--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 164 SATELLITES Ref: EC500001 Date: 08/04/97 From: SATJOURNAL@AOL.COM Time: 10:47am \/To: GARY CRAIN (Read 2 times) Subj: Satellite Journal Weekly 531 A2 From: Satjournal@aol.com Volume Five August, 4 1997 "Anyone who enjoys the privilege of publishing and broadcasting in open societies should demonstrate their unshakeable belief in the universality of free speech should they ever seek to broadcast in societies that are closed." Discovery Communications Joins PanAmSat Telesat To Play Key Role In Next Philippine Satellite The Golf Channel Cleared For Cable Distribution Launch of HGTV Canada Set For September 26 CBS TeleNoticias And StarMedia Network Sci-Fi Channel Success Continues More non-Canadian satellite services PRIMESTAR Adds Nine New Channels Hungary becomes Inmarsat's 81st member Orion Opens Asia Pacific Gateway at Kapolei Teleport Inmarsat-3 F4 enters service PanAmSat's PAS-5 and PAS-6 Satellites Ready Upcoming Launches New files and documents at our WebStand In Brief BETA TEST SJI via Microsoft Explorer: The latest beta version of Microsoft Explorer is now available for Windows 95 users. MSIE 4.0 PR2 allows webmasters to PUSH content. SJI is testing this format. If you already have 4.0 PR2 installed you can try our channel. To do this, go to our website at http://members.aol.com/satjournal and click on the ADD CHANNELS logo on our home page. Follow the instructions and you will be up and running. ***** **A WARNING FOR THOSE CONSIDERING INSTALLING MSIE 4.0 ** ******* ********DO NOT INSTALL THE BETA VERSION OF MSIE 4.0 ON A COMPUTER ** ********THAT YOU RELY ON FOR DAILY USE. ******** MINING COMPANY WEB SITE Thanks once again to those who are visiting http://satellite.miningco.com The site also offers the latest in news and information and next month will have a message board area. This site is advertiser supported so please visit it often and make your "hit" count! Send comments and questions about this site to satellite.guide@miningco.com. Gary Torrens Editor Discovery Communications Joins PanAmSat PanAmSat reports that Discovery Communications, Inc. has joined the growing line-up of international television programmers on the PAS-5 Atlantic Ocean Region satellite, PanAmSat's third cable television satellite for Latin America. PAS-5, scheduled for launch on August 22, will provide DCI with additional capacity to reach cable television audiences throughout the Americas with access to Europe as well. Under the long-term agreement, DCI will use an entire transponder on the PAS-5 C-band Americas beam to distribute Animal Planet and People & Arts, two new channels created by a joint venture between DCI and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Both Discovery and the BBC currently broadcast programming globally over PanAmSat. Telesat To Play Key Role In Next Philippine Satellite At an official ceremony held in Manila Telesat Canada signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Mabuhay Philippines Satellite Corporation (MPSC) for project management and engineering consulting services and the provision of Telesat's Flight Dynamics System (FDS) for the Agila-3 broadcast and communications satellite. Over the next few weeks the companies will meet to work out the details of the consulting agreement Telesat Canada was awarded a contract in 1995 to provide technical consulting services for the design, construction, launch and in-orbit testing of the Agila-2 satellite including technical training to MPSC engineers in the area of satellite operations and control. The Agila-2 satellite, an FS1300 spacecraft, will be launched this week on-board a Chinese Long March Vehicle. Agila- 2 will be the largest spacecraft in the FS1300 series both in overall dimension and total number of active communications transponders. After two years of working intensively on the program, Telesat and Mabuhay engineers are looking forward to the successful launch of the Agila-2. ``Agila-3 will be the third multi-purpose communications satellite already on the drawing boards of MPSC together with a series of satellites planned up to the year 2000. On the eve of the launching of Agila-2, we are already moving ahead to provide the critical support structure for Agila-3. We look forward to having Telesat Canada aboard on this project,'' said Cesar G. Reyes, President of MPSC. The Golf Channel Cleared For Cable Distribution A request for Canadian distribution of The Golf Channel by the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance has been approved by Canada's broadcast regulator. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission added The Golf Channel to what is known as the "A List" of eligible satellite services, authorising cable companies to distribute The Golf Channel to Canadian golf enthusiasts throughout the country. The CCSA, representing a subscriber base of nearly 900,000 Canadian households sponsored the request for The Golf Channel by actively seeking TGC interest-level input from Canada's nearly 8 million cable households. Discussions with cable operators for broad Canadian analogue distribution of the network are underway, including packaging The Golf Channel with the four Canadian specialty services that are required to be launched this year. Launch of HGTV Canada Set For September 26 Home & Garden Television (HGTV), in partnership with Life Network, has reached an agreement with vision.com, a consortium of Canada's largest cable companies, to launch HGTV Canada Inc. on September 26, 1997 for analogue cable distribution. HGTV Canada will become part of a package of six new English specialty channels that will be launching this fall. Sci-Fi Channel Success Continues Effective September 1, Sci-Fi Channel becomes a 7-day-a week DTH service to UK and Eire satellite homes, broadcasting from 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. The move enables the channel to broadcast an additional 20 hours of sci-fi programming per week to Sky DTH subscribers. At present, the Channel is available from 20:00 to 04:00 Monday to Wednesday, and from 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. Thursday to Sunday. In order to extend its satellite time, Sci-Fi Channel will switch from transponder 47 on Astra 1C to transponder 24 on Astra 1B. On cable, Sci-Fi Channel remains available to subscribers from 7:30 a.m. to 4.00 a.m. daily, as it has been since launch nearly two years ago. More non-Canadian satellite services The CRTC published its revised lists of eligible satellite services to which have been added a number of non-Canadian services. These additions will provide more choice and variety with respect to the non-Canadian satellite services that may be packaged with Canadian specialty and pay services. These non-Canadian services will not be subject to any additional requirement concerning the Canadian services they may be packaged with, other than the existing packaging rules, or concerning the technology used for their distribution. Distributors will be provided with maximum flexibility to add non-Canadian services to discretionary tiers, without placing at a competitive disadvantage distributors that have yet to roll out digital technology. Services added to the lists The following services will be added to Section A of the Part II list and to the Part III non- Canadian list: America's Health Network ART America BBC World Court TV Deutsche Welle The Filipino Channel Fit TV The Golf Channel Speedvision TV Food Network TV Japan TV Polonia WMNB-TV: Russian-American Broadcasting Company The following services will be added to Section B of the Part II list and to the Part III non- Canadian list: American Movie Classics Game Show Network KWGN (Denver) Turner Classic Movies Services denied The request to add Bloomberg Information Television was denied since this service would be competitive with the Canadian specialty service, ROBTv. The request to add Newsworld International also was denied. The sponsor of this request failed to convince the Commission that the service does not fall within the definition of a "programming undertaking", and therefore requires a licence. The Commission directed Newsworld International to file a licence application or apply for an exemption from licensing. The requests to add Cornerstone TeleVision, Eternal Word Television Network, The Inspirational Network and Three Angels Broadcasting Network were denied. The Commission's policy is that non-Canadian religious services may be distributed exclusively in a package with Canadian single-faith discretionary religious services. However, no such Canadian service is licensed at the moment PRIMESTAR Adds Nine New Channels PRIMESTAR will add five pay-per-view channels to its PrimeCinema line-up in August and HBO Family West, Showtime 3 East, Starz! 2 West and Animal Planet to its line-up in September to complete "The Big Switch" to 160 channels which the company began in April. Animal Planet will be added to PRIMESTAR's basic package, PrimeValue, at no extra cost. Hungary becomes Inmarsat's 81st member Hungary has joined Inmarsat, the global mobile satellite organisation. In Hungary, Inmarsat has developed a pilot project with national haulage company Hungarocamion, fitting 50 of their fleet with Inmarsat-C data messaging systems. Inmarsat is working with other local partners in the region to enhance and extend communications services. A new generation of satellites, Inmarsat-3, has enabled the introduction of smaller, lighter, cheaper satellite communications. The Inmarsat-phone, a range of satellite phones smaller than an A4 laptop computer, offers voice, 2.4 kbit/s data and fax services and weighs only 2.2 kgs including the battery. Later this year will see the introduction of satellite phones specially developed for use in remote rural communities, bringing communications to areas which previously had minimal or no links to the rest of the world. Using high-gain antennas, these Inmarsat-phones will offer voice, 2.4 kbit/s data and fax services with provisions for extensions such as a payphone or PABX.. Orion Opens Asia Pacific Gateway at Kapolei Teleport Orion Network Systems, Inc. has acquired a gateway operating site located at the Kapolei Teleport to support its satellite communications services for the Asia Pacific region. The land leased to Orion for the gateway on the island of Oahu, Hawaii will allow Orion to deliver its services including direct transmission of data, Internet and video services for multinational corporations, Internet service providers (ISPs) and video programmers through its Asia Pacific satellite. The gateway will also serve as Orion's telemetry tracking and control (TT&C) centre for its Asia Pacific satellite which is scheduled for launch in October 1998. A new Ku-band antenna to be constructed for TT&C services will be operational by August 1998. The facility includes one 9 meter C-band antenna and one 13 meter C-band antenna which will be used for communications services. Through the gateway, Orion will access its Asia Pacific satellite for Ku-band and C-band services to Asia, Australia, Oceania and India. Access to U.S. domestic and other Pacific region satellites as well as fibre will also be available through this gateway. Orion will install an 11 meter Ku-band antenna and associated electronics for TT&C support at the Kapolei facility. This will provide continuous 24-hour manoeuvre and telemetry tracking of the Orion 3 satellite and in-orbit testing and analysis of all circuits and leased transponders on Orion 3. Orion's first satellite, located at 37.5 West Longitude, has been in operation since January 1995 and serves Europe, the United States to the Rocky Mountains and portions of Canada and Mexico. Orion's Asia Pacific satellite, located at 139 East Longitude, is scheduled for launch in October 1998 and will serve the Pacific Rim region including, Australia, China, India, Japan, Korean, Eastern Russia and Hawaii. A third satellite, scheduled for launch in mid-1999 and located at 12 West Longitude, will supplement Orion's existing North American and European coverage and expand Orion's service capabilities into Latin America, Russia, and the Middle East. These two additional satellites, together with Orion's first satellite, will enable Orion to provide global communications services to over 85% of the world's population. Inmarsat-3 F4 enters service The fourth satellite in the Inmarsat-3 series entered service on schedule this week completing the third generation Inmarsat system. Inmarsat-3 F4, launched aboard an Ariane 4 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana on June 3, has replaced Inmarsat's previous generation Atlantic Ocean West region satellite, now a system backup The spacecraft reached its on-station location of 54 degrees west on Thursday, July 24. Inmarsat's network operations centre in London then spent two days making final adjustments to the satellite to ensure a smooth transition into service. On Saturday, the network operations centre directed each of the seven land earth stations in the Atlantic Ocean West region to steer their antennas away from the former satellite towards the new Inmarsat-3 F4. Stations at Goonhilly, England; Pleumer Bodou, France; and Laurentides, Canada led the transition effort. Each land earth station acts as a gateway between the Inmarsat satellites and the terrestrial communications network. In 1996, Inmarsat-3 F1 was launched on April 3 on an Atlas IIA rocket from Cape Canaveral and entered service over the Indian Ocean on May 11. Inmarsat-3 F2 entered service over the Atlantic ocean East region on October 13, following a successful September 6 launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, aboard a Proton rocket. Inmarsat-3 F3, launched December 18 aboard an Atlas IIA from Cape Canaveral, entered service on January 26 and serves the Pacific ocean region. The fifth and final satellite in the Inmarsat-3 series will also be launched on an Ariane 4 rocket from Kourou. The satellite will serve as a spare for the Inmarsat constellation, expanding system capacity and enabling Inmarsat to lease any excess space segment. Lift-off is scheduled for December. PanAmSat's PAS-5 and PAS-6 Satellites Ready PanAmSat reports that its PAS-5 and PAS-6 Atlantic Ocean Region satellites are undergoing final preparations for August launches from opposite corners of the world. PAS-6 is scheduled for an August 8 launch by Arianespace from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. PAS-5 arrived last week at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where it is scheduled for an August 22 launch by International Launch Services on a Proton rocket. --- Msged/386 4.00 * Origin: Rendezvous!! 4gigs_10000files_500echoareas 512-303-1324 (1:382/87) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 164 SATELLITES Ref: EC500002 Date: 08/03/97 From: KARL SCHNEIDER Time: 07:02am \/To: FRANK KENNEDY (Read 2 times) Subj: Speedvision FK> KS> the Dish Networks which includes the identical technology for $149! FK>It depresses me that some of the hobbyist "leaders" are already telling us to FK>line up and get a 4DTV. Not only have they won the war, but the newbies n FK>the hobby don't even know that there ever was a war. Yep. FK>TVRO to me is like a fragile plant, you really have to observe it and to make FK>attempts at helping it along. DSS and the small dish thing is like a weed FK>that needs no help. Except when it rains hard. FK>An expensive 4DTV won't help TVRO. And at this point we need some strong FK>stimulants. Right. I guess we can hide 'em in the VCII bay! -!- OLX 2.2 Got a Mercedes for my wife. It was a great trade. -+- OLMS 2.53 UNREG --- * Origin: CompuMate - Tulsa, OK (918)663-3454 (1:170/300) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 164 SATELLITES Ref: EC500003 Date: 08/03/97 From: KARL SCHNEIDER Time: 07:02am \/To: GEORGE MIHAILOVSKI (Read 2 times) Subj: Satellite Dishes GM>I have been interested in Satellite reception for quiet a while now, however GM>haven't had the money to buy a brand new dish yet. If there is anyone who ha GM>plans on how to build a dish (1.8 m C band or 3.7m) please mail me, or ust GM>tell me if you know any sites on the internet who have plans on how to build GM>one. It's a shame you aren't near here. I could find you half a dozen for free on any given day. -!- OLX 2.2 If a mirror reverses left and right, why not up and down? -+- OLMS 2.53 UNREG --- * Origin: CompuMate - Tulsa, OK (918)663-3454 (1:170/300) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 164 SATELLITES Ref: EC500004 Date: 08/04/97 From: CHARLIE YOUNG Time: 06:40am \/To: KARL SCHNEIDER (Read 2 times) Subj: Digicypher > What really gets my goat is the usurious prices they > charge for the VCII modules when you can buy an *entire receiver* like > the Dish Networks which includes the identical technology for $149! A few people who have lots of money may actually spend $1,000 on the new digicypher just because they like to have the biggest and most expensive of everything. I wish I had the resources to be one of those people :) Has anyone in this echo actually bought or even seen the digicypher? I promise, I won't question your sanity, but I may envy your bank account :) --- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 2 * Origin: The Ether Net Amateur Radio BBS (1:3821/7) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 164 SATELLITES Ref: EC500005 Date: 08/04/97 From: CHARLIE YOUNG Time: 06:42am \/To: KARL SCHNEIDER (Read 2 times) Subj: Scrambling > if I were a sponsor I'd sure want to know > why my message was being denied to a significant market of upscale > consumers. Maybe we should send E-mail to some of them and ask :) I wonder if they would even know what we are talking about? > What's even MORE weird is that some of the 'shopping channels' scramble! None of the full time shoppers scramble do they? I know the late night infomercials on the scrambled channels are being denied to some C-banders, but I am not worried about that :) --- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 2 * Origin: The Ether Net Amateur Radio BBS (1:3821/7) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 164 SATELLITES Ref: EC500006 Date: 08/04/97 From: CHARLIE YOUNG Time: 06:39am \/To: FRANK KENNEDY (Read 2 times) Subj: Speedvision KS> Some of their advertisers are KS> Harley Davidson KS> Time Life Music/Books KS> Motor Mechanics Institute KS> Electric Eye Entertainment KS> NASCAR KS> I have Emailed all of these saying MOL "Gee, it's too bad we can't see KS> your commercials on Speedvision anymore, guess we won't be buying your KS> products... > Although it's very hard fighting "the system", you have to try. Another programmer that does not care about C-band customers is FX. I do not see any good reason that FX is not available to us except that FX does not want the big sat dish viewers. I cancelled FXM because they do not bother to put their program names and next program up for us. Might not have been a problem if FXM was in the TV listings in the paper. --- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 2 * Origin: The Ether Net Amateur Radio BBS (1:3821/7) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 164 SATELLITES Ref: EC500007 Date: 08/04/97 From: KARL SCHNEIDER Time: 05:06pm \/To: PATRICK MORAN (Read 2 times) Subj: Speedvision PM>KS> Can anyone explain to me the rationale of a commercial-supported PM> > station going to scrambling? PM>GREED! Probably, but isn't it misplaced? I mean, if you cut off thousands of potential customers from commercials, isn't that defeating their purpose? -!- OLX 2.2 Do I smoke after sex? I don't know, I never checked. -+- OLMS 2.53 UNREG --- * Origin: CompuMate - Tulsa, OK (918)663-3454 (1:170/300) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 164 SATELLITES Ref: EC500008 Date: 08/04/97 From: ROBERT SAYRE Time: 06:33am \/To: GEORGE MIHAILOVSKI (Read 2 times) Subj: Satellite Dishes GM> I have been interested in Satellite reception for quiet a while GM> now, however haven't had the money to buy a brand new dish yet. GM> If there is anyone who h plans on how to build a dish (1.8 m C GM> band or 3.7m) please mail me, or just tell me if you know any GM> sites on the internet who have plans on how to build one. Popular Mechanics had plans in the mid '80s. Sorry, I don't know exactly which year/month. A trip to the library should get you the info, though. Also, the ARRL handbook and the ARRL antenna book should have plans (and other technical info, too). TTYL. Robert * SLMR 2.1a * Why are needs a function of what others already have? --- Platinum Xpress/Win/Wildcat5! v2.0 * Origin: Fresno Area Amiga eXchange-(209)226-7162-*HST/DS V.34+* (1:205/40) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 164 SATELLITES Ref: EC500009 Date: 07/31/97 From: BRUCE LEGRANDE Time: 11:35pm \/To: BOB SEABORN (Read 2 times) Subj: White Flips Bob Seaborn wrote in a message to Bruce LeGrande: > this control would be located ? I havn't seen anything marked as such > on either unit. BS> It's one of the Advanced Functions. AF52, I think if my BS> memory serves me correctly. AF52 is the "Video Sync" and has two positions 'ON and OFF'. I've tried both of these settings and the result is that when the sync is ON - I get the raised frame and shift to left, when the sync is OFF I get the rolling pic. As I mentioned, it seems to correlate with the percentage of white on the screen (rolls when the percentage increases to a certain point). I've also tried various other settings (ie IF width, bandpass filter, etc) in the AF configs, but nothing seems to clear up the problem. Sincerely, Bruce - kb6lwn - ck1@pacbell.net --- WtrGate v0.93 Unreg * Origin: GreenTree Ground Station * CM88ps * 707-987-3022 (1:2003/5) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 164 SATELLITES Ref: EC500010 Date: 07/31/97 From: BRUCE LEGRANDE Time: 11:44pm \/To: GARY CRAIN (Read 2 times) Subj: Spine Gary Crain wrote in a message to Bob Seaborn: GC> On Jul 31, 1997, at 08:41, Bob Seaborn of 1:140/12.1 wrote: GC> Hi Bob, >> Thanks for your quick reply. The backbone must be in 'high gear' :) BS> I feed via FidoSpine. :) GC> Looking at your and Bruce's path line, I'd say the "Spine" has a GC> fast connection to the Southern Star. ;-) Hi there, Gary... Say... Are you the fellow that had the sections for a Winegard QuadStar-10 that I talked to here a while back ? If you are... I finally got the dish up and was able to repair one of the two quarter panels that was damaged. I've found that the mesh screen can be removed and replaced, so since the framework isn't damaged, I think all I'll need is a couple sections of mesh. As I said the dish is in operation, but there is one petal (section of mesh in one of the quarter sections) that is not installed and I'm getting a bit of 'sparkle' on some of the signals, but I figure replacing this small piece (apx 18" wide and 4' long) of pie shaped mesh I'm hoping will clear up this degradation of signal. Sincerely, Bruce - kb6lwn - ck1@pacbell.net --- WtrGate v0.93 Unreg * Origin: GreenTree Ground Station * CM88ps * 707-987-3022 (1:2003/5)