(3 -g- -7 f { , 1 ! {+ r r

NTSC GLITCHGONE- Load

500 Channels!

LEONIDSMETEOR

SHOWER THREAT

ITALIANS ARE''MAD'' ABOUT

soccER!

y' Latest Programmer News,/ Latest Hardware News,/ Latest SPACE Pacific

Reportsy' Cable TV Connect ion

cd'r Tlf 4h#r 22 ESPN23 EWTN24 BBC World25 Bloomberg26 Gol f Chanel27 Disc. Default28 Discovery SE Asia29 Discovery Taiwan3O Discovery Phi l ippines31 Discovery China32 Discovery China-1 hr33 Discovery Aus/Nz34 Discovery Japan

45 ABN46 CTN t l47 CTN IV48 CNBC 626 PAL49 Future Service50 NBC 625 PAL51 Future Service52 CNBC Mandar in53 NBC Mandar in54 Service Channel55 JET NTSC Feed56 JET PAL Feed

57 CCTV Channel A

58 CCTV Chanel B

59 CCTV Channel C

60 U1 Movie6 1 U 26 2 U 363 Channel Four64 Star Plus Japan65 Racing Feeds66 Sky News67 ESPN Contr ibution68 Racing Channel

11 DW-tv1 2 M C M13 RAI lnternational14 TVE15 TV5-Asia16 DW-tv + teletext17 GXTV18 GXTV219 Shaanxi Tv20 CMT21 Adhoc NTSC

When quali ty,strength, andaccuracy are yourmain requirements,Paraclipse antennas areyour f irst choice.

Only Paracl iPse offers suchvariety; four dist inctly different serles:

.the Truss-Ribbed Classic,

.the Courier Delrverable EcliPse,

.the Stretch Formed HYdro'

.the Commercial Patriot.

Every ParacliPse model sets the

industry standard tn i ts class, worldwide'

ECLIPSESERIES

Distr ibuted in New Zealand bY

BAY SATELLTTE TV Ltd, PO Box 3311' Napier

Tel 64-6-8 43-5296 o Fax 64-6-843-6429

ffi:.'CLASSICSERIES

,*rt&', HYDROS E R I E S

Paracl ipse Inc.2271 2glhAvenue East, Columbus, Nebraska USATelephone: (402) 563-3625 FAX: (402) 564-2109

COOP'S COMMENT()ne has to wonder whether people at the top of satellite

industry managemenl teams arrive at their lofty positionsbecause ol extraordinary skills, a staying power to outlastcompetitors for the lob, or just plain dumb luck. A case inpoint.

TNTlCartoons is distributed on PAS.2 to cable and SMATVclients in NTSC B-MAC. To save money, Turner/Warnerleases only one half of a transponder (3930 venical). Theonly receiver available for this particular mode of encryptionis the Scientific Atlanta 9708.

When a programmer elects to use only half of atransponder, the satellite operator is forced to reduce thepower available t0 that half-transponder signal by a minimumof 3dB. This means that if you would have 31 dBw of signal with a full transponder signal. by dividing it in half you willhave something less than 28 dBw. lf the satellite operator elects to place two analogue TV signals in the sametransponder and each has half of the transponder bandwidth, where one signal would have been 31 dBw in our example,now each will be something under 28 dBw. )a

TNTl0artoons launched in mid-l995 using a full veftical lransponder (4165). As a cable operator I arranged an $affiliation agleement, selected a dish based upon this and other PAS.2 services, and began canying the signal and paying $my bills to Turner. By December 1995 they had been moved by PanAmSat to their present transponder, but remained full !lransponder. In June of 1996 PanAmSat reduced them to half transponder. .l

A half-transponder signal on PAS.2 will be approximately 18 MHz in bandwidth. CNNI, another of my cable services, isalso half transponder on PAS.2 and I use a Drake ESR 1 255 in a reduced bandwidth (22 MHz) to compensate for the lessthan full use of the transponder by CNNI. lf your input signal is strong enough, a receiver with a 28 MHz (or even wider)bandwidth hardly notices the extra noise you pick up when the signal is nanower than the receiver lF bandwidth. Butwhen the signal drops to threshold or close lo it, having a receiver with a 28 MHz bandwidth and a signal with a 18 MHzbandwidth is an open invitation for sparklies and other crud degrading the receplion. The SA 9708 has a 28 MHzbandwidth. And after TNT wenl to half transponder and PanAmSat backed down lhe power level of this service I was atthreshold. 0f all of the PAS-2 signals I receive and carry on my cable system, only TNT gives me problems. For everyother service I have several dB of "headroom," even the weaker digital MCPC carriers.

I went to SA and asked them how we could retrofit the 9708 (at my expense, of course!) to function with a narrowerbandwidth. The first response was classic: "The 9708 utilises an automatically variable bandwidth input filter systemwhich tracks the downlink symbol rate and sets the lF bandwidth for optimum performance. The unit does not thereforehave a fixed lF bandwidth, but one which is automatically varied dependent on the characteristics 0f the received signal.Modification of the circuit is not a practical option." I had asked whether a narrower lF filter could be substituted; if not,was there a clever way to use a reduced bandwidth receiver outboard and then take the demodulated video back into the9708 for B-MAC processing.

Now I instantly knew the person writing this lelter and I were tuned t0 different bands. The 9708 has a fixedbandwidth; only digital receivers have "automalic tracking bandwidth." His use of the phrase "downlink symbol rate" toldme he had made a mistake. I went back again and pointed this out. He apologised and then advised, "Communications

with our manufacturing facility have indicated that it is unfortunately not possible to modify the receiver."0K-so Turner is using a transmission fotmat (112 transponder) for which there is no receiver. And we have to put up

with the crud that results. Two serious top level mistakes . at Turner, and at SA. Does anyone have a suggestion? (No,replacing the dish- a 4.5m . is not viable!)

In Volume 3,) Number 34METEOR STORM PREDICTED - batten down the satellites! -p. 6ITALIANS ARE SOCCER MAD. Period! (Pietro Casoar) -p. l0

DIGITAL HARDWARE UPDATE 97-5 -p.12THE DISTRIBUTOR/DEALER CHALLENGE -p. 17

DepartmentsProgrammer/Programming Update -p.2; Hardware/Equipment Update -p. 4CABLE Connect ion: Finding Funding -p. 20 SPACE Notes: Austar -p. 22;

SaIFACTS Orbit Watch -p. 24; MPEG-2 Tuning Parameters -p. 26jDigi Notes Reference Information - p. 28

With The Observers -p. 2U At Sign-Off (The Hyundai Mess) -p. 32.ON THE COVER.

A sharp eyed reader wil l have noticed that RAI with soccer is on the NokiaMediamaster 9500 S screen. Digitalsat's Pietro Casoar laments the RAI

decision to eliminate l ive soccer coverage from the EBB feed on AsiaSat 2(page 10) and asks for support in urg ing the l ta l ians to change thei r pol icy. Sohow does the Nokia find soccer that is not there? A close insoection of the 78programme channel menu memor ised by the Nokia te l ls you the answer; p. 10.

'L:a: '

fune | 5, 1997

LETTERs

B00K Burnino In lran?" l found that SPACE Pacif ic offers a correspondence

course on satellite TV technology. The course name,'SPACE Pacif ic Satel l i te TV Technology Course, 'indirectly tells anyone who inspects the product what isinside. That is my problem. lmporting of any satellite TV

I equipment to lran is not allowed. And this includes

I educational materials and videotapes. Please tel l mehow if I register for the course the materials can beshipped to me without being confiscated?"

H.S., Tehran, lranWhew - and I think I have problems! Let 's see .we

could change the cover to claim it is a cookingcourse, doctor the videotape to pletend the dish is

used as a giant wok, and include booklets onChinese vegetables in the package. Just in case

that doesn't get by the authorit ies, we'd put RupertMurdoch's name and address on the

return"to-sender label !ALAS. Not in PRC

"l am receiving Taiwan's SPACE TV on my Nokia95005, my SK888 and my HSS-100C. I cannot watch

this transmission on any of these! Can anyone help me

with this?"Luo Shi Gang, P0 Box 01-390, Luo Hu, Shenzhen

P.R.C. 518001 (e-mail szluosg@public.szptt)Not much is known about this transmission at this

t ime and the Taiwanese f irm is not overly anxiousto supp ly in fo rmat ion . The MPEG tun ing

parameters are l isted here on p. 29; a Panasat 630receives the presently FTA transmissions.

SHARED Costs?'SPACE TV Systems wants US$100,000 to

'authorise'a distr ibutor to sel l their mult i- language

{including Mandarin) Ku band system against a 1,000

IRD sel l through over 2 years. I doubt anyone today in

the DTH business is large enough t0 put up that kind of

money in front (although it will be returned after you sell

1,000 units). l t occurs t0 us as a SPACE Member thal

we might be able to pool with others t0 meet their

requirements and invite communication from anyoneinterested. "

John Kimbell, Nationwide Antenna Systemsrel 61-7 -3252"2947

SPACE's deal is a hit r ich; they wil l sel l

distr ibutors the IBD for US$450 and they suggest

US$1,000 (+ tax) for a l .2m Ku system, instal led.

0f course what you sel l i t for is your business, not

their 's. A 1,000 unit guarantee may not be out of

l ine for a consort ium of dealers who cover al l ofeastern Austral ia.

L0CATl0N, Location, location"Living behind a hi l l , my 3.7m 0rbitron only goes down

to C2. l am Swiss living away from home, keen 1o

tune-in the European Bouquet on As2. To correct this Iplaced a 2.6m Paracl ipse 0n top 0l a 1 0m mast with an

(continued, Page 4)

Too late to correct: Project Amiorangi downlink during test phase May 17-25was actually 0n 11.514. ()ur May citation of 11.462 was correct as we went t0press but changed.

Dangerous when loading. SF#32 (p. 2) warned about hanging out on AFRTSPowerVu feed {177E)if you happen t0 catch it when your installer menu tells you"Boot Loader . Waiting for Information." 0bserver Francis Kosmalski in SF#33reported how he nearly lost control of his 09223 by hanging out during the bootloader sequence. Now we have a unit from another NZ user which was "zapped" bythe boot loader sequence and had t0 go back to Sydney to be unlocked. lf youventure t0 AFRTS out 0f curiosity and are scrolling through the virtual channels andsee"B00t Inader..." clme up, quickly check what the front panel LCD display says.lf it is "D./." this means a down loading sequence is underway and your receiver isalready under the control 0f the network operator. Do not- D0 N0T touch thereceiver as long as the LCD says "0.1. (anything)." When the loading is over, thenyou should safely be able to move 0n; sort of like relaxing when someone points agun at you and then collapsing after the gun totter has left. lf you try to leave thevirtual channel after the down loading has begun and your receiver is under networkoperator control - that's when the damage is done.

WorldNet, USA effort to distribute educational and soft entertainment materialsaround the globe, began test transmissions on AsiaSat 2l12l0Hz) May 15th; regularprogramming service May 19th (0000UTC).

Free to air, analogue service parallels samefeed on 1511 (180E) which as we al l know hasbecome increasingly m0re difficult to util isebecause of the inclination 0f this satellite.WorldNet is available for cable and SMATV,will undoubtedly have a sizeable audience innewly reached areas 0f the Pacific and Asiafrom As2. Note: The multiplicity of audiosubcarriers 0n this service largely feed Voiceof America overseas relays in countries such as Sri Lanka 17.02,7.20,7.38,7.56,7 .74,7.92 with programme audio at 6.60; al l are 15 kHz bandwidth).

Test transmissions f rom ex-Rimsat 41 at 161 E (now Agila 1l May 14'22 were 0nbehalf of NZ firm lmpact TV and partner South Pacific Television. Using ex-RimsatSubic Bay uplink, lmpact and Filipino firm Domsat Holdings wanted to verify thatafter moving from 130E, this powerhouse (75 watts, globalon 3675 MHz)servicewas still capable of operating properly (previously used by RAJ-TV). Tests werecolour bars and a few hours of perhaps (perhaps not) legally retransmitted video,taken off of Palapa C1 What next? Possible use of this transponder for two servicesin 1/2 transponder format.

TV Shopping Network changed audio subcarrier assignments 0n As2 June 3rd;6.65 is J17 equalised English, 7.2 is J17 Bahasa, 5.58 is Panda 1 Mandarin while5.76 is Panda 1 Japanese.

SPACE TV Systems channel line'up (177E, Kul t0 eastern Australia: (1) TaiwanTV, (2) China TV, (3) Formosa TV, (4) NHK Asia with Chinese subtitles, (5) FormosaNews Channel, (6) KBS Korean, (7) Chinese TV System, and (8) Asia Television(Cantonese). lRDs are being sold through authorised distributors in 50 lot shipmentsand dealer/distributor does not participate in programming revenue stream (US$20).

UPDATEmI JUNE 15,1997 |

SK888 for receiving. lt works great from around 7AM

io 5.30PM and then begins t0 sputter and fail' The

sional level does not change; my analogue receptlon 0n

;;t;t.t not change. 0nlv the EBB drops out! Mv first

thought was someone is turning some nasty nolse

orntiuot on around 5.30pm nightly but I doubt this as

itre signal gradually (not suddenly) disappears between

5.30 and ipm and returns just as gradually between 7

and 7.30AM. ls the tempetature affecting something?

nil, tp*Oing countless hours and thousands o{ dollats

on this sYstem, I am at a lossl"

Reinhold Zuerrer, Port Vila' Vanuatu

tellfax + + 678'27012

JcSat'4, testing at 141E in April, has

been moved to 150E where it is filling

in for ailing JcSat'1. Only Ku-band

service is operating, s0urce says C'band

will not be lired up from here "for any

commercial purpose" (this does not rule

our occasional testing). Further plan is

to launch JcSat'5 in November, test it

(possibly again at 141)then move it t0

150E where it will become permanent

replacement for JcSat'1 ' By "next

spring" (March'April), theY plan to move

JcSat-4 to its original planned 1 24E

location where it should have the C and

Ku {ootprints shown. JcSat'5 has been

designed for "Asia coverage only" s0

don'i expect anything useful south of

the equator from this location 0n either

band.Satellites at risk. The world's

insurance industry presently has a"pool" 0f US$900 million available to

insure satellites against risk' A common

satellite costs around US$100m to

build, another $40m to launch' Bottom

line? Not enough insurance to handle

DEMAGNETISE A Building?_-_-ve have been asked to demagnetise a building .in

Hong iong with 864 flats plus an office podium' The

builier must have used magnetised rein{orcing rods ot

rrg*tirtO iron binding wire to hold the bars in position

before the concrete was poured' I think I know how to

nuil*'trnr*'t* but being able toread the magnetic

if,r* tftt dish slightly to the west ol hest As2

signal to drop 52l into a hetter null '

field level would be a great help' This magnettsm ts

olavinq hel l with televisions and computers!"' '

david Weaver, Satellite Television Rentals Ltd

Our first suggestion is an LNB or conneclorlcable

orott.t. Ctranqe tne LNB and be VERY carelul to

.Lrt-o.rt null ihe opposite polarity' There is a lat-RTP|'cross'pole

to EBB and it could be causing a

t',gt rrrot i.tt ' And redo all connectors (sealing

aoainst moisture) in the process' An LNB that gets-ioi

in ,t ' t daYtime wil l suck moisture (through

c0nnectors or case) when it cools ofl' ll you are-

.aitt not repaired, inspect how you power the

SK888. lt needs to be away lrom (not stacked

unier, lelow, adiacent to) ALL other electronics'

iinuffv, vou, problem could be adjacent satellite

init iftttntt lrom a data channel on 521 at l03E'

Hong Kong tel + + 852'2699'0564

Not youi everyday challenge' Magnetism. .fuiignttnt of electrical f ields around a solid

*niur,o, such as the iron pieces noted) is an

unnatural state lor man'made iron' A

maqnetometer is a device to read the level 0l

riagnetism that exists' lt is unlikely that

contiriuity (a complete electrical circuit) exists

lt,*.tn ,lt of tttt iron rebar rods plus the iron

UinOing wire which simply means the problem

coutU w-eft be hundreds or thousands of separale-orolf ttt. Solution? Wrap the entire building in

" . ru. ru l hundred turns 0f #18 wire and apply

io,ooO uort. t0 Y0ur "transiormer"'When the

smoke clears, the magnetism will be gone!

A!i. Zoo hfl

' \

\

Predicted JcSat-4 f rom 128E

(C-band toP, Ku-band below)Courtesv David Leach' NSW

the present level of satellites being

ffJ,t*o.til;;;;;ffiJs M-eteor shower due in Nov.emb':11,6*':]:

;jlil til;ilil'ilffiil'eruice mav rock on PowerVu but r:i:,i:l:-iL:*'nffip.-ttv;i"li;,t;;; t;nh"'o*" up 0n lD m:nu' thl - -G.Yl;lil*t-llffffiil,ir, rt, ti'"tti*'is us based business data service that includes minor

o ^ , , ^ , ^ l h , , n d r o d

amountofvideo,most|yhighspeeddatat0serversandrouters.severa|hundred

qHffiffi#AGEM Australia sent us a copv orpa.

-t t ot SatiACTS for May' I read with great

int.,rrt tlou, PowerVu because we discovered' quite

ir tf,rtrrrt, ,flu one of our digital units can receive Asia

elrinttt News on PAS'2' I am looking {or information

rtou, ,f it PowerVu; is it a scrambling system? We have

;;rt*t" are awaiting installations in Sydney area alone'

Pausecontro |?0nHyundaiHSS. l00c,pushingi t re |ocks| ipsynconNTSC.Nowthere is perfect frffSC pfus pnl reception' SCPC' MCPC' and PowerVu' The beat

tTi,llht# channelnati'nalbeam service 0ptus 83 (12'550H2' Msvm 20'000'

FEC 718) requires 2'4m dish in Australian NT' costs A$39'95 plm with World Movies

optional extra at $6.95' Vi;;;;'p*uioutfv using Palapa B'MAC services are being

uigeO to switch t0 Austar; perhaps not a g00d 1693 (p' 22)'

GMA,s C2 service Oirrpp*"i for neariy 3 days late in May; typhoon damage'

pACE DVR200p, FTA i/lprg z receiver designed for Asia and paci{ic offered at

A$704 by skandia. ,,n,rirr. o"oared by pACE derails reception capabilities of EBB

but wittrout explanation does not list RAI ltaly'

Ghange?Yes.Store?tr to . f ta t ispresentbot tom| inewi thNokiagS00eta| |Ros.You can change parameter; for watching a single channel while watching to

e|iminateundesiredartefacts;but,youcann0tstorethesechanges.Enthusiastsmaynot mind reprogramming a complicated menu' conilmers will *ip6 (p' 12)'

never heard of it."

Mrs Salima ALA0Ul, International Sales Departmenl

SAGEM SA, Paris France

Apparently SA does not speak French' That's 0K'

.orn. ol u, b.l i.ve they don't speak English either'

Ouit. .trting SAGEM has to learn about I'problem

PowerVu from us!

ffiP'D6t

@

Nervous November Niehts

METEOR STORM PREDICTED-

SIGNIFICANT SATELLITE DAMAGE POSSIBLE

Geostationary satellites , 22,300 miles/36,000km point far (far!) away, our relative location would clrange

above the equator, are at best vulner"b;";;;;;". tu", trme. tnis simpry means rhat the small segment of

There are three common threats to the .""i""i""i "l"O deep space through which we are now travelling may

electrical safety of a geo satellite: not have the same "vacuum characteristics" as a poftion

1)Be ingbumpedor rundownbymanmadehardware .we 'w i l l t rave l th rough in l00or l ,000years .other satellites drifting out of controlled #fitttdl;t the third planet from our sun; there are six

fourtri) stage rocket -ito, parts, ,,shrapn"r,i no*-"u,t", others also revorving around our "small" class star' In

space disasters are all potentiar -bullets ;;il; or uoaition to the nine planets, there are several rings of

ciippri'g an otrrerwis" no'-ur saterrite '"r'o'J ri' "*' *:*:g*':iT ;tii"ii;11#:'ffir"1,1i1:";ffi;business. .:;;; :;;:t. ^',. qrrn i 'st as we do.

(

2) Particle eruptions spewed forth by our sun' whichcircleoursunjustas

Earlhlings are well protected from a ""ri"tr'"ip"'i"iit ^,11.: Otun"tary and debris paths around the sun are Rear

(and largely unpredictable in advan"e; emissions from circural and piedictabre. There is another class of sun

the sun by our magnetosphere, i";'r";;;

^;; "-i"; J"i.ir.*tti"h requires tens or even hundreds of

stratosphere. A geostationary satellite riding well.above 1::t: ; complete a single revolution' These pathways

most of this protective.ou., i, bornbarded leveral times u1:,:lt*tttul rather than circular and pass through our

e a c h y e a r b y p a r t i c l e s w e l i t t l e u n d e r s t a n d a n d t h e r e f o r e r e g i o n o f t h e s o l a r s y s t e m v e r y i n f r e q u e n t l y . T h elrave a difficult time desig'ing protectto" ;;;,,'

-.

1"ollat with a 33 year "period" between passings close

3) Space particles. Although ,pu".1-, frimarily a fo earth is one such event' Here is the bottom line: The

vacLrlrm, it is hardly empry of content.;;;;;;;ri; fi^":,ut will make its next 33-vear-return appearance in

(particres typically i.., tnun 1 micron in diameter) and the close proximity o-f eafh on November 17th - actually

earth collid e at arate estimated to be in excess qf one o' *o'" Novlmber l7ths between 199'�7 and 2003'

50,000,000times perday' Largerparticles';t;*tttl;, at1*ntn it arrives' the meteorite count for a period of

than I mm in diameter, numbering in .*""r, of tb,00o upp.o*i.*r"ly 4 hours is predicted to rise to more than

per 24hours are approaching " *l':lt,:?1*.1;ii: ji'o';00 ;"' hour' Pe' hour! we'll return to what tliis

;;;";;Lni" rtuta*u'" tu"n at modest travelling ilffiJi

'ffi ;,;;;", ,r"". ;;,, n", r". to be identined a.s ryffiffi::i?",:r*10,000 particles rarge enougrr

the cause of any satellite injury or 1",, - ;;;';;;ill to au*ug? a satelliti if striking it are encountered by

surely corne as ,fr" u*o.rni oi d"b.i, *'"'Uli g'"*'' earth eaJh day' a l0 square metre surface area satellite

Micrometeorites (up to lmm in diameter) *l'o"it"l""J'a tru. t"r, ttrun r chun"" in too,ooo of being struck during

have caused some damage but as we are unable to u ,." "v""r

lifetime. Those are pretty safe odds' And

retrieve a disabled geostationary saterii; "il

G *hen ihe number of meteorite particles rips from 10'000

-mortem inspection, sc.ientists can not U" t"'tuin of itt"t' per-day to 150'000 per hour during a meteorite storm

Larger space particles (meteorites) -to r.;;;i';;;';;l; tu"r' ^ the Leonids' the odds are still quite good (1

diameter - are certainly large enough;';; ; :lT:"

in l'428) that a particular satellite will be struck

geostationary ,ut.ttit" io ,,nlttir""ns. The good news is in-any given hour of high meteorite activity'

rhat as the meteorite size goes up, rhey b"r"";;;; il Y; ; visualise the damage resulting from a piece of

ress common so th; ;dis or'u ai'""'TilffiJ:: :*l**U,.*ll;; :i:::*fi"ltll*: i:::tdramaticallY.

Space ,,dust" is more or less evenly distributed th" 3;";iiss'l22kilometres

perhour (l)' Most of a

throughout rhe sorar system, probably d; "r#;";; satellite surface area is represented by the solar panels

well. Remember that *'hil. ou. "urtf, ,."uotJ", utot"J'n" (up to 80 square metresl and the uplink receive /

srur (a'd on a shorter period our moon 'i""f""' "t"t"A downlink transmit antenna arrays (up to 20 square

earth), the entire solai system ir,,'ou*g "iu'i""1o "ff t:lr."g'The actual satellite seldom exceeds 10 square

other universes and conste'ations. If you could 100k .n",r"r. Solar panels and antenna a'ays are thin and

back on earth and ou' 'i"o"tu"'otu'o'];'Jil;"; li;ffiiil"tJ",t"il'lTil irtili:::i: J?;:IT":"J;

OVERVIEW Of thE LEONIDS

Last Seven Serious Leonid Encounters1 7 9 9 N o v . 1 2 - 0 7 1 2 - 1 2 O O U T C 1 O , O O O p / h { * )

1832 Nov. 12- 2136-0713UTC 2O,OOO p/h1833 Nov. 13- 0712-12OOUTC 5O,OOO p ih1866 Nov. 14- OOOO-OO48UTC 1O,OOO p/h1 8 6 7 N o v . 1 5 - 0 7 1 2 - 1 2 O O U T C 1 , 5 0 0 p / h1 965 Nov. 17 - 0224-191 2UTC 5 ,OOp/h

1 966 Nov. 1 7- 0936-1 424UTC 1 SO,OOOp/h

Predicted Peak Times for Next Return1997 Nov. 17-1 l OOUTC (+ / - 3 hours )

1 9 9 8 N o v . 1 7 - 1 7 O 2 U f C ( + / - 3 . 5 h o u r s )1999 Nov. 17-23O2UTC l+ l - 4 hours )

2OOO Nov. 1 7 -051 TUTC ( + / - 3 .5 hours )2 O O 1 N o v . 1 7 - 1 1 1 7 U T C ( + / - 3 h o u r s )

2 O O 2 N o v . 1 7 - 1 7 3 1 U T C ( + l - 2 . 5 h o u r s )2003 Nov. 17-2359UTC (+ l - 2 hours )

*/ Number of meteorite "burn trails" to be seen by an observer on earth from one location (!) in a period of one hour

slowing down. The body of the satellite is anothermatter; very dense matter at that.

Kinetic energy. A micrometeorite weighing l/l00th ofa gram (visualise how small that really is), travelling at255,600 km per hour, has the impact power of a stick ofdynamite. This impact power (kinetic energy) is deadly.A mere speck of a particle, so small as to only leave amicroscopic pit in the outer surface, packs suchtrernendous "raw" energy that microseconds after beingstruck the satellite explodes; just as if a stick ofdynamite had been set off inside of the bird.

If kinetic energy was not a significant enough worry,there is an even deadlier force packed inside ofthe tinymicro or larger meteorite: Plasma clouds.

Superfast particles colliding with a semisolid objectsuch as a geostationary satellite create an immediatechild of the collision. Scientists call this a plasma cloud.This plasrna cloud is only now being slightly understood(it is difficult to simulate properly on earth).Researchers say it is a field of raw electrical energy(while kinetic energy is raw explosive power) and theplasma cloud forms and spreads throughout the body ofthe struck object at something approaching the speed oflight. So here is the sequence:

l) The satellite is struck by a superfast movingparticle.

2) A microscopic scar, barely a paint chip in size,appears on the skin of the object. If the object is thin(such as the solar panel or a dish antenna array) theparticle exits with virtually no reduction in forwardspeed. If the object is thicker at the point of impact (thesatellite body proper), the particle will possibly still be"passing through" as ...

3) A plasma cloud forms and moving at the speed oflight (305,000 km per hour - even faster than theparticle) the electrical energy from the cloud willoverwash and consume every electrical circuit in thesatellite (akin to a lightning strike on earth hitting anelevated aerial) .

4) Meanwhile, a microsecond later, the kinetic energyfrom the particle creates the equivalent of an explosionwith the power of a stick of dynamite (or more - afunction ofthe particle size and speed).

In ve{y slow motion, if you were standing off to theside and witnessing this death of a satellite, you wouldsee the pit form on the surface, then witness a giganticfireworks display as the plasma cloud short circuited thesatellite's electrical and electronics subassemblies,followed by the implosion and then explosion of thesatellite itself sdnding shrapnel pieces in all directions.

The Leonids meteor shower, which returns onNovember Iz-l7th every 33 years (+/- 3 years) will in afour hour period have a 1 in 357 chance of striking aparticular geostationary satellite if the actualmicrometeorite and meteorite rate of the Leonidsreaches the 1966 estimate of 150,000 particles per hour.The increase in particles being caught up by the earthcannot be accurately forecast since previous Leonidevents (1965/66 and prior) all occurred before wearrived at our present state of technology which will -now for the first time - allow scientists to determine witlr+l- l0o precision the real particle bombardment rate.

Forecasts of the strike odds of the Leonids in its nextclose encounter with earth are fraught withuncertainties. As the table above shows, although theorbital path of earth and the elliptical path of theLeonids come in close proximity to one another every33 years, there is no certainty the two will collide ornear-collide within any specific 33 year return point.The Leonids are probably the remains of theTemple-Tuttle comet. Comets measured to date range upto l0 miles in diameter; at the core is frozen water androck particles. As a comet moves closer to the sun,heating creates sublimation (surface water heats,producing the space equivalent of stearn) and tlrus thecomet tail (material released from the comet's surface).Temple-Tuffle remnants orbit the sun in a plane almostidentical to that of earth (inclined l3 degrees) but in theopposite orbital direction. This accounts for thetremendous speed at which Leonids particles strike theregion of the earth - a locomotive running headlong intoa motorcycle with both at full throttle.

The particle stream is compact and unusually dense -as narrow as 22,000 miles across. You can calculate tlielength (as opposed to the width) by recognising the

MEANWHILE - What About Particle Eruptions from the Sun?

A di rect s t r ike by a meteor i te (par t ic le) is a ser ious concern but hard ly the only one. Erupt ions f rom the sun

are in fact the larger worry. Our sun spews for th a wide range of emiss ions of which v is ib le l ight is a by

oroduct . Some of these emiss ions would k i l l you dead were i t not for the shie ld ing ef fect of the st ratosphere

and atmosphere. The ozone hole is a minor c lass of th is sor t of threat . Our sun has an e leven or twenty- two

year "cyc le" of so lar d is turbances (cal led sun spots in the t rade) . Sun spots are v is ib le, dark coloured

blemishes that form f rom erupt ions below the sur face. Once on the sur face, a sun spot may last f rom a few

days to s ix months. Sun spots are "vents" which dra in of f powerfu l geomagnet ic d is turbances occurr ing

wi th in the sun's subsurface area. Addi t ional ly , a sor t of reverse sun spot ca l led a "coronal hole" can a lso

fo rm and " ven t " ou r sun ' s gaseous bu i l d up . Th ink o f t he sun as a g ian t s tomach and sun spo ts and co rona l

holes wi th belching or far t ing. L ike the human var iety , these (geomagnet ic) d is turbances are somet imes very

v io lent . When the sun burps, several c lasses of energy and mat ter spew for th. When th is energy reaches the

vic in i tv of ear th, a number of nasty th ings happen. The Aurora (bands of l ight co lour ing the n ight sky centred

over the south magnet ic pole) is one v is ib le s ide ef fect of th is energy reaching ear th.

I n m id -1978 an ea r l y US nava l sa te l l i t e (Seasa t 1 )sudden l y ceased to wo rk . Commerc ia l /m i l i t a r y

geostat ionary sate l l i tes were but 5 years o ld at the t ime; wi thout warning, the sate l l i te suddenly "dumped"

the contents of i ts bat ter ies and went dead. No warning, no te lemetry ink l ing of what went wrong.

Simul taneouslv, two ear ly RCA sate l l i tes (F1 , F2) went berserk shedding t ransponders ( they qui t ) and

register ing te lemetry data that made no sense. RCA got one back ip to proper operat ion, the other l imped

along, wounded, for several addi t ional years. The culpr i t was uncovered a decade later .

By January 1 994, when Anik E2 suddenly went out of contro l sc ient is ts had deduced a re lat ionship between

myster ious forces at work to grapple contro l o f geosats away f rom thei r nominal ear th bound contro l lers '

Erupt ions on the sun fo l lowed by unusual ly h igh levels of radiat ion (up to 5 days la ter by s lower moving

radiat ion st reams) was the declared cause. Solar s torms emit bands of radiat ion, some arr ive wi th in minutes

( t ravel l ing at the speed of l ight) , o thers (of ten more deadly) days af ter the solar erupt ion. One sc ient is t l ikens

the geostat ionary sate l l i te to you or I s tanding on a st reet corner when a hydrogen bomb goes of f mi les

away. We are f i rs t subjected to a br i l l iant , b l ind ing f lash, then a s lower moving debr is s torm as the force of

the explos ion sends shock waves over us, f ina l ly by the radiat ion laden par t ic les minutes la ter . A solar s torm

is the c losest th ing we have in our solar system to a hydrogen bomb explos ion - only th is explos ion is

mega-t imes as powerfu l as a manmade bomb.

Sa te l l i t es a re rou t i ne l y ' ha rdened 'aga ins t damage . Bu t ha rden ing means l aye r upon l aye r o f sh ie ld ing and th i s

added weight s igni f icant ly reduces the space and weight a l lowance for the work ing payload ( i .e . , the

sate l l i te) . So hardening is re lat ive. And i t has only been in the last few years that sc ient i f ic research sate l l i tes

ply ing the void of space have determined wi th an exactness the t rue character is t ics of the solar s torm threat '

I n t he i n te r im , An i k E1 , I n te l sa t K and i n Janua ry o f t h i s yea r Te l s ta r a l l su f f e red damage (Te l s ta r was to ta l l y

destroyed) coinc identa l wi th the arr iva l in our "a i r space" of a solar erupt ion "shock wave."

So qui te independent of a d i rect s t r ike by a meteor i te , sate l l i tes remain vulnerable to e lect romagnet ic damage

fol lowing a solar erupt ion. Doubt less mankind 's recent ly acquired and to be acquired knowledge concerning

the levels of radiat ion to be expected wi l l u l t imate ly lead to improved sate l l i te protect ion. For now, every

sate l l i te in orb i t and to be launched over the coming few years wi l l be a s i t t ing duck.

length of tirne the eartli is likely to be irrside of the

influence (see table, p. 7) less the forward motion of the

eafth through the stream. In the case of the Leonids, all

of this is fairly recent in universe time. The debris

stream is believed to have been cast off from the

Ternpel-Tuttle comet sometime after 1666.

Unlike still cohesive comets and other objects solid

enough to be picked up by radar or visually, a "swam"

of small rocks and ice is not evident until we are into it.

Moreover, there is no way to accurately foretell whether

earth will pass through an edge of the debris stream or

the middle. The elliptical trajectory of the Leonids

strearn is known but not well enough measured to

detennine with precision just which portion of the

22,000 mile widtli "centre" earth will encounter.

Moreover, the transit time of the elliptical orbit is

significantly affected by the closeness of the Leonids

path past our sun. In recorded history the 1833 pass was

the rnost spectacular; scientists uow understand why. At

that time the Leonids 33 year elliptical journey took it

close to the sun where heating of the core caused the

debris to separate and form a much larger particle base.

Unfortunately, the 1991-2002 pass duplicates this

close-to-the-sun path leading to forecasts that the usually

mild Leonids will this time around be unlike anything

witnessed in modern recorded time.None of this is giving comfort to satellite operators nor

their insurance carriers. Where possible, satellites will

be "turned sideways" to present tlre lowest possible

head-on profile to the debris stream, thereby reducing

the odds of a particle collision. With his manoeuvre,

satellite service will be lost or impaired for the duration

of the storm. It all promises to be an experience of a

lifetime, on earth and in the air.

{

-rJ

ozo-

I T

FJ

=

oo-r r

gt

3FJUTf+o-

U

w\0tjlooVI

w= .

50a

ttl

t-t--J

(D

Eo€(D-t

o-h

3c-t-+

= '(Do_- t

FJr-+.o

oc-

-{

.ilITI:{1\o){I

NIo(rlsA{NC^)C^)a

Bxo){I

NIo(tlsN{AglN

t

ooI

o0l

D0q?ULT

I0b"p!fTrDxIqIbt?U,{NNo

cqi)>,l"LO

$S0)

0!0)06)

0

0I

A)cu,o\p00

ITALIANS IN GENERAL ARE SOCCER MAD.

Coop's Note'. Australian's of ltalian descent are angry.Their much loved soccer matches are systematicallydeleted from the European Bouquet (EBB) feed onAsiasat 2 while those who have access to Optus (cable,'

and we assume Optus satellite after I July) cansubscribe to the RAI service complete with the ltaliansoccer matches. Satellite dealer Pietro Casoar(Digitalsat Communications, 4 Malcolm St., Oak Park,Melbourne, Vic. 3046; ++61-3-9306-4167) reviews thesituation as it exists early in June. Of note, as reportedin SF April l5th, the 1995 Australian census found269,400 ,lmigrds of ltalian descent.

Growins concern about the Italian channel "RAI" hasbeen quit'e evident in the last 3 months with mycllstomers, would be customers and myself (and I amsure I am not alone). Everyone wants to know about aparticular sporting content: Soccer Matches!

All soccer matches on RAI EBB are blacked out withan Italian Teletext page plus Radio RAI for the audio. Ihave been able to backtrack and trace the origins ofthisas follows:

1) The RAI International feed (on EBB) is relayeddirectly from the satellite Eutelsat II-Fl (so-calledHotbird 1) which is at 13E. This digital feed on 11.646GHz is FTA.

2) Contacts at RAI are at ++39 6 3878 (RAI

Switchboard, ask to speak to the RAI International repfor the Asia and Australia region), or call directly MrGiovanni Deluca (++39 6 3317 1505).

3) Watch closely just before a soccer match begins. Asthe match opens, for approximately 10 seconds you willeither see the launch of the opening segment or theplayers on the field, and then abruptly the Teletext

screen appears.This is totally intentional and is only done when there

is a soccer match.As many observers would have noticed, at the start up

date of RAI International on EBB. all soccer matcheswere shown. And, let's be honest, the inclusion of the

soccer matches was the strongest selling point to the

Italian community and I should know - I am one ofthernl But from the date when RAI has blocked thesematches on EBB, sel.ling a DTH dish to a member of theItalian community has been very difficult. MostAustralian-Italians feel that without soccer, it is not

worth the money to spend for this service' And word

that soccer is missing has spread rapidly in the Italiancommunity - all of my early clients want to know "When

will soccer come back on?" Most would have gonedirectly to Optus Vision which does carry the soccermatches if they had known the soccer matches would beeliminated.

What makes this situation very difficult is that the RAIpeople have become very tight lipped about this matter;all they will say to us when we call is, "ft is a malter o/international soccer telecast rights."

I think not. Rather, I believe RAI has no legalproblems with the soccer match rights holders overtelecasting to Australia; their real problem is with aagreement negotiated between an executive of RAI son-reyears ago and a Saudi firm that believed it waspurchasing "exclusive" RAI rights for Australia. WhertRAI discovered, after first telecasting the soccermatches through EBB, that people could purchase a dishand view RAI, I feel certain the Saudi contract holderscomplained. RAI could not get out of the contract withthe Saudis, and, it could not back out of the EBBagreements. To make the Saudis less unhappy, perhapsto prevent a law suit, they negotiated a compromise:"Eliminate the popular soccer matches so that the Saudiscould still sell the RAI feed (with soccer included) toOptus Vision. In this way the Saudis would get a retlrrnfor their investment while RAI could 'save face' and staya part of the AsiaSat 2 EBB bouquet."

Remember that on Eutelsat II-FI RAI is free to airthroughout all of Europe, the middle east and NorthAfrica. Australia's approximately l7 million people andour Italians numbering under 270,000 are a mere drop inthe ocean in the coverage numbers of Eutelsat. Thesoccer matches routinely appear on Eutelsat-F 1 .

RAI owns the rights world-wide to these soccermatches, of that I am convinced. SatFACTS for Mayl5th (p. 4) reported: "A

former top exec of RAI made aside deal with a personal friend in the Arab businessworld and the present RAI management is reluctant topiss off the Arabs by cancelling the contract." | find itcurious that RAI which is committed to displaying thebest of Italian culture and society to the world throughEBB and other transmission outlets is more concernedabout pissing off one Arab business executive thandepriving the 270,000 Italians living in Australia of theirnational sport and passion. I further note that in turningoff the live soccer coverage to Australia via EBB, RAI is

also depriving Italians and others within the other 51Asian and Pacific countries reached bv EBB of this

Pietro Casoar On RAI's Anti-Australian Attitude

PERIOD!

"Che Vergonia!" What RAI Doeq to the EBB Feed

While l tal ian soccer is scheduled l ive on Eutelsat l l -F1, RAI control drops in Teletext ( lef t) marr ied to RAIradio audio on AsiaSat 2. Meanwhi le Austral ian Optus cable gets their RAI feed, st i l l wi th soccer intact,

through a separate feed on PAS-2 (on r ight, see p. 27, here; photos taken 1 second apart) .

important part of our culture. This seems like atremendous price to be paying all out of fear of ,,not

pissing off an Arab businessman."To add insult to injury, RAI also now chooses to

eliminate a soccer news programme called "La GiostraDei Gol" from the EBB package. They replace thisprogramme, for which we see promotions during theweek, with a live feed from RAI TRE called "euelli Che... Il Calcio..." The difference between the two shows isthat on "La Giostra Del Gol" excerpts from soccermatches are shown while on "Quelli Che ...I1 Calcio..."they only talk about soccer.

I recently advertised in the Australian/Italiannewspaper "Il Globo" and had 20 calls. The firstquestion was always, "Is there LIVE soccer?" A truthfulanswer and bang - the caller hung up. If they live whereOptus Vision cable is available, their choice is obvious.A dish costs more up front, but there are no monthlyfees. Optus Vision costs little (or nothing) up front, andyou pay monthly for the service. Even where Optuscable is not available, it is usually "no sale" for a dishsimply because of the importance attached to having"LIVE soccer." Italians are soccer mad. period.

All of this has made me cynical that RAI Internationalhas a long (or short!) term plan to eventually encrypt theAs2 EBB feed. If you check their web site(www.mix. itlraiinternational) you will quickly see their

service is FTA throughout Europe, and with theexceptions noted, on As2. In North and South America itis carried encrypted and sold to DTH viewers or throughcable. As much as I would like to believe the story that itis FTA as "Italy's window to the world,', there is anagging realisation that it is FTA only as a tool to get abroad viewing base, to hook people on the service, inpreparation for one day announcing it will revert to apay service. Leaving soccer out of the EBB coverage isto deprive overseas Italians (and others) of one of themost compelling aspects of the Italian culture: Soccer.Imagine going into an Italian restaurant that does notserve pizza, spaghetti or vino. Che Vergonia!

I recently viewed a soccer match between portugal andItaly on FTA RTPi (also on As2). How ironic! This fliesin the face of the statements issued by RAI Internationalthat "international rights issues" are preventing themfrom carrying the Italian matches on EBB.

I am calling for an investigation of how this matter hasbeen handled, and asking other concerned parties tojoinme in berating RAI for this action. If RAI made a badbusiness deal with a Saudi firm over "Australian rights,"let them be honest enough to admit this and to rememberthat RAI is funded for the use of ltalians at home andoverseas, not as a tool that lines the pockets of formerexecutives and their Arab friends with eold.

Transmit and receive antennas from l.2m to l3m (lntelsar Stanclarcl B).Linear and circular feeds (Asiasat, Palapa, Jcsat, Rimsar. panAmsat,

f ntefsat and more) for transmit and re,ce.ive,-only applications. Receiva andlransmif electronics including incl ined orbit traclr inq equipmenf with mofor

drives for alavafion and azimuth to 50 tons. Complcte system clesign,fabrication, installation * proof of performance. F

Limitecl

PAcIFIc

ANTENNAs

PaCifiC AntennaS Limited Bryon G.G. Evans, po Box 265, Whangaparaoa,NZTel/fax 64-9-424-0841 o Mobile 025-7 89_160

The Ever Chaneing World of Digital

DIGITAL HARDWAREAND PROGRAMMING UPDATE

97 -5

Nokia Version 2.233: Left / ART Austral ia PAS-2, middle PAS-2 EWTN; r ight, PAS-2 TCS Singapore

Our front cover this month says it all. There are now

receivers in the marketplace into which you can load theparameters for an array of (almost) instant-recall MPEGprogramme sources. Without regard whether the

services originate in MPEG-2 or PowerVu, NTSC or

PAL. And when they are in PowerVu and NTSC? No

freeze framing, no glitches. Digital Christmas has finally

arrived in the Pacific and Asia.The marketplace has been ready, and anxious, to

purchase MPEG-digital receivers from the date 13

months ago that Scientific-Atlanta first incorrectly

announced their D9223 as an "MPEG-2 compliant"

receiver. A slow trickle of limited function MPEG

format receivers followed the first SA release, none

were capable of accessing more than a handful of

services and most required elaborate software input

changes before a viewer could switch from one service

to another. We have all learned a range of new terms

and much about the limitations of "DVB Compliant"

technology in the interim period. We now know that

receivers capable of processing MCPC (multiple

channel per carrier) services such as the European

Bouquet (EBB) often cannot process SCPC (single

channel per carrier) format transmissions. We know that

transmissions in NTSC format create difficulties for

many receivers designed to work only with PAL. And

we have learned that MPEG-2 variants, using

proprietary software routines such as the PowerVu

service from SA, are very difficult to process (if at all)

on true "MPEG-2 Compliant" format receivers.The first non-PowerVu receivers offered were quite

literally smuggled out of South Africa where they were

being sold for the conditional access MultiChoice

service. Quite by design accident they worked, after a

fashion, with a handful of services such as the NBC

bouquet on PAS-2 and the early CCTV (Chinese)

services. Even the Galaxy (Pace built) DGT-400receivers were found to be capable of NBC bouquetreception, unless of course the DGT-400 had beenupgraded by Galaxy "over the air" (after which it wouldno longer receive the NBC services on C-band). Noneof the models available through the balance of 1996offered more than EBB, NBC and CCTV reception.

Then late in December with no prior announcementthe first Chinese SCPC service appeared on As2; todaythere are 12 of these regional Chinese (Mandarin)

channels through I I separate uplinks. Philips hadsupplied the uplinks and a token number of SCPCMPEG-2 receivers to kick-off the new Chinese services.Every manufacturer in the world would by January bebeating a pathway to China to offer their own expertiseand receivers. With as many as 1,000,000 receivers forthis service forecast for 1997, suddenly the digital worldwas taking an interest in Asia.

There followed a number of "C" model receivers,designed for the Chinese SCPC market. Some of thesereceivers (Philips and others) were specifically designedfor the SCPC transmission parameters making themuseless for MCPC format transmissions. Others wereoriginally designed as MCPC units quickly softwaremodified to add SCPC. Out of all of this came a handful

of models with special software which, mostly byaccident, also worked after a fashion with NTSC (as

well as PAL) and PowerVu (as well as standard DVB

Compliant MPEG-2) services. As early as January ofthis year such receivers were provided for testing by

manufacturers such as Hyundai and Nokia. However,

until late in May no receiver could boast the ability to

receive all available formats without undesired artefacts.

The most common undesirable artefacts were freeze

framing at approximately 20 second intervals on NTSC

signals (a brief interuption in picture, sometimes sound,

that lasted 0.5 seconds and then reception resumed) - the

Nokia receivers, or, out of sync audio and video on

$agCO

SATELLITE BECEIYEBFLOT / EXTERIMENTER STECIAL !!

GET A 9INGLE INTUTFAND RECEIVER WITH-

/ toonETlc polariser Driver

,l trrtBV LNB switching

/ *t output (vHF)

/ t*tt** AL r7v DC 900 ma power suppr),.

MMEKCIAL

FOK fi49 YOU12 CHANNEL K

/ t^t"EstsED rF runing

/ tt*to AuDIo at 6.5 MHz **{<1,

,l ,r, DlGlTAt channel # Display

,IREMOTE control

These receivers are surplus stock, bulk purchase, pulled outof a commercial network operating on OPTUS 81 a few years ago.

They are ideal for monitoring video on any K band analoguetransponder. A simple one chip PLL audio demodulatorcan be built to restore the full audio tuning range. It may

also be possible to simply modify them for C-band reception (x*).Every unit checked and pre-tuned to transponder 7 on oprus B l.

THESE LINITS are 2nd hand, and have been pre-tested before despatch.

* * * * A SIMPLE audio demodulator can easily be added to give full rangeaudio tuning; we supply an experimental circuit.

* * PHOTOCOPY of circuit and user instructions supplied with each unit.

/ ygS GARRY, Please reserve the $49 satellitereceiver for ...NAME

T0 CORRECT NTSC FREEZE UP on NOKIA 9500 S

Must be "version" 2+ but wil l not work with ALL versions'From red screen menu '

1 ) Change reg 71 to 832) Change 61 to 05 and then go back to 07

which oroduces "clear PAL output with no freeze up."

T0 CORRECT NTSC LIP SYNC on HYUNDAI HSS' I00C1) Take remote in hand

2) Push "pause'pause" on remoteThe receiver wil l "blink" and relock with video and audio in

sync. When you change programme channels inside the samebouquet, it may or may not have to be renewed.

NTSC signals (sound behind the video) - the Hyundai

receivers. Late in May all of this sorted out; sort of.

Of the many software versions of the Nokia 9500 S

now in distribution, at least one version has capacity to:

l) Load (they claim) up to 600 programme channels

within as many as 60 bouquets;2) With use of the "Red Menu" eliminate the annoying

20 second NTSC freeze uP (above).

A unit received for test by SaIFACTS loaded 78

programme channels from 30 bouquets before we

decided to call it a day (see front cover)' So here, at last,

is a machine that does SCPC, MCPC, MPEG-2 and

PowerVu. Is this the perfect, everyone wants one' IRD?

Possibly not.The software versiou oll otlr test unit is no longer

identified on the front panel LCD during power up'

Previously the LCD advised you of the "v" (version)

number for the software. Replacing this display, our

receiver says "Nokiae3," all run together. Does "e3" tell

us a software version? Unlikely. There is more, a

sticker appearing on,lhe bottom reading:Boot 2.00 UnSNo. 2 .233"

A sirnilar (perhaps identical) version of the 9500 S has

also anived in quantity at OPAC (1) in Australia;

smaller quantities at AV-COMM (1) Comparing notes

with Jacob Keness and Garry Cratt, it appears our test

unit and those received by OPAC and AV-COMM

perfonn identicallY.Without going into the infamous "Red Screen" menu,

this Nokia version loads everything in the sky (whether

conditional access or not) without overwriting the

channel listings; a major improvement from earlier

Nokia units. On NTSC services (whether PowerVu or

not) the receiver has the 20 second "NTSC glitch freeze"

extensively reported previously in SaIFACTS. For those

unfamiliar with this artefact. the NTSC video runs fine

for 20 seconds and then locks (freezes) for

approximately 112 second. Then it unlocks and for 20

seconds the reception is perfect again; to repeat' On

some (but not all) NTSC services the video lock up is

accompanied by an equal period of time when the audio

also stops. Nokia sources in Sweden are now promising

yet another version, the 8200 S, "late in August" which

will have twin menus - one for PAL format MPEG-2

and a second for PowerVu NTSC. Where that may leave

non-PowerVu NTSC services (such as STAR TV otr

AsiaSat 2) is unclear. For now a dedicated persoll can

enter the magic Red Screen Menu numbers shown here

to clear up the NTSC glitch; provided you start from a

co-operative software version (2). The bad news is the

Red Screen Menu is very touchy to use and easy to

screw up; this solution may be OK for an enthusiast but

it is hardly consumer friendly.Meanwhile in the Hyundai camp there is limited joy

because it is possible to push a button twice (see above)

and cause the audio-video lip sync problem to correct

itself. This, again, relates to receiving NTSC services

which have not been "perfect" because of this artefact.

That's the good news. The less good news is that most

Hyundai users are discovering the receiver is very slow

to respond when changing bouquets and because it

creates its own numbering (logging) system for

bouquets, you have no on-screen identification of

programmers as you scroll through the loaded

transponders and bouquets. There are additional "hidder-r

menus" within the Hyundai now being studied to see if

the remaining problems can be corrected.Should you continue to "wait" for the perfect "all

singing, all dancing" receiver? If you are an enthusiast

and want to be a part of the larger learning exercise now

underway, there is no reason to prolong selecting from

either the Hyundai or Nokia (of the proper software

version). If you are handling receivers for resale. and

NTSC is an important part of your customer needs, the

Hyundai is the better choice (provided you understand

the limitations). For cable or SMATV use. either

receiver can be programmed to provide dedicated

programme channel service in either PAL or NTSC

(however, if power is cut to either receiver, and you

were set to receive an NTSC service, someone will have

to reset the receiver after the power comes back on; a

hidden menu in the Hyundai claims to be able to fix this- we will see).

This note. The various suppliers handling the Hyundai

and Nokia products has changed during the past 30 days;

r"" p"g" I

1/ OPAC Ptv Ltd: tel + +-61-2-9584'1233; AV-COMM Ptv

Ltd + + 61-2-9949-74172/ ro determin.'t t"r:il"Jf

;:f"":,'"", the Nrsc glitch as

(1) Press radio-up-radio, (2) l f your front panel LCD shows a TV

channel name, the procedure above should work

I

IlII

, l

l) Distributors do not sell directly to the public the early days of DTFVTVRO. Initially, to qualify as a(consumer), only to authorised dealers dealer (and to be able to buy at dealer pricing) one

2) Distributors act as a warranty clearing house for the needed only a business card and to show up at a tradedealer service problems show. Starting from ground zero, there were no

Where The Buck Stops

When a new technology appears, there is always aninstant market of people who simply must have thelatest, best, most exciting new products. In the retailtrade such buyers are known as "early adoptors."

Most manufacturers attempt to control their productintroductions (called the "roll out phase") by arrangingfor distribution through firms with the proper credentialsto support the new technology. The manufacturer mustprovide some form of (stated in writing) "'Warrant5/"

and equally important, an established procedure for theultimate buyer to follow should there be a call on thewarranty.

In most consumer product categories the manufacturerdoes not service dealers directly, rather it sells todistributors. The distributor selects dealers to handle theproduct, ensures the dealers are properly equipped andtrained, and assumes a warehousing function. There areseveral cardinal rules:

3) The manufacturer does not sell to dealers,usually as a matter of conscience establishes (setsdistributors by (exclusive) geographic regions

Getting into this "stream" as a dealer usually involvesconvincing the distributor your business will moveproduct, and not embarrass either the distributor ormanufacturer.

The satellite DTH field has often eliminated thedistributor level of the chain and usually with poorresults. When DTH began in North America, individualshoping to become dealers attended the thrice annualtrade shows to talk directly with manufacturers. Mostmanufacturers created "starter packages" consisting ofall of the basic parts required for three complete C-bandsystems. The would be dealer bought a starter pack,went home and installed one for himself and then triedto sell two others. With the proceeds from the first two,he would order three more equipment packages and ifsuccessful eventually grow to the pricing levelsattendant with purchasing ten or more at one time.

An individual or business could not buy a single"complete system wholesale" (i.e., at dealer pricing) forquite some time (often six months or more after theirfirst purchase, and then only under unusualcircumstances). This policy eliminated people whowould attend a trade show pretending to be a dealer onlyfor the purpose of acquiring one system for their own

MANUFACTURER. DISTRIBUToR,DEALER, coNsuMER

Responsible for productintegrity

Responsible for productback-up

Responsible for productinstallation, customereducation

needs at wholesale pricing. Once a "dealer" hadreordered sufficient times to have established himself asa mover of equipment, then the distributor might at hisoption allow individual parts to be purchased.

This procedure grew out of the chaos that came from

and distributors and no dealers so manufacturers (many,up) themselves, very small in size) were willing to sell to

anyone capable of paying for the equipment. Antennas(then, like now in the Pacific, typically 3m in size)presented a special logistics problem. They weredifficult (and expensive) to ship and only madeeconomic sense when shipped in large quantities.

Distributors became a feature of hardware distributionfor two primary reasons:

l) To reduce the freight costs (by shipping more ar onetime, to take advantage of bulk container spacediscounts)

2) To reduce the "service work load" on the manufa-turers.

New dealers and/or new products always creates asignificant new level of hand holding guidance for amanufacturer. People who could not spell satellite oneweek were suddenly selling satellite systems the nextweek and often without any training. By placing adistributor befween the dealer and the manufacturer, themajority of the service and "help me!" calls wereeliminated.More Recently - Out Here

In the Pacific and Asia, we have been unfortunateenough to fall into the satellite world at a point in timewhere the easy analogue systems are on their way out

UNCLCBAYSAT

CONGRATULAT€S

R\NNSPORN. - - - - - n u r r n M - \ L . f : H\) L{ \ qC\T\T;\\;cr VJ \5\\\\]\\LiF\\{S\\\\ E\\.

r\ r;rrwYn:r \\\r^-rrw F)arq-l\qlr:r A\\9\ \\\\ N\S\t tll.SiG\\\G\\\\\\

THE WINNER of the first PALCOM SL-7900RPSuper Receiver in the SaIFACTS Reader Contest!There is still one more of these superb receivers

to be given away. Good luck to all of the contestantsfrom the folks at BAYSAT - home of PALCOM

??#€**tr*$ ***" t{

WE ARE PLEASED TO OFFER A 2oo/o REDUCTION ON SL-79OORPRECETVERS ORDERED BY IULY l ST. STOCK lS AVAILABLE NOW FOR

IMMEDIATE DELIVERY! ORDER TODAY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT.

weS'LLacceot BAYSAT€LLIT€TV LTDYFS! V tsA, Mastercard w i th PO Box 3311 . Nap ier , New Zea land ' te l to l l f ree OBOO-BAYSATI vtt

NO surcharge! International O4-O-843-5296. Fax 64-6-843-6429 K,SOO-22}-7281Phys i ca l l o ca t i on . 198 Ca rneg ie Road , Onekawa , Nap ie r

http:/www.baysat.co.nze-mail john@baysat.co.nz

in the South Pacific!

G*.ffi

._-

I

tt

tt1f

tt

.&x '

;x&$,

\' ',q$

SL-7900RP: 500 channel memory Hi-Fi Stereo satellite receiver with lull motorised actuator dish control built-in. Two lF inputs(950-2050 MHz); Standard 27ll9MHz lF bandwidths, plus 32 step threshold extension for signals as weak as 3dB C/N; Fullytuneable audio sub-carrier range (5.5 - 9.5 MHz) independent on L and R channels; Selectable wide (2B0kHz) and nanow (1 50kHz)audio bandwidth with J17, 50uS or Hi-Fi 1600 de-emphasis; Full polarizer control; TV modulator (E21-E69) + 3 SCART 21 pinoutputs, separate L and B RCA audio outputs. Every function (including antenna, feed settings) logged into memory for instantrecall - totally automatic channel search with companion handheld lR remote. Consistently rated by leading publications "Mostversatile, low threshold, ultimate consumer receiver" world-wide. Truly, the next best thing to being hard wired to the satellite.

SL-7900RP from Bay Satellite W Ltd, PO. Box 331 1, Napier; NZ. Tel 64-6-843-5296 (Fax 64-6-843-6429)

* u*

#W'::':'

^ ?i :;:::

%)''"'&' 'l',,1..r.,,

THINGS THAT Go BUMP lN THE NIGHT - Ha l f a wor ld away to change a fuse !

Case h is tory in f rust rat ion: DMV 3OOO receiver (not your average " toy" device at A/NZ$4,OOO +)fuseprotect ing LNB l ine (and power supply) is ins ide of case. Case is sealed shut wi th paper tape warning

"Guarantee Void i f th is seal is broken," To even check the fuse you must break the seal ( le f t ) , then d ismant lethe case (16 screws), then remove metal sh ie ld that covers power supply (middle) , to f ina l ly see the fuse rsgood ( r ight) ! ln th is case uni t had to be a i r f re ighted back to UK (NZ$3461) for "warranty repai r " - prov ided

of course they accept our reason for breaking the warranty seal .

and the newer digital systems are still climbing a steeplearning curye. What this means is that people who haveno experience in satellite are being thrust into a worlddominated by megasymbol and fec rates and a systemsignal level threshold that goes from clean and clearpictures to no pictures over a very narrow window.Moreover, we are complicating the learning curve bybeing overly anxious to adopt digital receiver hardwarewhich is at best unproved and in the worst case is notsuited for the task at hand.

What this does to the dealer who only wishes areasonable discount and backup service when herequires it is create an entirely new "risk factor." The

dealer becomes subject to the changing whims of themarketplace and the sources from which he purchasesproduct.

A digital receiver that does not function as it issupposed to perform would normally go back to afactory authorised service centre, or a distributor whowould offer a replacement unit for the defective one. Ifthe distributor has moved on to a new product ("flavourof the month") or if the dealer purchased directly fromthe factory, the nearest service facility and "factory

backup" could well be half a planet away.Where you buy is important, more important than how

much you pay - especially with high tech equipmenr.

DiaMModel

SST8c10SX12o16

39.240.542.244.9

46.648.249.552.r

ORBITROIIAntenna Specifications

F/D Gain dBiRatio 4.2GHz l2.2GHz

2.5 .363.0 .303.6 .364.9 .30

33 Kentia Loop, Wanneroo, W.A. 6065 AUSTRALIAE-Mail: pmerrett@omen.com.au http://www.omen.com.aul-pmerrett

A.C.N.009 235 090

Phone: +61 8 9306-3738 Fax: +61 8 9306-3737

NCWRELEAS€

FeaTgfre$

* usYnr 18 - 30

O f ZV Switeher - two dish capability

* OPEU TV Software - IppV Capability

O gzo to PI.5loMHz Frequency coverage

* Uttio*rsal LNB Matins

\-/ Two SCART Connectors

* grrilt-In Modem Readv

\-/ External Modem Port

* St.*"o RCA connectors for DMX

\-/ PAL VBG RF Remodulator

{* nVn Data Expansion Port

FUb.&.REET@ APPFOYAb. I

AIIJfABES ELECTFDT-I t rs pry- LTU-5, Navua Street , Strathpine, OLD. 4bO0

Phone + +61-(7)-3205-7574 Fax + +01-(7)3205-4049

SPACE Pacinc

CommittEeA trade association for users, designers,

installers, sellers of private satellite-directsystems in the Pacific Ocean & Asia Regions

,,ftih, N

Confusion In The MarketplaceThe approach of the July lst deregulation date for

Australian telecommunications is much anticipated but

little understood. Most of the major players are keeping

tlieir plans under wraps and it is likely to be September

or even later before many of the changes are public

knowledge.The deregulation we focus upon relates to delivery via

satellite or cable of programming services not

originating within Australia. In fact there are far bigger

dollars at stake in the telephone and data business

worlds. Australians will shortly have the opportunity to

subscribe to overseas telephone services that promise to

halve or better their present long distance rates. New

entrants in all fields of telecommunications are anxious

to establish their own brand recognition on the

Australian marketplace. The offers will be plentiful, the

claims extravagant and the consumer will

understandably be confused.The confusion began early, over Easter Weekend (to

be precise) for residents in Australia's Northern

Territory. There, the "Easter Bunny" promised to deliver

a2.4m dish, feedhorn, Gardiner.T LNB, mounting pole

and cable for A$2,390. They claimed this was a savings

of $288. You will notice this does not include a

receiver. No doubt many of our members would be

delighted to be paid 4.$2390 to supply and install a 2.4

metre dish, pole, feed, LNB and some cable.

The IRD is being subsidised by the programme

supplier; the user pays an additional $99 to be "turned

on" (have the IRD brought to the home and connected

-WHAT The Easter Bunnv Promised for $39.95-Af ter the consumer has paid $2,390 for a 2.4m

dish and outdoor e lect ronics ( insta l led) , he or she

next pays $99 to "Austar" to turn on thei r ' l 2

channe l se rv i ce and then pays $39 .95 pe r mon th '

The l i terature d is t r ibuted actual ly c la ims a 17

channel serv ice wi th one channel ident i f ied as"op t i ona l " ; Wor ld Mov ies . The Op tus 83 12 ,550

hor izonta l (Msym 20.OOO, fec 7 l8 l serv ice

dist r ibuted on a nat ional beam was supposed to be

operated wi th Galaxy or ig in programming by Optus

Vis ion. A receiver for the serv ice la te in May

showed channe l s OV1 (as i n Op tus V i s i on 1 )

th rough OV16 o r i n some cases GO12 th rough GO8,

oo1 through oo8 but in fact as we go to press

very few of these channels appear to be

operat ional . Optus had p lanned to merge thei r

sate l l i te operat ion wi th Galaxy but an Austra l ian

high cour t has ru led th is cannot be done' As for the

residents of NT who were quick of f the mark to

order f rom the Easter Bunny, here is what they

were promised:(2 ) Wor ld Mov ies [ op t i ona l ] , ( 3 ) Enco re , ( 4 )

Showt ime Movies, (5) Discovery, (6) Darwin ABC

serv i ce , ( 7 ) Da rw in SBS se rv i ce , (B ) Da rw in NTD

s e r v i c e , ( 9 ) F o x S p o r t s , ( 1 0 ) B B C W o r l d ' ( 1 1 )

N icke lodeon , (1 2 ) A rena , (13 ) TV1 , ( 14 ) RED

l renamed 'V '1 , ( 15 ) Coun t r y Mus i c TV , (16 ) CNBC

and (17 ) New Wor ld I Ch inese mov ies , news ] '

As of ear ly June what was actual ly there was

Disney Channel Austra l ia (v ideo only, no audio) on

GO1 and a sequence of b lank or s t i l l scenes on the

MEMBERSH]P IN SPACEMembership in SpACE paci f ic is open to any ind iv idual or f i rm involved in the "sate l l i te-d i rect"

wor ld in the paci f ic and Asia reg ions. There are four levels of membership cover ing " lnd iv iduals , "

the " lnsta l ler /Dealer , " the "Cable/SMATV Operator , " and the " lmpor ter /Dis t r ibutor /Programmer."

Al l leve ls receive per iod ic programme and equipment access updates f rom SPACE, s ign i f icant

d iscounts on goods and serv ices f rom many member f i rms, and major d iscounts whi le at tending

the annual spRcs ( industry t rade show) each January in Auckland. Members a lso par t ic ipate in

pol icy creat ion forums, have correspondence t ra in ing courses avai lab le. To f ind out more, contact

( fax) 64-9-406-1083 or use in format ion request card, page 34, th is issue of SatFACTS. Page

space w i th in SaIFACTS is donated each month to the t rade

assoc ia t ion w i thout cos t by the pub l isher .

Ef,f,TEN 8uffflTSPECIAI PR'fE

$?390A SAVfile 0F #28t

' Viking J.4 metre Satellite DishHomesat FeedhornGardiner .7 dB LNBPrernium RHS Mounting Pole

expansion ar€ trench€d to your vi€wingpoint.

HOP IN SUICKAND PHONE I sOO 054 343ANY TIMI DURING EA5TER1

up) and then agrees to pay $39.95 per month for what

purports to be a 12 channel service. There is some

confusion at least in the Darwin area about how many

channels the viewers will actually receive.Austar is actually American UIH controlled and it

holds regional pay TV licences in a number of areasincluding Alice Springs. There, they are offering 10 TV

channels (and 8 radio channels) received via satelliteand redistributed using MMDS (terrestrial microwave)'The installation fee is $100 and the monthly charge

$39.9s .Austar's primary competition in northem Australia are

the multiple C-band pay TV service packagesoriginating in ar-rd intended for Indonesia, Malaysia andsurrounding countries. It will be interesting to see watchhow the Australian product does in the marketplaceagainst these established service providers.

il

a

a

The pole is concreted at an agreed location

and altcables forlater motorising and signal

Field StrengthMeters

SK No. 5785

IEFE!=It:#s=:

r";fi;|1{*r:tr"[,**

ottott"tSK No 5777

{r*fr*

SK No. 5788

For morc informdtion on our full ronge DistribUted in l=:=-of Kon,s Seryice ,nsrruDe'ts & Austtdlia & NZ by I Sfanila ISpecif cotions Pleose contoct:

skondio(61 3)el,e2166 Skandia Electronics Pry Ltd

Victoria: 183 Burwood Road Hawthorn, Victoria 3122 AustraliaTelephone: (61 3) 9819 2466 Fax: (61 3) 9819 4281

NSW: Level l, 39 Terry Street, Rozelle, NSW 2039 AustraliaTelephone: (61 2) 9555 2955 Fax: (61 2) 9555 245

ffi*r*ffiHtI'il$J"lpPricatton

The

CABLEConnection

Funding a new cable television system is a complexprocess requiring more business expertise than mosttechnical people have available from their ownexperience. lt is the nature of the business that twototally separate mindsets are required to create andoperate a cable television system. On one hand we havethe obvious need for technical expertise and hands-onskills. A modern cable system is a combination ofleading edge satellite technology and a high degree ofpractical experience with RF distribution systems. Aperson with the required technical skills can create, onpaper, the design of the actual system.

Planning the business side of a cable system is inmany ways far more complex. A cable system requires avery significant initial investment in equipment andinstallation labour before it is ready to connect the firstpaying subscriber. And in most situations before the firstmetre of cable can be laid there will be permits andapprovals from local or national agencies to be arranged.

Through all of this rnoney to pay for the installationstep by step will be required. For most first-time cablesystem builders, the funds required will be in excess ofwliat they personally have available. And this says thatthird parties will become involved as investors in thesystem.

ln most first-system situations the third party investorswill also be new to the cable business, and are morelikely than not to be either relatives or friends of theentrepreneur(s) planning the system. Banks are by theirconservative nature seldom willing to lend funding to afirst-time cable operator unless the operator has assetsthat are totally outside of the cable field and sufficientlydebt free as to provide reasonable "assets" forattachment in case of bank loan default. In other words,if you are willing to "tnortgage your house (farm etc.)"to obtain bank funding to build the system and thepropefty to be morlgaged has sufficient value, you canprobably deal with a bank. The chances of obtaining abank loan based solely upon the merit of your cable TVbusiness plan are very poor.

Similarly, raisirig funds outside of a circle of familyand close friends based solely upon a cable TV"business plan" is also very unlikely. Peopleapproached will tell you what a wonderful idea it is, and

commend you for your technical skills and daring butwill seldom rush to write a cheque for investment.

So how do you raise capital for a "bold, new businessventure" if it is so difficult to gain the confidence ofthose who might have money to invest?

In the earliest days of cable television, the system wascalled "Community Antenna Television" (hence theCATV abbreviation that came decades before it becamesimply "cable TV"). A community antenna wasprecisely that; one, central antenna system installed forthe shared use of the entire community. In thesepre-satellite days a community located where off-air TVreception was poor often would "pool" their resources tobuild one very tall, very sensitive receiving antennasystem which everyone wishing TV in the town couldt tshare."

The spark plug behind such a move was often abusiness person who wished to sell TV sets in town. Bycreating better quality reception with a "community

aerial" he or she knew that more people would invest inTV sets. Under those circumstances, the original intentof the system may well have been only to "cover theoriginal cost" of installation and then to collect a modestmonthly fee for system maintenance. In 1950 in NorthAmerica, people who did this sort of thing often chargedas much as US$250 for the initial connection to theCATV system and then as little as $1.50 a month forsystem maintenance. The $250 amount with inflationwould be nearly $1,000 today so you can see it was notan inconsequential investment. On the other hand, atelevision receiver in the same period cost at least thatmuch and if you lived where a huge, outdoor antennawould be required for even poor quality reception.another $250 for the antenna system was not unusual.

There are modern day parallels. In the communitywhere I live, you can build a cistern to collect rain waterfrom your roof, you can drill a well, or you can connectto a local, privately owned water system. A cistern willcost you around $3,000, a well will cost you at least thatmuch. A cistern collects "free" rain water. a well has acost per gallon for the well equipment and its operation(electricity). The water company charges $1,500 to run aPVC line to your home and so much per gallon used permonth. If you are building a new home, as a builder, andyou want to spend the minimum amount for water to thehome, the local water cornpany costs significantly lessthan building a cistern or drill ing a well. Over tirne, ofcourse, the cost of the water r-rsed will exceed the capitalcost of either a cistern or a well. But to the builder, thisbecomes a home owner problem and as a builder hesaves money on the initial home cost by connecting tothe water company lines.

With the onrush of satellite delivered technology manyare forecasting that within five years a majority ofhomes will receive all or virtually all of their televisionand information via satellite. Our repoft this monthfrom SPACE tells of the Austar programming package

being sold in northern Australia with a (A)$2,390"antenna system" on offer. This does not include theIRD for the home nor the actual IRD (receiver)

installation. Similarly, Galaxy receive system packages

are being sold for as much as (4)$1,700 while in NewZealand Sky Network is presently offering a DTHantenna system with IRD for (NZ)$650. In both of theAustralian cases cited, the consumer ends up owning atleast the antenna portion while in New Zealand theconsumer receives title to no equipment at all for his orher $650 investment.

If a family is willing to spend (NQ$ASO to (4)$2,390

for an antenna system to receive television, it should beobvious that an alternative plan that offers them aconnection to a cable system for something less than thelocal going rate for a dish system should make somebusiness sense.

Some of the satellite DTH firms are offering financingterms for their dish system installs; not everyone buyinginto a system such as offered by Austar is forking out

$2,390 up front (plus $99 for the IRD install and $39.95for the first month; a whopping $2,528.95). Whether thelocal DTH company offers extended payment terms ornot, the opportunity now exists for a cable operator togreatly increase the cable connection fee.

Anytime people have to put out more than $2,500 just

to receive television (plus a monthly fee), the DTH"competition" has very effectively established theground rules for cable competition. And buried thereincould be a way to fund the start-uPof a system.

Anyhing less than $2,500becomes a "lower price" for thecable connection. If it costs around

$15,000 to put a kilometre of cableplant in the ground (it does), howmany homes in that first kilometredo you require to raise $15.000? At$2,500 connection fee per home, theanswer is 6 homes. At $1,500 perhome, 10 homes. Or, you canarrange extended payment termsthrough a local bank (i.e., they takeyour cable home connection"contract" and convert it into cashwhile taking over the paymentreceipts). This is pretty much theway a car dealer "sells his paper" toa bank or finance company - hemakes the sale, then takes thecontract to the finance companywhere the car selling price isdiscounted to allow the financecompany to make some money. Thecar dealer gets virtually all of his

money up front, and the consumer ends up makingpayments to the finance company.

Where DTH competition is selling antenna systems atinflated prices, there is an opportunity to use their"established price" to create a cable system fundingmechanism. When the DTH service is selling systems ata greatly subsidised price (such as the Galaxy $199installs in Australia) it becomes less attractive to theconsumer to consider cable. On the other hand, thestart-up costs for the DTH company mount rapidly whenit is subsidising $800-900 of each installation.

l l lew lOO Page Filter CatalogHns A Frl.len Fon Ev=Rv Aeeucnrton

. CABLE TV SYSTBUS

. SATELLITE RECEPTION

. OFF Atn INTSnTERENCE

GETIT

TODAV!CATV

History of CATVChannel Deletion FiltersHeadend FiltersPay-TV FiltersWorld Channel FrequenciesOffAir Suppressors

T\IRO-InterferenceSymptoms & CuresMicrowave FiltersBlockband Filters forCATV. TVRO. INTERFERENCE

I ld : l l z . " . i nZ\,KKKKKKKK�l 'b'1i\*4"<"

V *Emtty tt utyn bosf,rcEmilv Bostick

continuing- a genera""il;:.Id;i'^ 9f4ers.o7attt*tt"^',

CATALOG

7395 Tatl Park ])rrveEast Slracuse. NY 11057Mailing arldressrP0 Box ll07Syradse. NY 1 3220Tel: (3 l5) 152-l t?$)Fax: (315) J52-0732Canada & lrS: 800-882' l5t i?

PROFESSIONAL hands-on ass is tance rnneachi ng

cable. SMATV. broadcast oDer"ator"s - DTHdea l e rs .

Our expcrtise in rcaching thc "righf people"with fhs "r ighf connect ions" to make your newprogramming scrvice launch a success is oursfock in frada. We have fhe r ight connsct ions

and our cl ient l ist (avai lable in conf idence)says i f al l .

PO Box 432, OrewaNew Zealand

Tel 64-9-426-0481Fax 64-9-426-0581

$outhstarMedia

[rd

Clnt.n TV InrnnNxrtot.llr,/97

sEmily & Glyn Bostick -Continuing a generation'of personal seruice to TYindustries -WORLDWI DE !

Russia 3 80,/ExprsIO8ORHC

Dub'l II 90/s6I475RHC

Orbita II 90/s6I275RHC

Dub'll I 90/s6I234RHC

Orbita I 90/s6I20SRHC

VTV 9 I .5lN4e 1HzJ1440

Doordar. INational

93.5lln2b103O/vt

Doordar.l ll60/Hz

Doordar.9 1080/Hz

Doordar.TTelugu

l070lvt

Doordar.9Kanada I I 804/t

Doordar. I 1268/Vt

Doordar. 1310/vt

Doordar.3 l348lVt

Doordar 4 1388/Vt

Orbita II 96.5lst4I475RHC

Madagas-car

96.58/Sl4I325RHC

ERTUEgypt

100.414s21508/Hz

TVShopping

l00.4lAs21490/vt

TVMongolia

100.4/As21470lHz

WorldNet l00.4lAs21265lHz

CCTV4 ll90lHz

RTPi r170/vt

Dub ' l I l l 03/s2 I1475RHC

ART I 03/S2 lI275RHC

CFI 113/C2990ft12

SCTV t t3 lc2970/Yr

SunMusic

s7Et703I4OORHC

SunMovies

I342RHC

remlnl l257RHC

Sun TV I22ORHC

AsiaNet I I T O R H C

WorldNet I IOORHC

NEPC 109O/LHC

TVi I02OLHC

MuslimTV

97'LHC

VIJAY TV 64Et801993LHC

Home TV 68.8/Pas4(?) (?)

ABN 68.8/Pas4Hzl1365

Sony TV(Hindi)

68.8/Pas4Hzl1240

Doordar &Iran TV

68.8/Pas4v t / l 1 l 6

CNNI 68.8/Pas4Hzl1065

TNT/Cart. 68.8/Pas4HzJ1040

ATN 68.8/Pas4vt/972

BBCWorld

68.8iPas4vt / 1350

MTV Asia 68.8/Pas4HzJg65

Tests 78.5/Th3vvl280

Army TV 78.5tTh3vt/1395

TKRossija

S0iExprsI475RHC

VTV4 80/Exprsl275RHC

AST 80/Exprs11271P.HC

People'sNet

(Gr 1.5)

t13tc2I I l0 /Hz

RPN-9(Gr l .s)

t42tG2I 375 Lhc

Fox/Prime

(sA l .s)

l 68/Pas2l

1 1 6 1 / V l

FilipinoChannel(Gr 1.5)

t68 tPas2l

1060lHz

or MPEG-2 format digital, see pages

Brunei rt3/c2t0l0,ryt

MTV Asia t t3tcz103O/Hz

TPI r13/C21070/Hz

TVlndosiar

tt3/c21090/Vt

ABN tt3/c21120/Hz

ANteve tt3/c21 130/Vt

CNNI t13/C2ll83/Hz

GMA n3lc21230/I1z

TV3 tt3/c21250Nt

ATVI r13tc2l27jftIz

TVRI t13 lc213 l0 lHz

RTM t13tc2l330ivt

RCTI 1t3tc21408/vt

CNBC t t3 tc21530/Hz

Test Card l28lIc31065/vt

Orbita-I t40/s7I475RHC

NTV t40/s7I425RHC

MusicAsia

r42.4/R42147'LHC

RAJ-TV 142.4tF!42I425LHC

Laos TV 142.4tR42I375LHC

ViJay TV t42.4tR421325LHC

EM TV 142.4tR421272LHC

Dub'l-I 145/S I 6I275RHC

Iest Card 148/Me21070/Hz

Tests 161/Ag ll475lLhc

CNNI I 68/Pas2llS3lHz

CNNFeeds

l68lPas21155/Hz

NHK 168/Pas2l114lHz

TVShopping

I 68/Pas21400/Hz

Feeds 174/t't0l984RHC

Feeds 174/r701973RHC

Feeds 17711702984RHC

Feeds t77 /t702963RHC

Feeds I 80/I5 I I143ORH

WorldNt I 80/15 1 Il l75RH

RFO I 80/15 I II l05RH

Feeds I 80/15 l l102OLH

Feeds I 80/t5 I I984RHC

68.6iPas41365tVr

skvRacing(a)

100.4/As2I 143O/Vt

\ t 3 t c2l030lHz

l 1 3 t c 2l l50lHz

Discovery(d)

n3tc21430/Hz

w I NohomeDTH II

I subseriptions I

S22 S27 1703 1604 1602 1704 Pas4 Ex2 53 SO In2C Sl4 As2 S2l C2 Jcsat3 57 R42 B2P M2 Cl Ag1 Pas2 701 702511

40E 53.2 57 60 62.9 66E 68.8 80 85 90 S3.5 S6.5 100.5103 113 128 140 142.5 148 151 161 169 174 177180

H H H E WABC WA t425tvt

B-Mac

CentralABC

HACBSS

1393 lHzB-Mac

lmparja 1351 /V t

GWN t297 tvt

Net 9,skv

specials

1233lytB-Mac

OptusVis.(analogue)

1230lHz

ABC NT/Imparja

N.T .

120 l lHz(centre)B-MAC

Galaxy t13'�1lHzIrdeto

Mpeg 2

Galaxy 1013lHzlrdeto

Mpeg 2

ABC SA 1041/Vt

ests I l065Hz*

* Colour bars . audto 6.8;

C-band coversAustralia., NZ

Net 9,Sky feeds

1425NtB-Mac

Data l402lHz

QSTV 1317lHzB-Mac

SE ABCHACBSS

l370lvtB-Mac

SE SBSHACBSS

1344tVlB-Mac

NE SBSHACBSS

1339/HzB-Mac

NE ABCHACBSS

1313lHzB-Mac

SkvChannel

t296NrB-Mac

ABCRadio

l2'76lHz(digital)

)mniCast t270tvt(FMTFM)

ABCfeeds

1247lllzPal

Sky Nz 1245lVtVidCrypt

Net 9feeds

1219NtPal&Ntsc

l214lHz

Net 10 t182lVtE-Pal

Net 9 I 180/HzE-Pal

Net l0feeds

1155/VtPal

QTQ9 1145/Vt

Net 7 ll20lvtE-Pal

Net 9feeds

l09l /vtPal

CAA airto ground

1009/vtNbfm

CCTV3,4,test

t433.5Nt(5a9223)

lAS2 tests l405lHz

Value Ch, 1400/vt

DiscoveryPowerVu

l314lHz(5a9223)

ESPN 1288/VtB-Mac

MPEG-2PowerVuSylmar

1249lHz(5a9223)

TNT+(1t2Tr)

t2tStvtB-Mac

CNN+(1l2Tr)

llS3lHz

FoxSports I l6 l l v t(5a9222)

NHK ll15lHz

FilipinoChannel

1060lHz(GI Mpeg)

NBC MuxMPEG

1057Vt(Pace)

MPEG-2PowerVuHonKong

1002vr(5a9223)

TCS Sing. 967lllz

t[..*T-'e]lfilq84 ll

ETVNZ 964lDmv

3000

TVNZ 972lDnv3000

TVNZ 980/Dmv3000

TVNZ 988/Dmv3000

Occ Vid. 1,020**

9 Aust. I .025

SCPC 1 , 0 5 4 * x

RFOTahiti

1 , 1 0 5

Asian 1 . 1 3 0

World-net

1 . 1 1 5

NHK 1 ? ? 5 * x

ABC Oz | / \ h

7 O z t,274

10 OzMPEG

i , 3 8 5(PwRvu)

Keystone 1.432@:I lArNTpng I l2e7lv t | |

lFrN?p','sl-M3o^/,1 Il - l

ffiI I Tes tbars I I 1 .148/Vt | |r

r ' ^ f f i ]

AFRTS 973

Feeds 984

Note: Space Systemsl77E Ku testing;see "Observers"

Feeds 963

Feeds 984

t 5 1 3 K u )

Service RF Freq.

US Nets 10.980v

NBC I 1 . 0 1 5 V

Feeds l 0 . 5 l 0 v

Ku Servicesln te lsat Ku band

services shown hereare boresighted to

Japan and nearby

Asia, have not beenreported south of

equator. At boresight ,s i gna l s o f <2m l eve l s .

I * RHC &.LHC ]

I -- r-nc onrv _l

Napa TC 12,415V

H-Life t2,4t5V

Super ChTaiwan

12,485H(MPEG)

Bloomb. 12.642V

K-TV 12,735V(MPEG)

J a p a n a n d n e a r b y I t -A s i a , h a v e n o t b e e n I I I N H K I I L l 3 5 H I I

reported south of | | l-------- -------1

|"o;;;;:;,-;;.*n,, I I LSg+-r ffils i s n a t s o f < 2 m t e v e t s .

l l l c N N l l l . 5 0 8 H l I

ETr'................."........'..............-.....-l| | nuiirv I t:os ttz | | | rDRSs "nonh"

Ill-Btsc Tr r63t{'l I I ontv ,t t I I I

ll worta I ivtPEc | |

UPCOMING SATELLITE LAUNCHESl r i te lsat 802 to 174E - June

China DF3- locat ion unknown.r'.Filipino Agilg4 to 153F

Apsrg4b-ti 77EAsiasat 3-r€l105.5E - Oct/Nov

Agila 1, ex-Rimsat R41at 161E, Pa lapa C1 a t

150.5E apd B2P a t144E are flnctio

some fTarrsw-bandservices (non-video) and

test ing has been

reported.I

encrypted, access may be possible (d) B-MAC, I

I subscript ions avai labte in some geographic areas I

i """"" "'-'""""'""'"'- "'""""' "----

I

s#r(lQaalu 'lo:66 d) {8.,tu"l norfiC-#-.f z-3

$('\

N

J$

ILNT

#tr

I Y

Y")

N

I

Ft . -I

R

Bird Service RF'/IF &polarity

gf

Programmechannels

FEC Msym

r704t66E CFI 4055/1095RHC

4 3/4 27(.s00)

PA5-4/68.5EWalt Disney 398211168 Hz 2 314 6(.632)

Thaicom78.5E

UTV 3920/1230Hz

6TV(#1)

3/4 27(.s00)

UTV/]VICOT 3880/1270.Hz

6TV(#2)

3t4 27(.s00)

Measat l/91.5 India Bouquet t2284^2346Vt IO+TV? 7/8 30(.000)

As2l100.5E EuropeanBouquet

4000/l 150Hz

6TV, 12 radio(#3)

3/4 28(.r25)

Hubei TV(HBTV Main)

3854/1296Hz

2 3/4 4(.4r 8)

Hunan TV(sRrc)

3847 /1303Hz

I 3/4 4(.418)

Guandong TV(GDrv)

3840/13 l0Hz

I 3/4 4(.418)

InnerMongolia TV

ZizJt,;iql

3828/1322Hz

2 3/4 8(.3e7)(l-China)

(2-Mongolia)

APTVLondon

3800/1350Hz

I 3/4 s( .631)

WTNJerusalem/

London

3790/1360Hz

I 314 s(.631)

WTNLondon

3786/1364Hz

I 3t4 5(.63 l )

Liaoning TV(Service 2)

3734/1416Hz

I 3/4 4(.418)

Jiangxi TV(JX Sat TV)

372711423Hz

I 3/4 4(4.18)

Fujian TV(sErv)

37201r430Hz

I 3 t4 4(.418)

Henan TVZenghou

3713n437Hz

I 3t4 4(.4r8)

Henan TVMain

3706/1444Hz

I 3/4 4(.418)

As2l100.5E STAR TV(Hong Kong)

390011250Vt

3TV, 1 Radio(#4)

t/2 28(.100)

"QQQ" China(Shaanxi)

3813/t337Vt

l. 1 Radio 3/4 4(.418)

GuangxiGXTV

3805/l 345Vt

l . I Radio 3/4 4(418)

Rebar TVTaiwan

378s/1365Vt

4TV(#s)

3t .+ r 8(.000)

Interoperable Receivers(a)

Nr63/t7xtzx. HS-100C

HS-IOOC

HS-100C, Philips, probablyothers (Will be CA)

HS- 100C, Philips, probablyothers (Will be CA)

Philips, SK888 (w/CAM)

DMV, HS-l0OC,Gng, N 163,/t7w2x, N2000, P400(b),P500. Pn520/630. Sk888

HS-100c, Nt63n7xt2x,N2000. Ph3950/l I

HS-l00c,N t63lnxt2x,N2000, Ph3950/l l

HS-100c,N163/t7xt2x.N2000. Ph3950/1 l

HS-100c, Nt63tr7xt2x,N2000. Ph3950/r 1

DMV. HS-IOOC. NI63/17Xt2X

DMV, HS-100C, N 163/17Xl2X

DMV, HS-100C, N 163/17Xl2X

HS-100C, Nt63/r7Xt2X,N2000, Ph3950/1 I

HS-100c, Nl63Nl7X/2X,N2000, Ph3950/1 l

HS-100c, Nt63t17X/2X,N2000, Ph3950/1 l

HS-100c, Nr63lt7xt2x,N2000, Ph3950/1 1

HS-100C, Nt63/17X/2X,N2000. Ph3950/l r

DMV. HS-IOOC*Nl63"117X+lzx

HS-100c, Nt63n7x/2x,: N2ooo, Ph395o/11

HS-100c, Nt63,L7X|2X,N2000. Ph3950/l I

Pv9223 (CA)[Video inverted?]

w>Vaz -1'5tb 'rfur'nD S' c rz?i )hft*r - ?Yt

a^biqu- rn)G)Cl)

Bird Service RF/IF &Polarity

frProgramme

channels

FEC Msym

(As2/100.5E)Myanmar TV 3766t1384Vt ITV 7 1 8 5(.080)

STAR TVHong Kong

3700n450Vt

5TV, I radio(#6)

3t4 28( .100)

c2ilt3E StarIndovision

3500/1650H23580/1 570H2

20 TV(#7)

7 1 8 26(.850)

MegaTV 3780/ l 370Vr 7TV (#8) 3 t4 21(.s00)A P I / 1 3 8 E Reuters 3732t1418Vt 1TV, data 3/4 s(.632)Optus 83

I 56EGalaxy t2.438H2 (d)

12.313H22O+TV(#e)

3t4 2e(.413)

Optus 831 56E

Optus Vision 12.550H2(d) l6TV,8 radio(#eA)

7 1 8 20(.000)

Optus Blr 60E

Aurora(MPEG test)

12.373H2 2+ TV(#10)

L l ) 30(.000)

ABCExchange

12.539H212.548H212.551H2

I each 3t4 6(.e80)

PAS-2I 69E

Hong KongPowerVu

414811002Vt

8TV(#11)

z t J 24(.430)

NBCHong Kong

4093n057Vt

7TV(#r2)

3t4 2e(.413)

JETSingapore

39621tt88Vt

2TV (l-Ntsc,2-Pal)

U2 t3(.740)

Ku CaliforniaPowerVu

12.415t1t15Vt

lTV(#13)

3/4 30(.800)

CCTV ChinaPowerVu

3716.511433.5 Vt

3TV(#r4)

J / + l e(.8s0)

TCSSingapore

41831967Hz

2TY(#rs)

U2 6(.620)

AAR-ART/RAI Int

4153t991Hz

3TV(#16)

3 t4 s(.632)

SCPC3 3942t1208Hz

lTV z t J 6(.620)

CaliforniaPowerVu

390v1249Hz

7TV(#13)

) / + 30(.800)

Satcorn 1-6 3862n288Hz

6TV 7t8 l9(.465)

Walt DisneyAustralia

3804n346Hz

lTV 5t6 2 l ( .0e3)

DiscoverySingapore

3'�77611374Hz

7TV(#r7)

3t4 1e(.8s0)

t702t117E AFRTS 4177 t913LHC

8TV, l2 radio& data (#18)

3t4 28(.000)

SPACE TVSystems

12.612t1312Hz

7TV(#le)

J t . l 26(.6e4)

1 5 1 1 / 1 8 0 8 Canal Plus 40961t054LHC

lrv (?) 3t4 34(.368)

Pace DVS-211 (CA)

Pace DVS-211 (CA)

HS-100C. Nr63t l tXt2X

Nl63t17Xt2X

Gng, P400, P500, Pn520,Pn630, Sk888 (c)

(when testing is over, onlylRDs with CAM)

Nt63,11Xl2X. HS-r00C

Pv9223, HS- I 00C(*), N2X*(some FTA)

HS-100C, Gng,N163t1'�1W2X, P400 (b),

P500. Pn520. Pn630. Sk888

Pv9223 (CA)

Pv9223, HS-100C(*)NlTX/2X(*), (some FTA)

Pv9223, HS-100C,Nl63/17Xl2X (FTA)

Pv9223, HS-100CNITX/2X (FTA)

Pv9223, HS-100CN 17 Xl2X, (continues FTA)

Pv9223 (CA)

Pv9223, HS-100C (*)N l7Xl2X (*) . (some FTA;

Pv9223 (CA)

Pv9223 (CA)

Pv9223. HS100C. N2X(occasionally Ch. 2 FTA)

Pv9223 (CA)

Panasat 630 (wi th CAM)(wi l lbe CA only)

Sagem ISD 2050 (?)

tZ.l^Gja zo Ge(

Srd.1 Raa\ - 0 ) 6(r J , (d 6(l e, CB) srcY ql' Rua73

ReCeiVefSS (a) gy our definit ion, a receiver is deemed "ful ly interoperable" when i t wi l l turn on and routinely receive the service inquestion with no persistent gl i tches, no special tr icks (such as loading software from an external source). Receivers in abbrevratedl ist ings are those that have shown these quali t ies for the transmission service l isted. There is a t ime lag of up to 30 days afterintroduction of new receivers before suff icient data is accumulated for inclusion here. Nomenclature: DMV is DMV/NTL 3o0o (apro fess iona l mode l rece iver ) ;HS- lOOCisHyunda i HSS- lOOC,des ignedforCh ina ; Gng isGrund igDTRl lOO(manufac turedbypanasat -see SF#31, p . 15) ; N163 is Sweden sourced Nok ia 95OO S w i th vers ion 1 .63 so f tware ; N17X is German/European Nok ia ' ,d -box , ,software modif ied for C-band use; N2OOO is Nokia sourced IRD created for Chinese SCPC m-arket with Asiasat 2 and Intelsat manualsearch softwat"; N?I is May/June 1997 version of 95OO S; Ph395O/1 1 is Phi l ips DVB IRD created for China SCPC project; p4Oo isPace DGT4OO; PSOO is Pace DVR5OO; Pn52O is f irst version Panasat (July 1996); Pn63O is latest version Panasat (February 1997);Pv9223 is PowerVu by Scienti f ic Atlanta; Sk888 is Skandia DigiSkan. (bl p4bOO (DGT4OO) wil l only work with EBB (et al) when i t hasnot been over the air enhanced (upgraded); (cl SK888 wil l not work with condit ional access (pay) services.

Bouquets : 1 )Tha i land uTV: ( ' l ) cNN, (2 ) TTV, (3 ) ESPN, (4 ) HBO, (5 ) Ch.5 , (6 ) i t v ; 2 ) Tha i tand urv /MCoT: (1 ) ch .9 , (2 )Dlscoverv, (3) ch.3, (4) TNT, (5) star Sport, (6) ch.7; 3l European Bouquet. (1) Deutsche wetle, (2) McM, (3) RAI Internationat, (4)RTVE, (5) TV5 Paris, (6) [when operatingl Deutsche Welle special programme channel wirh MediaNet VBI included [ l ines 1O_15,requires DMV M2lPro/Txt board inserted in 3OOO series receiverl ; Radio (1)DW#1 (stereo), l2lDW#2 (stereo), (3) DW#3 (stereo), (4)YLE (left) & RCI (r ight), (5) SRI ( l) & WRN (r), (6) REE, (7) DW#1 (stereo), (8) DW#2 (stereo), (9) DW#1 (stereo), (10) NN RA6, (11)NN RA8;4) STAR TV Hong Kong. (1) STAR + [Japan in NTSCI (2] horse racing feeds very'occasional ' to TCNA Austrat ia, (3) SkyNews London, ; 5) Rebar Taiwan. (1) "U1" [movies], l2l "U2" [news], (3] "U3" [sport, cartoons, general entertainment], (4) "RockTV" ;61 STAR TV Hons Kong. (1 )ESPN Cont r ibu tory , (2 ) Rac ing Ch. , (3 ) S tar Mov ies SEA, (4 ) S tar Ch inese, (s ) NBC, (6 ) cNBc, (7 )Sky News, (8) vlvA cinema; 6) Indovision. (1 ) HBo Asia, (2) STAR Movies sEA, (3) Fi lm Indonesia, (4) MGM Gold, (5) ESpN Asia, {6)STAR Spor t , (8 ) Channe l 'V ' ln te rna t iona l , (9 ) Channe l 'V 'As ia . (10) RCT| , (11) STAR +,112 l D iscovery , (13) STAR Mov ies and NBCAsia , (14) Phoen ix Ch inese, {15} CNN, (16} BBC Wor ld , (17} CNBC, (18) Car toon + TNT, (19) p rev iew 1 , (2O) p rev iew 2 ; 8 ) MegaTV.(1)CNNI , (2 ) D iscovery , (3 ) ESPN As ia , (4 ) HBO As ia , (5 ) Car toon + TNT, (6 ) MGM Gold , (7 ) C inemax;9) Gataxy . p resenr ty 20+programme channels. 9A) Optus Vision tests of 16 programme channels, programmi.ng decisions to be f inal ise4 101 Aurora. (1) ABCSA, (2) Austral ia Sky News; 11) Hohg Kb'ng'PowerVu. (1) CTN 1, (2) CTN l l , (3) TVBI Hong Kong, orher feeds tNTSCl, (4) Ad-hoc 1PA tPALl, (5) Ad-hoc l l INTSCI, (6) ABN, (71r.91N 11, (8) CTN l; 12) NBC Hons Kong. (1)CNBC, t2) CNBC Mandarin A, (3) NBC Asia,(4) colour bars, occasional feeds, (5) CNBC Taiwan, (6) NBC "2" Asia/Taiwan, (7) Colour bars, , ' future" use; 13) Cali fornia powerVu.lNote: Ku band l ist ing may not be operating except for test periods, programming l ine-up identical to C-bandl (1) CMT lNTSCl, (2)CBS feeds, others including Canadian CTV, (3) ESPN, (4) EWTN INTSCI with Globat Cathol ic Radio channet 2, R, (5) BBC WortdtNTSCl , (6 ) B loomberg F inanc ia l INTSCI , (7 ) Go l f Channet INTSCI ; 14) CCTV Ch ina . (1 )CCTV4, (21 CCTV3 t (3 ) CCTV tes ts ; t5 lTCS S insapore . , (1 )TCS Test , (2 ) TCS Defau l t [ repeats channe l 1 ] ; 16) SCPC3. (1 )ad-hoc use . (2 ] AAR/ART, (3 ] RAI In te rna t ionat ;171 Discovery. (1) Disc. Aust/NZ, (2) Disc. default, (3) Disc. Japan..(4) Disc. SE Asia, {5} Disc. Taiwan. (6) Disc. Phit ippines, (7) Disc.China; 18) AFRTS. (1) News, Sports [ACll , CW, RR, 9.6 kbps, TVl, (2) Spectrum [Urban, 64 kbpsl, (3) AFN Pacif ic tTV], (4) Channel1 - Mirror tTVl, (5) AFN Korea lcontingency, 1.536, TVl, (6) The Jim Larirbert Test Channel I ! ! !1, (7) EPG, voicel ine, (8) EpG, u/ ivo ice l ine , (9 ) AFN At lan t ic lTop 40 , HR, NPR, TVl , (10) AFN Amer icas ITop 40 , TV l , (11)AC1, (12) Count ry , (13) Adu l t Rock , (14)NPR tUS Nat iona l Pub l ic Rad io l , (15) Urban, ( 16) Pure Go ld , (17) Top 40 , (18) Hard Rock (19) Cont ingency . ; 191 SPACE Sys tems. (1 )Taiwan TV, l2l China TV, (3) Chinese TV System, (4) Formosa TV, (5) Formosa News, (6) NHK Asia,Mandarin dubbed, (7) KoreanKBS; NOTE: Listings in bold face are PowerVu transmissions that are typically (but not always) FTA (free to air).

MPEG'2 DVB RECETVERS: to"," nere is believeo accurate; we assume no responsibit ity for errors in this votatite area!]DMV/NTL 3000. Skandia Electronics Pty Ltd (tel 61-3-9819-2466)Espano. Antares Satel I ite \tel 6 | -7 -320 5 -7 57 4)Grundig (Gng) DTR110O. Av-Comm Pty Ltd (tel 61-2-9949-7417)Hyundai-TV/Com. Model HSS-100C is off icial ly avai lable from Pacif ic Satel l i te (tel 61-7-3344-3883) and Skandia Electronics (tel61-3-9819-24661; Antares (61-7-3205-7574) is disposing of their f inal shipment as we go to press, wi l l not handle in future.Nokia 950O S (V1.63). This version is no longer avai lable although i t had abi l i ty to identi fy Msym and FEC parameters of unknowncarriers. (V1.7X) was a German language "d-Box" version original ly imported by OPAC; i t functioned with the same parameters as theV1.63. (V2.X; 2.233,2.O34 and others perhaps not yet identi f ied) are current ( late May/June) software versions that al low virtual lyunl imited stacking of bouquets and programmers and for at least the 2.233 version also al low red menu correction of NTSC gl i tch.sources known inctude: Antares satei l i te (tet 61-7-3205-7574ll ; AV-COMM Fty Ltd (Tet 61.2-gg4g-7417\i pacif ic satei l i te(61 -7 -3344-3883) , SCTTEO (61-8-9306-3738)Nokia "d-box" (V1.7X) suitable for C-band use. Instruct ions, on-screen prompts may be in German. No longer avai lable.PACE DGT400. Through Galaxy off ices, Austral ia.PACE DVR-5Oo. Bay Satei l i te TV Ltd. (tet 64-6,843-5296)Panasat 520 (Pn52O). OPAC Pty Ltd (rel 61-2-584-12331Panasat 630 (Pn6301. Antares Satellite $1-7-3205-75741PowerVu D9223. Telsat Communications Ltd. (tel 64-6-356-27491SAGEM 1SD2050. SAGEM SA,,Mrs. Sal ima ALAOUI (tel 33-1 40 70 63 63)Samsung VS-2O00 (ver 1.31). Pacif ic Satel l i te (tel 61-7-3344-3883)SK888. Skandia Electronics Pty Ltd. (tel 61-3-9819-24661

ReCeiVef SWapS: Contact SaIFACTS for forwarding of offers (fax 64-9-406-1083)#697A,: Looking for receiver authorised for STAR TV AS2 37O0Vt (Pace DVS-211-CA).#6978: Want SA D9223 authorised for at least AFN Pacif ic.#697C: Want CDE-2000 with at least 8 months left to run on subscript ion.

NOTE: Because of printed space limitations, SaIFACTS reserves the right to edit or beselective about listings accepted for this space.

AT PRESS DEADTITIIE"They look l ike MPEG signals on a spectrum analyser-they aren0t" rep0rts observer Stu Mcleod concerning Measat-2 data

signals now found on the same horizontal transponder group thathas been seen testing with an analogue test pattern. "The Nokiaconsistently shows Msym rates in the 1.X region" says Mcleod.

Taiwan based SPACE TV Systems Ltd is now operating

flom Intelsat 702 (1778) using MPEG-2 digital format that is

FTA at press-time (expected to go conditional access shortly).

Early in June, there are 6 programme charutels operating at

12.612 GHz horizontal using the unusual rate of Msym

26.694 and FEC of 314. Along Australia's Gold Coast, a 2.4m

antenna is certainly too large (but provides plenty ofrain fade

margin) and the Panasat IRD 630 was producing high quality

pictures for a number of reporters. Programme channels

reported include (1) Taiwan Television, (2) China Television'(3) Chinese Television System, (4) Formosa TV (scheduled

fiom June 12), (5) Formosa News Channel, (6) NHK Asia(with Chinese subtitling scheduled from I July) and (8)

Korean KBS (also scheduled from I July)' They want

distributors in Australia (this is an Ausffalian spot beam);

contact James Tzeng at tel ++886-2999'2939 or fax++886-2999-2989. Note: They want only distributors capable

of handling large quantities of product and a co-operative

anangement between smaller dealers might be necessary.

Tests of ex-RAJ-TV super power C-band transponder (R6)

from Agila l6lE location in May proved nothing significant

except that the satellite still works at this new location (was

previously at l30E). The tests included requests for signal

reports to a New Zealand fax number. No permanent use of

this high power global beam transponder from this location is

presently planned although Filipino sources suggest there is a

very small possibility that it could be put into service in

half-transponder format to carry a pair of Philippines TV

channels on an interim basis. The 8 days of testing, typically

0300-0800 UTC on LHC lF 1475, consisted of colour bars,

some video (CNNI, TVSN) tifted from Palapa C2 feeds as

received at the Subic Bay (Philippines) uplink that conducted

the tests.JcSat 3 at l28E is once again running colour bars (1065 IF'

vertical); most Australian and NZ reporters say the bars are a

couple of dB "hotter" now than when they were previously

seen.Singapore's Asia Broadcast Centre has opened a PowerVu

feed to PAS-4; first service there is TV Shopping Network

which is being linked to Europe/Africa.Thaicom 3 is now firmly located at 78.58 but Mark Long

(Thailand) reports, "There will be no traffic on the extended

C-band portion that will serve Australia until September."

Mark advises there will be six extended-Cs capable of serving

HAVE DISH - wi l l t ravel. DTH dealer DennisWormington (Tauranga, NZ) demonstrates on si te

for potent ial customers with this trai ler mounted r ig

Australian all horizontal, at 3 440, 3480, 3 520, 3560, 3600 and3640. There will be some major difficulties getting propersystem performance from feeds and LNBs at these extended

wlTH THE OBSERVERS: Reports of new programmers, changes in established programming sources are

epc,oLtraged from readers throughout the Pacif ic and Asian regions. lnformation shared here is an important

tool in our ever expanding satel l i te TV universe. Photos of yourself , your equipment or of f-air photos taken

from your TV screen are welcomed. TV screen photos: l f PAL or SECAM, set camera to f3.5-f5 at 1/1sth

second with ASA 1OO f i lm; for NTSC, change shutter speed to 1/30th. Use no f lash, set cdmera on tr ipod

or hold steady. Alternately submit any VHS speed, format recept ion direct ly to SaIFACTS and we wi l l

photograph for you. Deadl ine for JulylSth issue: July 3 by mai l (use form appearing page 34), or 5PM NZT

-.,lfli*-** '

July 4th i f by fax to 64-9-406-1083.

Things That Go Bump In The Night-Observer Stu Mcleod (Napier, NZ) queries: "1 have found an analogue P3 level black video carrier at

approximately 170W, RHC on 3.4650 (16851F). This would be in so-called extended C-band; any otherreports?"

Each month NASA's Goddard Fl ight Centre issues a complete catalogue of "everything in (or near)geostat ionary orbi t ." The May 1st l ist includes 23 satel l i tes located (as of 1 May) between 180E and 165W;

1 1 of these are Russian or igin and 4 of these are Raduga class. The Raduga satel l i tes operate in theexpanded C-band region (3.45 to 3.95 GHz) which would f i t a carr ier at 3.465, Raduga satel l i tes can carry

signif icant telephone (and some data) circui ts; an (FM) communicat ions receiver capable of tuning the lFrange of 125O-17O0 MHz (such as the lcom 7OO0) can often isolate (receive) these individual s ignals (youwil l short ly t i re of l istening to typical ly angry Russians shout ing at each other!) . A "P3 analogue carr ier" is

not video unmodulated but rather a "master carr ier" for a family of narrowband circui ts.Of the Raduga class birds in the region of 170W, "21" at 189.87W has an incl ined orbi t of +/- 6.5 degrees

(b ig t ime inc l ined ! ) , "25" a t 190.61 is + / - 4 .33 degrees .Of interest: The same May 1st catalogue l ists 135 satel l i tes within the geostat ionary "belt" between lOOEand 180E. Of these 135, 73 were "passing through" this region of the belt . How's that? Satel l i tes no longerable to be control led cartwheel along the belt dragged by gravi ty or k icked by the last hydrazine propel lantf i red at the end of the satel l i te 's l i fe. When a bird is no longer able to be control led, i t is pract ice to use up

the last fuel to "kick" i t out of the orbi t posi t ion. Some go high and leave geostat ionary orbi t , some go " low"

and slowly spin into the earth's atmosphere ( the least desirable) whi le most simply tumble end over endtravel l ing around (and around and around) near the geostat ionary orbi t bel t .

Some tumble quite rapidly and cover signi f icant distances each day (measured in "degrees dr i f t per day"). Forexample , on May 1s t Meteosat 3 /P was a t 119.53E but tumbl ing west a t 11 .96 degrees per day ( i .e . on May2nd i t was a t 107.57E) . Ekran 17 was a t 135.54E and tumbl ing west a t 15 .8O degrees per day . As o f May

1st the "fastest bird in the sky" (100E to 180E) was something nicknamed OPS 9438 travel l ing west at17.45 degrees each 24 hours (plus, incl ined at +/- 14.0O degrees).

Satel l i tes that are not incl ined and not tumbl ing are typical ly located between 35,760 and 35,800 km abovethe earth's surface at the equator. An incl ined bird such as 1511 (180E) wanders north and south of the

equator but stays close to the geostat ionary al t i tude window ( in the case of 51 1:35,771 to 35,8OO) . Morethan 9O% of al l b irds tumbl ing west (against the rotat ion of the earth on i ts axis) are above the

geostat ionary height ( i .e. , Meteosat 3P at 36,761 apogee to 36,728 perigee). Conversely, most tumbl ingeast (with the earth's rotat ion) are below the belt ( i .e. , Arabsat 1B was ar 146.44E May 1, apogee 35,795and perigee 35,7 l l gaining O.42degrees per day). There are far fewer below than above. "Tumblers" aresupposed to be electronical ly "dead" (no further funct ioning transponders) but the odds are that as they

tumble and run through (another bird 's) command signals or recycle their ai l ing systems they do turn on fromtime to t ime. And that makes them possible to catch operat ing, however br ief ly, f rom a spot in the sky

where they are not expected (unless you are NASA and tracking them). Happy hunt ing! (and thanks to JimRoberts of Gourmet Entertaining, Los Angeles for the monthly NASA updates)

READER Philip Spora of Levino New Zealand has just won a fabulousPalcom SL7900RP Hi-Fi Stereo Satellite Receiver!

On October sth, SaIFACTS will conduct a second draw for a Dynasat 30OP LowThreshold Receiver with dual axis positioner. lf you have been routinely entering eachmonth, you are already "in the draw." lf not, why not get the monthly contest entry

habi t? Ful l detai ls and contest ru les avai lable to any SaIFACTS subscr iber!

l iilIL

Contest details available - use form on page 34 here!

-Sate l l i te Launch Updates-SF#31 1p.3O) l is ted the announced C and Ku band sate l l i tes schedul ing l i f t -o f f and new serv ice in the paci f ic

+ Asia region dur ing the balance of 1997. ln the in ter im 90 days a number of changes and addi t ions havetaken p lace.

1) PanAmSat PAS-8, scheduled for f i rs t -hal f 1998 launch Lo 171E wi th C and Ku band on board is reoorredto NOT conta in Ku band beams capable of serv ing New Zealand. The precise footpr ints expected have vet to

be publ ished, however.2 ) A new Or ion C + Ku band b i rd i s announced fo r 139E to be l aunched i n l as t qua r te r o f 1998 . The b i rd w i l l

have 1 O C-band and 33 Ku band t ransponders; the C-band t ransponders are to be conf igured so as to notin ter fere wi th any normal Russian use of C-band at 140E.

3) PSN Indonesia has contracted wi th Space Systems/Loral for a "super Power" C-band p lus "X" banosa te l l i t e wh i ch i s schedu led fo r e i t he r 118E o r 134E . The "Supe r Power " C wou ld se rve d i shes as sma l l as 5O

cm at boresight . "X" band is 7 to 8 GHz, not prev iously used for commercia l appl icat ions.4) ln te lsat l8O2 wi th 36 C-band and 6 Ku-band t ransponders on board is scheduled for launch late th is monrnrc 174E. Assuming a successfu l launch and no change in deployment p lan, l7O1 present ly at 174E wi l l move

eas t t o 180 where i t w i l l r ep lace aged 1511 . T ime f rame to r 7O ' l l 5 11 sw i t ch ove r i s Sep tember .5) AsiaSat 3 scheduled for 105.5E to replace As1 is now c la iming i t could launch as soon as la te in Octooer

which would suggest a November turn-on. Previously , December launch was announced.

range frequencies. Perhaps a reader with knowledge of how3.'7-4.2 feeds and LNBs are likely to cope as low as 3440 canadvise. The other C-band Thaicom services will include sixvertical polarised transponders in the same 3.4 - 3.7 GHzregion as well as 12 "standard" C-band transponders; allvertical.

Les Brooks (Alice Springs, NT) reports seeing what hebelieves to be Thaicom 3 at 78.5E with Army TV at IF1395Vt; P2l3 in level. Les also f,rnds VTV (Vietnam) onMeasat 1 at 9 I .5E (IF 1440, Hz), P3.

Measat 2 (1488) began transmitting a test card late in May(4080/IF1070 Hz, audio on 6.8) which observers from NewZealand to at least middle Australia report is "very hot,"observer D.T. Ditcham (WA) reports the test card P3 on his3m KTI dish. A total of six transponders are supposed to beavailable on this beam, no known customers at this time.

Observer D. Morris (Bangkok) reports his HyundaiHSS-100C provides perfect reception from the elusive Burma"Myanmar TV" (AsiaSat 2,3766 Vt). Strangely, the Hyundaiappears to be the only receiver capable of making this serviceplay (no version of the Nokia has done so, to date). Morrisasks how you determine the PID numbers for various servicesthat refuse to give out that information. The answer is - somereceivers (SA D9223, some software versions of the Nokia9500 S) will "reveal" the PID numbers even if they are unableto properly decode the data stream. SF understands Hyundaiclaims their receiver will also do this with a "secret menu" butto date the secret has been well protected.

Steve Jepson (Levin, NZ) reports locating the details of theFrench Canal Plus feed to the Pacific on Intelsat 5l I (180E).He suggests left hand circular, IF 1054/M4096 with Msym of34.368 and FEC of 3/4.

Francis Kosmalski (Auckland, NZ), who has been promiseda software upgrade for his SA D9223, reports that as of June 7the new software has not arrived at SA Sydney. SA is beingquite guarded about just what the "software upgrade" willactually do, claiming only that they are certain it will allowaccess to the NBC Asia bouquet. Beyond that - no promises.The charge quoted to Francis is A$90. As SA fine tunes thesoftware in the D9223, with the intention of making thereceiver perform better for their own proprietary PowerVuservices, unfortunately the new software further restricts theirability to make the receiver play on non-PowerVu services.

SURPTUS TO OUR NEEDSI O metfe sol id aluminium ref lector and srructure

built by LTV Electrosystems, feed by RCA Ltd.C-band up/downl ink, 3 degree compl iant beamwidth

O.45, 52 dB ga in . NZ$44,OOO4.5 metfe Scient i f ic-At lanta pr ime focus C/Ku;

C-band ga in 44 dB, Ku 53 .1 dB. NZ$7,500Contact: Malcolm Sask, Technical Manager

Taupo CableVision Inc.tel 64-1 -37 8-4800 fax 64-7 -37 7 -0025

TIIE PRACTICAL GTJIDETO SATELLITE TV

116 easy to read pages, explainingthe history, theory, operation and

installation of HOMESATELLITE lVsystems.

121 explanatory photos, tables,graphs and diagrams.

46 pages ofsatellite orbitaldata, transponder loading,footprints for every satellite

covering Australia andneighbouring countries and

comprehensive glossary of terms.

AVAILABLE $3er' YEs GARRV Ptease send me I xPractical Guide to Satellite W prtced at@ + S5p&p (NZ W p$p) tu$Eriil$onry

Creditcard | | I I I | | | | | | | | | | | |

Name: .......................-.--.-.-----Expiry Date: I J_Delivery Addres:

P'code: _Phone:

Sign-Off

The Hyundai AffairIt began innocently enough; Korean frm Hyundai contacted

a number of groups in the Pacific region late last year to advise

they were ready to produce a pair of MPEG-2 IRDs; one for

the North American market with a CA module, one for the rest

of the world without CAM. Garry Cratt at AV-COMM Pty Ltd

was one of those responding and early in 1991 he received a

prototype unit for evaluation.Cratt believed the protofype unit showed promise (at the

time it arrived, it was the first non-PowerVu IRD that would

even access the PowerVu services) but also believed that

Hyundai could make some changes to improve the saleability

of the receiver in the Pacific. He communicated his suggested

changes to Hyundai and believed Hyundai had agreed to make

certain changes. One of those most basic was Cratt's

suggestion the receiver be equipped with a UHF TV

remodulator having a 5.5 MHz aural subcarrier; the prototype

was designed with a 6.5 MHz aural sub-carrier which is fine

for the China market but quite useless in PAL B or G format

regions (China uses PAL D, an analogue artefact).

The first receivers were scheduled into Australia very late in

April; Cratt believed two things: (1) Hyundai had agreed that

for the balance of 1997, AV-COMM was to be the exclusive

distributor of the receiver in Australia/NZ' and, (2) only the

units he had ordered would have the requested PAL B/G

modifications.It was Pacific Satellite, a disffibutor in Brisbane linked with

a firm of the same name in Hong Kong, that received the first

units. Cratt believed Pacific got product only because they

were being trans-shipped from the Hong Kong office. He

reluctantly accepted this situation knowing there was little he

could do about it, and then discovered his own units contained

none of the requested modifications. Angry at not having the

exclusive he believed he had coming, and disappointed that the

IRD he had promised buyers would be available was not even

being manufactured, Garry Cratt sent out a letter to (he says)" 13 people who had ordered the 'AV-COMM Version'

Hyundai," advising them the receiver would not be available.

In explaining why, he said some things about the way he felt

AV-COMM had been mistreated by Hyundai and made several

unkind statements concerning the Hyundai version being

distributed by Pacific.At least one copy of the AV-COMM letter to people who

had ordered the special receiver found its way back to

Hyundai. D.M. Yoon, General Manager of the DVS Sales

Departrnent at Hyundai, on May 29th wrote about this letter:" We are unhappy to see AV-COMM's behaviour. Iile have

never committed the exclusive distributorship (for the

HSS-100C) to any company in Australia. We think that

AV-COMM's purpose is to try to harm our receiver in order to

make the dealers concentrate on the productfrom his changed

vendor: Nokia."

Mr. Yoon makes the further point that, "We have selected

rwo distributors (in Australia): Pacifrc Satellite and Skandia

Electronics." Angela Kittell, Sales Representative for Pacific,

advises, "We requested clarification from Hyundai Industries

Co. They hove in turn advised of their unhappiness with the

way this mqtter has been handled (by AV-COMM) Skandia

and ourselves hqve both ordered the same version oJ the

HSS-100C and the only dffirence is the pricing and the

quantity ordered. We are disappointed this situation has come

to the stage where an explanation is required." Leon Senior of

Skandia told SaIFACTS, "Ihls matter has been blown far out

ofproper proportion. There is no special HSS-100C version,

they are all the same. And we have to get on with our lives and

sell what we hqve available to us, today. We might wish for an'all singing, all dancing' IRD thqt does everything perJbctly. I

have yet to see it in my shoP."About which Cratt had made much in his initial letter to

those buyers who had reserved the AV-COMM "version" of

the HSS-100C. Amongst the promised features was

AV-COMM created software that would cure the NTSC

(PowerVu) lip sync glitch.If you will check page 16 in this issue, you will learn more

about solving that particular problem. It is of interest to see in

Mr. Yoon's May 29th lefter an admission that Hyundai

apparently has not solved the NTSC problem themselves (well,

until they read page 16 here). He wrote, "We have nol

completed the solution to resolve the NTSC to PAL conversion

and we are now trying to make the receiver fully compatible

with PowerVu. When we have this problem solved, we will

release this software version."Hyundai as of early June claims to have supplied 6,000 of

the HSS-100C version receivers to China. They say, "We have

never received any serious qualiry problem repofts," and'"This set is successfully receiving many programmlng

bouquets from AsiaSat 2, PanAmSat 2 and 4, Palapa C2,

ApStar 1, Thaicom 3 and lntelsat 703 without problems."

So out ofthese exchanges we have a clearer trail ofwhy the"Hyundai Affair" happened. Hyundai further suggests that the

quantity of HS-100C receivers ordered by AV-COMM "was

srnall" and Cratt himself says he was told his requests were not

honoured, "because we didn't order enough units to attract a

special product run at Hyundai." Perhaps' But Garry Cratt's

insistence that Hyundai provide a receiver that at the very least

suited the basic Pacifrc requirements did at least focus

attention on the plight of being down here under the shadow

on the massive Asian marketPlace.True, most users could adapt to using the audio and video

output jacks on the receiver to drive their monitor inputs or a

separate VCR modulator (that is - the incorrect aural

subcarrier remodulator was not really that imporlant). But

when a distributor does take the time to attempt to point out to

a factory some small changes that would make the product

more acceptable, one would hope the factory would at least

have the courtesy to advise, "No thankyou, we cannot do that

economically" rather than simply shipping the product as if it

had incorporated the changes. And of note - even Pacific and

Skandia, ordering far more than AV-COMM had originally

ordered, still did not get the obvious changes that would tailor

rhe HSS-100c to the Pacific.To paraphrase Leon Senior, what we have is what we have

and now it is time to get on with the business at hand; selling

enough receivers down here to command our own "P" version

products in the future.

--

I PAS-2 is "SRO" - IcSATS is "SRO" and new Intelsats are filling fast. Welcome to thelsatellite explosion of 19971, "Do-everything" MPEG-2 receivers are now being shippedI - the world of satellite has suddenly gotten vety serious. Stay tuned with SaIFACTSI

I nNfnR my 12 MONTH subscription to SaIFACTS starting with July l5th issue (rates below)-i fNffn my 36 MONTH subscription to SaIFACTS starting with July 15th issue (rates below)

NAMECompany (if applicable)Mailing addressTown/city Country

SRO? "Standing room only" - sold out, full uplAmount to send: 1 year - NZ$50/A$90/US$60 (ou ts ide o f NZ and Aust ra l ia ) o r 3 years - Nz$1zo l A$21o1US$150 i f by cheque. VISA or Mastercard? See form below and return with order. Return to: SaIFACTS,

PO Box 330, Mangonui, Far North, New Zealand or i f by VISA or Mastercard fax to 64-9-406-10g3

USE THIS FORM ONLY WHEN CHARGING ON VISA/MASTERCARD

Please charge my V|SA^/Mastercard as follows:f l ONE Year of SaIFACTS MONTHLY (NZ$5O, A$€0, US$60)

n THREE Years o f Sa IFACTS MONTHLY (NZS120 , A$210 , USS lSO)n SATELL ITE TELEVIS ION: The Book te t (NZ$ 10 , A$ 12 , US$ 1O)

r o n e Y e a r o f c o o P ' s T E C H N o L o G Y D I c E S T ( N Z $ 1 2 5 , A $ 1 2 5 , u s $ 1 2 5 )Indicate charge card type: n VISA n Mastercard

Name (as i t appears on VISA / Mastercard)V|SA/Mastercard Number

Vl SA/Mastercard "* p i r.ti " ";ateInst ruct ions: l f order ing by mai l , re turn th is complete (3-par t ) card or a copy of

satFAcrs, Po Box 33o, Mangonui, Far North, New Zealand); i f order by FAX, sendsingle sheet to 64-9-406-1083

same ( tofu l l card as a

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS from SaIFACTS M0NTHLY: order Form

I SATEIIITE TELEVISION3 The Booklet. Excel lent introduct ion to home dish ownership forthe layman, inc lud ing major cont r ibu t ions f rom the fa ther o f geos ta t ionary sa te l l i tes - fameoscience f ict ion wri ter Arthur C. Clarke. The perfect tool to help the satel l i te system sel ler explainh o m e s a t e l l i t e T V t o t h e l a y m a n c o n s u m e r . F r o m S P A C E P a c i f i c . N Z $ 1 0 / A $ 1 2 / U S $ 1 0 , a i r m a i l .t r COOP's TECHNOLOGY DIGEST. For the real ly ser ious enthusiast, investor, businessperson in sa te l l i te te lev is ion and a l l ied lead ing edge techno log ies . Ten issues each year ,jam-packed w i th in fo rmat ion you w i l l no t f ind anyp lace e lse . "Coop" rou t ine ly cu l l s more than 60pub l ica t ions wor ld -w ide , te r r ib ly expens ive news le t te rs , In te rne t and h is hundreds o f p r iva tecontac ts to keep you r igh t a t the lead ing edge o f techno logy on the REAL changes underway inte lecommunica t ions , Conven ien t ly i ssued near the f i rs t o f the month , c rea t ing an exce l len tt ime- l ine- f i l l e r be tween the mid-month issues o f SaIFACTS. Now in the 4 th year , a i rma i lwor ld -w ide . Normal ly NZ/A/US$250 per year - fo r SaIFACTS subscr ibers spec ia l 5O% d iscountedpr i ce o f NZ /A /US$125 .

o NEW programming sources seen since June lst:

o Changes (signal level, transponder, programming content) in pre-existing programming sources sinceJune lst:

. OTHER (including changes in your receiving system):

NOTE: Please use P1 - P5 code when describing signal levels and receiver IF/RF settings.

Your Name Is this contest entry?Town/CityMake/size dish LNB ReceiverBonus Word Entry: on page

May B0lllUS W0RD-Malevolent-p. 25

SaIFACTS is giving away two (2!) top of the l ine super receivers - thePALCOM SLT9OORP - to subscribers between now and February! This is a

MONTHLY CONTEST and you must REGISTER with us as a contestentrant. Complete this card to receive the full set of Contest Rules andjoin the fun. A SLT9OORP could wel l be yours (next receiver to be given

away October 5!) .

tr t aV A SUBSCRIBER TO SATFACTS - Please mail to me my SaIFACTS Reader Contest Rules!

NAMECompany (if applicable)Mailing addressTown/City

Return cardto: SaIFACTS Monthly,of fax to

PO Box 330, Mangonui, Far North, New Zealandus at 64-9-406-1083

MEMBERSHIP IN SPACE?Choose your level of participation from "lndividual" or "lnstaller / Dealer"

to" Cable/SMATV Operator" or "lmporter/Manufacturer/ Programmer."

Z YES - Send details of SPACE membershiP, to ...

NAME

Cornpany ( if applicable)

Mailing address

PO Box 30, Mangonui, Far NorthNew Zealand

Fax 64-9-406-1083

SPACE Pacif,rc Ltd.

Town/city

b--

M m - r r m . . . . N O K I A ? ? ?OOPS. HYUNDAI ???

oEsPAnS@o,m

ESPANS@ FEATURESlilSHlI t-4s

0PEil TV rppv compatibleBUITT-fil r,aoo.-

EXTEnilffi Modem portGAIII p"n

GABD ReaderSCABT connectorsGRAPHIG oi,pruy5.5 vrH, Modulator

L0GAL Satellite KevsAtD Much More!

rne oESFA[5@vwr l l soon be ready to sh ip for $$S* ]ess than the compet j t jon

To get jn l ine for the f i rs t REAL IRD fon the Paci f ic and Asia, fax us yourdetai ls and fui l specs wir be forwarded promptlyl

IMPORTANT NOTICEONLY BONA FIDE DEALERS AND INSTALLERS WILL BE SUPPLIED -

WE DO NOT SELL WHOLESALE TO HOBBYISTS. EXPORT ENOUIRIES WELCOME.

AAIJt rABESEL ErrFDnI t rs pry . LTU.5, Navua Street , Strathpine, OLD. 4SOO

Phone + +61-(71-32os-7s74 Fax + +61-(71-32os-4o4g

i