefeedline,whichaddedlossbetweenthe LNA andthe receiver,and
that reducedthe signalvoltagereachingthe receiverproper.
The earlyAVCOMreceiversalsoreallyonly required about30/35
dB ol LNA gain in front of the receiver,but becauseof the design
approachtakenby Andy Hatfield,the receivercouldstandadditional
gain without overloading.Up to a point. LNA gain, then, can be
'water pressure'in a water line. You need sufficient
thoughtol as
pressure(gain)to get the water(signal)fromthe input(antenna)to the
outputspigot(receiver).You know that some of the pressure(signal
voltage)will be lost along the way, and you plan for that tactor.
FEEDBOLTSTO LNA:
N O S I G N A L O S ST O L N A .
RECEIVER
FEED LNA
/l
FEED
W
AVVEEGGUUI D
I DEE
WA
I LNA
C A S S E G R A I NF E E DA D D S
SUB-REFLECTOR S M A L L B U T M E A S U R E A B L E
50dB
GAIN
20dB
CABLE
LOSS
^
I
L O S S A H E A DO F L N A .
30 dB
..EFFECTIVE''
LNAGAIN,
AFTERCABLE
LOSS
- / l
LOSSY
TRANSITION
BLOCK
Ultimately,the market would follow Hatfield'slead. The whole
'mystery' LNA gain is actuallyno mysteryat all.
of
For a particularinstallationor system,an LNA can have both too
littleLNA gain,and, too much LNA gain.Not enoughgain is more
difficultto cure, on the site, than too much LNA gain.
EveryTVRO receiverever manufacturedcountson there being
'injront-of'thereceiverproper.
someminimumamountof LNA gain
Engineerscan sit downknowingno morethanthe anlicipatedsatellite
and lay out a downlink(ground)
signallevels(i.e.EIRP footprints),
system.They can computehow muchsignalgain must be createdin
the systemproper;startingwith the antenna,throughthe LNA' and
finallywithinthe receiverproper.Thingsthat losesignal,such as the
'negatives'and from the total gain of the antenna'LNA
feedline,are
and receiver,such negativesmust be subtracted.
overcomewhatevercable
Gain,then,musl accomplishtwo goals;
'firsVremote'stagesof the
loss as may be present,and, act as the
receiverproper.Knowinghow much gain to select in an LNA has
alwaysbeen'bothersome'tosysteminstallers.So they take the easy
FEEDS PLACEDAWAY FROM LNA, AND CABLE
C O N N E C T ETDO L N A .A D D E DS U B S T A N T I AULN R E .
C O V E R A B LSEI G N A L O S ST O S Y S T E M .
Modernreceivershavetwo differentapproachesto LNA gain and
in a way,historyis comingbackfull circle.The top of the line unitsthat
keep ail portionsof the receiverinsidestill prettymuch need to see
30i35dB of etfectivegain in front of the receiverproper.That means
the gain remaining, afterthe loss in the cablebetweenthe LNA and
the receiverproper.
Two-oiecereceivers,where the first (or only) down conversion
stage is locatedin a separatecontainerthat typicallymountsat or
closeto the antenna,can get by with less 4 GHz (LNA)gain simply
becausethere is no, or almost no cable loss. By placingthe down
conversionstage(s)at the antenna,the superhigh frequency4 GHz
COOP'S SATELLITEDICEST 'AGE
1e/csD/B-82
signalsnever travelthroughmore than a token lengthof cable.The
LNAgainrequiremenlnow boilsdownto havinga smill reservefor the
shortcablepiecethatmay (or may not)be requiredfrom LNAoutputto
downconverter(manyof the new LNC unitsare one piece,and the 4
GHz signalgoes in throughthe feed antennawhilethe lowerfrequency
.or 70 MHz lF signalcomes out of the container),and, having
sufficientgain to establisha'system noisetemperature.'Now what i6
that all about?
Thetypicalreceiver(actuallythe firstreceiverconversionstage,or the
downconverter)has a 'noise temperature/figure'
of its own. lt is a
ratherhigh number.lt is such a high numberthat the TVRO receiver
(downconverter)
is reallylike a 1920ish'Crystal
Set.'lt detectsthe
signalalright,but it has very littlerealsensitivity.The sensitivityof the
recerversystemcomesnot fromthe receiverproper,butfromthe LNA
ahead of the receiver.
. There are engineeringrules of thumb which tell you how much
gainor signalamplification
you musthavein front of (or aheadof) the
receiver,to turn the LNA sensitivityinto systemsensitivity.Thereare
no bendingof these rules; if your receiver(downconverter)noise
temperatureis 'X,' you MUST have so many dB of low noisegain in
frontof the 'X noisetemperature'receiver,or the totalsvstemsensitivitywillnot be equivalentto the lownoisefactorof the LN-Aand anlenna
combination.The dB of low noise (i.e. GaAs-FET)gain requiredin
front of the receiver varies proportionatelywith the noise figure
(lemperature)of the receiver.
Receiversare often noise figure rated.A commonnumberis .12
dB NoiseFigure.That meansthe receiverhas built-innoiseequalto
12 dB more than a perfectreceiverwith no noise.Do nol confusethe
receivernoise figure with the receiverthreshold;we'll explorethat
specification(typically8 dB) in a later part of this series.
A 12 dB noise figure receiverwill createa 12 dB noisefioure
system unless the LNA in front of it has a far lower noise fidure
(temperature),
and unlessthere is sufficientLNA gain to override-the
noise figure (temperature)of the receiver alone. By now we are
tossingaboutnoisefigureand noiselemperatureas if ihe two are the
same.For our purposes,they are so closeto beingthe samethat we
can almost use the two termsinterchangeably.
Noisetemperatureis
a hardnumber;so manydegreesof noisetemperature
is a soecific
amountof noise.Noisefigureis a relaliveterm,butit equatesdirectly
to noisetemperaturesinceit alwaysusesas a referenceno noise,or i
0 dB noisefigure.
Noisefigureand noisetemperaturealso have this in common:
biggernumbersare indicativeof poorerperformance.Hereare a few
'benchmarks'
to hang your hat on; the relationship
beMeen notse
temperature
(a detinitivemeasurement
number)and noisefigure(a
relativebut stillmeaningfulmeasurement
number):
NoiseTemp/Kelvin
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150
200
250
300
400
500
Noise Figure/dB
0.693dB
0 . 8 1 9d B
0.942dB
1 . 0 6 1d B
1 . 1 7 7d B
1 . 2 9 1d B
1 . 4 0 1d B
1 . 5 0 8d B
1. 6 1 3d B
1. 7 1 6d B
1. 8 1 6d B
2.284 dB
2.707dB
3.092dB
3.773dB
4.362dB
. A 12 dB noise figureis, as you might surmise,equivalentto
thousands
of degreesKelvinnoisetemperature.A ten footdishwitha
500 degreeK(elvin)systemtemperaturewill just barelytell you that
thereis videothere,in the centerof the US.And that,switha +.gOZOA
noisefigure..Youcan imaginehow inefiectivea 12 dB noise figure
receiverwill be, even if there is substantialLNA gain (but not low
noisefiguregain)in trontof the receiver.
Generallyspeaking,and this is a rule of thumb and not an engineeringdesignequation,if you want the systemnoisetemperature
to be establishedby the LNA noise temperature,you must have
between2 and 3 times more voltagegain in the LNA than Vouhave
noisefigure(indB) in the receiver.
Thatmeansthatif the receiverhas
totalvoltagegain
? 12 dB noisefigure,the LNA musthavesutficient
(and low noisefigure)to be equalto 2 to 3 timesthat noisefi!u16,in
dBs ol gain.Twice12 is 24 and threetimes12 is 36. And thistellsus
the low noiseLNAstages,usingGaAs-FETs
to establish
the ultralow
noisefactor,musthaveat least24 dB of gain and perhapsas mucnas
36 dB of gain.
And this bringsus aroundthe full circleof the LNA design.you
needsufficientgainto overcometransmissionlinelosses(verylitileor
no gain if the LNA is part of the downconverter,
in an LNC iormat).
and, you needsutficientgain to overridethe noisefigure/tactorof the
flrstdownconversion
stage;trom 24 to 36 dB of gain for this function.
An LNCuniteliminates
one of theserequiremenis,
but not the other.
When 50 dB gain LNAswere 'standard'(manvwere ratedas hioh
as 60 dB of gain,whichis fine for reservebut jeldom is requirjd
unlessyou are runningexceptionally
longrunsof highlosstransmissioncable),LNA manufacturers
typicallydesignedthe LNA withtwo
stages of GaAs-FETamplification(the first two stages,to create a
very low noise temperature),and then followed thbse GaAs-FET
,bi-polar'
stageswith'bulkgain'stagesusingfar lessexpensive
family
transislo,rs.
The bi-polartransistorsare adequatefor amplification,
provided the low noisefactorhas alreadybeenestablishedby GaAsFET stagesahead ot the bi-polarstages.Whenthe LNC cam-ealong,
or as the two-piecereceiversbecame available,the additionalqain
providedby the 'bulk gain' bi-polarstageswas no longeressen-tial.
Thustheywereremoved,totallyor all but one of the bi-polarstages,to
reducethe LNA gain to a level which reflectedthe real needs-ofthe
antennamounteddownconversionsvstem.
And there we are returningto the originalconceptpreachedby
receiverinnovator
H. PaulShuchin 1979;reducetheamountof 4 GH2
gain required,and 'balance'the gain between4 GHz, the high lF
conversionstage (in double conversionreceivers)and the low lF
conversionstage (the 70 MHz common to almostall receivers).
LNA SYNOPSIS
The Low NoiseAmplifierportionof the homeTVRO systemhas
set the-pacefor all oJthe pricereductionand technologyadvancesfor
the full system. User net costs for all portionsof the system have
droppedsince1975'sfirstintroduction
of US domesticsatellitevideo
serviceon a'regular'(i.e.HBO)scheduledbasis.However,in 1975
you could purchasea 10 foot antenna,a.120 degree LNA and a
reasonablygood qualityreceiverfor the followingprices:
1) Antenna(polarmountnot available)- $4,900
- g15,OOO
2) LNA (non-cooledparametricamplifier)
up
3) Receiver(fieldtune-ableovet 24 transponders)- $tZ,OOO
Today,in 1982,the pricereductionslor the threeunitsat the TVRO
dealer level are as follows:
1) Antenna- $1,100 (with polarmount)
2) LNA (GaAs-FETmodet)- g400
- $7OO
3) Receiver(24 channeluser tune-able)
And for those who like comparisons,the total packagepricehas
droppedfrom $31,900to $2,200 in less than seven Veais:a droo to
6.9"/oof the originalpricing.The LNA portion,however,has droooedto
2.7okof ils 1975 costand in manyways it has beenthe developmentof
the LNAtechnology(qualityand quantity)whichhas pacedthe waylor
all that has happenedin this field.
' Next
month the series continueswith a look at the slow but
persistentchangesin antennatechnology,and how these changes
have shapedus into the industrywe are today.
OURCOVER_
A Paraframe
(JimVines)7.46meterET17.46
reflector surfaceis liftedontothe pedestalin Tegucigalpa,
Honduras.
FatherValentine
operates
theterminal
there
fortheInstituto
SanFransicco.
Yes,UStelevision
comes in justfine,thankyou.
u)
AMERICAN
MICROUIIAVE
TECHNOTOGY
AMERICAS BEST
TVRO vAtUES
tNAS
Ofiering 4 national brands
1200
I lo'
$385
I o0'
s4lo
s465
TOCUSCOMMERCIALINAS
by COMSATGeneralin the Intelsat
qualityLNASusedexclusively
Theseare the commercial
and for Deep
for the perfectionist
must
a
Truly
world.
the
EarthStationnetwork throughout
and
give
reliability
the
can
LNA
No
other
etc.
Mexico,
ie. the Cirribean,
Southinstallations,
of a Locus.
Derformance
of dollarsbelowtheir
we areableto bringthemto you at hundreds
Dueto our largepurchases
price.
normalpurchase
I too
$52s
I oo'
s675
95"
$800
85"
$r500
75"
s2roo
70"
$3000
RECEIVERS
KLM SKYFYEIV
HR IO I
ENTERTAINER
3 with built in stereoprocessor
SERIES
DRAKE
ARUNTA4l6with built in stereoprocessor
AVCOM COM 2 with modulator
11....
AVCOMCOM
AVCOM COM 65
AVCOM COM 3 or 3R
"WASHBURN" . .
EARTHTERMINAL
ll00 W120"LNCwith builtin modulator
DEXCEL
GENERALINSTRUMENTS
STANDARDCOMMUN ICATIONS(MASTER)
(SLAVE)
t 500
575
795
735
95O
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PAGE 22lCSDl8-82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
WETTINGAMERICA'S
APPETITEFOR
TELEVISION
(Part One)
Freeze
The budgetof the FederalCommunications Commissionin 1949 was aPproximately8 million dollars.By mid
ig+g the Americanpublichad invested
approximately500,000million dollars
in lelevisionreceiversand another50
million dollarsin antennasand accessoriesto receivetelevision.Television
broadcaststationshad investedup to
100 million dollars in their facilities,
and another 25 million dollars in varioussupportservices(Bellmicrowave,
schemeground to a
etc.). The ushol,e
on
September30th in
halt
screarn'i,ng
1948whenthe FCC, with all of their 8
milliondollarsannualbudget,calleda
halt to the grantingof new television
station applicationprocessing.
"just a
The freezewas goingto last
few months".Then it was goingto last
"a year. . . no more". Later it would
last "no more than two years". Before
it was all over, it lasted nearly four
years, a period during which no new
lelevision stations were authorized in
the United States, and a pertod during
which tel,euision,fcr 107 established
VHF stations, became uerA' uerA profitabl,e.
There were television stations in 63
market areaswhen all of the pre-freeze
stations finally got on the air. They
broke down, as shown in Table 1, to
cities which primarily had one outlet
each, although a few had two and a
handful enjoyed three outlets with
New York City and Los Angeles having 7 stations each.
The teasonfor the freezewas simple
and straight forward. When the
United States returned to peacetime
at the closeof World War II, the televvision broadcaststandardsestablished
in 1939and 1940calledfor 19 VHF-only
TV channels.They were spaced6 channels in what is now low band (channel1
existed at that time, but was subsequently removed from TV service),
and 13 in what is now high band PIus
"szwhat we generouslycall in CATV
per band". However, during the war
iime era, the military found out that
the pre-World War II VHF frequencies
from 30 to 300 MHz were not the usel,essfrequenc'iesthey assumedthem to
be prior to the war. In fact, the VHF
Wherelt All Began
THE INFAMOUSTELEYISION
OF 1948
ALLOCATIONSFREE,T'E
"fl
-i
I
,*w
f
I
l
t
l
/f ,r
T h ep i o n e e r so f t h e c o n s u m e rE o r t ht e r m i n o lm o r k e t n o w o f f e r so c o m p l e t e
l i n e o f s U p E RT E N N As y s T E M S
ond Accessories
. 1 2 f t , 1 6 f t , o n d 2 0 f l S U P ET
RE N N AS Y S T E M S
. L i g h t w e i g h to,l l o l u m i n u mo n t e n n o
. M i c r o - G r i ds u r f o c ef o r l e s sw i n d l o o d
. F u l l ym o t o r i z e d' h o r i z o nl o h o r i z o n 'p o l o r m o u n t
' c u s t o m d e s i g n e d s y s t e m sf o r h o m e o n d c o m m e r c i o l o o o l r c o t i o n s
. N o h e o v y m o c h i n e r y r e q u i r e df o r i n s . f o l l o t i o n
W h y l o k e o c h o n c e o n o n u n p r o v e np r o d u c t ?
Selecl fhe 'Fieldproven' choice of lhe professionols.
F o rm o r ei n f o r m oi of n o n d i h e d e o l e rn e o r e syt o u ,c o n t o c tt h e ' p r o f e s s i o n ool st 'H E R oc o M M U N l c A T l o N S
oF FLoRIDA.
D E A L E IRN Q U i R EN
SV I T E D
COMMLNICATIONS
A division of Behar Enterprises, lnc.
1783w.32nd Place. Hialeah,Frorida33012. phone:(305)ggz.32o3
PAGE 24lCSDt8-82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
TABLE ONE
CITIES WITH TELEVISION
Birmingham
Phoenix
Los Angeles
San l)iego
San Francisco
New Haven
Wilmington
Washington
Jacksonville
Miami
Atlanta
Chicago
Rock Island
Bloomington
2 stations
1 station
7 stations
1 station
3 stations
1 station
1 station
4 stations
1 station
1 station
2 stations
4 stations
1 station
1 station
Indianapolis
Ames
Davenport
Louisville
New Orleans
Baltimore
Boston
Detroit
Grand Rapids
Kalamazoo
Lansing
Minneapolis
KansasCity
St. Louis
Omaha
Newark (N.Y.C.)
Albuquerque
Binghampton
1 station
1 station
1 station
2 stations
1 station
3 stations
2 stations
3 stations
1 station
1 station
1 station
2 stations
1 station
1 station
2 stations
1 station
1 station
1 station
frequenciespressed into wartime service turned out to be the best all
aroundfrequenciesfor the military. So
they came back from the war and immediately set out to capture for their
own use as many of the VHF frequencies as they could. In their frequency
battle, they won the toP 6 VHF TV
channels (14-19); this left television
with 13 VHF channels.Then the two-
1 station
Buffalo
6 stations
New York
1 station
Rochester
1 station
Schenectady
2 stations
Syracuse
1 station
Utica
1 station
Charlotte
1 station
Greensboro
3 stations
Cincinnati
3 stations
Cleveland
3 stations
Columbus
2 stations
Dayton
1 station
Toledo
1 station
OklahomaCity
1 station
Tulsa
1 station
Erie
1 station
Johnstown
1 station
Lancaster
3 stations
Philadelphia
1 station
Pittsburgh
1 station
Providence
1 station
Memphis
1 station
Nashville
2 stations
Dallas (Ft. Worth)
Ft. Worth (Dallas) 1 station
1 station
Houston
2 stations
San Antonio
2 stations
Salt Lake City
1 station
Norfolk
1 station
Richmond
1 station
Seattle
1 station
Huntington
1 station
Milwaukee
way communicationsPeople made a
passionedplea to have channel 1 removed to their domain, and theY won
as TV users, be
(for which we shoul.d",
eternally grateful because it turned
out that old channel1 was susceptible
to long range world-wide short-wavelike propagationa high percentage 9f
the time, which would have renderedit
uselessfor TV service).
o
SATELLITEDICEST 'AGE
2stcsDts.s2
This left the televisionworld with 12
VHF channels.But no one, in 1946.
showedmuchconcernbecauseafter all
in 1946there were only 6 (or Z, depending upon whom you talk to) television
stationson the air in the whole United
States, and they all operatedon channels 2-6.None had yet ventured to the
"high
band" channelsof ?-19,and most
expertsfelt that as expensiveas telev_
vision was going to be (for transmis_
sion and receiving) a nationwide grid
of stations operating on the 12 V-HF
channelswould provide aU of the seruice that anybody could.euer want.
With that in mind, the FCC settled
down to processapplicationsfor new
televisionstationsin late 1946.There
were 5,000televisionreceiversin use
in the whole United Statesat the end
of 1946.
Now about all the FCC did in 1946
when it establishedan "allocationsprogram" was eliminate the channelsfelevision lost (channels1, 14-19)in the
post war trades, and, utilizing 19861939developeddata (mostlyfrorn RCA
tests in that era), begin assigningstationsto channelsin the remainingVHF
channelrange. RCA had found in the
30's that regular television coverage
for stations might extend as far as b660 miles. This was based upon b0 kilowatt transmitter power levels and
1,000foot (aboveaverage terrain) antennas.So the Commission,rather arbitrarily as it turned out, chose the
distance of 150 miles to keep stations
operatingon the same channelseparated. Unfortunately for the whole United States, even this separation between stations on the same channel
was not respected totally. If you will
lookat Diagram 1, you will see how the
Commissionchoseto allocate (i.e. ap-
SCHENECTADY
WRGB
o
O BOSTON
WB2
N E WY O R K
WNBT
o
L A N C A S T EO
R
WGAL
WASHINGTON
WNBWO
NORFOLK
WTAR
P R E . F B E E Z EC H A N N E L F O U R
DIAGRAM 1
prove)operation
by 6 stationson VHF
ehannel 4 prlnr to the 1g4g freeze.
Most of tlrese stations .tDere150 miles
(more or less) from the nearest other
same channel station, but channel 4
Lancaster, Pennsyluanin, was mueh
less than 150 miles from Washington;
in fact it was not even 100 miles awav.
Nor was it quite 150 miles from Neiv
York City.
So Lancaster and Washington both
had channel 4 stations, andlt turned
out that from Lancaster to Baltimore
was only 53 miles and Baltimore to
Washingtona scant40 miles or so. The
end result was that peopleliving north
of Washington,up to ana beyond Baltimore, had almost constant interference on Washington'schannel 4 from
Lancaster channel 4. It .tlas an idiotic
mistake in chonnel assignments, and
for it the u;holn United- States lDould
paA the supreme price: a freeze in
1948.
When the weather conditionsturned
PAGE26/CSD/8-82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
warm, Lancaster's signal was so
strong in areas south of Baltimore that
peopl; right in Washington, D.C.
sometimesnoticed the interference on
channel4. Naturally they complained
to the FCC, and some of those complaining were senators and the like.
Very quickly those complaintl landed
on fhe front desk of the FCC Chairman, Wayne CoY.
The senatorsand congressmencomplaining suspected the worst. It appeared to them thaLif this type of 9ondition ex'tsted nationwid'e, the televiexpected would
sion boom everyone"Nobody
wants to
die before it started.
watch television with lines running all
through the screen,"they complained.
In those days Lancaster was considered pretty provincialand the audacity
"way
of a small town televisionstation
up in Lancaster" interfering with the
nbw television reception of Senator
this or Representativethat was more
than Washington could bear.
In actuality,the Lancaster-Washington-Norfolk triangle was probably the
worst suchsituationin the whole country. l/o tahere else, with the limited
number of televisionstationson the air
at that time, did problemsof such magnitude exist.
So the FCC, faced with the irate
complaints of senators, congressmen,
and ihe mayor of Baltimore decided it
had better find out u.hat the probl,em
was. Awise soul at the FCC suggested
that until the problem was identified,
no new TV grants shouldbe made,and
his suggestionwas bought in toto.
Now this kind of problem was quite
new to the FCC. Yes, there had beena
period prior to 1927 when the whole
nation was up in arms over the uncontrolled radio broadcasterswho seemed
to ossign themseluesfrequencies, and
move frequencyfrom day to day as the
stationsaround them moved. But that
had beendealt with quite nicely by the
Federal Radio Commission after 1927
"assignedfrewhen all stations were
quencies"on which to operate.In 1948,
the FCC assigned the frequenciesin
question, and other than the Lancaster-Washington-Norfolk triangle,
the rest of the nation was not (Yet)
reo,llAin bad shape.Ninety percent of
the Commission's instant problems
could.haue been eliminated by making
a simplechannelchangefor Lancaster.
Right then, on the spot: Lancaster
ended up on channel 8 anYhow after
the freeze. But no, the FCC left Lancaster on channel 4 and the senators
and representativesand mayors who
were buying new sets every daY continued to experience interference on
their Washingtonreceptionon channel
4 for years and years and years. It is
not hard to envision the kind of ani-
MAJOR CONTRIBUTORTO FREEZE
WGAL-TV Lancaster probably only wished to provide
television reception to the folks of SoutheasternPennsylvania, but an FCC allocationsboo-booplaced them o-n a
channelsharedby nearby Washington'sWNBW and New
york's WNBT. fhe result was disastrous interference,
and a shut down of new TV expansion in the United
States.
u(
ANNOUNCING
OOO
the TVRO Event of 1982
)lo
THE
SATELTITE
II'ITERT'IATIOI'IAL
BUSIIIESS
COI'IFEREI'ICE
Atlanta, Georgia - October 29, 3O and 31
BY POPULARDEMANDfrom both registrantsand exhibitors,the Ninth SatelliteTelevision
Technology
Seminar/ f radeShowwill be heldat the Dunfey-Atlanta
Hotelin Atlanta, Georgia,on
October29, 30 and 31, 1982.
JUSTAS YOUSAWat the STTTradeShowin FortWorthin March,theAtla nta event(abbreviated
to
"SlBCO")will
onceagainbringto onemeetingplaceallof theleadingTVROmanufacturers,
distributors
anddealersplushundreds
of earriest,
eagerbusinessmen
wantingto enterthisvital,growingbusiness.
Youwill see 1OO-plus
exhibitsof all the latestTVROequipment,
6O-plussatelliteantennasof every
description.
lN ADDITION,
privateterminaltrainingfor newcomers
therewillbe threedaysof hard-hitting
to this
field.Onceagain,TVROindustry
leaderand
Coop'sSatellite
Digestpublisher,
Bob Cooper, Jr., willbe
master-of-ceremonies
and directorof seminartraining.Lectureattendeeswill againreceivethe STT
"GoldSeal"
Certificate
of Educational
Achievement
for attendingthesesessions.
FORFULLINFORMATION
On exhibiting
or attendingthisoutstanding
STTsatellitesystemevent,
contactRick Schneringerat STT,P. O. Box G, Arcadia,OK 73007.Telephone1-800-054-g276.
(in
Oklahoma,
call 405/396-257
4l
PAGE28/CSD/8-82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
mosity that developed towards the
FCC in thoseyears; not only had this
federal agencyshut off television for
their constituents in Colorado or
Oregonor wherever, but they were
the causeof the interferenceon Washington's WNBW, right there in the
suburbsof Washington!On the surface
it is diffucult to fathom how the FCC
could let the situation drag out even
one week, not to speakof four years.
The allocationsshuftle should have
taken a few months, perhapssix at
most,evenwith bureaucratshandling
the problem.The problemwas simple
enough:create a new table of assignments so that stations would operate
without interferenceto one another's
service areas. But the issue uos enlnrgedeven beforeit got into the allocationsshuffle.
Along camecolor, and it presented
unique problems.First of all color did
not fit nicely into the then (and now)
standard6 MHz wide channels.The
only demonstratedcolorsystemof that
era, by CBS,requireda 12 MHz wide
channel.In effect, if a color station
were to set up in Washington,it would
operateover tuto channels,such as 3
and 4, at one time. This botheredthe
CommissionbecauseiI this was the
way colorwas going to be, then sornehoutthe allocationstablewouldhaveto
find room for the twice-as-wide-asblack-and-whitecolorcasts.
Diagram 2 illustrates the problem.
BLACK AND WHITECHANNELS 12
' ' l ' r o i ul l u l
' ' l ' fn
l'ol"f"l"l
COLORCHANNELS 6 (C8SEARLY COLOB)
' ' l ' l o r
l u l u l ' l
DIAGRAM 2
OK - so col.arwas 0n unknown. It
might require a whole new allocations
scheme. At least that is the way it
looked in 1948when the freeze began.
However, by 1949,the color question
was pretty much solved as far as making it fit into a standard 6 MHz wide
channel was concerned. Technically,
by 1949 i,t presented no problnms to
the allocationstable that would be established for normal black and white
operation.But the Commissionwould
fail to announce that fact until 1951,
allowing the senators and others on
their backs to continue to believe for
"one
severalmore years that color was
of the problems" effecting the release
of the freeze.
Then camethe UHF problem. Somewhere along about in the winter of
1949 a belief developed that the 12
VHF channelsthen availableto television were not adequate to cover the
nation.It turned out this was a perfectly valid assumption.Diagram 3 shows
the coverage of the United States
which was availablewith only 12 VHF
channels to allocate nationwide. The
white areas represent coverageareas
for stations granted permission to
broadcast before the freeze came
along; the gray areas represent new,
unused(at that time) allocationsusing
the 12 VHF channels onlA. The dark
areas are regions where no tel,euis'ion
reception could be expected, if the nation onlg had the 12 VHF channels
with which to work. Clearly, something had to be doneto bring television
"black areas".
to all of those
In 1949at the National Association
of Broadcasters Annual Convention.
FCC ChairmanWayne Coy sprang the
news:
"...betore manv months there will be ul-
COOP'S SATELLITE
DICESTPAGE29tCSDt8-82
) g
)
W f T H V H F C H A N N E L S O N L Y - T h e V H F s t a t i o n s o n t h e a i r w h e n t h e f r e e z ew a s i n i t i a t e d ( w h i t e
c i r c l e si n d i c a t e c o v e r a g e ) w
, h e n a d d e d t o t h e V H F c h a n n e l sp r o p o s e d ( g r e y c i r c l e s )s t i l l r e s u l t e di n l a r g e
r e g i o n su n s e r v e db y t e l e v i s i o ns i g n a lc o n t o u r s .
{
tra high allocations which will open up e new
frontier of the spectrum. It will be possible,
given imaginative leadership, to take television service to all America. . . ".
And to put down fears that the new
UHF channelswould not obsoletethe
millions of receivers already in the
hands of the public, Coy said:
". . . present television sets
on the market
will continue to obtain service from existing
VHF channels; wherever a television signal
is available from a VHF transmitter, the existing receivers will continue to render fine
service for many years to come."
Dr. Thomas J. Goldsmith,Director
of Research for DuMont Labs,
reported at the same NAB meeting:
)
o
"When the UHF channels become available, the public will be able to buy at a modest
price converters which will bring the additional channels to their receivers."
With the cat out of the bag that UHF
was coming,one prospectiveoperator
wurstedno time asking for specialpermissionto set up shopthere. The operator of WNOW in York, Pa., petitioned
the Commissionto allow them to put a
station on the air in the UHF range "to
allou; tests of the true stature of this
neu frequencArange". Attorney Jack
C. McKenna, representing WNOW,
asked that a plan immediately allocating 6 UHF channelsin 30 cities thert
uvi,thoutadequate teleuision reception
be appro.red so that (1) these cities
couldhave television,and (2) the FCC
could gain much needed test information about the potential of UHF and
the problemswhich were sure to show
up. The plan did not fly. but years later
hundreds of new UHF broadcasters
uould" u/ish that it had.
To Be Continued/ September
PAGE30/CSD/8-82
C O R R E S P ODNEN C E , N O T E S ,
REBUTTALS
AND
C H A R G E S. . .
INDUSTRY
AT LARGE
C S D p r o v i d e s l h i s i n d u s t r y F o r u m w r l h t h e u n d e r s t a n d r n gl h a l
opinions,thoughts and 'lacls publrshedare lrom the wnters, no
l i a b i l i l yl o r s t a t e m e n l se x t e n d s l o t h e p u t ) l r s h e r sA d d r e s s t e t t e r st o
c s D / I n d u s t r y ,P . o . B o x 10 0 8 5 8 , F r . L a u d e r d a t e F
. L 3 3 3 10 .
HOTTICKETITEM
Greetings
fromtheNorthwest!
youmightbeinterested
Wethought
in hearing
another.'small
company
makesgood'storyin oursatellite
industry.
Eventhoughit'sprobablya littlepremature
to callNorthwest
Satlabsan unqualified
success,
ourfirstproduct(theTWEAKER)
is
doingwellandhas received
favorable
comments
fromall overthe
country.
Likemanycompanies,
we startedas a distributorandgradually
phasedintomanufacturing.
Ourphilosophy
of 'findinga niche'in the
marketledus to development
of the TWEAKERprototypein Mayof
1981.At that time,usinga TV set caniedout to the dishto find
satellites,
interference,
andso on wasstandardprocedure.
Whatwe
wantedwasa lowcostelectronicmeteringdevicethatwassensitive
enoughto fine tune the antennaand locatesatellites,as well as
operatewithvirtuallyany satellitereceivingsystemavailable.After
manystagesof evolution,
ourchiefengineer
developed
somereally
uniquecircuitryand put out a productthat we thinkis near-perfect.
O{course,noteveryoneis excitedaboutit.We'vespokento a few
dealersthatarenoteveninterestedin precision-tuning
a customer's
IS YOURDISTRIBUTOR
FASTERWITH HIS PROMISES
THANWITHHIS PRODUCTS?
%\ \ l ' L 4
vz?):f,
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Wehaveit in stock,noton order.Soit goes
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To order call: 1-800-521-9282.
system.
According
tothosedealers,
if thecustomers
donotcomplain,
thepictureis 'goodenough'.Muchof thisattitudestemsfromthefact
that an averagecustomercan toleratea little degradationin lhe
picture.Somepeople,as youareno doubtaware,canevenwatcha
terrlblepictureandremaincontent.lt'sa mystery
to mewhypeople
toleratelessthanperfectionwhenperfectionis so easilyavailable.
Eachto hisown.
An!,t/ay,a good productis only half the battlewhen tryingto
achievesuccess.
The otherhalfis goodmarketing.
In that regard,
givingourproducttheexpoCSDhasbeentheperfect'medium'for
sureit needs.In ourfirstsixweeks,we soldover100unitsfromour
CSDadvertising.
Followupordershavebeensteady,so our product
hasbeenwellacceptedwhichpleasesus immensely.
It is clearthatCSDcommands
thegreatestrespectin the home
satelliteindustry.Youtakealotof flack,at times,Bob,butevenyour
peekat CSDeverymonth,if fornootherreasonthantofuel
detractors
theirowncriticism.
Pleasekeepupthegoodwork,controversy
andall.
Thankyouforthegreatexposure;
we willcontinue
to giveCSDour
advertising
support.
JetfreyL. Smiley
President
NorthwestSatLabs
806 NW 4th Street
Corvallis.Or. 97330
Nlcelysald. Can you see us beamlngmole than 3,500mlles
away?The TWEAKERls one of those new products whlch we
know llttle about.lf you wlll send a unlt to the CSDFort Lauderdaleofflce,we'll put lt to work ln the Turks and Calcosand get a
report out to readere.Coop has been uslng a SadelcoDlgltal
(CATVtype)fleld strengthmetel,monltorlngthe recelver70 MHz
(lF)output,for yearsnow,as a meansof flne tweeklngthe dlehat
the slte. But that ls a hard way to go slnce thls callberof metel
costsupwardsof $1,000nowa days(Coopgothisyearsagobefore
the pricejumpedout of sight).CSD 'works' as an advertlslng
medlum becausepeople do read (and re-read)every word In
every lssue.Llie ls fllled wlth detractlonsand dlstractlons.Detractlonsqult belng dlstractlonswhen they dlscover that thelr
own venomonly polsonsthelr own eftorts and spolls thelr own
chancesfor success.Belng a polson mouth ls far easlerthan
belnga leader;lt takesvery few smartsto plck somethlngapart
andbeonly crltlcalol others.Offerlngproposalsfol constluctlve
growth . . . that'swherethe challengeis!
PROVOIN OCTOBER?
yourproposed
Twomembers
of myfirmareinterested
inatlending
retreaton practical
in October.Pleaseletus know
satellitetechnology
assoonaspossiblewhenyoudecideupona date.TexasInternational
pricedat $73eachway.Wearenotsure
hasflightsto FortLauderdale
howlongthat pricewill be available.
MaryJo Rosecan
Inc.
SatelliteTechnology,
2302PrestonTrailsCove
Austin,Texas78747
See Coop'sCommentIn thls l$ue ot CSD.We are slantlng
towardsthe mlddleof Novemberbut requlrerapldfeedbackfrom
those SERIOUSLYInterestedbelole reachlnga flnal, unbend-
.,THEWINNINGCOMBINATION''!
)
1"
MlcRo.scANFP..l.l
We distribute the
followinglinesfrom
stock of exliemely
competitive prices
.
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ARUNTA
AVANTEK
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. Accurote, high goin 11 ft. diometer porobolic reflector
r Foursection fiberglossconstructionfor low
shipping costsond eose of ossembly
. Tunoble oorobolic crosssectionsfor moximizotion of goin
o Extroheow duiy rigid polor mountwith 3 ft, x
4 ft. rectangulor bose structure(no cheop
single pole bose)
r Adjustoble declinotion
. Electric remote LNA rotor
o Singlecronk, hond operoted sotellitefinder
svsTem
o Eosily upgroded to 13ft. diometer with
optionol EXP-13upgrode ponel set
o Qptionol electric remote control sotellite
finder system
Dexcer
DxP..rl00:31
fi 3$;[f
o LNA/Downconverter(LNC) is housed in o
one piece, cost seoled unit with intesrol
woveguide feed horn mounting flonge.Tnis
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. Foctory ossembled ond tested coble subossembly for connection of LNC to receiver.
o Frontponel mounted signol strength meter
o Continuouslvtunoble oudio
. Built-inchonnel 3/4 modulotor
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o Fullstereoot no odditionol cost
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orsrnrauioRPRTCE
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PAGE34/CSD/8-82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
abledeclslon.Tl wlll probablymaintalnthelr $73rateonly long
"norgh io sweepup ihe crumbs lefl afterthe Branifl fiasco' We
ftoo"lo, f,""" 6ett'erluck gettlng ahold of Tl reservatlonsthan
*L-dld rrom Fort Lauderdaie.Welrbd lor two solld days' uslng
iitst ifreliiott Lauderdaletelephonenumberand then thelr 800
numUer,to get through,and finally endedup c-ontactlngAmer'
ii,"". lrrivu"iithey chirled morefor thelr seatsthey couldafiord
io pui t-n'i ieecofid' reslrvatlon llne and hlre anotheragent!
BOLIVIA?
to an isolated
in extending.television
for assistance
lam looking
there
town6r towns'My fatherand I sellsolarequipment
Bolivian
aboutovertheairor
already.Canyouprovideanylistsof information
verybadlyand
""0f" tLf*ili.in slstems?m'esetownswanttelevision
is possible'
I amtryingto findout if satellitereception
DanielLeFever
Casilla1341
SantaCruz,Bolivia
Recentexperlencesuggeste that even wlth the extended
reportthisissue)Bollvlals stlll
servlcereach'ofWestarW1-1see
too tarsouttr to makethe gradefor dlrect US domestlcsatelllte
receptlon.However,the new Argentlnenatlonaltelevlelonser'
"f"J, no* on full transponderInielsat hemlspherlcservlce,wlll
pro"lde hlgh quallty pAt--t'ttype color Spanlshlanguagevldeo
into BoIlvI;. We ari preparlnlja report on the servlcefrom thls
new sateltltefeed ahd'wlll publlsh lt shortly. Brasll's PAL'M
eerylcealso contlnuesto be-avallable,but the Portugueselan'
ouaoewoutOprobablybe a deterrentto successfuluse In BolF
ila.Eimer sewlce woirld requlrea slx meterdlsh for reasonably
good qualltyslgnalacqulsltlon.
$uP
' - TO $250,000To SPEND
MediaCenterisconsidering
of MarylandLanguage
ThsUniveisity
to accessnon-domestic
dish(earthst,ation)
of a satettit6
thepurchase
iatdttitesfor our loreignlanguagecourses'I am well awareof the
pioUfetsinvolvedwiti tnatproject'So far,costsfor an EarthStation
AREYOUORDERINGFROM
SOMEONEWHO'SORDERING
l
i
r.
WE STOCK MORE I give
J
l
l
(,
To
over20 manufacturers.
Representing
andfasterdelivery'
youa biggerselection
o
ffitMffi{1;. a::'"i"":i
%1'3i,1'3n
(30:)e35
lsoe
EffiP,voo
,---t
To order call: 1-800'521'9282-
capableof accessingforeignsatelliteshas rangedfrom$40'000to
to se-eif anyonecanprovidemewithadditional
Si'so,ooo.lam writin-g
beacceswhich.could
andthesatellites
ontheeqiipment,
intorriration
location'
this
lrom
sed
JamesE. BoYaltY
Director
MediaCenter
Language
of Maryland
UniversitY
CollegePail,Md.20742
Wearecertalnnumerousdealer'readerswlll contactyou wlth
*t"f, J*n piopoials. A lour meterdlsh sys!9m(costin the$9'000
would brlng ln US and Canadlanseri"no" "ittt'tril'"utomation)
uirli iiiiroi"J French,Spanish,ltaliin,and.a smallamountol
iortuor"t" proirammlng.'wltha slx meterdlsh,equlppedwlth.a
teeo-system,a locatlon-ln Maryland.could
;;til;hlieo
(Portu"l"J"i iddltlonat Internltlonal servlces from Brasll
plus
a
smattering
(Spanish),
GhorlzontLRussian
gueset,Argentlna
etal)'A hlg-h
Czech,Polish,
German,
such'as
languages
6taOAiiiona-i
ou"Jlw "riotiteol tralt and full transpondersystem wlth a slx
ue In the $30,000reglon'HeroCommunlcail"i"it"ttiniittti
iibis tiiiileih, Florida)ls testlng a new 7'5 meter.polarmounted
JiJtr ttlit, "rltti lt and clrcularfCd adaptatlon,vlrtuallyanyof the
inieis* llroi servlng Europeand Africa would be wlthln reach;
lir"i rn irtils0,000 ieglon'wlth lull automatlonand swltchable
half and full transpondelelectronlcs'
WHAT'SSPECIALABOUT12GHZ?
in the Marchissue-a knowledgeable
appearing
in an interview
"When12 GHzcomesoff' we
said
oersonwitfrNationaiivlicrotdch
ourselves"'I am
bi"O"UtVcan makethe higherband antennas
it
exce:nt
antennas'
12
GHz
these
speciaiabout
is
so
wnat
ilonaerihg
4
GHz
a
buyingtrom
back
me
held
has
U"ingltif f"t.Thisstaiement
t"irinlf tr o tootmesh)sinceI don'twantto buytwice'Will 12 GHz
4 GHzsignals?|
iiiJ i[iirgnlhe itrminrt mesheasierthenthe a changeinthe
was
GHz
12
with
required
change
only
tnaittte
ittoulnt
forecasttor latein 1983'it is NOT
"i""ti"ni"i. With12 GHz-servibe
thatlar otf!
OrvilleRileY
Box72
Jamaica
BaY,
RunawaY
-GHz
slgnals-areapprorlmately
Excellentquestlon' Th; 12
f Bd ii;long' as the present4 GHzslgnals'Thls tells us that the
rilr, *lri rta-""tooe ilgtrter;or to be moreor less.preclse,about
whlch we can now tolerateat 4 GHz'
iisiJthJ opentngdlsta--nces
ln the
Srice te i-"et i6 get by wlth maxlmumdlstanceopenlngs
'tolerance'
iiioti'ti- r""rt-iisl"f, noi' that tells us that the openlng
*fif ttif,i-i" "p-aOouttttittr of an Inch.At that tolerance,the dlsh
rlortt-"" *"li O" solld. The surlacecurvatureaccuracywe tJYto
;iEil;i iGxi is plus or mlnus 1/16thof an Inch' Anvthlng
oi""iei"au"es us signal loss whlch we cannotslmply dlsmlss'
tolerancewlllbeInthevlclnltyof plusor
it rjdniini marlm-um
tan lnch.Yup,everythlnggetsmore'preclse'at12
;ffiJtlbih
6iii. ofi"lttmg these tlghier toleranceswlll be smaller anten'
largel
nii; "ni""n"Jit tz cxz ict as blgas antennas.thr.eetlmes
at t2
footer
4
bullt
and
properly
dieslgned
A
iottvsicirrvfat 4 GHz.
i!;i"-;;,ild h"vittre simd gal-nas a properlydeslgnedand bullt
ii tooterat I CHz.So evenit the toleiancestlghtenup, you have
i "t"iiei antennasurface alea to malntalnthose toleranceg
"cto"s. lff of that ls moot, however,for Jamalca'-Theodds are
ihat vou wlll not have any 12 GHz servlce avallableto you tol
liiln'i. t"-ni-veais. one of ttte deslgnfeaturesoJ12 GHzblrds ls
control wherethev iplll or-.sendslgnalfar more
i-i;iiit;t#
whereas
vouset191'!z
I cxt count6rp-arts;ilcftlittra"itrJIr:spttt
at12GHz
over',you'linotPeasfortunate
[5A'4"ild;;"d-ii
satellltetransu"teii soriUody rdaltyscre*s up de_slgnlngthe
.lttlnl "nt"nn" (s). ff iou want TVROreceptlonanytlmeIn the
we suggestyou go wlth 4 GHznow, not Pay anl
next d-ecade,
att"ntlo" to ionvertilig thd sysiem to 12 GHzlater on' and starl
"ijdi"g tii" dotens ir servlies aheadyavallableto you' You'll
oei f'z Aift slnals ln JamalcaonlywhensomebogYwantsto send
when someb6dystarts sendlng them to the
ir,l].i m-i""]"n
usA.
PAGE36/CSD/8-82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
TRANSPONDER
WATCH
R E C E N TR E P O R T S
O F A C T I V I T YO N
D O M E S T I C/ I N T E R N A T I O N A L
SATELLITES
S e n d y o u r r e p o r t st o C S D T r a n s p o n d e rW a l ( : l r .P O . B u x l 0 t l l J ) 8 . I I
L a u d e r d a l eF, L 3 3 3 1 0 F o r l a l e n e w s ,c d l l ( 3 0 i ) )i ' l 1 ( 1 5 ( ) i r
FCChasgiveninterimapprovalto thestartof DBS(directbroadwhomadeFCCimposed
Therewerenineapplicants
castsatellites).
Commission
haveshowninlerest.
deadline,
andotherssubsequently
decidednotto burdennewservicewithmanyrules,adoptedpolicyof
allowingeachoperatorto decidewhetherhe wishesto functionas
timeto programmers),
@mmoncarrier(i.e.rentingouttransponder
or, as broadcastservice(suchas localTV stationsnow operate).
Existingrulesgoverningbothtypesof servicewill apply,as fits the
opsrationof applicant.COMSATcontinuesto be frontrunnerand is
forecasting1985/6start up of service.Entireapprovalis actually
that
erceptfor FCCdecision
considered
to befinal(i.e.non-interim),
any approvalfromthem mustconsiderfinal resultsof forthcoming
howmanyDBS
whichwilldetermine
1983hemispheric
conference
willhaveavailablefor
orbitspotseachnationin westernhemisphere
decidewhichof US and
use.Thatdecisionwill in turn ultimately
Canadian
DBSservicessurvivesincea short-fallin orbitspotswould
limitnumberof separate,
DBSbirdsthatcouldbe made
competing,
operational.
BIGGEST
internalproblemFCCwrestledwithwaswhatto dowith
frequency
GHz(downlink
thosepresentday usersot lhe 12.2-12.7
WHENYOURDISTRIBUTOR
SAYS"COMPETITIVEPRICES''
. . . DO YOU EVERWONDER
WHATTHE PRICEIS
PETINGWITH?
SATELLITERECEPTION
AT DOWN.TO-EARTH
PRICES.
lowerprices
ensures
Ourvolumepurchasing
Evenwhentheyorderin
forourcustomers.
volumes
of one.
ffiMW;2
tMZ,--'
^
?%'33,?'3n
ift?"i:l:
(s0.3)gss-tsos
To order call: 1-8OO-521-9242.
users
in movingexisting
band)range.Millions
of dollarsareinvolved
to anotherfrequencyband,and there is a shortageof microwave
frequencies
in congestedurbanareasto whichpresentuserscould
move.Ultimate
solutionto thisonestillhanging.
IMPACTon present4 GHz servicenot likelyto be great until
tothem,inthe
Publicwillhaveboth'bands'offered
1987-88
atearliest.
are betting
DBS propponents
formof hardwareand programming.
willhave
thatsufficient
numberof present4 GHz'desirable'services
'80
periodto driveend usesto 12 GHz.
by mid
adoptedscrambling
will be regularfeatureof manyof the 12 GHzservice
Scrambling
providers,
butcostof receivinghardwarewillbe lowenough(in$500
costs
range)thatmanyuserswillbe willingto tradelowerequipment
charges.
for recuningmonthlyprogramming
or bepremium
willscramble,
services
NOTALL 12 GHzproposed
'broadcast'type
formatwithadvertis'
services.
Severalhaveindicated
ing support.Thusthe seedsfor problemssimilarto thosealready
presentat4 GHzareshown;viewerswillhavechoice,havingselected
hardware,of servicesthat are, and,are not,scrambled.
NONEof the hardwareculrently beingproposedfor 12 GHz
addresses
viewerswishingto accessmorethana singlesatelliteat a
location.lf twoor more12 GHzprogramsingle,lixedgeo-stationary
in termsof
medsatellitesdo get on the air,and botharecompatible
will be extolledto pro'
viewers/buyers
transmission
characteristics,
The
cureequipment
whichcanreceiveall of the satellitesoperating.
widelyreported$500pricetagis fora verysimplesystemnot Includ'
lng any hardwaredesignedto movethe dishthroughthe sky from
pointto point.
manyearlybuyerswillgo lor the cheaphardUNDOUBTEDLY
warejustto getoperational;
butwithina shortperiodof timeafter12
GHzservicebegins,vieweroptionsfor hardwareshouldmultiply
rapidly.Motordrivendishsystems,withandwithoutpre-programmed
'step-up'packageoffered.
orbitpositionrestingspots,will be early
problem
potential
be'
lackof compatibility
will be
Next
encountered
tweenvideoand audioformatsof the many servicesplanningto
launch;at 4 GHz,virtuallyall NorthAmericanservicesemploysame,
formats.At 12 GHz,
videoand audiotransmission
standardized
are planningsystemsuniqueto theirownoperaseveralapplicants
audio,and security
tion.Videobandwidths,
methodof transmitting
(scrambling)approacheswill vary widely unlessthere is preagreement
to adoptstandardspriorto servicelaunches.At moment
thatappearsunlikely.
anay of
CONSUMER
then maywill be facedwith bewildering
choices;whichformatto buy,whatsizedishandwhattypeof mount.
is nameof gameat 12GHz,just likeit is with
Sinceviewer-numbers
therewillbeintensepublicityandpromterrestrial
broadcast
services,
otionby eachof the services.
for 12
as'fall-out'period
BALANCE
of 80'scanbe characterized
GHzDBS,withno clearpatternsevolvingmuchmorebefore1990.4
and growingeachmonth,will
established
SHzservice,meanwhile,
continueto havestrongconsumerappealandsalesrun.After 1990,
takeholdandservice
strong12 GHzservicepatternswilleventually
service.
will mushroomintoa largeinternational
RECORDamountof IntelsattrafficduringMay,JuneandJulyhas
lntelsatand Comsatpleased.WorldCup Soccer,Wimbledon,
Falklands,President
internaReaganvisitto Europeandother'unusual'
b'ru,lU
I
. l
Itb raining catsand dogs,
andthe didhneedsmovrng.
Bur withtheADEC
actuator
system,
you,il
switch
]lll:,:y'*:::::is^gy_y?Lg:t.lg,lhgbackyard.
satlirites
:l||| :::n_y::i.:?11
:l?:i:ly:ll^lgq5c-
as;,i.liy";;
eHr;"''y"J,",,-#'i'il"ng"
channers.
nnb
oedt
ot
il,
vor.i,rrJo'If,;;;;;;;:d,y
;?:l,i?lf1A.y*".j,^'J'^gil-1i1l9y
atorsystem
you
lets change.
dishpositions
easily livingroom. . . comerainor shine!
accurately,
withoutever settingfootoutdoors!
system's
electronic
controlpanelcanbe program_
forpinpoint
targeting
on allpresentandfuture
satellites-up
to 50 positions
in alllAndit
rfdtes
ot a low36-voltD.C.level.For installation,
ADECactuatorsystemcomes completewith 175
of specially
engineered
direct burialcable.And
f quick-lock
connectorseliminate
the need
ADVANCED
DESIGNENGINE€RING
CORPORAT]ON
AdvancedDesign
Engineering
Corporation
1 1 6 8 4L i l b u r nP a r k
S t .L o u i s M
, o .6 3 1 4 1
1-800-325-4058
dealerpricing
available
COOP'S
PAGE381CSD18-82
l\,-\,,
\-
tionalactivities
morethandoublednumberof 'transmission
hours'for
videoprogramming
for monthof Junealone.
WESTAR
5 at 123westgoingintoregular
service
asyoureadthis.
It willbeseveral
weeksbeforefullimoactof newWesternUnionbird
canbe assessed
sincesatellitewillcarrybothmove-over
services
fromW4 andseveralnew users(seeCSDfor July).Aftersurprise
showing
fromW4,in northern
reaches
of SouthAmerica
andeastern
Caribbean,
fieldmeasurements
of W5 are eagerlyanticipated
by
thesetelevision-starved
areas.
WESTAR
4 trafficpatterns,
meanwhile,
willbecomeincreasingly
orientedtowardsnon-cablevideo.SPN (TR22)is largestcableprogrammer
oriented
thatis NOTmakingswitchto W5.SPNdecided
againstW5 movebecauseit is customerfor HughesGalaxybird
scheduled
for mid 1983operation,
and moveto W5 wouldhave
lowered
its'status'
onsatellite
shouldtherebea failureof a transoonder.WUplansto shutdownW3as a videobird,perhaps
as earlyas
thisSeptember,
movingnetworkand specialfeeds(Entertainment
Tonight,
Saturday
Night,others)to W4.GSDwilllookat howil allsifts
outin Octoberissue.
NEWYORKCITYplanningto build$100Mplus spacecommunications
centerwhere38 acresitewillholduoto 20 transmit
and
receive
dishterminalsystems.
FCCapparently
has thrownin the towelon regulating
satellite'
owners.
Commission
hasbeenfacedwithdecisions
relating
to howto
handlethemanyditferent
approaches
to satellite
systemownership.
Hughes
startedballrollingbyotfering
transponders
forsale;followed
byRCAandthenWestern
withwhether
Union.FCCwrestled
existing
rulesallowsatellite
ownerlosellindividual
transponder
systems
while
retaining
(fueling,navigation,
ownership
of satellitesuperstructure
powering)
portions.
goodnewsforsatellite
Decision
considered
ownerssinceit clearswayforthemto recoupsubstantial
portionof their
investment
beforebirdsare builtandlaunched.
is insurance.
Presently,
NEXTproblem
satelcausedbydecision
liteowners
designed
forwholebirdandpaypremiums
carryinsurance
peformance
to coverinsured
fordesignlifeof bird,Withtransponders
mulitply.Individual
transponder
soldor leasedor rented,problems
WHATHASYOURCURRENT
DISTRIBUTORGUARANTEED
FORYOU LATELY?
7^
-zA\
IF WE PUTIT IN WORDS,
WE'LL PUTIT IN
WRITING.
justreturnthe
lf you'redissatisf
iedforanyreason,
p r o d u citn i t so r i g i n aclo n d i t i o w
n ,i t h i n7 d a y s f, o r
a complete
refundin cashor trade.Guaranteed.
IflfrW#
;2
ft[lmZ
^
?::?"i:T!
?T's;,:
Sn
*os)ggs-tgog
To order call: 1-800-521-9282.
themagainst
to protect
willhaveto obtaintheirowninsurance
owners
(s)failpriorto normal7 (to
lossesshouldtheirindividual
transponder
10)yeardesignlife.
problemcreatedis transponder
back-upcapacity
ADDITIONAL
forexamprovided
operator.
Galaxy,
totransponder
usersbysatellite
ple,is retaining
for 'servicerestoration'
should
6 of 24 transponders
'guaranteed'
fail priorto
sevenyear lifetime.
any of transponders
periodwhenalltransponders
Galaxymayrent
During
areoperational,
butany
fora'pre-emptible'tariff,
someor allof these6 transponders
willbefacedwithsudden
firmusingoneof these'extra'transponders
'primary'
fail.
transponders
eviction
shouldoneof the 18
packageof sports,
ANOTHER
firmplanning
to otfercustomized
Telstar
movies,
indieprogramming
andnewsplansdebutin October.
(notrelatedto AT&T)willchargeup to $8 per month,per room,to
on ComstarD3,transhotelstakingservicewhichwillbetransmitted
ponder21. TravelHost
Hoat manySheraton,
Magazine,
available
plansto carrydailysatellite
wardJohnson
andDay'sInnoperations,
of equipment
TV log.Telstarwillprovideturnkeyserviceconsisting
package
Telstarwillexpandto
installation,
andmaintenance,
design,
secondchannelin firstquarterof 1983.
SPECULATION
thatUS mayend up withtoo few 12 GHzorbit
preparing
therushto DBShasplanners
assignments
to accomodate
With clever
concerned.
for 1983westernhemisphere
conference
theremay
assignments,
crosspolarization
and26 MHzwidechannel
perorbitslot.Andatthe
available
beasmanyas36satellite
channels
momentit appearsUSmayendupwithno morethanfourDBSorbit
pertimezone.As practical
matter,mountain
spots;one,ostensibly,
ofspreadof largely
timezonehadhighneedforDBSservice
because
(i.e.'terrestrial
TV')historyot taking
ruralpopulation,
buttraditional
basis.Cenlraltimezonehas
Pacifictimezonefeedson hour-later
reducing
totwo
longtakeneastern
feedsat'hourearlier'basisthereby
for tull CONUS
the numberof actualfeeds,for most programs,
coverage.
lirm,hasa newteleNETCOM
International,
theteleconterencing
phonenumberandaddress:
Ca.
1702UnionStreet,SanFrancisco,
94123(415t921-1441).
sysintoSovietIntersputnik
FORMALacceptance
of Nicaragua
isscheduled
to be
temhasbeenannounced.
New.12meter.terminal
system
operational
by middleof 1983andwilllinkthroughGhorizont
withCubaandeasternblocknations.
140oJ
HARRIS
hasannounced
saleofapproximately
Corporation
'Delta-Gain'
Bulkof
systems.
theirsemi-controversial
3 meterterminal
Networkradio
Broadcasting
unitsaregoingto 120stationSheridan
tromterrestrial
itspresentnetwork
to satelite
service
whichis shifting
inter-connection.
1, a 24
LAUNCH
datesfor futureANIKbirds:ANIKD (number
ANIKC
channelC bandbird)thismonth(Augustl2th scheduled);
(firstof three),12 GHzbird,November
11thot thisfall,followed
by a
pairmore(Cs)on April20,1983andApril18, 1984.SecondANIKD
forOctober
10,1985.ThefirstANIKD isgoingoutviaDelta
scheduled
rocket;the balancevia 'Shuttle'.
has askedthe designers
of inteDBSatfiliate)
STC(Comsat's
gratedcircuits
to be
todevelop
an lCwhichwillallowDBSsubscribers
'addressed'
individually,
for up to threechannels
of DBSvideoprogramming.
thedevice'inhouse'
intended
todevelop
STChadoriginally
Theymaystilldo
asa hedgeon protecting
thesecurity
ofthesystem.
manufacture
house'although
keyto unitwillbe lC
of totaldecoder'in
purpose.
designed
for addressing
to leasesixtransponARGOCommunications
hasFCCblessing
ArgowillpayCanada's
derstoANIKD birdforvoiceanddatanetwork.
through
Telesat$112,600permonthforeachofthesixtrandponders
to
theendof 1984,afterwhichArgoisexpected
toswitchnewnetwork
a USbird.The$112,600rateis roughlyequalto amountpaidby F4
life($10,912,00).
transponder
buyersamortized
overa 7 yearsatellite
ABCdecidedagainstlaunching
netvvork
concept
of 'SupeRadio'
whichwas to havebeendistributed
via satellite.Fewerthanten
stations
hadsignedup for service.
NBCis using6.2MHzsub-carrier
on TR6,F1to distribute'The
Source',
radionetwork
service.
Service
a newNBCsatellite
delivered
willbefedviasatellite
in analogmodeuntillate1983,andthenswitch
to digitalmodulation
format.
to bringtogetherCanadaandUSAon political
FINALdecisions
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PAGE4O/CSD/8.82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
all but comeachother'sdomesticsatellites
realityof cross-using
directindito authorize
pleted.However,
don't expectCanadians
exceptunderverywell
of USservices
vidualcablesystemreception
definedcircumstances.
2 degree
of how FCCis leaningwithproposed
ONEindication
nowfloatingis foundin reports
to satellite
spacingproposal
satellite
to
thatUSandCanadahavedecidedto respecta 3 degreesatellite
has agreedto tightenits own
spacing.Canadareportedly
satellite
now
orbitbeltregionfor 3 degreespacingandthereareindications
2 degree
thatthisis directionFCCis leaningalso.FCCproposed
andnowit appearsmay
caughtalotof flackfor proposal,
spacing,
adopt3 degreespacingat leastat C band(4 GHz)as an accomodationforthe 1980sandintothe 1990s.
CenternearHaupnewSatellite
Communications
HBOisbuilding
page,NewYork.Facilitywill havequadset of 11 meterSA uplink
terminals.
fortheindustry
STTIconference/seminar
NEXTRickSchneringer
willfeature
Seminar
inAtlanta,
Georgia.
issetforlastdaysof October
of stateofthe
morethan100exhibits
lectures,
threedaysof intensive
availandexhibiting
Fulldetailsfor registration
artTVROequipment.
ablefromSTTIat P.O.BoxG, Arcadia,Ok.73007(405/396-2574).
can be
Network)
Entertainment
DONKING'sDKSEN(Satellite
and they are anxiousto have licensed
reachedat 212-794-2900
their'gate'at boxingandentertainment
increasing
atfiliates
downlink
terminal,
eventsin themonthsahead.lf youhavea mobiledownlink
hall'
pointofdisplay(nightclub,meeting
witha legitimate
cancontract
etc.)to carryevent,DKSENwantsto talkwithyou aboutarrangementsto makeyoua partof theirnetwork.
(CONTINUED
/ frompage3)
to thecableexecsin an unscrambled
a cablebird,makeit available
mode(asdoneinJuneon F4),andthenfigurethatnocablesystemis
goingto be dumbenoughto stickthe eventon theircablesystem
Whichis anotherway of saying
withoutgettingKing'spermission.
"withoutpayingfor it."
lt hefollowsthis
correct.
is probably
Kingissnaip,andhisinstinct
illegalbars
andif therearenotmorethana fewthousand
approabh,
modenationwide'
hisproductin theunscrambled
andclubsstealing
of
intomillions
livewiththethetts,in returnforgetting
hecanprobably
'promoter'
and the
(paying)cablehomes.He is a good
additional
fashion.
in thisshow-bizzy
cablesystemslikedto be promoted
OF SCRAMBLING
SPEAKING
outyourown
toworking
It isworthnotingthatoneofthehandicaps
signalsin theair' fulldeviceis a lackof scrambled
anti-scrambling
time.Well,overat 114westwe nowhavea pairof 24 hourperday
andyoucanstudythemat your
operating
videoservices
scrambled
(AS)hardware.
The
leisureand designyour own anti-scrambling
oJthenonF4leeds
onseveral
inuseherewasalsoemployed
system
'brandname'package'
fight,and it is a
oi the Holmes/Cooney
to useanyAShardware
you
many
opportunities
Chances
are willfind
you
- mayput together.
Forihosewhoare notsurewhereto start,we suggestthatyou
intoa communications
feedthevideooutputfromyourTVROreceiver
downaround
starting
receiver,
andtunethroughthevideopassband
100kHzandgo up to 7.5 MHzor so.Youwillfinda veryfat (asin
youmay
strong)canieraround2.045MHzandif youlistencarefully
and verticalsyncpulseslacedin there.We
hearsomehorizontal
a stageor twoof
of building
thepossibility
thatyouconsider
suggest
youwillfind
peakedat the2 + + MHzfrequency
vidlo amplifi6ation,
syncpulsespresent.They,now,couldbe
verticaland horizontal
video
or addedbackintothebaseband
to driveyourmonitor
coupled
information.
Youwillalsofindanothercarrierjustabove7 MHz.lt willprove
whatit is doing,andhow,by rememberinS
easierto dicipher
!ha!t!9
andouttherein thefieldtheindisystemis 'addressable'
Canadian
boxescanbe toldwhento allowcleanvideoand
vidualdesciambler
mode'lt takes
andwhento revertbackto a scrambled
audiothrough,
situaintoandoutof a controlled
gettheconverters
a'command'to
someplace'
someway,
hasto betransmitted
tion,andthatintelligence
Uhhuh.You'llfigureit out.
SNCSPELLSSNICK?
Withonlya modestamountof flubbingthe ABoMestinghouse
mid-day
on
cameup on schedule
Satellite
NewsChannels
operation
andwithallof
changed,
June21st.Theworldon Westar4 suddenly
the SNCrelatedtrafficdestinedto moveoverto Westar5 (perhaps
SNC-look
and
evenbeforeyoureadthis),Westar5 willhavea unique,
characterfromlhe outset.
serviceouton horizontal
SNCbeganlifebyfeedingtheirnational
newspeople
transponder
11.There,24hoursa day,areCNN-like
grinding
outthetopnewsstoriesof thehourandday.Over,andover,
CNN-2typelookwiththemostobvious
andoveragain.lt hasa distinct
leanedon
haveapparently
change
beingthatABCandWestinghouse
earlyon.
somecorporatesponsorsto be advertisers
to CNNor
service,
anyrelationship
Butafterthenational
channel
CNN-2ends.Duringa normalhouryoucanfind(onW4;again,dueto
a popontransponnewsfeedsfor5 minutes
change
onW5)regional
ders8, 14, and 18; plus nationalinwardboundmaterial(largely
newsinsertsmaybetheone
Washington
DC)onTR 16.Theregional
TedTurnerat
chanceof pushing
thingthatgivesSNCa Chinaman's
figuredout(seereportinTransponall.Onceyougetthesequencing
thathavingdirectsatellite
apparent
derWatch,nextissue)it becomes
accessto the regional(andeven local)newsfor Bozemanand
product.
Butlthink
Anaheim
andCharleston
couldbea verysaleable
withtheseregional
thatperhaps
SNCis missinga greatopportunity
feeds.
hasa pairof receivTheway lt worksls thls.Thecableaffiliate
andthereit staysformostof
service
ers;oneis parkedonthenational
lor his
feedtransponder
thehour.Theotheris parkedontheregional
servicedropsotfthecable
area.Onceperhour,on cue,thenational
it is the regionalfeedservice.Thislastsfive
systemand replacing
Northwest,
for
inthePacific
minutes.
Inthatfiveminutes
cableviewers
Ser'
geta fiveminutenewssummary
fromFisherSatellite
example,
)
I[IGfVe-got
:- :F:==t:-=
-.s:
11fffijg;%-somctn-ing
everyorte.
Wm:$7e=Yor
\r."('3€=1*-€>G\,b.
/ ft.L =ff/,l
'rF\i
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P,'$
r,
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Satellite W Week
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F o r t u n a ,C A 9 5 5 4 0
PAGE42/CSD/8-8'
COOP'S
(*_U
vice.Thenthe machineryre-cyclesand the cablevieweris returnedto
the nationalservice.
That'sneat for peoplewho live in the Northwest(or whicheverof
the 24 nationalregions).Theygetthe bestof bothworldsthatway.But
it seemsa shameto spend5 minutesof valuabletranspondertime to
telljustthe peoplein a particularregionwhattheirlatestregionalnews
is. lt is a doubleshame when you considerthat we live in a highly
mobile countrywith somethinglike 21"/" of the populationmoving
residenceeach year.
SNC ought to consider packagingthe 24 regionalfive minute
newscastsinto a pair of additionalcableservicechannels.Twelveof
these five minute newscastsequal an hour, and they repeateach
hour.That way peoplewho moveto Florida(or go there in the winter)
could take at least five minutesof 'hometownnews' with them oer
hour,no matterwhere they go. lt is sort of like havingthe hometown
newspapersent to you after you move.
The SNC and CNN and CNN-2(andnetwork)newscastsall pretty
much cover the same nationaland internationalnews. lf you watch
any one of these, you have as much of that news categoryas you
need.SNC does, however,have a sleeper'secondlevel'oroductin
theirregionalnewscasts.Here'shopingthey realizethis,andworkout
some way to allow individualCATV, MATV and SMATV systemsto
take and use that serviceas suits the needs of the local audience.
TOM HUMPHRIESAND I
I firstmet Tom Humphrieson a cold,Januaryday in 1977.He was
workingas marketingmanagerfor a firmcalledScientificCommunications,Inc. (SCl),and he had traveledto Afton,Oklahomato witness
'turn-on'
the
of a proto-typesix meter all steel dish designedand
constructedby a chap named Stormy Weathers,with the help of
anotherfellow named Tony Bickel.
Weathersand family owned a firm called United States Tower
Company(USTC),and they had been buildingbig (as in 800 leet tall,
50 inchon a face)CATV towersfor years,alongwith a line of heavy
duty CATV log receivingantennas,and, UHF parabolicdishesup to
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I
t
20feetindiameter.
Theygotintotheantenna
business
whena former
employee
ofmineatCADCO,
TonyBickel,
hadmovedintotheirpartof
Oklahoma.
Bickeldesigned
similarantennas
for me at CADCO.
It wason December
15, 1976thattheFCChadapproved
useof
cableTVROantennas'smaller
than'9 metersin diameter.
Yousee,
priortothatFCCaction,theonlycableTVROantennas
thatwouldbe
licensed
werethosethatwereat leastI metersin size.Andin those
daysif youdidnothavea licensefor a TVROantenna,
youcouldn't
operate
theantenna.
Notinconjunction
witha cablesystem,
anyhow.
Blckeland USTCwantedto be thefirstto havea sixmetersize
antenna
onthemarket.
Theyfiguredthe$52,000
andup9 meterjobs
(that'santenna
couldbetrimmed
downto under$25,000
costalone!)
quiteeasily.
ADM's6 meterdishwasnotevena glintinJamie'seyein
thosedays,sotheunder96,000pricetagnowavailable
waslunacyto
consider.
Humphries
andSCIwerenewintheLowNoiseAmplifier
game,for
thecablemarket.
Theywerehoping,alongwithUSTC,thattheFCC
'open
rulingwould
up'thecablemarket.
Inthefirstyearofcableuseof
satellites,
fewerthan75ninemeterandupTVROshadbeenlicensed.
It turnedoutbothUSTCandSCIwereright;beforeanother
yearhad
passedthe FCCwouldbe receiving
morethan75 CATVterminal
per month!So herewasTomHumphries,
applications
witha couple
of proto-type
180degreeLNAssittingaroundwhilea youngengineer
fromMicrodyne
and anotherhom TerraOom
triedto hookup their
respective
Tony Bickel
$8,000TVROreceiversto the unpainted
bronzeand brassfeedhornsittingin frontof ine bright,unpainted
surfaceof thefirstUSTCsix meterdish.
Wewereallunderstandably
excitedwhenHBOandTedTurner's
WTCGpoppedoutof thenoise.Noneof us noticedthatwhenBickel
wentoutto playwiththefeedafterinitialsignalacquisition,
he had
movedthedisharoundto geta ladderunderthefeed;andthedish
wasnowpointing
intothesun.lt tookaboutthreeminutes
directly
for
theunpainted
20footsurface
tocollect,
reflect
andfocussufficient
sun
energyto heat,andthenmeltthe214 typecablethatwassuspended
there.Bickelwasundaunted.
Heusedthemeltedcoaxas oroofthat
hehaddesigned
pointedat it as
a goodreflecting
surface.
Weathers
proofthathe couldbuildan accurate
surface,andHumphries
wonderedwhetherhishandpickedLNAhadsurvivedthe heat!
TomHumphries
todayis President
ofSPACE.Heisalsoa veteran
of thesatellite
TV revolution.
I doubtverymanyothershaveseenas
'turn-ons'
manyterminal
places.From
as Tom,in as manyditferent
overseeing
theinstallation
of a fivemeterterminal
atopa g l 2,000,000
villadeepalongMexico's
westerncoast,to hundreds
of CATVand
industry'parking
lot'tradeshowquickieinstallations,
he hasbeento
andoverseen
themall.
TomHumphries
spentthelasttwoweeksor so of Juneon Provo.
Hebunkedin at ourTV stationannex,puttedaroundtheislandin a
smallrentedFrenchbuilttwo cylindervehicle,and madearrangementsto acquire2.2acreshere.
LongbeforeI metTom,in factmorethantenyearsago,he had
madea promiseto himselfthat he clearlyintendedto keep.His
commitmenl
wasthatwhenhereached
45yearsof age,regardless
of
wherehemightbein hisbusiness
careerin thestates,hewouldstop
whathe wasdoing,cleanup hisstateside
affairs,andpackit otf to
someislandretreat
whereheintended
tosoendtherestof hislife.Last
summerhe wasdownto visitus fortendaysandI couldtellhe was
seriously
considering
movinghistimetableaheada fewyears.
"l loveProvo;thls ls really
a
flnelsland"hewouldsuggest
over
a coldbeer."Butif a personwasto waitanothercoupleof years,it
lookslikemostof thisisland'spioneering
maybe over.I wantto get
someplace
wheretherearestillopportunities
to opena newbusiness
andbeinonthegroundfloordevelopment".
Thissummer's
visitwasa
bitof a shocker
to Tom.Thenew8,500jet runwayis nearing
completion,newhomesandcondominiums
andcommercial
buildings
have
recently
beencompleted,
or areunderconstruction,
allover.Andland
priceshavecontinued
to climb.
Tomisa watersportsperson.
Heisanaccomplished
Scubadiver.
He,liketheCoopers,
figuresthatif youaregoingto liveon an island,
'in-land'
andyoulikewatersports,it is kindof foolishto live
awayfrom
thebeach.However,
beachtrontpropertyis all soldandyouarenow
dealing
withsecondgeneration
(orthird;fourth,etc.)owners.prices
arenaturally
farhigherthanjustthreeyearsagowhenwe boughton
COOP'S SATELLITEDICEST
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famous
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Easyto operate,
this receiverprovidesimprovedvideoperformance
with suchadvanced
featuresas:
r Signaland ChannelTune Meterso Automatic
Polarity Switchingo Priority or VariableAudio
Tuningo RemoteControlOptiono Built-inModulator o ChannelScan r Full Video and Audio
Fidelityo SuperiorThresholdPerformance.
SATSCANis a key part of the new ChannelMaster
system.
UsingsimpleUP/DOWNpushbuttons,the
operatorcan changesatellitesat any time with
pinpointaccuracy,without leavingthe house.lt
featuresLED digital read-out,automatic safety
shutoff,a satellitereferencecard,low 12 volt DC
operation,analogfeedbackwith power-loss
memory, and variabledistanceselection(up to 1000').
In addition to this brand-newline of advanced
equipment,ChannelMasterdistributors
offer you
the advantageof low initial investment,expert
assistance,
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thannel
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19141647-5000
PAGE44|CSD/8-82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
theywereherelastspring,andit turnsoutthatDavidandTommaybe
quiiecloseneighborb;
bothnavingzeroedin on the samesectionof
iiland.Othersin ourindustryhavebeendownandaredickeringwith
property
ownersfortheirownpieceof coralandsand'Wemayendup
i,vittrquitea satellitecommunityherebeforewe are done!
SPACEPrery Humphrlespreparlngto boaldthe Hegner'Whls'
o"i rrlqrti oti Provd.Tom ietthls scubagear'camerasand most
to the states
he hadto return
Sitrigftrsonal effectsbehlndwhen
"
"l
Jirii" {ort to t"nd to buslness. shallreturn' ' ' he noted'Probably beforeyou see thls.
the
- - beach.
ei witttmostthingsin life,thereis a timeto think.anda timeto
hecan
moveisuponhim'Accordinglyjf
move.Tomfiguresthitimeto
mifi afiof tte piecesfit, he will be a full time residentol Provoby
thisfill. ThatdelightsSusanand I sinceTomhasbeena
sometime
closefriendfor so manyyeirs. He plansto bringhis home,12 toot
Prodelinterminalwittr hiin, pleasednow to see that with the new
setice ftomF3RandW4 he canexpectto havemorethana dozen
availableto him'
hioh
- oualitvchannelsof service
'satellite'person'
to comehereanddecide
theonly
fdm is frarOly
propertywhen
purchased
Phan
wiie
and
Birer
Lrana.bavid
iJrris
rris
SATELLITERETREAT
withtonguein cheek(somewillsuggest
Backin MayI suggested,
that we mightqut togethera one weeK
my tonguewas elsewhere),
The looselythoughtout
Sitelllte Retreathereon Providenciales.
conceptwasthatfor perhaps30 peopleor so,we wouldgiveyoulive
daysdf ourtimeif youcamedownto the islands.Therewouldbe no
displays),no salespitchesand keepingwith
Uo6tns1i.e.equiprhent
islandlifba fleiidb daityscheduie.I knewI couldroundup a coupleof
reallytopnotchindustryleaders,peopleyoucan'tnormallyg€ta.hour
or two wittrprivately,and betweenone on one sessionswith these
of theindustry'the
leadersandsomefieewheelingopendiscussions
andtnefuturewe foreseecoming,lfelt
systemswe havedeveloped
for attendeesto flee
ttiatwe couldprobablymakeit veryworthwhile
the statesfor a weekor so.
to receivea dozenor moreletters
I wasmorethana littlesurprised
andperhapstwiceas manytelephonecalls(at the FortLauderdale
howto signupto
ottic6ltrompeoplewhowantedto knowspecifically
atteni.The'Maymentionof the Retreatconceptwas notyourtradi'
We hadno
andsee if it flies'manuever.
tional'run-it-up-ihe-flagpole
us' lt wasclearlyintendedto behumorsuchdeviousihoughtsbehind
ous,in the faceof the rhubarbovershowsin general.
Well,I guesswe haveput out foot into it again.Severalpeople
thatit we con'tcreatean
havetoldtheCSDofficein FortLauderdale
'organized'
Retreat,theyare goingto drop do.wnhele for a week'
thatthecomingwinter
anfhow,thiswinter.Faiedwiththe possibility
Retreat',allwinterlong,I believeit maybe
wiliturnintoa 'disorganized
to tryto cramallofthesevisitsintoa singleweeklongperiod
intelligent
so thit thosewhoare benton thiscrazinesscancrosspollinateone
anolher.
So let'slookat the logisticsof pullingoff a SatelliteR€treatin the
TIEW
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COOP'S SATELLITEDICEST
TurksandCaicoslslands.Therearetworeleventproblemsattached
to cominghere;problemswhichmagnifywhenthegroupstartsto get
30 (or more)peoplelarge.
1) Transportatlon...normallywhenyou decideto go someplaceyoupickupthetelephone
andmakereservations.
lf you
tryto do thishere,youwillgetasfar as FortLauderdale/Miami
andthenyouwillbe semi-stumped.
We'llseewhyshortly.
2) Lodglng. . . and,normally
whenyouwantto visitsomeplace,
youcallthefacilityor a tollfreenumberandrequestreservations.Thisalsowillnotworkhere.
Thereare two waysto get to Providenciales;
youcanfly, or you
cantakea boat.Anoceangoingboatrequires
threedaysminimum
so
wecanrulethatoneoutfor most.Thereareno cruiseshiosor other
shipscomingdownherewhichhavefoodandsleeping
accomodationsanyhow.Provois noton the typicalCaribbean
touristrun!
Flylng.Nowyouhavetwochoicesagain.you canflyAir Florida
fromMiamitoGrandTurk(threedaysa weekatthepresent
time),and
thattakesabout80 minutesina DC9.Noquestion,
thatisthecomfortablewayto travel.However,GrandTurkis 70 mileseastof provo,
andyou'llspendmorethantwohoursbacktracking
that70 milesina
12-16seat'Tri-lslander'aircraft
thatat bestis uncomfortable.
Alltold,
withgroundtime on GrandTurk,you'llspendat leastfour hours
gettingfromMiamito Provothisway,andyouarelimitedto a single
mediumsizedsuitcaseperperson.
fromFortLauderdale
to provo.Rightnow,
.Or,youcanflydirectly
today,thisis donewitha BeechD or H-18aircraft.
Theyseatg or g
peopleandit takesbetween3 and4 hoursto makethetrip.you cando
ONEWAYto getBobBeharto vlsityou is to Installoneof hlsdish
systems!Bobandthetull famllydroppedintoProvoearlyInJuly
to helpus put the tlnlshlngtoucheson the newautomatedHero
slx meter.Wethoughtabout holdingout for one of the new Hero
7.5meterand then decldedthere is alwaysnext year!
'AGE
4slcsD/B-82
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PAGE48/CSD/8.82
COOP'SSATELLITE
DICEST
thistwiceperweekon a schedule;
andsomeweekstheyfly another
therewillbe
anyhow,
flightor two.I ampromised
thatby fall,mid-tall
fasterplaneson this Fort
someslightlylargerand considerably
Lauderdale
to Provorun.Allthreeofthefirmsthatdothissortofthing
thatwill
cycleto puton I to 12 placeaircraft
arein an order-delivery
makethetripin abouttwo hoursand 15 minutesor so.TheseFort
Lauderdale
to Provoflightsare run by whatamountsto (FAA135
'Charter'operators
and that meansthat theycan,given
certified)
sufficientnotice,graduateto larger,or faster,aircrattwhenthe deSabreJet
mand(anddollars)are there.One books8 passenger
The DC3 is an old
charterswhileanotherhas a DC3 available.
airplane,
but it can haul30 peopleor so plusalotof baggageand
threeandonehalfhoursto make
theDC3requires
cargo.However,
thetrip.
runprettymuchfull
services
ThepresentFortLauderdale/Provo
mostof thetime.Thereis no waywe coulddrop30 extrapeopleon
planhavoc.Somecareful,
advance
withoutcreating
theirschedules
ningis a must.
problemaside(we'lllookat ratesshortly),
that
Thetransportation
getsus to lodging.Althoughseveralnew 20-40roomhotelsare
presently
The
available.
started,
therearereallyonlythreefacilities
lslandPrlncesshas35 roomsopenand is directlyon a beautiful
beach;barelya milefromWlV.Theyalsohavea coupleof meeting
Lifeatthe'lP'isbest
sessions.
roomsthatwecouldusefortheRetreat
Thereis no roomservice,no in-roomteledescribed
as 'informal'.
phones
(ortelevision)
andthetirstthingyounoticewhenyoucheck-in
deskor otfice.CalPiperrunsit outof his
isthatthereis noregistration
backoocket.
Theyhave
a Marina.
TheErebusisbuiltalonga ridgeoverlooking
facing
Eachhasa balcony
tencottage
typebuildings
whichare'rustic'.
of teetabove
theoceanandyouhavetheillusionof beinghundreds
thesea.Thenearestbeachis abouta ten minutewalk.
TheThlrdTurileInnis builtaroundthemarinawhichTheErebus
of all, and the most
lt is clearlythe mostfashionable
overlooks.
expensive.
Theyhaveperhapsa dozenroomsandcottagesavailable
thisyear,a tenniscourt,a beachthatis fiveminutewalkaway,and
docksandboatsandtinyislands,all inter-connected
withwooden
causeways.
Wearetalking
withallthreeaboutsomegrouprates.The'season'
herenormallystartsaroundthefirstof December,
andif we aresmart
wewillgetinaheadofthestartofthetouristseason.
Waiting
untilafter
it startswillcausegreatlyincreased
costsandheadaches
to comeinto
ptay.
Whatwlll lt cost?Well,we willhavethenumbers
figuredoutto
thedimebytheSeptember
issue.However,
how
soyoucanevaluate
it mightbudgetintoyourownfunds,hereis a guldellnebasedupon
currentprices:
1) Yougetyourselfto FortLauderdale.
2) FromFortLauderdale,
we willarrangeair transportation.
Figureon$130perperson,
eachwayor$260to andfromProvo.
jetto GrandTurk,plusthe
lf youwantto chancetheAirFlorida
localislandhopperbackto Provo,the costscomeout iust
aboutthesame.
3) Lodging
andfood.Thisis theproblematic
arearightnow.We
aretryingtogetit donefor$50a daya person,
doubleoccupancy. lf thepre-tourist
seasonlookstoogoodto thehotelfolks,
we'llbe luckyto manageit for $70 a day sincetheywill be
unwilling
to committo a lesserbulkrateknowing
theycanget
thehigherratewithdrop-inbusiness.
lf youareherefivedays,
figurebetween$250and$350minimumperperson.
4) RetreatFee.lf I am goingto transport
a coupleof expensive
people
downheretomakeyourvisithereprofitable
foryou,and
thereareonlygoingto be 30 or so on hand,thecostforeach
attending
to bea partof thiswillhaveto beinthe$500region.
planon spending
Allof thissaysforfullRetreat
attendees
$1,000
plus whatever
it coststo getyourselfto FortLauderdale.
Forthose
whowantto bringadditional
familymembers,
figureon$500each(no
Retreat
fee).
lf thatdoesn'tscareyouaway,hereis whatyoushoulddo.The
dateswearetryingtoworkoutareNovember
15-19(14to20).Thatis
theweekaheadofThanksgiving,
anda coupleofweeksafterthenext
RickSchneringer
showin Atlanta.lf youare REALLY
seriousabout
lLnnofinclng.
G
-r--\-ffi;"irtrEilrfr
r.o?*,
of
AIITEI{IIA-PAGKAGI
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EIVER
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The mainframeincludes touch-oad
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PAGE50/CSDi8-82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
(305-771attending,
call CaroleGrabaat CSDin FortLauderdale
0505),or dropher a note(P.O.Box 100858,FortLauderdale,
Fl.
33310).Tellherthefollowing:
1) Whoyouareandhowto get in touchwithyou.
2) How many peoplewouldbe attending(thisis veryimportant
problems
air
sincewe havethe dual,inflexible
of adequate
how
transportation
and of thatnumber,
seatingandlodging);
many wlll attendthe Retreatsesslons.
Youneedto dothispriorto August25th.Don'ttellmeor Susanor
anyoneelse;just Carole.Depending
uponthe responsethat we
evaluate
the lastweekin August,we'llannounce
a 'go'or a 'no-go'
situation.
Thenwe'llgetbacktoyouwitha detailed
setol instructions,
and askfor a depositfromyou.
Oneofthethingsyouwillhavetheopportunity&
do,whilehere,is
seehowwehavesuccessfully
integrated
off-satellite
directfeedsinto
a nationallelevisionnetwork.Oursecondchannelof servicehereon
Provowillbeoperational
Wearecallingit'Channel
X'.
by November.
Ournewbroadcast
towershouldbe
centerwitha 200foottransmitting
operationalon Provo,linkedto the GraceBay controlcenterand
studioandsatellitecomplexby lowcostpointto pointvideorelay.We
(withbuilt-inmodulator)
havea new 10 wattVHF/UHFtransmitter
package
we aretrying,whichthesupplier
sellsfor $500.Byworking
withsupplierssincewe starteddownheretwo yearsago,we have
beenableto 'force'somedramaticpricingbreakthroughs.
fivemeter(AFC)
Ourpresent
antenna
farm,a tenfoot(SatFinder),
andsix meter(Hero),is beingexpanded
andbeforeyoureadthisa
new(second)
Herosixmeterisgoingin.AnADMsixmeterisplanned
priorto November.
Withthe newHeroantennadedicatedto internationalsatellites,
drivingsomeoftheAVCOMspecialhalftransponder/
youwillbe ableto playwiththesystemandsee
switchable
receivers,
whatEuropean,
SouthAmerican,Africanand MiddleEasterntelevisionlookslike,andhowit couldbe marriedto lowcostVHFterrestrial
transmittersto make the first-timetelevisionavailableto tens of
thousands
worldwide.
of communities
So if youareinterested
in attending,let us hearfromyouprlor to
August25th.lt couldbea veryeducational
weekforyou
andprofitable
aswellas a heckof a vacationforthosewhocanaffordto bringfamily
scuba
members
along.Withthefantasticoceanbeaches,snorkeling,
diving,windsurfing,
deepwaterfishing,andpioneerlife
sailboating,
style,we can guaranteeyou have neverseen ahythingquite like
Provobefore!
ZEROING
SOUTH
withputtingtogetherCSDeach
Oneof the pleasuresassociated
monthis beingonthereceiving
endot newlydiscovered
datarelating
to satellites.
Inspite
of ouroutof datetelephone
systemdownherein
mostdays.
theTurksandCaicos,
togetthrough
a fewpeoplemanage
Somefellowsdownin Haitiputtingin a new SA 7 meterdishgot
thatwasa moderndayrecord.
through
fourtimesinonedayrecently;
WhenBobBeharcallsI alwaysknowthathe hassomeexciting
newsaboutsomenewspoton theglobewherehe andanotherHero
I envywhatBobis doing;
sixorfivemeterdishhavefoundtelevision.
puttingup big,modern
bouncing
to continent
aroundfromcontinent
The
terminals
inKuwaitandSaudiArabiaandSouthAfricaandBrasil.
me sinceit movedeast,and
Brasilexperience
intrigued
especially
south,the knownllmltsof US Domsatservice.
Atlanta
Youmayrecallfroma recentissueof CSDthatScientific
hada contractto install33 oflheir 7.7 meletreceive-only
dishestor
Brasil'sRedeGlobotelevision
network.The terminalswereto be
installed
bythestartof theWorldCupSoccergames;or priorto this
pastJune13th.ForreasonsI doubtSA evenfullyunderstands,
not
gotin on time.Anda fewof theBrasilian
verymanyof theterminals
telecasters
scheduled
to gettheterminals
sawtheirviewersgetting
readyto marchon the stationsin something
armed
approaching
revolt;
shouldthestations
failto bringintheWorldCupSoccergames
on schedule.
I guessit was a littlebit likethe SantaRosa,California
cable
television
systembackin the mid 70's.The cableTV systemwas
pulling
forcabledistribution.
99%ofthe
ina remote,
Chico(Ca)station
timeit wasjustanother
CBSaffiliate,
andnota verygoodoneat that.
Butfor thisparticular
Sundayit was carryinga locallyblackedout
Forg-Niner
footballgame,andthe localteamwas in the play-otfs.
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PAGE52/CSD/8-82
DICEST
COOP'SSATELLITE
SantaRosamotelsequippedwithcablewerebookedup solidfor
weeksin advance.
Peoplecameby thebusloadsto havea football
party.lt wasclearlyan explosive-packed
situation.
Alongtowards
themiddleof thefourthquarterthecablesystem's
quit.Whenthepicturetubeswentdarkinthousands
Chicoequipment
ofTVreceivers
.
aroundtownthewelljuicedupfansstaredindis-belief
Thenthey rioted.Television
setsweretossedbythescoreintomotel
swimmingpools.Carswereoverturned
in the streets.The cable
systemofficewas beseiged,and sutferedconsiderable
structural
damage.
lt tookbackup policefromnearbytowns,andtheCalifornia
Highway
Patrol,to restoreorder.
Fortunately
for SA,fewBrasilians
hadthepriceof a busticketto
Atlanta,or theremighthavebeena repeatperformance
of Santa
Rosa.A coupleof telecasters
took the initiative,
and the roughly
to sDendon
$15,000in USdollarsthatRedeGlobowasscheduled
theirbehalfforSA7.7meterterminals,
andflewto theUS.Theywent
justminutes
straight
to HeroCommunications,
fromtheMiamiairport
wheretheyloadedup on Herosix meterdishes,AVCOMreceivers
and100 degreeLNAs.Theywereheadedbackhome,withthecompleteHeroterminals
as "excessbaggage"
on VarigAirlinesto rush
priorto June13th.A Brasilian
thesubstitute
terminals
intooperation
soccerfan is one meanpersonwhenyou crosshim.Andsomeof
thesestations
insomevery
scheduled
to gettheterminals
arelocated
primitive
areas.Denying
themtheirlongpromised
WorldCupSoccer
wasakinto tellinga Cowboyentering
a barinTombstone
in 1880that
he couldn'thavea drink.atterseveralmonthson thetrail.
Well,the resultsare now in, and a talentedHeroinstallation
engineer
whomadethe20 hourflightto remotenortheastern
Brasilis
backwiththe photographic
lf youwantto tellyourfriends
evidence.
wholiveintheregionnearBelemin Brasilthattheycan
dndneighbors
nowtunein SINorfeedsto SNCorWOR(atthetimeonTR12of W4)
transponders
or SPNandGalavision
. . . go rightahead.Thevertical
ona sixmeterdishequipped
onW4arejusta dBorsobelowthreshold
withan AVCOMreceiver
anda 100degreeLNA.
Firstof all,theBelem
Thesigniflcance
ol this is conslderable.
Inaddition
to beingfar-farto theeastof
areaissouthof theEquator.
theW4 99 westlocation(seemaphere),it is alsoback'behind'the
satellite
andits antennabeam.Andit was notthe onlyUS satellite
D3 transponseenthere.Thosein-usenowand againCOMSTAR
on San Juan (PR),or
ders,from87 west,whichare boresighted
transponders
4, 8, 12, 16,20 and 24, werca coupleof dB above
threshold
Andasourmapshowshere(seewherethe
atthislocation.
X andO andsmallsquares
fall),W4isaboutasclosetoaninternational US DOMSAT
birdas we havegoingfor us at the moment.
performance,
Withthiskindofsurprise
onehasto
andunpredicted
'sidelobes'spewing
outof
wonderwhalis happening
to theso-called
in theopposite
direction;
or,backtowards
theW4transmit
antennas
to be getting
thePacific.
TheHawaiian
lslands,recall,aresupposed
evenprobable,
that
signals
ontheirownspolbeam.ls it notpossible,
vastareasof the Pacificare gettingsprayedas well?We thinkso.
Lulyantenna,
and
Somebody
on thewestcoastwitha transportable
suitable
needsto spenda monthor sotouringtheislands
electronics,
wherepredicted
andunpredicted
servicesis likely.
The mappresentation
herehas manyholesin it, but withthe
to
additionof the easternBrasildata,we are at leastbeginning
establish
thellmltsof servlcefor W4.Noneot thistitstheWestern
mapcoverage,
ofcourse.
Andwechecked
UnionFCC-filed
boresight
withsomesourcesto see whv.
.j
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PAGE54/CSD/8-82
DICEST
COOP'S SATELLITE
Unionfiled
ThemapsWestern
disturbing.
Whatwefoundis a little
'adapted'from
forour
a setof mapsprovided
withtheFCCare,well,
at Hughes'
The mapsprovidedlo us wereoriginated
inspection.
W4
wheretheW4birdwasbuilt.TheHughesmapsarehighlyprecise
(O dBw)contour
downto the no-signal
transmitantennapatterns,
there.Oneof
herean-d
ofcoverage
splotches
lines.They'puddle'with
shownin Brasil.Hughes
settlesoverthelocations
the'here'iocations
range
withtheirinitialantenna
hadpredlctedthls wouldbethecase
'quickie'mapsfor theirFCCfiling'
tests;WesternUnion,in making
'splotches',
so theirFCC
appearsto havedroppedout all of these
who
niapswoutdbe niceandclean.I'msurethereis someengineer
to suitan
of antennatestrangecontours
canjustityhandselection
intheFCCfiledmaps
ButI doubtthehandselection
FCCinspection.
I suspectit wasdoneby a WUcorporate
wasdoneby an engineer;
thatthe FCCnotknowaboutthebroad'even
whoprefered
attorney
coverageof W4 (andnowW5).
expansive
antenna
by checkingthe originalHughes.
Havingestablished,
to puta slgnalinto
thatW4 couldbe expected
rangetesiconlours,
there'The
onthesignallevelexpected
easlernBrasil,I nextchecked
'splotch'
fit overthe Belemregion,butalasthecontourservicelevel
theremightbe 10 to 12 dBwsignals
didnot.Hugheshadexpected
arecloserto22thecontours
results
suggests
there.TheBehar/Hero
sixmeterto elimin24 dBw.Notquiteenoughfora highperformance
butstilla veryviewablepicture.
atethesparklies,
The messagehere is clear. FCCfiledmapsare' at best'
birds'
Fornotonlydomestic
contours.
projections
ofservice
estimated
birds'it is apparent
birdsas well.Inthecaseof domestic
butIntelsat
'cleaning
up' the maps
goesthroughthe processof
thatsomebody
FCCfiledmaps.Inthepublishing
beforetheymakethosenice,pretty,
'editing',
I doubttheFCCwouldbe as
we callthisprocess
business,
servicelevelshappenat somepointyears
if the 'omitted'
charitable
fromnowto causesomeforeignnationto parka birdovertheequator
froma location
sideof theequator
to servetheopposite
andattempt
'north'.l'd
thesameas a USdomsatbirdlooking
thatis essentially
hateto try to sit a birdat 99 westandcoverBrasilwitha boresight
On paper,it wouldwork.In thefield'we
thatpurpose.
designed-for
nowknowthattheBrasilian
birdwouldhavetofightW4togeta useful
pictureintonorthern
Brasil.
I commend
exercise.
Thisreportis not,however,
a fault-finding
Western
forpeopleinsbmeprettyremote
Unionformakingit possible
portions
US television,
at
of SouthAmericato nowhavetelevision;
extrabucks,
that.lf I hada fewweeksto spare,a coupleof thousand
andspokefluentSpanish,I'd havemy 12 footLulyantennaand a
goodreceiver
andLNAintoboxessofastSusanwouldwonderwhere
allalongand
lwasgoing.ThenI'dspendsufficent
timecriss-crossing
northof the Equatorin thatportionof SouthAmericathatdoesnot
borderon the Caribbean.
WhenI finallyreturnedhome,l'd have
to keepme busyfor several
sufficient
orderstor six meterterminals
yearsto come.Andthat'swherethe poineering
stlll is in thisbusiness.Today,SouthAmerica;
tomorrow,
the Pacific!
CASSY-ANTENNAS
Therewas an articleappearing
in the June 1982issueof the
'educational
portion'of SatGuldeproclaiming
the virtuesof a new
Cassegrain
designantennaintroduced
recently
by a major(asin big
name)manufacturer.
Theybasically
saidthattheir'10foot(3 meter)
antenna
wasso revolutionary
indesignthatit hadperformance
equal
to other4.5meterantennas.
I wouldnormally
takesuchclaimswith
lessthana grainof salt.But,becauseof the companyinvolved,I
decided
toseewhatnewmagictheyhaveuncovered
afterallofthese
years.
Antenna
blackmagicis real.Theresults(orlackof same)fromthe
SPTSantenna
thatsomepeoplearebetterat
shootoutsareevidence
collecting
electrons
fromthe sky andfocusingthoseelectrons
at a
feed point;thanotherpeople.But thereare somebasiclawsof
physicsinvolvedwhichcannotbe dismissed
lightly.A reallygood
primefocusfedantenna(thekindthatplacesthefeedat thefrontof
theantenna,
withtheLNAandfeedmounted
outtherein space)can
achieve55% efficiency.
Anythingbetterthan that is probably
measurement
to 39.5
error.A tenfootsurface,
55%etficient,
equates
dB gain,andanythingclaimedgreaterthanthat,for a primefocus
antenna,
is measurement
error(*).
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A reallygood Cassegrainfed antenna( a Cassy antennahas a
smallmetaldisc wherethe feed is normallyfound,with a primefocus
antenna;the disc collectsthe the signalthat is tocusedon it from the
main reflectorsurface,and then re-directsthe endrgyback towards
the centerof the dish.This allowsyou to mountthe realfeed and LNA
or behindit.). . . can add 1.1 dB addiat the dishreflectorsurface,
etficiency.Thatsaysa reallyf inelytunedCassy
tionalgainto that55o/o
3 meteror ten footantennacan have39.5 plus 1.1or 40.6 dB gain.
Thatalsoworksout to an efficiencyot78"/"lorlhosetakingnoles.And
anythinggreaterthan that is measurementerror.
'H'
So alongcomesthis Brand antennathat saysthey can achieve
gains in the same realm as a 4.5 meter (15 foot) with a ten foot,
becausethey have createda break throughin antennatechnology.
NaturallyI was curiousabout how they might do this.
Thefirstthingthatdisturbedme wasthe way theygottheirmaterial
into print.lt seemsthat they flew invitededitorialwrilersto Floridato
seetheirproduct.Yearsago in the radiostationbusinesstheycalledit
payolawhen the jocks got booze or girls or albumsor outrightcash
gifts in returnfor playingsome promoter'srecords.Alan Freid,the
famousjock whose life story later became a film, eventuallydied
because people in places of authoritydiscoveredhe was hyping
certainrecordreleasesin returnfor payola.Gettinga free airplanetrip
to Florida,beingwined,dined and lodgedby a companythat wants
you to write nice things about their revolutionarybreakthroughin
antennatechnologywould certainlyput the editor in a tight spot. I
mean, after you accepttheir hospitality,and you then discoverthat
they want you to printa companywrittenreporton their antenna. . .
whatdo you do? FortunatelyI didn'thaveto makethat decisionsince
'H'
company wisely did not invite me to attend. I guess they knew
hand
how I couldbe expectedto react.l'm the guy thatblewlhe
before
whistleon RCAin 1978when lfound out theywere havingbad control
problemswith F2.Am I'm the same guy that blewthe whistleon HBO
gettingcozy with WesternUnionin 1978when HBO was tryingto do
an end run on RCA. I'm not easily influencedby corporategiants,
which is possiblyone reasonwhy I live on an island.
Anyhow,so this highlytaintedarticleis now in printand out there
are hundredsof peoplewho don't understanda bluedB and a red dB.
Youcan tellthe redonesfromthe blueonesonlywhenyou use a color
cathoderay tube on a spectrum analyzer;just in case you are interestedin suchtrivia.The redonesadd signaland the blueonestake
it away,butthatis anotherstory.And the samepeoplewho don'tknow
the differencebetweem red and blue dBs are now runningabout
carryingthe misconception
that you can do amazingthingswiththree
meterantennasand actuallyget 4.5 meter performancefrom a surfaceonly66.66%as big as 4.5 meteraperture.Someof thesepeople
manufactureantennas,and they undoubtedlysaw this taintedarticle
and immediatelyran to their own antennaexpertsto ask how they
couldget 4.5 meterperformanceout of their own 3 metersurfaces.I
suspectthat the first twentyantennassold by company'H' will have
who have by now
ended up in the hands of would-be-competitors
carefullymeasuredand crossmeasuredeverypossibledistanceand
angleand protrusionon the super-hot3 metercompany'H' antenna.
Probablyin Omahawe'llsee at leaslsix competitive3 metersurfaces
that makethe same claimsthat company'H' made in theirSatGuide
(etal)article.Afterall,who couldquestionthe integrityof a companyas
'H'?
big as
'H'
Well,I did somemorechecking.Severalthingsdone by in their
comparisonof theirten footeragainsta non-specific15lootercaught
my eye. Firstof all, they claimtheirten footeris very low noise.Noise
or antennatemperatureis not somethingwe talk aboutvery much in
the home TVRO field. Possiblybecausenobodybut Taylor Howard
and Clyde Washburnand Tom Humphrieseven understandhow it
works.But the fact is that everyantennahas a noisetemperature,or
factor,of its own. You can measureantennanoisejust like you can
measureLNA noise.However,antennanoisecan changeby simply
'- lnactualtact,therearethosewho havedemonstrated
up to
650/o
efficiencywlth a prime locus feed. Prodelln,Andreware
talent can
amongthose who have achlevedthis. Reasonable
'stan'
achieve55oloefficiency and it has becomethe industry
dard'.Exceptional
talent,and holdingyou noseiust right,can
reach650lo
efflclency;prime focus.
Or
SATELLITE
DICESTPAGE57ICSD/8-82
pointingthe antennaat a differentpart of the sky. lf you stickthe
antennadown at a low look angle,for example,yori will start to
€legrade
the REALantennanoisetemperature
by piikingup earthor
terrestrialnoise.Remember
the earthitselfis a noisesource;in the
(ust under)300degree(Kelvin)region.lf yougettheantennato kick
overand looksquarelyat the horizon,you'llend up withan antenna
temperature
closeto 300 degrees.
NowI havebeentold,bya personwho'sfactsareseldomscrewed
up,thatthe folksat 'H' sawfit to cranktheircomparison
4.Smeter
antennaoverto a 5 degreelookangleto maketheirantennanoise
measurements.
Thentheycrankedtheir3 metersuper_hot
antenna
straight
up,intothecold,blackskyto maketheirownantennanoise
measurements.
That'slike comparingthe weatherin MiamiBeach
withtheweatherin Nome,Alaskainthemiddleof January.Ofcourse
myfriendcouldhavehadhisfactsscreweduponthisparticular
partof
suchamazingtest comparison'numbers,
but I
loq .l' developed
doubtit.
ThenI'm toldthattheyput a 120degreeLNAon the4.Smeter
comparison
antenna,and a substantialltbetterLNA on their own
antenna.lf that is true, here we are comparingNomeand Miami
Beach.
again.I'd expectthatkindof monkeybusinessoutof a guyin
lowa,but not somebodywith a goodreputation.
lcouldgo on butlthinkyoumaybegettingthepicture.
I hopethe
peoplewho haveboughtthis fantastica me[erreplacement
for 4.5
meter.
aregettinga picture.lf youthrowawaythehardcorehype,the
questionable
measuremenVhype
techniquei
employed
to maketheir
productlookgood,andthefreebeetripsto Floridaf6r theeditorsthat
published
their'pap',
cometo theconclusion
that
'H'is building goodyouwilleventually
a
surface.ButI seriously
doubtit is even0.1dB
betterthan the best of those alreadyon ihe market,and I hope
somebodybringsoneto Omahaandthe SPACEgatheringso Mii<e
Gustafson
andJackTrollmancan run it throughit5 paces.lf ,H' has
the laws of physicg and they are gettingsuch amazing
l"^yrlIrl
penormance
outthethereddBsandaresomehowcanceling
theblu6
dBs.in the process,l'll eatthecoloredCRTon somebody's
ipectrum
analyzer.
LNATHEFT
Ok you guys.Whoeveris responsible
for the rashof LNAthefts
nationwide
has got to stop beingsucha dispicableperson.Or persons,in casethis is an organizedring.
Nowseveraly€ars
agowhenLNAscostan armanda leg,I could
seewherethemid-night
LNAsupplyteammightbetemptedtlocharge
aboutthe qoy!!ry side puttingcabteheadendsout oi operation5y
swipingtheirLNAs(andfeedsaswellsincethetwoareusuallybolteil
together).But comeon fellows,with LNAsnow pricedso lbw that
suppliers
practically
payyouto carrythemoff,whatpossibleeconomrc.advantage
can lherebe to geftingup in the middleof the night,
driving50 milesto somefarmer'scow pasture,and bravingbelng
goredbythebiggestBrahmabullin thecounty,justto liftsomi cabl6
or privateterminalLNA???lt just doesn'tmakeany sense!
l'lltellyou-whatis goingto happento youif youieep thisup.you
ar€goingto forcepeopleto takedrasticstepsto protecttheirhardware.Losingthe LNAis notthe problem;theyareso cheapnobody
minds.shelling
out91.98to replacethem.Buiwhenyourip'offsome
guy'sLNA,you deprivehimof the opportunity
to seir Montypython
chasetheHolyGrailor watchMaxRobinson
d-rinking
hisfouhnghss
of tomatojuice.And that hurts!
prodelinand
thatpeopleareactuallyconverting
.. NowI understand
other4.5meterdishesfromprimefocusto Cassyfeeds.Heretheyare
getling Lulyto modifyhisfeedsthatnormaliygo outwiththeLuly
.Bob
12footUmbrella
antennas,
hackingholesinthe6e-nter
of 12to 15foot
surfaces
andshovingthe Lulycreated,cheapy-Cassegrain-feed'
into
ne noreso theycanstickthe LNAin a lockedboxat the backof the
dish..You
areputtingalotof peopleto veryunproductive
laborandif
you.keepit up this industryis goingto lose man hoursit cannot
replace.And with Jack Valentibreaihingdownour back,we can't
afiordtomessaroundreplacing
LNAsandcuttingholesin primefocus
led reflectors.
We needto be puttingin new disheseveryday;not
goingout and repairingpreviouslyinstalledinstallations.
Keepthisupandthisindustrywillbein realtrouble.you havebeen
warned.Quitscrewingup a goodthing.
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PAGE58/CSD/8-82
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you can maxe a bundle in jarger cities. .How lo
File" Manual. inctuding appli€tion btanks. $25.
Up lo date pilntout' ol alt appti€lions and
c h a n n e l 9a l r e a d y f i l s d t o r . 3 2 0 M a n u a l . H o w t o
Run a Successlul Low Pow€r TV Statron.. 330.
Monthly low pow€r induslry maoatne. 35O year
Pholo copigg of any speifrc pr€viousty lited FCC
application.320. Hurry. do not mis out. Fdt
Servrce on all orders.
Note .
ICTV Alliancewrll now I le applrcalrons
lor you. 5250 00
LqPowcr Comm0nlty Tv PuUtrhlng
7432 E. Dtrmond
Sotltdrl.,
AZ E5257
COO orders €li {602) 945€745
BAITANDSWITCH
Whatfollowswillprobably
Butenoughis
costmea bigadvertiser.
enough.
Lastfallat Anaheim's
SPTSgathering
we sawBomanIndustries
firstappearin public.Theyotfereda numberof hardware
ilems,such
asanantenna,
an LNAanda receiver.
Allhadonethingincommon;
a
withtheirantenna(whicha
$399.50pricetag.I wasnot impressed
representative
admitted
to me wasan inferiorproductdesignwhich
theywouldnotrepeatagainaftersellingtheinitiallotof 100),andthe
LNApricing
inparticular
causeda ruckus.lt turnedoutthat,atthetime
of theNovember
SPTS,Bomanhadno realdeliverysourceworked
outforLNAs.Theyweresellinga product
whichtheydidn'thave.The
lastwordI hadattheshowwasthattheywere'thinking
about'goingto
KoreatogetLNAsmanufactured.
I couldn't
thinkof anyLNAsthathad
everbeenmanufactured
in Korea.NoslightontheKoreans;
theyjust
yet.
don'thavethattechnology,
NextBomanshowedupattheWinterCESShowinVegas.I didn't
attend,but reada coupleof tradepressreportswherea Boman
personwas quotedas sayingthattheyexpectedto move10,000
hometerminals
in 1982(a reasonable
numberfora singlefirm).The
samepersonquotedalsosaidthat Bomanwouldbe sellinghome
TVROsystems
viaSearsandRoebuck.
I didsomechecking
on that
oneandgota "BomanWho???"response
fromSears.
And then Bomanaskedto advertise
in CSD.I saidno. I feltthe
evidence
wasstarting
tosuggest
marketing
techniques
whichcertainly wouldn'tdo the industryany good.Theycouldselltheir10,000
systemsin 1982withoutanyassistance
of CSD.
ThatwaswhenthetopBomanguycontacted
me.HeakedwhyI
objected
to theiradvertising,
andI toldhim.Hedisclaimed
anyknowledgeof theSearsquote,saidthatthey'hoped'to sell10,000home
systems
in 1982andpromised
to modifytheiradvertising
so asto not
mis-lead
dealers.
Theydid,butthemodification
madeleftsomething
to be desiredsinceit stillsuggested
thatyoucouldgo to themand
purchase
a slngleLNA,or slngle(complete)
receiveror a single
(complete)
antenna
for$399.50
each.I thenrequested
thattheyredo
theadvertising
price.Theydid
copyto reflectthecompletepackage
this with their May issueadvertisement;
it told readersthat for
(distributorprlce)youwouldgeta package
$1797.50
ot items.The
advertisement
told you what was includedin the package.Then
Bomanchanged
theiradvertising
layoutforJune(andJuly)andwent
backto a $399.50("YourChoice")headline
witha 'Distributor
Price'
identification.
Theyhad alsoworkedout theirLNAsourcingproblem,and in
Marchshippeddownto mefor evaluation
oneof their(120)units.lt
turnedoutto be an AvantekLNAandwe'lltellyouhowit worksin a
coupleof issues.Bomanprobably
hashadmoreto do withthelatest
(1982)roundof LNApricedropsthananyothersupplier,
andsinceI
pricingdownon quallty,home
amwedded
to theconcept
of bringing
packages,
I certainly
cannotanddo notfaultthemtor that.
Nowcomesa letteranda fewteleohone
calls.Theletterisfroma
dealerwhocallshimself"HeavenAboveSatellite
Systems"andhe
operates
ourof Worcester,
Massachusetts.
RobertLeclercrunstheir
shopandpartofwhathewroteonJune16thto BomanIndustries
goes
as follows:
"Bait and Switchusedto be a term generallydescribingthe
practicesof Sears& Roebuck.However,lt seemsyour companyhasadoptedthis tactlcin its latestseriesof advertlse.
ments.
"Theenclosed
copyot an ad whichyouplacedin VideoProduct
News(June1982),andalsotheexactsamead in Coop'sSatel.
lite Digest,wouldleadme to believethatwe aredealingwitha
reputable
company.
"Yesterday
whenwecalledto orderoneofyourSR-800receivers,
we weretoldby yoursalespersonthatyoudid nothaveanyof
theseandtheyweremadeby an outsidecompany.
Alsothathe
wasnotsureif or whenyouwouldgetanymoreandthattheunit
wasbeingreplaced
by the SR-8008at a costof $599.50.
"Weareinterested
in buyinga unitsoasto checkitsperformance
on oursystemsso thatwe mightconsiderincluding
it in ourlow
costTVROpackages
in thefuture.Thegentleman
whospoketo
usdidnotwanttodiscuss
theavailabilitv
oftheSR-800anddidnot
SATELLITEDICEST 'AGE
5e/csD/8.82
seemto knowverymuchaboutyourbusiness
ingeneral.
Wethen
switched
subjectsandaskedforlnformation
onyoiurpolarityselector.Hestatedthathe hadneverheardof sucha unit'andthatit did
not showon his literature.
"Weare
notsureof thetotalscopeof BomanIndustries
butit does
pl_lgge wgllthatyourownemployees
do notknowwhatlt is you
haveforsale.Wearealsosurprised
thatGoop,sSatelllteDlg'est
wouldacceptsuchan ad withoutcheckingon itscreditability.iii;
fact,theSR-800receiveris nowor willbe-available
in thefuiureat
price,we woutdbe interested
in purchasing
a
ll]_e_:!aleq.F99.50
singteunitfor testandevaluation,'.
On
the surface,one gisgruntled
dealerwhoaskedfor distributor
.
(m€urmum
pricingfora singleunit,andwasrefused,
discount)
would
narory
becauseto condemn
Boman.
A salesperson,
probably
taking
8 to.l0callsperhour,hearingfroma personwhowaniedto buyoneo"f
theleastexpensive
receivers
forthemaxlmumdlscountprldecould
alsobe pardonedfor not showinggreatersalesmanst
ip'"nO"ninrsiasm.However,
therehavebeen-olher
subtleandnotsosubtlesigns
of Rgman'sapparentcorporatepolicyof skatingon the thin ice.
At the mostrecentSpTStypeshow,in FortWorth,Bomanmanagedto decoratetheirout-frontroadsidetrailermountedantennas
with moreof the $399.50,,yourchoice,,headlines.
STTI'sBick
Src^hneringer
triedto.getBomanto (1)moveoutof tneirontstepswitn
1-lr lllit"f: sincerheyfad ([e said)not beenassignedthat spot,
downrhesigns.Bomanfinaly agreedro coverup the
1,11!3.1^:1k"
srgns.wttn
targechunksof paperbutweallknowit rainedandthewind
orew.tnFortWorth,andprettysoonthe brownpaperchunkstoreoff
Inesrgnsbetowandonceagaintheworldsawthe$399.50pricing.
Schneringer
wantedthe-signscoveredup becausefre f'eftifr6y
weremis-leading.
Theydidn,ttellthewould-tje
buyerthathe hadt6
DUyug quantities
to buyat thatprice,andin somecasestheitemwith
me $gn was not the itembeingofferedfor the $399.50(distributor
price)amount.The matter.ofthe big signsout frontcameup in
a
questionand answersessionI conductled
at the closeof th; Fort
s!ow; plainly,thosewhoweredealers*er"uery upsetthatthe
!^o!tr
srgnswereout therein frontof the show.
_ lf oneassumesthatall oJthe hardwarepiecesfor a completeten
footterminalcannowbecollectedfor undeigl eOO cany,andif one
[t
assumesthatthe installedpricefor sucha terminal
variesbetween
and $4995,it is cleaithalthereis morethani genflemark_up
$299_5
possible.
lt is thereforeno surpriseto seesomeof theirore inteiligent
buyersshopping
forthebestiJiscounted
pricestheycanfind.lt is-one
mrngro driveacrosstownto s^ave
$2-ona $10 purchase;and quite
something
elseto save$2,000on a $4,000puichase
the defensivepositionthat'Aomanand othersup_
-,,^l-d,o_1ol?nuY
prersrtndthemselves
in. Anybodycansayanythingon a telephone.
Anybodycan spend$'t0 to'havd somefbrmil Ouiinessstaiionary
printed,andoftenthat is all it takesto get a fat discount
on a ,trial/
TVIO receiver(orLNAor anr-enna).
I'dhareto tryto hirea
9y1|^11'-q
to copewithail of rhis.I'dhareto seemys6tfhaving
::.c:lt^:lt?_.
pnces.to.rjaff
cu
the lowestpossibJe
level,cuttingintoprofit'margins
sd
severelythat I had to cut backon the ,quallty,of salespeo-pte
1Oy
payinglessthanfairmarketvaluefor help).So6neror latei,
no'wev'ei
when-y.ou
trimpricestoomuch,youendd[ havingto trimoverhead
as
y-e!!y,9u..l[oend.uphavingio takeunirs,tnai Vo, perhaps,mispriced'initially,off the market.
I notethatintbeJuneandJulyissueof CSDtheBomanadvertise_
mentstilllistsa 3300model(3.3rireter)4 sectiondishfor
The
9399.50.
mounrts e)ilra.I alsonotethatthey haveintroduced
a 3000series
piece,3meGrantenn".if,e priceon thisone
:lhgllt^o:rympressed'8
is$499.50;
distributor
levelof course.All ot tnissusslsL thatBoman
mal9e payinga pricefor beingthe leastexpensiv6-fid
on theblock.
out thelastnutind bolton everyproOuJt
actvertised
^^_Checklng
in
and,checkinsout the fuilii;i;integrity of every
9j^o::::l l_"th,
of
every
adverriser
is of courseimpossibte.
r depeni
::':_t p]lll?y99
y.?or,r
plters and telephonecalls,like the one frorhRobertLeblerc
p?-Ty!! onmyowngutintuitionwhichisbackedupbyhaving
fl:l
DoenfIn thisbusinesssincebeforeit was a business.
in anypubtication,
^^Ii!:q.ldy"rtising,
,beware,, thereis i GaveatEmptor,
must
not
o_nty
butheisalsoresponsibte
lor
ll?T.^,
!-"_b!V"r
nown€ represents
hlmself to the seller.I noteda coupieof issues
backthatJohnRamseyof Sat-TechastackleO
ttrisprodtemhead-on
foin the sitent Mqiority
with a
Ferrite Polarization Rotator
D e a l e rI n q u i r i e sI n v i t e d/ O u a n t i t yp r i c i n gA v a i l a b l e/ l m m e d i a t e
Oeliverv
. Froqusncy
Eand3.7 to 4.2 GHz
. FinsTunoablo
. Insortion
losslossthen.15db
. Easyt0 Install
. Nomoving
Parts
. Complotoly
Silont
. Switching
polarizations . Twomodels
bslwoon
t0 matswithmost
canb0accomplish0d
in a loty
loEdassemblios
(Scalsr
Fs6ds
Avail.)
millisoconds
' Roasonably
Pricod
. 100%soridstatoEroctlonics
Satelfite f thicrotech
TelevisionI We$
3130 Skyway Drive, Unit 109
Sanla Maria, CA 93455
For Direcl Order
aOS,gZZ-aZgl
S P E C I A L I Z I N G! N Q U A L I T Y
F I B E R GL A S S P A R A B O L I C A N T E N N A S
A m p l i c a r D e x e l o A v a n t e kL N A , s
KLM o Sat-Tec r Comtech r Arunta r
Dexel o receivers-modulators
Cable o Connectors
Forinformation
o r l e c h n i c a la d v i c ew r i t e
or call:
1-218-963-2261
4?l
TM
Box 544.
N i s s w a ,M i n n e s o t a5 6 4 6 9
PAGE60/CSD/8-82
DICEST
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Also available: KLM SR-3 teceivers, KLM
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L N A s , 1 2 f t . s o l i d a l u m i n u md i s h e s ,
1 6 f t . s c r e e n e dd i s h e s .
:
C a l lo r w r i t ef o r p r i c e sa n d q u a n t i t yd i s c o u n t s :
f, A)t^ a(i/^
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I v l'
E
DTI
Ll
\--'
l'
A Drstilbutor ol KLM Eleclton rcs Products
(415)854-6163
-
P O Box 7128
MenloPark
CA
94025-
byallowing
a discount
to a 'bonafide'
dealerfora onepiecepurchase.
It is not a big discount(far largeronesare availablefor quantity
purchasing),
butit recognizes
thatdealersdo needto evaluate
a new
pieceof equipmentbeforelhey committhemselvesto a quantityof
units.I amnotawarethatBomanrecognizes
thesameproblem,
witha
solution.
lf theyhavealready
resolved
thisone,that'sfine.lf theyhave
not,theyshould.
Bomancomesintothe TVROworldfromthe autosoundworld.
Thathappens
to be a verycompetitive,
dog-eat-dog
sellingenvironment,andI suppose
thatsellinghabilslearned
inthattypeoffieldare
difficult
to shakewhenyouentera newsellingworld.Theyarebound
to rufflea few feathers,and they are also likelyto adapttheirown
selling
techniques
tothosethataremoreinkeeping
withthetraditions
of homeTVROterminalsas time goeson, and they stay in this
industry.
Thebottomlineon all of thisis that I wantedyouto knowthatwe
continue
to be responsive
to readerproblems
withequipment
suppliers,andthatintheinstancecitedherewehavebeenawareof some
problems
ofthebuilt-in-Boman-marketing
fromtheoutset.I don'twant
todenythemaccesstotheindustry
marketplace
byunilaterally
decidingthattheycan'tuseCSDpages.By thesametoken,I don'twant
'using'the
them
growthphasefor allof
industry
either.lt is a ditficult
theindustry,
andeachof us shouldkeepthisin mindwhenbuyingor
sellingequipment.
NASTYSTUFF
Onedaylastfall,a friendof minelosta pairof TVROantennas.
prototype
7.5metersin
Theywereadvanced
antennasapproximately
to be shippedoutsidethe
size.Theyhadbeenbuilt,undercontract,
UnitedStatesto a destination
whereUS domsatreceptionwas the
projectgoal.
agent;a
Thetwo antennaswereshippedto a freightforuvarding
goodreputation
forproperlyhandlingitems
firmthathasa reasonably
Naiurally
claimswere
entrusted
to them.There,theydisappeared.
thesehad
hairbecause
filed,andmyfriendpulledouthisremaining
antennasfor a specialpurpose.Becreating
beenspecially
configured
lossmoney(if it came)wasgoingto takea
them,evenwithinsurance
greatdealof carefulengineering
time.Youdon'tpopouta quali$7.5
meterantennaovernight.
Thenonedaythetwo antennascamebackto the surfaceagain.
Theyacted,fortheworld,as if theyhadsimplydroppedintoa crevice
anddisappeared
fromsightfor a few months.Theywereintact,and
apparently
readyto resumetheirjourney.Intheinterim,nobodycould
'prove'where
were,or wherethefaultwasfor
themissingantennas
theirloss.Myfriendfoundhimselffightinga losingbattlewithinsurwhodidn'twantto payoff becausethe disappear'
ancecompanies
Had the antennasbeenknocked
encecouldnot be substantiated.
the claimwouldhave been
downby a fork lift and disintergrated,
wasanother
straightfoni/ard.Twoverylargeantennasdisappearing
matter.
evenelated,to havehisantennas
Initially
myfriendwaspleased,
hadmovedon to anothersupplierin theinterim,
back.Hiscustomer
But
he neededhis antennas'yesterday'.
sincelikemostcustomers,
myfriendwaseventually
abletofinda coupleof newbuyersforthe7.5
meterantennas,andtodaytheyare providingexcellentserviceat a
location
far outsideof the CONUSarea.
abouta new7.5meter
Thenmyfriendbeganto hearrumblings
itturnedout,thathadnorealprevious
antennafrom
anotherfirm;one,
to a 7.5meter
TVROantennaexperience.
Gettingfromnoexperience
is no smallstep.That'slike
antenna
thatwascapableof performing
a mockup
everbuilding
building
a fullscaleSpaceShuttlebirdwithout
asto howthisnewfirm
or model.So myfriend,justa littlesuspicious
mighthavegottenintotheantennafieldwithoutpassingan engineer'
Whathe hasturnedup,andwhatI
ingtest,didsomeinvestigating.
haveturnedup on myown(1,too,lovea goodmystery!)willoneday
makefascinatingreading.Basically,it appearsto bothof us, each
were'lost',
thatwhilethetwoantennas
sleuthing,
doingindependent
waspainstakingly
measuring
everytrussandstrutandbolt
somebody
hole on the antennas.One was apparentlyassembled,perhaps
This was evident
testedin the realworld,and then disassembled.
whenthe missingpairresurfaced
one day.
holdsupincourt,itwillbeuptothecourttodecide
Itthisconjecture
COOP'S SATELLITE
DICESTPAGE61/CSD/8-82
damageshoutdbe assessed
l::lTily_"l
for industriatsabatoge.
of a freightforuvaid.rnecnme,in thiscase,wastheapparentbribing
ing cgap_alyemptoyeewho was iatkedinro,fSsinda
fair of 3500
pound,25 footreflectorsandsupporthardware.
nnl tnenbonowing
the productlong enoughfor the antennas(or at leist one ot the
anrennas)
to be carefullymeasuredandcopied.All of this becomes
one comp_ares
rheproductof a newfirmseilingin the
:yig1lyh.?n
trerctwtth-the original7.5 meter advancedprototypeswhiifr dis_
ap_Beared
forg0daysorso.Andif thatwasnotsutfici6nt
(,circumstancrar) evictence,
thereis a trailof sloppypapenrvork
the,bonowers,
left
behindas.theymovedthe missin!'dnienna
(s) frompointto point
"antenna-napping".
duringtheir90 day
things,iddasinparticular,
everyday.Mostof
.. I know.Peoplesteal
th_o^sewho.engage.
inthistypeoI ,whitecollar'crimegetawayscottfree
srncethistype.of thieveryis eitherimpossible
to proveor thefirmthat
expenences
the theft is in an awkardpositionof fearingadverse
publicity.
So usuallyeventhosewhoarecaughtgetoff witfroutbeint
prosecuted.
. AndI am notso surethatthiscasewillwindupanydifferently.
In
laCt. II feaf
fearthat
..,^- ,z.s
E
thatthose
thosewho
wholiftcd
liftedtho
therlocian
design^+
of -.,
myr,r^J'l
friinO;6h^,,
t aiO_*on
ENGINEERING
CONSUTTING
SERVICE
Completeearth stationintegration
Technical
consultingfor new T.VR.O.
businesses
Trainingand education
Productevaluation-Antennas,
Receivers,
etc.
SATEILITE
RECEIVING
SYSTEMS
Mike Gustafson
1 6 0 6C a p i t a n c i l l oDsr .
S a nJ o s e C
, A9 5 1 g 0
(408) 268-3935
IIETWt|NK
::f:r$r!4;6#;r;11,5",;'Jl,i:il1J1"":i';::'S;i3ii;i
AFFITTATTS
ITIAI{TXII
National
of .operations
outsidi,;f rre 0sn, and ir mishtb6
Tlf ,lfll,!".e
ormcuit
(orimpossible)
togettheirlocaljurisdiction
to prosecutelhem.
uilil,I grevesmeto seesomeone
likemyfriendgetstuckin this
manner.Myfriendis a craftsmanwithgreatjride in hisproOucts.
ie
haspaidhisduesto thisindustry,
and-while
he won,tgetmanyhigh
marksfor hisbusinessability,hd willalwaysget myvoiefor hdneiiy
andsuperbengineering
commonsense.
thisacton notice.
. . .Andso I wouldliketo putthosewhoperpetrated
Ar reasroneot youappears.on
our GSDsubscription
list.I hopeyou
justa tadatthispointwondering
areperspiring
it ioop isaUoutio s'pelt
yournameon the nexlline.
I am tempted.Very,verytempted.But no, I havea betteridea.
,by
do myheartgoodto haveyou,,without
pressure,and
..^..'_ty._o_rlg
your
ownfreewill
andhonor',pickupthetelephone
andcallmyfrienci.
do myhearrevenmoregoodio haveyouteilmi friend
.T$l
it.*:119
Inatyou
reailyfeelterribleaboutwhatyoudidandthatyouwouldlike
to makeamends.Myfriendknowswhoyouare,as do l, andhewon,t
Detoo shockedto hearfromyou.
l'llleav.e
upto you,theperdonwho,snamelwon'tspelloutonthis
__
nextlne, thts month,andmy friend,to workit all oui.I'msureyou
wouldratherdo that than to see your nameappearon ,the next
line'.. . . . in a futuremonth,sCSD.
THEWORSHIFT
fororchestrating
theWORshiftfromF3R,
_^ _Tl9pglggnresponsible
to w4, TRle get! m.ynomination'for
ran"jing rhe sates
I!17
programoveron RCA'sF4. Inept.Really,badly,inep1.
Firsttherewasthe confusionoverwhenWORwduldbe moving.
in mindthatWORis oneof those,retuctanisujJr stations;tik-e
flg_ep
WGN-TheyhavenolegalcontrolovertheirsignafJice it leavesthe
WorldTradeCenterTowersin downtownruy6. EasternMicrowave
is-theCommonCarrier,licensedbytheFCC,to In meWOniignafout
ofthepublicainrvaves
andspiritit aboutthe usA viatenestriar
microwave,andsatellite.EasternMicrowave
is oneof thosecableindustry
firmsthatmakesitsdollarsbycarryingto cablesystemssignalswhich
thecablesystemcannotrec-eive,
iirjctty, witha'nantennahungon a
towerjust outsideof town.
,,The
Nation'sStation',.
lt is
_ lt is EasternthattaggedWORas
Eastern
thatmakesthetencents(or less)percablesubscriber
when
WORgetsintoa newhome,viasatelliteoi terrestriafmicrowave.
tt is
Easternthat stoodto lose, the most, if WOn cjUfe caniage(via
sateilite^Jeed)
droppedfrom over 4,OOO,OOO
homesto around
1,000,000
aftertheF3RroW4shift.I'dhateto beincnargeotOeciOint
whichoverhead
to trimwhenmysatellitemonthfygroJs-droppeO
ti-;
over$400,000to aroundg100,000in a sptitsd"6nA,not
. . Sohereis Easterntellingthecableuniverse io panic'and, not
Iojosetnetaith',and,.notto drop WOR'in Easterncabletradepress
adveftising,
the week before.the big move.Hereis Easterntetting
everyons
thatthemovewouldtakeplaceon the3Othof June,withthE
newCableHealthNetworkdueto takeoveron the F3Rtransponder
onJuly1st.
Andhereis Easternbuyingtimeon WOR,on June27thand28th.
Microtechwantsdealers
interested
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PAGE62/CSD/8-82
COOP'SSATELLITE
DICEST
(],
'only'changing
tellingviewersthat WOR was not disappearing,
salellites.And here is Easternurgingviewerswho will missWOR on their
cablesystemsto contacttheircablesystemsto urgethemto 'continue
carryingWOB'.
lf the Easternsatellitecable atfiliateswere dependingupon the
announced,and trade press published,June 30th cut off date for
WOR serviceon F3R, they must have been quite surprisedwhen at
2PM ET on June 29th the RCA Vernon Valley uplink droppedthe
WORfeedduringa stationbreakand substituteda slidethat probably
confusedthe hellout of the averageviewer.lt saidthatWOR had been
moved.I suspectEasternpulledthis 'earlybailout' to get the attention
of viewers,hopingthatthey wouldin turn burythe cableatfiliateswith
questionsabout the loss of WOR.
That's a pretty dangerous ploy. I am remindedof one of the
classiceventsof the televisionbroadcastingbusiness,backin the mid
1950's.A UHF televisionbroadcaststation,poineeringUHF in New
England,was losingmoneyeveryminuteit was on the air. lt facedthe
circularproblemof having poor programming,which attractedfew
viewers,havingfew viewerswhich attractedfew or no advertisers,
which in turn meant they had no money with which lo buy better
programming.To attractmore viewers.
Havingtriedeveflhing theycouldthinkof, and reducedto running
1932moviesin primetime (theyalsocouldn'tget a networkaffiliation),
theyfinallyreacheda jumpingoff point.So they askedthenselves'lsit
possiblethat we are broadcastingto ourselves;that NOBODYis out
there watchingus???'. Having alreadydecidedthat only an act of
desperationwould save the station,they started their prime time
moviewith an announcement:
"The first viewer
to call the station will be awarded $100".
And they rolled the movie. The telephonedid not ring. Thirty
minuteswent by, and the phone did not ring. They brokethe movie
again,and uppedthe ante:
"The flrst viewer
to call the station will be awarded $200".
Back to the movie.And no teleohone.
They repeatedthis four times, finally reaching$1,000.Still, the
telephonedid not ring. They confirmedthat the telephonewas, indeed,working.Nobody,but nobody,was watchingthem. Nobodyat
all!
Whoeverthought up the quick bail out campaignfor Eastern,
puttingtogethersome poorlycreatedlast minutecommercialsto air
on WOR, and concoctingthe slidethat replacedregularWOR programmingat 2 PM ET on June29th,facedthe realpossibilitythathe too
wasgoingto bomb.To be sure,peoplehave,do, andwill,watchWOR.
But to expectviewersto Innundate their local cable systemswith
complaints,especiallyafterconfusingthe viewerswithan explanation
thatonly a satelliteengineerwouldunderstand(somethingaboutnot
havingprimarycontractrightson SatcomF3R and havingto make a
temporarymove to Westar W4, after which they would move to
WestarW5) showedextremelypoor contactwith reality.
Pity. I alwayslikedWOR. For briefhoursit even showedsignsof
programming
genius,
mayhavelostnol
everynowandagain.Eastern
withthewaytheyhandled
onlytheirtimeatbatbutthewholeballgame
theF3Rto W4move.I canjusthearthelittleoldJewishladyin West
PalmBeachcallingher localcablesystemabouta weekafterthe
moveto askthe cablecompanyrepresentative
whathappened
to
'Nine On New Jersey'; a WOR mainstaytot the folks
around
Hoboken.
"l'm sorryMam,
butWORis no longerbeingtransmitted
on our
'cablesatellite"'
the cableladywillexplain."l knowyou missyour
favoriteNewYorkprogram,
and if WOReverreturnsto our 'cable
satellite',
wewilltrytohaveit backonourcablesystemforyou.Butthe
companythattransmitted
WORon satellitemadethe decisionto
leavethecablesatellite,
soyouseethereis nothing
wecando herein
"
.
P a l mB e a c h . . .
Eastern
lostsightof a basicmarketing
tact.Youneverinsultthe
customer,
andyouneverputthecustomer
ina tightspotif youwantto
keephimas a customer.
Easterndid bothof thesethings,andthe
cableindustry
hadto beinsulted
bysuchtreatment.
Again,pity.WOR
willbe missed.
ATLANTA/OCTOBER
29, 30,31
ThenextRickandGloriaSchneringer
STTIgathering,
or SPTS,is
forAtlanta,
29,30 and31. Thiswillbe
scheduled
Georgia
on October
thefirstvisitto thesoutheast
forthetraveling
SPTSroadshow.Since
Atlanta
isthehomeofsomuchofthesatellite
innovation
thesedays,it
couldaffordan opportunity
for SPTSdelegates
to visitsomeof the
hallmarks
of thesatellite
world.
At thiswritingtheOmahaSPACEgathering
is stillweeksaway,
andtheturnoutandsuccess'marks'for this'firsttradeassociation
show'haveyetto be assessed.
Workingagainstthe SPACEshow,
(having
however,
hasbeenthelackof a show-dedicated
organizer
a
prepare
committee
fora showisa greatidea,butwhenthecommittee
is spreadall overthecontinent,
thismakesfinetuningof important
detailsdifficult),
and,thefactthatearlyAugustmaynotbe an opportunetimefor the industry
to meet.
lf thereisa humpintheindustry
thathumpcomes
sellingseason,
between
nowandthe middleot October.
Anyoneattending
a trade
showin thatperiodof timelosesseveraldaysminimum,
andit could
be a weekor ten days.Losingthat muchtime from sellingand
installing
maybemorethana newdealercanstand.I knowif mysales
werejuststarting
to move,I'dhavea hardtimemakingan intelligent
decision.
The'program'
fortheAtlantaSPTSisjustnowstarting
toshapeup
and I exoecttherewill be some'hardannouncements'
as to the
content
immediately
following
theSPACEshow.Schneringer
is,I feel,
bending
overbackwards
notto steponthetoesoftheSPACEgathering,norto detractfromtheattention
it is getting,
by makinganyof his
prematurely.
announcements
WhatI haveheardtellsme thatthe
Atlanta
location
wasa happycoincidence
ofserving
thesoutheastern
USA,plusputtingit intoa position
wherelocal,Atlantabasedsatellite
industry
talentwouldfindit usefulto dropby and participate
in the
program.
Thetimehascome,I believe,
whentheprogrammers
needto be
takinga moredirectinterestin the hardware,
thesystemsandeven
theviewerswho makeuo the orivate.hometerminalmarketolace.
Theysay, in the real estatemarket,that thereare threefactors
'Location',
influencing
thevalueof a pieceof property.
and,'location',
and. . . 'location'.
Sotooaretherethreefactorsinfluencing
theeventual decisionof programmers
that privatehometerminals(and
SMATVterminals)deservesome recognition.
Thosefactorsare
'numbers',
'numbers',
and'numbers'.
Whenthereis a sufficient
number of hometerminals
operating,
whenour 'universe'
amountsto
something
significant
andourviewerscountfor dollarsto be earned
(orlost),thenprogrammers
willbeginto pay'positive'attention
to us.
Thatdayisonthehorizon,
in myview,andit cancomenoneto soon.
'court'the cableaffiliates
Thewaythatprogrammers
is justthis
sideof immoral.
Theywinethenanddinethenandcutdealsto entice
thecableatfiliates
tocarrytheirservices.
Bigdollarsarespentannually to woothecableaffiliates
to carrycertainprogramming
services.
RickSchneringer's
AtlantaSPTSmaybe a perfectopportunity
to
presentthe programmers
with our growthstatisticsand to start a
dialogue
between
hardware
firms.
sellers/installers
andprogramming
It couldbe a veryinteresting
few daysand I for one looktoruardto
seeinghowit all develops.
THE 1,OOO
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PAGE 64/CSD/8-82
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1 979
I
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O R D E RA N T H O L O G Y
F R O MC
: S D .P . O . B o x 1 O O 8 5 8 F
, o r t L a u d o r d a l eF
!
videophile Satellite Television
The possibilities
of componentaudiocometo satellitevideo.
C o m p o n e n te q u i p m e n th a s b e c o m e
popular in the audio field for a lot of
reasons. One reason is that the componentphilosophyallowsa puristto upgradeany piece of a systemas technology
advanceswithout havingto replacethe
entire system at once. This basic idea
has usheredin an era of specialtyfirms
dedicatedto advancingthe art of a single
link in the chain.They succeedbecause
all of their efforts are focused on one
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thisphilosophyto satellitetelevision.We
concentrateon the singlemostimportant,
most difficultelement-the microwave
receiver. No other parl of the system
has such a dramatic eftect on picture
quality.
parable;actuallythe equalof mostcommercial grade receivers.We can also
handletough signalslike Reutersdata
transmissions
that give other receivers
fits. lt's no wonder then, that after exhaustivetesting,somecablecompanies
a n d t e l e v i s i o ns t a t i o n su s e E A R T H
T E R M I N A L Sr e c e i v e r sa s t h e i r m a i n
sourceof satelliteprogrammaterial.They
know value when they see it.
Quality You Can See
An EARTHTERM INALS receiverprovides cleaner pictureswith less granuUntetouchcd Ofl-The-Al/ S/n pulse lest
larity.Truer colors that don't smear.Less
It's Easy To Live With
sparklingsnowon weak programs.ComAll thistechnicalsophistication
p l e t e a b s e n c e o f h e r r i n g b o n e sa n d
is really
w a v e s .S u p e r i m p o s e dl e t t e r i n gt h a t q u r t e e a s y t o g e t a l o n g w i t h . P r e c i s e
doesn'ttear at the edges. In fact, you automaticfine tuningtunes every chanhaven'tseen video this excitingunless nel the sameway every time.You don't
you'vebeen in a televisionstudio.lf you have to be an expert to get perfect
own a qualityvideo projector,you'll be
even more impressed.
Quality You Can Measure
B r o a d c a se
t n g i n e e r sa r e i m p r e s s e d
with the accuracy of EARTH TERMTNALSreceiverstoo.Our VITSSin2Pulse
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c h a n n e l si n d i v i d u a l l ya, d j u s t sa u d i o
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to supply the proper antennapolarization throughan even/oddchannelswitch.
And it fits in the palm of your hand.
Tips On Value
Thereare plentyof satellitereceivers
that cost less than ours, but nearly all
of them need biggerantennasand more
exoticLow NoiseAmplifiersfora picture
free of sparklingsnow. lf you're on a
budget, you can save money in other
parts of the system by paying more for
our receiverand come out even.you get
highfidelityvideoin the bargain.lf you're
simplyafterthe best picturemoney can
buy,we can make it very affordable.
Either way, give us a call or write us
for the details.
E A R T HT E R M I N A L S
Department103
One Microwave Plaza
Cincinnati,Ohio 45242
513-489-6200
EARTHTERMNAIS
SAT.TEC''R2B
Theleqder in low cost TVRO
The R2B,the most highly integrated receiver on the market today!
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The Sat-tecR2B receiveris our latestfull '
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at a priceyou can
equipmentspecifications
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and
eliminatesproblematicinterconnections
innovativeutilizationof all components
resultsin a reliableandprovendesign.
Operationis simple-a singletuningknob
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A newfeatureis our variableaudiotuning
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R2B!Seeyour dealertodayor writeto us
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SPECIFICATIONS
Frequency range:
Audio range:
Threshold:
IF bandwidth:
3.6-4.3GHZ tunable
5.27.6MHZ tunable
8db CNR
30 MHz for tull fidelityvideo
15 volts regulatedfor up to 2 LNAs
LNA power:
Standard one volt audio and video.
Outputs:
compatiblewith VCRs, monitorsand modulators
BC-1RF modulatorkit, tunablechannels
Optionat
3-6with sound
Sot-tecSysfems
BairdRd.,Penfield,
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Lnc.,2575
div. RamseyElectronics,