AVCOM COM 3.R COMTECH 55O Ch 2.6 MODULATOR AMPLICA LNA

COOP'S

cooP'sCOMMENT ONTECHNOLOGY

DEEP SOUTH / RE.VISITEDThe April issue of CSD, focusing on the various legal and

technical break throughs presented by the expansion of USDOMSAT reception to areas of the Caribbean, Central andSouth America, met with mixed reviews. A sizeable percent'age of the readers found the material dull and not relevant totheir interests. Others said the comprehensive look at thescenario now being painted south of the border helped thembetter understand the frictions that underly much of what ishappening in North America.

Several dozen people f rom the southern climesjourneyed to Washington's SPTS in April and we had theopportunity to visit with many of these people. We learned agreat deal in these visits and were gratef ulforthe opportunityto exchange data.

Reception of US DOMSAT signals, on Fl, is tricky at best.One fellow from Jamaica finally ended up install ing a tenmeter Scientif ic Atlanta dish (for a hotel there) in order toinsure 10O% reception 1 0O% of the time. That's a bunch ofantenna and no small effort. Six meter antennas, reported inthe April CSD as being'adequate'in Jamaica for Fl, may notbe so adequate after all. That is a qualif ied 'maybe'since I 'venot been on site yet to inspect the workmanship or instaFlation techniques. Not all six meter antennas in Jamaica arecreating perfect pictures; that much is clear.

Bil l Larsen from Caguas, Puerto Rico was in DC at SPTS. Hehad just f inished an 1 1 meter (!) spherical similar in design tothat shown on the f ront cover of CSD for last March. Bil l 's 1 1meter should by now be installed and operating in a Carib-bean country where it wil l be feeding a 2.1 GHz MDStransmitter. The system will be taking down US DOMSATsignals and pumping them back out, scrambled, on MDS tosubscribers in a mill ion'plus market. I think it best I notidentify where this is being done, f or now. Bil l and I discoveredwe both suffer Fl "abnormalit ies" or in the technical iargon

JLJ I T1 -6 /81

"anamolies". He, l ike l, sees variations in the +/-1 dB regionon Fl signals over both short term periods (30 minutes orless)and long term (day to day). Like my Turks and Caicos 5 meterinstallation, Bil l 's 8* meter Spherical in Caguas, Puerto Ricofinds 21 lowest in level and 7 highest in level. We bothmeasure bird wanderings far greater than the 70 mile boxRCA professes to maintain and we both find the polarizationintegrity skewing about at irregular t imes. I mentioned thatwhen the signals are strongest I seem to have the greatestamount of polarization'shiff and he nodded agreement fromhis own experiences. This was something I noticed once ortwice in Oklahoma but never with the great regularity I charthere in the Caribbean. There is apparently more going on withthe bird or the downlink path than we have previously knownand understood.

A contlngent trom Columbla brought along a set ofsnapshots showing their results with US domestic birds, theRussian Ghorizont and the Brasil ian feed on lntelsat. Using 7and 8 meter home brew dish antennas these fellows areobtaining fantastic results. The Brasil ian and Russian signalsare better than anything I 've ever seen off of any bird.Unfortunately Columbians don't speak Portuguese orRussian (yet). One chap from Columbia invited his localnewspaperto use hisTV monitorscreen while theshuttle wasmaking its maiden fl ight. The newspaper ran several pages ofoff-TV-screen photos of the Columbia blast off and landingplus an elaborate story on this individual's installation. Forcontrast the paper displayed a wire service photo of Colum-bia landing against the almost same shot taken from theTVRO receiving site screen. The TVROshot was several t imesas high in definit ion plus it was in color!

There is a movement afoot to call a meeting, perhaps in midto late July in Miami, of all people from the Caribbean,Central or South America interested in forming a'steeringcommittee'that would eventually become a regional satell i tehardware users and sellers organization. Those of us stuckout here in the fringes of decent reception share commonlegal and technical problems. One way to prepare for thecertain legal challenges is to be prepared with an organiza't ion that has the resources to meet the challenges. lf you l iveor work in the area out l ined, we inv i te your input and i fpossible participation. Bob Behar in Miami (Hero Communi'cat ions, 1783 W 32nd Place, Hia leah, FL 33012; 305-887-3203) is bui ld ing a ' l is t ' o f in terested people. l ' l l be chai r ingthis meeting and look fonryard to having you there also.

Just ln ca8e you might th ink only the smal l se l f s tar t ingindividuals are interested in the Caribbean market place...atleast one firm with marketing plans to serve all of theCaribbean is now offering Scientif ic Atlanta ten meter pack-ages. These $100,000 price range terminals are being tar-geted for hotels and resorts spread throughout the regionand an aggressive marketing program is already underway.Caribbean hotel owners meeting in mid month at an annualconclave wil l be the first to hear of this program. Opportunity,as always, is where you find it.

COOP'S SATELLITE DICESTr2-6/81

WAVEGUIDECUT.OFF

PROBLEMS

I began us ing 2" lD copper p ipe f o r my wavegu ide sec t ions(each o f the 'Umbre l la Antennas ' has a bu i l t - in wavegu idesec t ion to coup le the energy f rom the sp lash p la te re f lec to r a tthe f ron t foca l oo in t to the LNA wh ich mounts to the rear )because Steve B i rk i l l and Rober t Co leman sa id th is was theappropr ia te s ize to use . Jus t to be cer ta in th is was good'poop ' I checked the cu t o f f f requency wh ich tu rned ou t lo be3.64 GHz; obv ious ly sa fe fo r 3 .7 GHz.

Then I began bu i ld ing up my own LNA s tages (see CSD fo rApr i l 1980) and I had a d i f f i cu l t t ime broad band ing them toopera te p roper ly across the fu l l 3 .7 to 4 .2 GHz band. I kep t

work ing w i th the LNAs but never cou ld ach ieve a p roperbroad banded response and cou ld on ly ge t .op t im ized per -f o rmance by tun ing the wavegu ide w i th a wavegu ide 'shor t ' . l fthe un i t worked proper ly a t the h igh end o f the band i t fe l lapar t a t the low end. l f i t worked proper ly a t the low end i t fe l lapar t a t the h igh end.

Susp ic ious o f the wavegu ide I t r ied a 2 .5" lD p iece o fcopper p ipe ; e lec t ing the 2 .5 inch s ize pr imar i l y because th iswas the nex t 'up ' so-ca l led "s tandard" s ize wh ich wasgenera l l y ava i lab le . The resu l t was tha t I had f la t response ont h e l o w e n d , a n d u s u a l l y o n t h e h i g h e n d a s w e l l b u t l w a slos ing channe ls ( t ransponders) random ly th rough the midd leb e c a u s e o f s o m e t h i n g c a l l e d ' m u l t i - m o d i n g ' .

The so lu t ion seems to be tha t you must use a sec t ion o fwavegu ide wh ich is jus t la rge smal l enough to keep thesec t ion f rom go ing in to undes i red modes such as TMgl o rTEg l on the h igh end o f the band bu t la rge enough to keepf rom hav ing too la rge an e f f ec t on the wave lengths ins ide thewavegu ide (see graph) . l f the wavegu ide is too smal l you w i l lhave a d i f f i cu l t t ime op t im iz ing the p ick up probe s i tua ted .1

/4wave length f rom the end o f the tube and one end or the o thero f the band w i l l su f fe r . The answer i s to se lec t a tub ing tha t i s2 . 1 5 " m i n i m u m t o 2 . 2 5 " m a x i m u m ( l D ) . T h e s t a n d a r d 2 "copper p ipe can be used o f course bu tyou cannot ge t the fu l lbandwid th w i thout tun ing the shor t ing s tub a t the end o f thewavegu ide sec t ion . l f you happen to be loca ted in an areaw h e r e t h e r e i s s u r p l u s s i g n a l t o ' b u r n ' y o u m i g h t n o t n o t i c eth is p rob lem. l t however your sys tem is marg ina l , your home-brew wavegu ide may be cos t ing you prec ious dBs!

tro^ '=V1ff i1,

L \ , JCurves show wave length ins ide wavegu idefor var ious d iameters o f wavegu ide .

3 .9

G H z

: 2 n r / u m n ( T E 1 1 , U : 1 . 8 4 1 ): 3 .4129197" : 3459 .79 GHz

2.5" : 4 .2661496" : 2344.03 GHz

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2" waveguide (4.15" di f ference) I Y:: : l=tn2.2 5" waveg u ide ( 1 .6 5" d i f f ere nce) | : ]1,", '^": : :2.5" wavesuide (1.07" difference) ) 11:iT.:: : ,"3" waveguide (.72" difference) \ ?J;i;"Hil"""f ree space (.38" difference) I ; . ; i ; i l i 'cx,

byBob LulyRobert A. Luly AssociatesP . O . Box 231 1San Bernadino, CA 92400

COOP'SSATELLITE DICEST

CORRECTIONSALL SEASON

POLAR MOUNT

The April issue of CSD, starting on page T3, presented apaper by TVRO enthusiast Ronald Wal tner of Indianapol is ,Indiana st r ipp ing away the myster ies of polar mount ingsystems. Waltner is a perfectionist and we try to be as close toperfection as we can ourselves. Some of the Waltner draw-ings were s l ight ly ' tangled ' in the edi tor ia l process and whi lefew would probably have been led astray by those drawinginaccuracies we want to set the record straight

We present those corrections here and suggest that yougo back to your Apr i l 1981 CSD and note these correcteddrawings as appear ing in th is June issue. In f lgure four ourar t is t neglected to show the proper t i l t o f the ax is of the d ishantenna. The corrected drawing is shown here.

In f igure f ive a smal l error crept in to the mathemat ica lformulae for the computat ion of the look angle. The correc-

T3-6/81

t ion appears here.The most serious error, perhaps, was in the unnumbered

drawing appearing on the bottom of page T5 identif ied withthe heading 'Modi l ied Polar Mount ' . The d ish has beendrawn paral le l to the ax is of the mount whi le in fact ( i f youfo l lowed the language of the Wal tner paper) the crux of h ispresentation is that you must include a declination correctioninto the polar mount system; a funct ion of your own lat i tude.

The text throughout is correct, including the formulae.H owever many of us sk ip the 'heavy text ' and go d i rect ly to thedrawings and sketches for the meat of an ar t ic le such as th isand in that department we get a grade of 5 on a scale on 10.We apologize to Waltner for the sloppy drafting in this reportand hope that readers were not confused by our small butimportant errorsl

F IGURE FOURN

Indicated angles are

Antenna Surface

oc *Lat i tudecc +"A*Axis/Earth AngleF:Antenna/Axis AngleB+'A-""Look Angle" Referred to Axis

rs- I

/ :..eD-tan

rs +'l

FIGURE F IVE

OS r.1r s-+{

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O' '+ 'B :1BO'rA-90'-B:90 )-B-A

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F : 1

T4-6/81 COOP'SSATELLITE DICEST

p O L A R M O U N T D i s h S h o u t dNot Be Para l le l

M O D I F I E D

Swinq East Sv , ; in t1 Wes l

Vicr'i /i

South

t D i s h t oxrs l \n ( j

To Axis.

Vicw 'A '

*Ax is o f f?o t ; - i t ion

-"* l lo t l l t

l , i r ) ( i . i i l j l r / ' l . i x [ ; i - i r r t ; l t : a l l c )w l i i r l : t ' l t ( ; r J r i t l l i . j f ) ( . ) i ; ] r n l o l l r l l: r . r l ' r i l r r : t 1 l ) v r o i a l i o r ) on l i : r : s l r l l l l c L l x i s . \ l ' / l t t , : r r t r i i ' 1 : ) l ) ( ) r lYi I i . ia)

SATE LLITE BYSEWER PIPE /TH E HAITIANCON NECTION

The t r ip rea l l y began w i th a v is i t to Bob Coope/s WIV-TV(West Ind ies V ideo) opera t ion on the Ca icos ls lands . Welanded a t Prov idenc ia les a i rpor t a f te r f l y ing f rom Hami l ton ,Ontar io in Owen Bor is ' p lane, w i th a s topover in F lo r ida to p icku p a L u l y u m b r e l l a a n t e n n a f r o m B o b B e h a r . O u r u l t i m a t edes t ina t ion was Cap Ha i t ien in Nor thern Ha i t i , to conduct

byG.J . ( Jake ) M i l l i ganFergus-Elora Cable TV LtdFergus, Ontar io

ABOUT THE AUTHOR -Jake Mi l l igan is a p ioneer in the te lev is ion business in

Canada; f rom the very earliest days of cable W to his presentinterest in sate l l i te TV serv ices. Jake constructed a TVROdish out of a d iscarded metal 's i lo top 'several years ago andfrom that basic beginning he has ra ised a "crop" of TVROsystems.

COOP as we found h lm In h ls 'natura l envl ronment ' ; thecontrol room of WIV'W.

tests to determine the feasib i l i ty of insta l l ing ear th s tat ions inthat area, but we stopped at Coop's to get a few words ofwisdom and to br ie f lystudy h is operat ion. Coop made us mostwelcome, arranged accomodat ions for us at the ls land Pr in-cess Hote l , a mi le or so f rom his home, and gave us the royaltour of WIV-TV. We were very impressed with the professionalway that he had organized his subscription television service.I won' t go in to deta i ls of the operat ion s ince Coop's Sate l l l teDigest publication has covered it pretty thoroughly. How-ever, we can mention some aspects that Coop may be toomodest to ment ion. When we arr ived, h is channel four VHFtransmitter was carrying l ive coverage fo the Reaganassassinat ion at tem pt f rom C N N. Since we had been in the a i rfor the previous day, we had not heard any recent news. TheB&W receiver in the Providenciales airport "bar" gave us thefirst news of the disaster. Coop was giving coverage second

o

COOP'SSATELLITE DICESTv

(,

The WIV-TV'Annex' wl th 5 meter TVRO antenna ( r lght) .

to none - anywhere in the US. Later , when we arr ived at h iscontro l room, we were impressed wi th the f ine Satcompictures d isplayed on an array of moni tors. The mul t ip l ic i ty ofWR's, test equipment and sate l l i te receivers demonstratedthat Coop was not fool ing. When h is network is fu l ly opera-t ional i t wi l l br ing an excel lent and var ied te lev is ion serv ice tothe Turks and Caicos ls lands.

Af ter p lck ing Coop's bra ins and garner ing what advice wecould, we set of f to complete our Hai t i exper iments. Welanded at Cap Hai t ien and were soon busy t ry ing to get ourarray of technical equipment past the Hai t ian customsof f ic ia ls . Af ter much delay a phone cal l f rom President Duva-l ier expedi ted the re lease of our sate l l i te receiv ing equip-ment . Owen's f r iend and our host in Hai t i , be ing an acquain-tance of "Baby Doc", was inst rumental in having the Presi -dent in tercede on our behal f .

When we f lna l ly got the equipment f rom customs, weproceeded to at tempt to set up our Hai t ian ear th s tat ion. Wesoon d iscovered that we were miss ing a v i ta l component - thedevice that connects the LNA to the antenna!The waveguideon the Luly antenna is 274" round tubing. We had to have atransi t ion p iece that would go f rom the round antenna wave-guide to the rectangular input of the LNA. l t had apparent lybeen over looked when the remainder of the equipment waspicked up in Miami. Since there was no way to make the ear thterminal funct ion wi thout th is component , we set out tofabr icate a subst i tu te. F inding the necessary mater ia l was, tosay the least, a very diff icult task. Owen finally found a three-

Author Mlll lgan gettlng a aev€re gun burn at the Mont Jolis l te .

T5-6/8 1

The sewer p ipe t rans i t ion be ing fabr ica ted a t the CapHai t ien Techn lca l Schoo l ; many w i l l i ng hands to he lp !

foo t leng th o f b rass sewer -p ipe in a junkyard . Th is p ipe wastaken to the Cap Ha i t ien Techn ica l Schoo l , where we t r ied toexp la in how we wanted the tub ing mod i f ied f o r our purposes .S ince none o f us spoke French, i t was d i f f i cu l t to convey ourexac t requ i rements . However , a f te r much s ign language andt r ia l and er ro r , we f ina l l y had our "sewer -p ipe" t rans i t ion f romc i rcu la r to rec tangu lar wavegu ide .

Th is t rang i t ion was a t tached to the Lu ly an tenna andp ic tu res were rece ived. The Westar and Comstar b i rds o ro-duced watchab le p ic tu res w i th some ident i f iab le recept ionf rom An ik . No Satcom s igna ls were rece ived.

The sa te l l i tes were found f i rs t by us ing a Hewle t t PackardSpect rum Ana lyser tha t d isp layed the en t i re 3 .7 to 4 .2 GHzband. As soon as car r ie rs cou ld be c lear ly d isp layed weswi tched to a v ideo mon i to r to ident i f y the var ious t ranspon-ders . Th is method o f in i t ia l s igna l acqu is i t ion proved super io rto us ing a TV rece iver fo r tha t purpose. S igna ls cou ld bedetec ted on the ana lyser be fore they cou ld be reso lved on as tandard rece iver . We used a 1OO degree K M/A (Canada)LNA and a Mic rodyne rece iver .

These tes ts wou ld no t have been poss ib le w i thout the Lu lypor tab le umbre l la an tenna. Wind and a br ie f ra ins to rm in te r -rup ted our tes ts . We had to wa i t fo r dead ca lm cond i t ions tomake watchab le recept ion poss ib le . However , th is type o f

Jim. l rv ine of Aurora Cable TV ( le f t ) , lan Munro ChiefEngineer for Mounta in Cablev is ion in Hami l ton (centeDand Owen Bor is President of Mounta in Cablev is ion set-t ing up the Luly umbrel la antenna at the Mont Jol i Hote lin Cap Hai t ien.

- -;llit-z- r

COOP'SSATELLITE DICESTT6-6/81

Walter Bussenlus (centerf , owner of the Mont Joll Hotelln Cap Hal t len and an admlt ted sate l l i te TV' junkee' wi thOwen Bor ls ( r lght of Wal ted on the roof on the Mont Jol iwl th the Luly antenna. What t imes does Sator i come onthe alr???

antenna d id per form remarkably wel l in sp i te of adversecondi t ions and a "sewer-p ipe" t ransi t ion. One of the v iewerscommented, when he saw pic tures coming f rom the R-RatedSator i channel , that the sewer-p ipe was st i l l conveyingexcrement . This opin ion, however, was not shared by theothers eager ly c lustered around the test set-up.

HOW TO CHECKTVRO DISH

SURFACE ACCURACY

Ridding you r s tat ion of those an noying spa rk l ies can some't imes be an a lmost endless parade of ' l i t t le hassles ' . Lowtemp LNA's and super feedhorns help. But when the problemseems to be an out-of -curve d ish, i t can be down r ightf rust rat ing. The real t r ick is knowing i f you 've got a problem.N ot a l l manuf acturer c la ims can be bel ieved. So what can youdo? Try ing to eyebal l d ish accuracy is near impossib le!

Here 's an easy way to shut down the h idden spark l iegenerator . Actual ly , that 's a misnomer s ince the spark l ies areanyth ing but h idden! We use a quicky computer program tosoi t out the raw numbers so we can bui ld an exact template tolay in the d ish and check accuracy. l t looks l ike a sor t of hal f -moon. You can bui ld the template f rom cardboard or maso-

bySteve GibsonGibson Engineer ingP. O. Box 38386Hollywood, CA 9OO38

ABOUT THE AUTHOR -

Steve Gibson is c razy about sa te l l i tes . A f te r a t tend ingSPTS '79 in Ok lahoma he rushed back to Ho l lywood andimmedia te ly began ins ta l l ing h is own ten f oo t te rmina l . Whenhe la te r found ou t tha t h is Ho l lywood homewas un for tunate lys i tua ted (be tween the en t i re Los Ange les te r res t r ia l m ic rowave te rminus po in ts ) he so ld h is house and moved to the topof a ta l l sou thern Ca l i fo rn ia h i l l / mounta in top . Free o f 4 GHzand a i r smog Gibson now rou t ine ly tunes in Moscow andMex ico , Canada and Ca i ro ( l l l i no is ) on h is motor d r ivencomouter cont ro l led au tomated d ish . G ibson has appearedat severa l SPTS events , has au thored an STT Manua l ( "TheGibson Sate l l i te Nav iga to / ' ) and is cur ren t ly b i t ing o f f h isf inger na i l s hop ing tha t the FCC grants h im h is LPTV l i censeso he can tu rn h is mounta in top home in to the vo ice o f'Te lev is ion-Free-Sate l l i te " .

n i te o r p lywood. Whatever i s on hand tha t i s reasonab ly s t i f f .Metal is best. But you may want to try the 'Lazy Way' f i rst.More about tha t la te r .

A l l you do is type the program in to near ly any hobbycomputerw i th BASIC and run i t . Even a 'huntand peck ' a r t i s tshou ld be ab le to type th is l i t t le d i t t y in to a mach ine inminutes . And i f you don ' t have a computer o f your own, usesomeone e lses . You can a lways promise them a peek a t 'TVf rom space ' ! The who le p rocess is easy and beats the t imeyou 'd spend work ing ou t a ba tch o f ca lcu la t ions on a lega ltab le t ( l use a lo t o t 'em) . The program wi l l g ive you a screend isp lay or a hard copy pr in t -ou t i f you have a pr in te r con-nected.

MAYBE YOU DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM!Before you run down to your neares t Rad io Shack fo r a

computer , perhaps you shou ld take another look a t your d ish .ls the LNA rea l l y a t the d ish f oca l po in t? An easy way to checkis g iven in Coop 's Sate l l i te Opera t ions Manua l . Check inga l l th ree ad jus tments takes very l i t t le t ime and can make asoec tacu la r d i f fe rence in the o ic tu re . The fo rmula fo r thesead jus tments i s :

D l s H F O C A L L E N G T H : r *

W h e r e . . . . W i s t h e w i d t h o f t h e d i s h i n i n c h e sD is the dePth o f the d ish in inches

You measure the depth by s imp ly s t re tch ing a w i re acrossthe d ish and measure f rom the exac t cen ter o f the d ish UP tot h a t w i r e a s s e e n i n f i g u r e 1 . M a k i n g t h i s m e a s u r e m e n t i seas ie r sa id than done even i f the d ish is lay ing on the ground.Runn ing the w i re i s no prob lem. But the center measurementcan be someth ing e lse . So I use a yard s t i ck taped to a b roomhand le to reach in to the d ish . Th is way you can measuredepth w i th l i t t le o r no e f fo r t even i f the d ish is a l ready on amou n t .

F I G U R E O N E

M e a s u r e- D e p t h

H e r e

--l

IF YOU REALLYWANT TO LEARNHOW THE SATELLITESYSTEMWORKS-COME TO

OMAHA August 14-1 5 '1 6, 1 981 !

"Back to Basics" . Three days l ike no SPTS ever was. You s tar t o f f w i th in tens ive,profess ional ly taught seminars that acquaint you wi th antennas, LNAs andreceivers . Then you are turned loose to se lect f rom severa l dozen "smal l group"Learn ing Centers where you ta lk d i rect ly , one-on-one, wi th leading exper ts inthese f i e lds . You ge t a l l o f t he bas ics f i r s t and then you go on f rom the re to f i nd ou thow to get top per formance out o f every par t o f the low-cost , home sate l l i tesystem!

A funtast ic fami ly exper ience! Staged at the wor ld 's largest Hol iday Inn Complex; ten acresdevo ted to an tennas Room a f te r room o f ' Lea rn ing Cen te r ' sess ions . An tenna aga ins t an tennatest ing to teach you how to get the most per formance f or your own insta l la t ions. An expanded in-room TV sc hed u le wi th more than 30 hou rs of 'bas ics ' coverage. P le nty f or t he whole fam i ly to en joywh i l e you ge t t he sa te l l i t e educa t i on o f you r l i f e ; pu t t i ng g reen , shu f f l e -boa rd , b i l l i a rds , p ing -pong ,Sauna ba th , Jacuzz i poo l , i ndoo r sw imming poo l , two l ounges w i th en te r ta inmen t , hea l th c lub ,beauty sa lon and a f antast ic 'game room' l A l l o f th is at specia l SPTS rates (s ing les under $35 pern i g h t ) i n a c o n t e m p o r a r y r e s o r t c o m p l e x s e c o n d t o n o n e i n t h e c o u n t r y t o d a y l D o n ' t m i s s o u t - t h e504 rooms a re f i l l i ng up fas t ! Reg is t ra t i on fo rm in th i s i ssue o f CSD.

OR CALL fo r fu f l de ta i l s ; SPTS '81 a t 4O5/396-2574.

i;sdl

oID

COOP'SSATELLITE DICESTTB-6/81

N e x t , y o u p l u g t h e n u m b e r s i n t o t h e a b o v e f o r m u l a t o f i n dthe foca l leng th . You ' l l need someth ing longer than a yards t i c k t o m e a s u r e t h e d i s t a n c e u p t o t h e L N A . I u s e c h e a p w a l lmo ld ing ava i lab le a t any hardware s to re and tape i t to tha tsame broom hand le . l f the mouth o f your feed horn tu rns ou tto be some d is tance away f rom the foca l po in t you ca lcu la tedabove, i t ' s t ime to ge t ou t the ladder and ad jus t i t . Tak ingmeasur ing tape accuracy in to account , your f eedhorn shou ldbe w i th in an inch or two o f the ca lcu la ted va lue .

You may f ind yourse l f do ing a lo t o f c l imb ing i f you wantpeak per fo rmance. Use the s igna l meter on the rece iver tocheck fo r any improvement . l f your rece iver doesn ' t have ameter , you can use the s imp le c i rcu i t f rom the GibsonSate l l i te Nav iga tor Man ua l o r s tudy the p ic tu re on any weakt ransponder and tweak the LNA fo r the leas t number o fspark l ies the way Coop shows you in h is OPERATIONSMANUAL. What do you do i f you s t i l l have a ro t ten p ic tu re?

S I M P L E D I S H M A T HHere is where we le t the computer do the work . l f you want to

get to the bo t tom l ine , then sk ip over th is par t and s ta r t t yp ingin the program. Otherw ise , le t ' s rush th rough the bas ics .

You know tha t the f /D ra t io descr ibes much o f th e geomet ryo f your d ish . In fac t , tha t ' s p rec ise ly what the program uses tog ive you the num bers f o r your templa te . To f ind the f /D ra t io o fy o u r d i s h , y o u s i m p l y d i v i d e t h e f o c a l l e n g t h o f t h e d i s h(ca lcu la ted above) by the d iameter . Easy isn ' t i t?

Foca l leng thf rD ra r ro : - -' L ) lameter

Use the f i r s t fo rmula to f ind the foca l leng th . Then use theone above to f ind the l /D . Don ' t be surpr ised i f the numbersyou ge t a re d i f fe ren t than those tha t the manufac turer gaveyou. Desp i te the er ro r , you may s t i l l have a 'near per fec t 'd ish .T h e d a y o f t h e ' p e r f e c t ' d i s h i s s t i l l i n t h e f u t u r e . M e t a l a n df iberg lass can be made to conform very we l l to a mo ld , bu tdon ' t expec t per fec t ion . Some c lever d ish makers , ad ius tthe i r mo lds to compensate fo r poss ib le e r ro r .

Now before you reach fo r the phone to ca l l and ra ise He l la b o u t t h e s t r a n g e n u m b e r s , y o u s h o u l d d o u b l e c h e c k y o u rwork . You must make sure a l l your numbers are in the sameun i ts ( inches) . The f /D va lue you ge t shou ld be someth ingbetween .3 to .6 o r you may have a math er ro r . l t you ' re los t a tth is po in t , you can ca tch up very fas t by s imp ly remember ingtha t the number we seek is on ly a ra t io . l t i sn ' t a d isc ree tmeasurement . We use th is ra t io in o ther ca lcu la t ions togenera te a parabo l ic curve and the l i ke .

Work ing backwards , i t fo l lows tha t a knowledge o f the f /Dra t io o f your d ish is a l l tha t ' s needed to ca lcu la te the foca llength . We can eas i l y t ranspose the equat ion to read:

Foca l leng th : f /D t imes D iameter

But don ' t do i t ! l f your p ic tu re s t inks , the or ig ina l des ign t /Dra t io may be d i f f e ren t f rom your ac tua l d ish . l t i s be t te r to 'p lodo u t t h e r e ' a n d m e a s u r e y o u r S P E C I F I C d i s h . K e e p i n m i n dtha t your ac tua l d ish t /D can indeed be d i f fe ren t f rom thespecs and s t i l l work f ine . The key idea here is to see how c loseto a parabo la the d ish conf o rms. Then loca te the f eed horn a tthe locus o f YOUR PARTICULAR PARABOLA!

PROGRAM BACKGROUNDThe program s imp ly p lugs your d ish f /D ra t io in to the fo rmula

for a parabo l ic curve s imi la r to one in the Ne lson Parabo l icD ish Manua land ca lcu la tes the depth a t in te rva lq you se lec t .As a by produc t fo r those o f you bu i ld ing a mold , the programalso ca lcu la tes the 'beh ind he igh t ' o f a parabo l ic d ish . Th isca lcu la t ion does no t take in to cons idera t ion th ickness o f thef ina l d ish or the amount o f warp ing l i ke ly to occur as a resu l t o ff iberg lass cur ing .

The fo rmula used in the program is :

. . Y2^ :

4D ( f /D)

Where : X : he igh t the curve r i ses above a base l ineY : d is tance f rom the centerD : d i a m e t e r o f t h e d i s hf /D : ra t io o f foca l leng th to d iameter

You may see i t be t te r in f igure 2

FIGURE TWO

Perhaps the bes t par t o f th is p rogram ( l i s t ing in f igure 3) i sthe oppor tun i ty to r you to choose the accuracy o f themeasurements . That i sn ' t qu i te t rue because the accuracy isas good as you r computer . What we mean here is the ' in te rva l '

be tween ca lcu la t ions . You can o ick w ide in te rva ls l i ke 5inches (sample run in f igure 4) f o r a spot check or g r ind ou t ami le o f paper a t mere f rac t ions o f an inch . Any th ing less than1 / 1 6 i n c h i n t e r v a l s i s m a d n e s s a n d w i l l o n l y w a s t e p a p e r ,wear ou t your p r in te r and boos t your e lec t r i c b i l l !

THE LAZY WAY TO CHECKl f t h e i d e a o f t r a n s f e r r i n g a l l t h o s e l i t t l e n u m b e r s t o a p i e c e o f

wood or meta l tha t w i l l have lo be cu t , bo thers you, then whynot do a few ca lcu la t ions by hand and use the yard s t i ckmethod descr ibed above?

Al l tha t you need fo rmula w ise is here . Jus t f ind a b room, ayard s t i ck and a long ree l - type measur ing tape to s t re tchacross the d ish ins tead o t a w i re . T ry 5 inch in te rva ls . That wayyou ' l l have on ly a dozen or so ca lcu la t ions to make. A cheapyca lcu la to r w i l l save t ime. And i f you are t ru l y lazy , you ' l l op t fo rthe computer anyway.

W H E N I T D O E S N ' T W O R K !The ou tcome o f your e f fo r t can go about 4 ways .1 ) Y o u d i d t h e p r e l i m i n a r y m a t h a n d d i s c o v e r e d t h e f e e d

horn was in the wrong p lace . You d idn ' t bo ther w i th theprogram or the templa te because the p ic tu re i s f ine now. Thes imole meter c i rcu i t descr ibed in the Gibson Sate l l i te Nav i -ga tor Manua l made a l l the l i t t le ad jus tments very easy fo ryou to do .

2)You ran the program and every th ing checks . Your on lyconcern is what to do now wi th tha t b ig templa te you made!

3)The f /D was d i f fe ren t f rom manufac turer specs , bu t youran the program us ing ins tead the f /D you ca lcu la ted . Yout h e n c u t a t e m p l a t e a n d i t f i t t h e d i s h l i k e a g l o v e l

4 [he t /D was e i ther d i f fe ren t o r r igh t on . You kept re -r u n n i n g t h e p r o g r a m u n t i l y o u g o t t h e r i g h t n u m b e r s , b u t t h etempla te you made shows b ig (as in f rac t ions o f an inch)gapsw h e n l a y e d i n t h e d i s h .

Th is i s where you must s i t back and ' survey the scene 'as ateacher o f m ine once to ld me. Try to t i rs t see i f you 've made amis take . Check the or ig ina l measurements . Then re - run theprogram and see tha t the program gets the same f oca l leng thand depth as you d id be f o re i t mer r i l y went about bang ing ou t

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a l i s t o f measurements . The way to do th is i s to keep t ry ingd i f fe ren t f /D va lues . Of course , you can eas i l y ca lcu la te thef /D us ing the above fo rm u las . Or you can spend 20 minu tes torewr i te the program to do th is fo r you . But the fo r sake o ts imp l ic i t y , I d idn ' t bo ther w i th i t because i t may take you lessthan a minu te to f ind the exac t f /D to f i t !

Then what?What about remeasur ing your templa te? l f i t a l lchecks ou t , bu t you s t i l l see day l igh t be tween your templa teand the d ish , then i t ' s t ime to cont inue to survey the scene. l sthe c rack be tween the d ish and the templa te g radua l? l f so ,you 've cu t a templa te fo r a d ish f /D o ther than yours . Go backand measure and cu t a new curve .

Now a c rack here and there means someth ing is de f in i te lywrong! A t th is po in t , your on ly op t ion is to e i ther see about anew d ish or f ind a way to resur face i t o r bend i t in to shape i f i t ' smeta l . Th is can be very f rus t ra t ing because bend ing the d ishmay no t be prac t ica l .

S t i l l , i t may be poss ib le to bend a f iberg lass d ish . How'stha t? Few d ishes are made in one p iece . You ' re lucky i f youhave a 'bo l t together ' mode l . F i rs t you d ismant le the d ish .Then reassemble i t on the ground bu t in a way tha t compen-sa tes fo r the smal l e r ro r . Ream out a bo l t ho le o r two. Bend,tw is t and sweat . Use the templa te gu ide . l t doesn ' t a lwaywork . But i t ' s wor th the e f fo r t when you cons ider the a l te rna-t i ves . A c lose work ing re la t ionsh ip w i th the manuf ac tu rer cansh i f t a lo t o f wor ry o f f your shou lders .

Suppose you s t i l l have bad p ic tu res . Component subs t i tu -t ion is jus t about a l l tha t ' s le f t when you 've made a l l theposs ib le ad jus tments . . .except fo r one th ing . Locat ion ! Youmay have one o f the most e lus ive spark l ie genera tors . yesindeed. The bane o f a l l TVRO p ioneers . . . in te r fe rence. Re-member , o ther serv ices share the same f requenc ies w i th TVsate l l i tes . l f you f ind spark l ies on a few or even ha l f o f a l l thet ransponders , then the PLL in your rece iver may be work ingover t ime jumping back and fo r th be tween the te r res t r ia ls igna l and the sa te l l i te . Now before you iunk tha t n i f t y

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in h is ut terances and not af ra id to look you in the eye when heto ld you something. Pr ior to SPTS San Jose, Rohner hadasked or rather volunteered to be on the San Jose program;not once but twice. He volunteered an engineer ing f r iendfrom 'southern Cal i forn ia ' to help h im descr ibe h is innovat ive$1500 LNA plus downconverter package to the crowd andthen a lso was scheduled to descr ibe h is design work wi thLNAs. We had our f i rs t real problem wi th Rohner at San Jose;the t ime came for he and h is engineerf r iend to appear on theprogram and. . .nobody showed up. Af ter s tar t ing the session(wi thout Rohner or f r iend) we asked everyone to be pat ientwhi le we t r ied to run down John. The worst th ing thatoccurred to us was that John Rohner had s imply forgot ten thet ime. We located h im in h is booth, hold ing 'cour t ' for severalattendees.

"You are 'on ' now John" we excla imed. "On what?" heretor ted. "On the program - th is is your t ime to present yourprogram". His response should have to ld us much more thani t d id at the t ime.

"Oh that . . .wel l , my f r iend d idn ' t show up eo I decidednot to do i t . " We ment ioned that several hundred peoplewere s i t t ing in an audi tor ium wai t ing for h im. He shrugged h isshoulders. -We ran back through the pools ide area to theaudi tor ium to repor t that John Rohner and f r iend would notbe there. We had egg on our face and c lear ly d id not l ike thefeel ing. Something i ike that had never happened to us before.

Meanwhi le in h is booth, Rohner was busy showing peoplehow his computer could spi t out geostat ionary arc in forma-t ion. He was a lso 'expla in ing ' to those who asked why he d idnot have h is f ancy LNA plus receiver in h is booth. What he d idhave was a box he cal led the 'RCVR'. He would la ter changethe name on th is box to the 'Basic RCVR'. We' l l see why.

Now let 's back up a b i t and return to the spr ing of 1980.John Rohner, a br ight young man wi th fami ly roots and t ies inlowa was into the sate l l i te hardware business ' John's fatherhad star ted a rather substant ia l business in West L iber tywhen John ( the o ldest of four chi ldren; three brothers and asis ter) was a wee lad. The fami ly business is ca l led RohnerMachine Works. Today the e lder Rohner is ret i red and l iv ingin Flor ida. John's younger brother Bob took over the opera 't ion of the f ami ly machine works when the father ret i red andaccording to s is ter L iz , the machine works turns out bear ingsand machined par ts for such customers as Internat ionalHarvester . L iz bel ieves i t may employ as many as 200 peopleat t imes. John's in terests were never developed in themachine works area; h is in terest was e lect ronics. Anotherbrother , Tom, a lso had an in terest in e lect ronics. Today,brother Tom bui lds computer equipment in the same fami lymanufactur ing center and L iz suggests Tom employs per-haps 25 people or so.

When John Rohner took out h is f i rs t adver t isment in CSD'advert is ing Howard and Coleman c i rcu i t boards, the name ofthe company to which orders would be sent was:

ROHNER MACHINES WORKS, INC.That was a mistake on John's par t , we later learn; a mistake

he made because he had fa i l ed t o ' c l ea r ' use o f t he f am i l ybusiness name wi th h is father . Eventual ly the Senior Rohnerdiscovered that h is e ldest son was using the name for h isc i rcu i t board business.

Sister El izabeth, "My tather wa8 outragsd when helearned about th is . He demanded that John stop us ingth€ name immediate ly . "

' lmmediate ly 'was in Rohner 's last c i rcu i t board adver t ise-ment wi th CSD; i t appeared in the August 1980 issue butagain we are get t ing ahead of our repor t .

According to El izabeth, John's past has inc luded t ime spentin Hawai i and Cal i f orn ia. " l d idn ' t know much about what Joh nwas doing in those years" L iz recal ls "but lknow that ourfather was bai l ing h im out of one problem af ter another" .El izabeth a lso recal ls that John was never very gratef u i forthe assis tance he got f rom the fami ly in those past events."He doesn' t remember much about i t when you t ry to ta lk wi thh im" .

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Howard PLL board, I should say that there may be anotherway. The secret is to s imply make the terrestr ia l s ignalweaker than the sate l l i te s ignal . We' l l cover in ter ference inanother insta l lment . In the meant ime, s tar t looking for abroom and a yard stick!

For some months CSD has been receiv ing le t ters f romreaders who have exper ienced "problems"wi thJohn Rohner.For the unwashed, Mr. Rohner is a man in West L iber ty 'lowa who began adver t is ing in the March '1980 issue of CSD.He of fered the industry a set of c i rcu i t boards which he saidwould make construct ion of the Taylor Howard receiver orRobert Coleman pro jects 'easier ' . He cont inued to adver t isethose c i rcu i t boards through the spr ing and ear ly summer of1980 . Then a long i n t he June i ssue o r so John Rohnerannounced to the wor ld a very innovat ive new receiver ; i twould have an LNA plus downconverter together at the feedof the antenna, and ins ide the house a very specia l 'd ig i ta l

demodulator" . Rohner promised to show th is new LNA plusreceiver , which he pr iced at just $1 500, at the San Jose SPTSshow.

We f i rs t met John Rohner at San Jose. He seemed l ike apersonable enough chap; a b i t rough cut perhaps but s incere

J O H N R O H N E R

G E N I U SOR ???

COOP'SSATELLITE DICEST

Now E l izabeth Reese has reason to know more about whatt ransp i red w i th John 's sa te l l i te bus iness than most . She wassupposed to be a V ice Pres ident o f a corpora t ion wh ich thefami ly a t to rney , R. M. Russo, was to fo rm fo r John 's ac t i v i t ies .

"Our fami ly hoped tha t th rough John 's apparont under -s tand ing o f sa te l l i te equ ipment , and the w l l l i ngnesa o fmy husband and myse l f to go to work fo r the bus inees ,tha t a new enterpr ise cou ld be ar ranged" . Us ing theserv ices o f Counse lor Russo, L iz te l l s us , a corpora t ion wasdrawn up and John was le f t w i th the task o f ge t t ing thecorpora t ion papers f i l ed w i th the Sta te o f lowa. L iz 's husbandle f t h is un ion pa in t ing job and the two o f them went to work fo rJohn. Wel l , sor t o f . "John to ld us , a f te r the a t to rney le f t , tha t wewou ldn ' t rea l l y be work ing fo r the company; tha t we wou ld bel i ke ' consu l tan ts ' . Each o f us wou ld be resoons ib le fo r ourown taxes and workman 's comp and so on" . Then, a t somepo in t John, L iz c la ims, a r ranged to have the t idy sums herhusband had bu i l t up in p re-pa id workman 's comp and o therco l lec t ion areas moved f rom the accounts o f the fo rmere m p l o y e r t o J o h n a n d L i z a n d t h e f a m i l y ' s n e w c o m p a n y . J u s texac t ly what rea l l y happened here is unc lear and i t i s in fac tthe sub jec t o f l i t i ga t ion . E l i zabeth Reese and husband havebeen in cour t hear ings approx imate ly s ix t imes s ince the f i r s to f 198 1 on th is mat te r t ry ing to ge t the f unds back to wherethey be long. The tami ly bus iness a t to rney , R. M. Russo nol o n g e r r e p r e s e n t s J o h n R o h n e r ' s b u s i n e s s ; w e ' l l s e e w h y L i zsays th is i s so shor t l y . In tak ing her b ro ther John to cour tE l i z a b e t h R e e s e i s u s i n g J a y N . R u s s o , t h e s o n o f t h e e l d e ra t to rney the fami ly has used in the pas t .

E l i zabeth Reese wants i t p la in ly unders tood tha t she doesnot have her b ro ther in cour t because o f a g rudge match . " l t

a l l s ta r ted when my husband and I go t t i red o f haes l ingwi th cus tomers and wou ld be cugtomers over non-ex is ten t money" . E l i zabeth remembers the c i rcu i t boardbus iness very we l l ; when she s ta r ted work ing fo r the com-pany, o r ra ther herse l f as a par t o f the company, la te in thespr ing o f 1980, her f i rs t task was to ge t o rders f i l l ed fo r thec i rcu i t boards John had been adver t i s lng s ince March .

"To he lp John ge t s ta r ted , b ro ther Tom had ex tended toJ o h n t h e u s e o f a p o r t i o n o f h i s s e c t i o n o f t h e c o m p u t e r p l a n t ;a n d h e h a d g i v e n J o h n p e r m i s s i o n t o u s e h i s e s t a b l i s h e dcred i t w i th var ious supp l ie rs to buy par ts . When I was g ivent h e j o b o f f i l l i n g o r d e r s i n M a y , I f o u n d m a n y o f t h e p a r t s h a dnever even been ordered" A t the same t ime L iz was t ry ing tof i l l t h e e a r l y o r d e r s f o r l F a n d d e m o d k i t s a n d o t h e r R o h n e rconce ived 'Howard ' and 'Co leman ' c i rcu i t boards , John wasu p t o h i s e y e b a l l s i n d e v e l o p i n g h i s f a m o u s $ 1 5 0 0 L N A p l u sr e c e i v e r . W e r e c a l l J o h n R o h n e r t e l l i n g u s o n t h e t e l e p h o n eas c lose as f i ve days pr io r to San Jose tha t he wou ld have nof e w e r t h a n t h r e e o f h i s ' d i g i t a l r e c e i v e r ' u n i t s o n h a n d i n S a nJ o s e . L i z r e c a l l s t h e s a m e t i m e a s w e l l .

"We worked r igh t up pas t midn igh t on ge t t ing one un i tto work the very day John had to f l y to Ca l i fo rn ia . When Iwent to bed a t m idn ig h t the f i r s t rece iver d id no t ye t work .J o h n n e v e r t o l d m e i f h e g o t i t w o r k i n g " . W e c a n t e l l L i zt h a t ; i n C a l i f o r n i a J o h n R o h n e r w a s n o t d e m o n s t r a t i n g aw o r k i n g r e c e i v e r . W h a t h e d i d b r i n g w i t h h i m w a s n o t t h ef a m o u s d i g i t a l u n i t a t a l l b u t r a t h e r t h e l a t e r - t o - b e - n a m e d$ 6 9 5 " B a s i c R e c e i v e d ' . I n C a l i f o r n i a J o h n R o h n e r t o l d u s t h a ts o m e i m p o r t a n t t r a n s i s t o r s h a d n o t c o m e i n o n t i m e s o h ec o u l d n o t b r i n g t h e f u l l d i g i t a l p a c k a g e w i t h h i m . H i s s u b s t i -tu te 'Bas ic RCVR' was charac ter ized as the impor tan t e le -m e n t s f r o m t h e d i g i t a l p a c k a g e ' . A g a i n L i z r e c a l l s t h e m a t t e r al i t t l e d i t f e r e n t l y t h a n J o h n .

"The computer rad io rea l l y wor r ied me. I saw an adver -t i se ment fo r i t ( in the Aug us t i ssue o f CSD )a nd I asked Joh nhow he cou ld adver t i se someth ing tha t he d idn ' t have! " .D i d n ' t h a v e ? D o e s L i z m e a n t h a t J o h n d i d n ' t h a v e a n y r a d i o st o s h i p ?

"To the bes t o f my knowledge there never was such a th ingas a work ing Rohner Conver t ing V ideo Rece iver ; the ' com-

outer rece ive i . "

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Some peop le thought there was. John Rohner to ld peop lethere was such a rece iver . Peop le such as HaydenMcCul lough be l ieved John when he sa id there was. A t leas t afew peop le thought John was be ing s t ra igh t w i th them ands e n t J o h n $ 1 5 0 0 f o r a u n i t .

Char les A . Torb i t l l l (o f 3745 S. Temperance, Fresno, CA93725; (209)266-2088) be l ieved John when he was to ld onthe te lephone, in September , tha t such a rece iver ex is ted .Torb i t sen t Rohner & Assoc ia tes $1500 o f h is money fo r theLNA p lus ' computer ' rece iver . "Rohnor to ld me on thete lephone tha t i f I wanted one, the pr lce wae go lng up to$25OO on October 1 st. I asked hlm how I could get on€ atthe $15OO pr ice" reca l l s Torb i t . "He aa ld send h im $15OOr i g h t n o w . I d i d " .

F o r w e e k s T o r b i t h e a r d n o t h i n g . ' W h e n l f i n a l l y g o t t h r o u g h ,he sa id tha t de l i very wou ld be 1 2O days away. I sa id tha t d idn ' tseem fa i r to me and he countered by o f fe r ing me 'an In te r impackage ' cons is t ing o f a BASIC RCVR p lus an LNA. A t tha tt ime the pr ice fo r the two p ieces came to about $1400 in themarke tp lace and Rohner assured me tha t he 'd rep lace themwi th the fancy mode l as soon as i t was ava i lab le" .

Torb i t wa i ted some more . S is te r E l i zabeth remembers theear ly fa l l o f 1 980 ra ther we l l . "John kept te l l lng me tha t l twas 'normal ' in the e lec t ron ica bus lnege to have to wa i ts ix months or more fo r de l i very o f a new produc t , I wasvery nervous about i t a l l anyhow. That was our f i re t rea lp rob lem; peop le kept ca l l ing or d ropp ing by to p ick upthe i r equ ipment . John kept b laming h is answer ingmach ine fo r los ing messages when peop le wou ld d r ivehundreds o f mi les to p ick up a p iece o f equ ipment ; wh ichnever was ready fo r them when they showed up. I k€p tte l l ing John tha t months , somet imes s lx monthe, was toolong to keep us ing peop le 's money" ,

E l i zabeth has a v iv id reco l lec t ion o f someth ing John to ldher in the i r f i r s t days o f work ing together . "John to ld me one

COOP'SSATELLITE DICESTr12 -6 /81

day, as I was t ry ing to m ake sense o f the orders and the le t te rsand te lephone ca l l s f rom peop le who were anx ious to ge tthe i r boards . . .

'Out o f every th ree peop le who compla in about s low de-l i very , one w i l l be a SUPER compla iner and you w i l lhave to give hi m h is m oney back. The other two you ca nhand le and you can cont inue to use the i r money lo r aslong as you l i ke ' . "Torb i t was no t one o f those two. Eventua l l y , he rece ived a

parce l f rom Rohner & Assoc ia tes . Ins ide was a BASIC RCVR.The top was bad ly mar red , the sheet meta l tha t fo rmed thehous ing was warped. He took o f f the cover expec t ing thewors t . C i rcu i t boards were he ld in p lace w i th tape and sh ie ldswere taped in p lace . The power t rans former was dang l ing bywi res . The box had come essent ia l l y undamaged, lead ingT o r b i t t o b e l i e v e t h e u n i t l e l t t h e ' f a c t o r y ' i n t h a t m a n n e r .

" l took the rec€ iver to a loca l F resno f i rm tha t spec la l -i zes in mic rowave tes t work . They ran i t th rough thepaces and handed i t back to me w i th a c ryp t ic comment .That i s a p iece o f junk and i t can never work p roper ly ; send i tback ' . " Torb i t d id jus t tha t by UPS. More weeks went by .

Torb i t ca l led and f ina l l y go t th rough to Rohr rer . " l de-manded a re tund. Not on ly d id the rece iv€r no t check ou tbu t the o ther ha l f o f the package, the LNA, was no tinc luded In the sh lpment . I on ly go t ha l f o f what waspromlsed to me and tha t ha l f d id no t work . "

More weeks . No re fund. Torb i t sen t a cer t i f ied le t te r toRohner and kept up the pressure on the te lephone answer ingmach ine . Over the course o f severa l months , when Torb i t d idget th rough the answer ing machrne, he was to ld foursepara te t imes tha t he had been sent a re fund check .Apparent ly Rohner f igured in sp i te o f h is pers is tence Torb i twas rea l l y one o f the 2 ou t o f 3 and no t the 1 ou t o f 3 . F ina l l y ,Torb i t d id ge t a check .

"The check , d rawn on the H i l l s Bank and Trus t o f H i l l s ,lowa was fo r $1145. Reca l l I sen t h im $1 5OO. At th is

po in t I f igured th€ bes t th ing I cou ld do wou ld be to ge tt h e c h e c k p a i d t h r o u g h t h e b a n k a n d t h e n p u r s u e R o h n e ri n s m a l l c l a i m s c o u r t f o r t h e b a l a n c e . I h a d a f r l e n d l nlowa who agreed to hand le the smal l c la ims ac t ion fo r theba lance o f $355" .

H o w d i d R o h n e r j u s t i f y t h e r e f u n d o f $ 1 1 4 5 w h e n T o r b i ts e n t h i m $ 1 5 0 0 ?"Th is i s a lmost unrea l . . .even when you are dea l ing w i thRohner" no tes Torb i t . "Fo l low the no ta t ion on the check s tub :

1 ) P a y m e n t - $ 1 5 0 O2)Less -a ) R e s t o c k i n g f e e f o r L N A - $ 1 5 5b)Repa i r and res tock ing on RCVR - $200

3)Tota l - $1 145.00Can you be l ieve John Rohner subt rac t ing $155 to re -

s tock an LNA tha t he never sent me??? Or , charg ing me$2OO to repa i r and r6 -s tock a roc€ iver wh lch ar r l ved he ldtogether by tape and spit and chewlng gum7l?"

T h e n t h e f i n a l R o h n e r t o u c h .Torb i t . "The check bounced. The bank sent i t back to my

bank. So I ins t ruc ted my bank to send i t back th rough aga in . Ic rossed my f ingers . Yup, i t came back a second t ime. Th ist ime marked 'Account C lo8ed ' . "

Torb i t , a bus inessman in Fresno, f igured he had seenenough. He went to the Sta te A t to rney Genera l in lowa. Therehe f ound an inves t iga tor who by now was bu i ld ing a f i l e on Mr .Rohner . On i ta Mohr (Consumer Pro tec t ion , Hoover Bu i ld ing ,D e s M o i n e s , l o w a 5 0 3 1 9 ; ( 5 1 5 ) 2 8 1 - 5 9 2 6 ) h a s " a t l e a s t s i xac t ive i tems in the Rohner f i le " as o f mid-May. She has ius tt i n i s h e d d r a w i n g u p a C r i m i n a l C o m p l a i n t a g a i n s t J o h n R o h -ner and w i l l f o rward i t to Torb i t to s ign and ac t iva te . In lowa,the Consumer Pro tec t ion Agency cannot b r ing su i t i t se l f . Bu ti t can ar range them on beha l f o f d isgrun t led consumers .

Torb i t a lso went to the Mai l F raud fo lks a t the pos t o f f i ce ."They to ld me I had to f i l l ou t a compla ln t fo rm, wh ich Id ld . l t i s now in the hands o f the St . Pau l reg lona l

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COOP'SSATELLITE DICESTof f i ce . . .bu t I suspec t they work very s lowly . "

Torb i t wants to serve as a co l lec t ion agent fo r anyone andeveryone who has had the i r d i f f i cu l t ies w i th John Rohner .John Rohner 's s is te r E l i zabeth ( * )wants to do the same th ino .E l i zabeth aga in . " l wou ld l l ke to f ind jus t one person wh-oever rece lved one o f the computer rece lvers , I wou ld l i keto th lnk somebody go t one and tha t l t worked. "

In a R.C.V.R. NEWSLETTER pub l ished byJohn Rohner ta tei n A p r i l , t h e m a n h i m s e l f w r i t e s a b o u t t h e f a m e d b u t p e r h a p s i l lfa ted 'd ig i ta l rece ived.

"The d lg l ta l ( rece ive | i s dead, s imp ly too complex fo rmost peop le to opera te . . , " .E l i zabeth Reese, Char lesTorb i tand many o therswou ld l i ke

to see a ' l i s t ' o f those peop le who found the d ig i ta l rece ivertoo complex to opera te ' . We 'd se t t le fo r a l i s t o f peop le whoeven ever 8aw one!

John Rohner , no t sa t is f ied to take advantage o f the two ou to f th ree peop le whom he charac ter izes as 'be ing ab le tohand le ' so he can 'use the i r money indef in i te ly ' recen i l ybranched ou t . He and "V ince or George" (no las t names! ) inPap i l l i an , Nebraska have fo rmed the ' sa te l l i te Te lev is ionIndus t ry Assoc ia t ion ' . They had a meet ing o f the 'STIA ' inKansas C i ty , M issour i in m id -Apr i l . Rohner ca l l s ST lA, ,A t radeassoc la t lon fo r manu lac turors , dea le rs and d is t r lbu toreo f oar th s ta t lons and re la ted equ lpment . , ' The 'dues 'a re

$25 per year . No word on whether th is i s a non-pro f i t g roup orwhere the bank account may be loca ted . Bank accounts andsecrecy was another one o f E l i zabeth Reese 's p rob lems w i thher b ro ther John.

"The faml ly rea l l y hoped tha t w l th mo, my husband andJoh n Invo lved d l rec t l y in th is , tha t i t wou ld work ' , . U nsa idperhaps was L iz 's reca l l o f pas t events where John had tocome to the fami ly to ge t ba i led ou t . By engag ing the t rus tedfami ly a t to rney to se t up the sa te l l i te opera t ing corpora t ion ,the fami ly fe l t tha t John wou ld be fo rced to fo l low normalgood bus iness prac t ices . "Then the a t to rney found ou t tha tJohn had fo l lowed none o f h is adv lc€ and he qu l t . He jus twashed h ls hands o f the aseoc la t lon . " John had beenrequested to h i re an ou ts ide accountan t to se t up a budgetand books . John d id no t . "We cou ldn , t ge tan account ing o fany th lng" no tes L iz "and I don ' t even know l f John everf l led the Incorpora t ion papers . Here I wag l l s ted as V icePreg ldent and I cou ldn ' t even f Ind ou t who we had ordergf r o m l " .

A t one po in t las t fa l l , perhaps la te September , the fami lysensed a c r is is coming on . "My two bro thers , Tom and Bob,dec ided to o f fe r to he lp John ou t o f the spot . Tom sa id hewou ld g ive John an area in h is computer p lace to work ou t o f ,and even do some o f the produc t ion on the boards f o r h im. Butthey a lso wanted John to tu rn the f inanc ia land prob lem areasover to them to s t ra igh ten ou t . John ba lked. "

Bob Lu ly remembers ta lk ing w i th John a t about th is po in t int ime. "He kept te l l ing m6 tha t he was hav lng prob lemsget t lng a par t l cu la ra luminum cas t lng p iece fo r h is d ig i ta lroc€ lvor ou tdoor un i t " Bob remembers . , , l f lna l l y o f fe red tof ly somebody back to lowa from a local foundry to get i ts t ra lgh tened ou t . Then he changed h is s to ry and inventeda new prob lem." E l i zabeth reca l l s John 's avowed fee l ingsabout h is b ro ther 's o f fe r o f ass is tance:"He fe l t as though the boys were t ry ing to s tea l someth ing

f rom h im. John fe l t he 'won ' tha t ba t t le because he go t useof some o f the i r fac i l i t i es w i thout hav ing to le t them par t i c i -pa te in the bus iness end. " She charac ter izes the oer iod asone o f " loose l iason" .The meta l work fo r the hous ings and some o f the boards

apparent ly d id come out o f the fami ly fac i l i t i es fo r awh i le . Butmost o f the work was be ing done a t John 's house and garagewhich had been conver ted in to a workshop. HaydenMcCul lough remembers v is i t ing John in about June a t a t imewhen John was te l l ing everyone on the te lephone how b ig

T 1 3 - 6 / 8 1

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h is opera t ion was and how good h is new'd ig i ta l ' rece iver waswork ing .

" l wanted to hand le those rece ivers ; espec ia l l y a t tha t($1500) p r ice" Hayden reca l l s . , ,So I took h im up an 8-Ba l lan tenna and we se t i t up in h is yard a t h is o ld house. Ihones t ly th ink tha t was the f i r s t t ime he ever saw sa te l l i teTV in West Liberty".

John ta lks a good l ine and has a capt iva t ing persona l i t y . Heh a s k e p t m a n y p e o p l e a t ' b a y ' f o r m o n t h s a n d m o n t h s a t t e rthey sent h im money. Ter ry Turner o f Houston , Texas wa i tedu n t i l J o h n s h o w e d u p a t t h e H o u s t o n S B O C t o r e a l l y p i n h i mdown. A f te r t ry ing in va in to ge t sa t is f ac t ion f o r $4 ,OOO he hads e n t t o R o h n e r l a s t s u m m e r , T u r n e r e n l i s t e d o u r a i d a t t h eS B O C ' 8 0 s h o w t o c o r n e r R o h n e r . E v e n t u a l l y T u r n e r d i d g e th is $4 ,000 back . He may have been one o f the lucky ones .

O n e p e r s o n h e ' s w e e t t a l k e d ' i s h a r d o n h i s c a s e a t t h emoment . On i ta Mohr , the inves t iga tor fo r the lowa ConsumerPro tec t ion group, a t Torb i t ' s reques t sen t a subpeona toRohner reques t ing tha t he come to Des Moines ro answerques t ions . Rohner ta lked h is way ou t o f go ing in person andwas asked to answer the same ques t ions in wr i t ing . He d id sounder cons iderab le p ressure and Mohr then re layed theanswers as they re la ted to Torb i t to Ca l i fo rn ia . Torb i t thenprov ided Mohr w i th tape record ings he had made o f each o fh i s t e l e p h o n e c o n v e r s a t i o n s w i t h R o h n e r . T h e R o h n e r s u o -p l ied answers and the tape record ings d id no t j i ve accord ingto Torb i t . And tha t ' sworn s ta tement ' p lus h is a l leged de l ibe-ra te a t tempt to de f raud Torb i t by c los ing ou t a bank accountaga ins t wh ich he had drawn a check fo r $1 1 45 to Torb i t i s thebas is fo r the "Cr imina l Charges" under p repara t ion .

Bob Lu ly , who saw John Rohner in Kansas C i ty in mid-Apr i lhad an observa t ion o t John 's a t t i tude these days . "He lookedl ike a man who was on the very b r ink o f fa l l ing over the edge; Ife l t the s l igh tes t sus ta ined nudge wou ld push h im over . "

Synops isS ince th is indus t ry go t underway some 22 months ago,

there has been p len ty o f bad produc t a round. Some, l i ke theCascade Mic rowave gear we exposed las t fa l l in CSD, wasde l ibera te f raud. Nobody is accus ing John Rohner o f f raudas bes t we can te l l . He may we l l be gu i l t y o f none o f what i tseems he may have done and i t cou ld we l l tu rn ou t tha t a l l o fthe events we have repor ted are co inc idences or perhapseven mis -s ta tements o f fac t by those repor t ing to us . InHouston , we asked John to share w i th us h is p rob lems and weasked how he in tended to reso lve those compla in ts we knewof . He assured us there were no more than a dozen peop lewho had ever o rdered any o f h is equ ipment and tha t few o fthose had exper ienced de l i very o r opera t iona l p rob lems. Wegave John Rohner the benef i t o f the doubt a t tha t po in t .espec ia l l y w i th peop le such as Ter ry Turner la te r repor t ing tous tha t Rohner had re tu rned the monev.

'Elizabeth Reese, Rural Route #3, lowa City, lowa 52240.

COOP'SSATELLITE DICESTT14-6 /81

Perhaps, as s is ter El izabeth notes, "John is a very br ight 'ta lented person. . .but he is no businessman".That 's no cr ime,of course. And whether there has been a cr ime here we shal la l l have to wai t to determineas the cases broughtby SisterEl izabeth Reese and unhappy customers such as Char lesTorbi t wind thei r way through the cour ts .

TECHNICALCORRESPONDENCE

AND NOTES

have thei r own terminals. Thanks for l is tening.Ar t LeMayBox 1 252Hope , B r i t i sh Co lumb ia

This letter arrived after the May issue went to press butbefore LeMay could have received it. ln the May issue wefo l lowed s iml lar reasoning to about the same conclu 's ion. What do other readers th inK?

RE.PUBL ISH IN INDIAWe have read about the ar t ic le "Russia 's US Viewable

Birds" that appeared in the February 1 980 issue of CSD. Wew ish to pub l i sh a spec ia l i s sue o f ou r j ou rna l devo ted toreceiv ing sate l l i te TV s ignals. The bu lk of the issue wi l l consis tof repr ints of ar t ic les f rom other publ icat ions. Our monthlyjournal is d is t r ibuted to e lect ron ic engineers, tech n ic ians andbusinesses spread throughout lnd ia and our por t ion of thewor ld.

M . V . ChauhanRADIO3, Thi ru-Vi -Ka-RoadMont RoadP. O. Box 725Madras, India

Anyone wi th mater ia l they would l ike to submit to Mr.Chauhan fo r pub l i ca t i on i n t he I nd ian Jou rna l RADIO i surged to send i t a long d i rect ly . Be sure to have your postof f ice check the weight of the parcel ; mai l ing to India isnot cheap!

NOT AMERICANI was very surpr ised to read in CSD on page T9 for Apr i l

where you ment ion our ef for ts to obta in resul ts wi th sate l l i terecept ion here in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Let me c lar i fy yourreport by not ing that the groups that have worked on th ispro iect are a l l Venezuelan and that we work wi th Vene'zuelan Oi l Company. We would appreciate your correct ingthe comment that sa id the group was made up of Amer icanengineers work ing f or an Amer ican o i lcompany. We have hadvery good resul ts wrth antennas as smal l as 3 meters in s ize(using the Puerto Rican boresight t ransponders on COM-STAR) and would be wi l l ing to share our in format ion wi tho the rs . Ou r t e l ephone number i s 061 -91 1333 f o r t hose whowish to cal l before coming by!

Enr ique TorresAoartado #234Maracaibo-VenezuelaS. A.

We apologize. There are geveral groups wi thTVRO exper ience now in Venezuela and we got themmixed up in repor t ing on same in ourApr i l issue. Worsethan that , we had a h is tory ' lapse and had forgot ten that a l lUS oi l f i rms in Venezuela were nat ional ized some yearsago; that in fact there are no "Amer ican Oi l Companies" inVenezuela anymore. Two s laps wi th a choke chain forourig norance!

WASHINGTON FEEDBACKI real ly enioyed being at SPTS'81 DC and to see how rapid ly

the industry has grown. The whole at fa i r was qui te an eye-opene r w i t h t he seeming l y end less va r i e t y o f equ ipmen t t ha tis now avai lable. However, when you take a hard look at whatis avai lable there real ly isn ' t anyth ing that is that muchdi f ferent f rom say a year ago wi th the except ion of theDEXCEL receiver system. Most of the receivers, in my opin-ion, have only d i f terent f ront panels wi th much the same c lassof e lect ronics ins ide. I fear that the present a lmost in f in i tenumber of manufacturers wi l l be back to repai r ing TV andradio sets before too long and there wi l l be a stabi l iz ing

)

FOIL PATTERN REVERSEDThe fo i l pat tern appear ing on page T4 for October 1 980' for

Norman'Gi l laspie;s was reversed. A bui lder looking at thecomponent layout on page T5 would probably f igure th is o-ut 'l f you don' t reverse the layout ( i .e the le f t hand s ide of the fo i lp i t tern is actual ly the output and the r ight .hand s ide isactual ly the input) the NEC ampl i f ier wi l l osc i l la te. I know;m ine d id .

R. H. Eaton26132 Barkstone DriveRancho Palos Verdes, CA90274

Glad you caught th ls f l ip ' f lop error . Hopefu l ly othergplannln-g to bul ld th is uni t wl l l catch th is correct iont

ANOTHER MAGAZINE?You have done a f ine iob of get t ing WRO moving and as you

say i t must now move in volume to get p laces. Coop's ar t ic lesin other magazines such as Popular Science have no doubta ler ted the tmasses ' to the technology and s ince you have toreach these people to get the industry moving th is has a l lbeen wel l and good.

However to sel l the 'masses 'you must ta lk ' to h im' , not overhim or down to h im. CSD I bel ieve ta lks way over the head ofthe average person t ry ing to develop an in terest and afoundat ion in th is f ie ld. The average person doesn' t fo l lowul t ra-h igh technology or the h igh level pol i t ics of the TVROsystemlHe probably can' t a f ford to at tend seminars. What hewants is iust enough informat ion, wr i t ten for h is level ofunderstanding, to bol t together the par ts to make h is ownterminal p lay.

This type of person needs nuts and bol ts ar t ic les, equip-ment test repor ts , problem solv ing and do i t yoursel f in fo ' Inother words he needs the 'n i t ty-gr i t ty ' to get h im star ted ' He ishooked on what the system does. . .but a las, he is now wi thoutsuf f ic ient in format ion at h is level to proceed to the next s tep ' Ibel ieve there is a market for a publ icat ion that is d is t r ibutedcoast to coast on the newsstands; one that deals wi thcatching and educat ing the average person. into the exci te-ment and real i ty of having a pr ivate terminal .

Wi thout reaching the average person, the masses, I bel ievethe saturat ion point wi l l soon be reached as the number ofengineers, technic ians and so on wi th in the ' inner c i rc le ' a l l

I

J

COOP'SSATELLITE DICESTper iod when the ser ious manufac turers o f p roduc t w i th theser ious dea lers and d is t r ibu tors se t t le down fo r the long pu l lahead. The nex t b ig g rowth is go ing to be in the area o fded ica ted f i rms who recogn ize th is i s no t a qu ick buckbus iness , bu t a ser ious one tha t requ i res ded ica t ion and awi l l ingness to g ive serv ice a t every leve l . Th is w i l l s ta r t tochange th is year I be l ieve as those o f us who are ser iousdetermine tha t t ime spent f igh t ing o f f the ' low ba l l p r i c ing ' o fsome o f the produc t now on the marke t i s a waste o f energyfor us .

Rod Whee lerNORSAT SYSTEMSBox 232Surrey, BC V3T 4WBCanada

Rod has been down every road there is to fo l low in th isbus iness ; he was the f i rs t Canad ian person to have apr iva te te rmina l (see CSD fo r June 1980) and he was thevery f i rst to man ufacture a home or private style term inal.H is two NORSAT rece ivers shown in Wash ing ton hadexce l len t p ic tu res under t ry ing cond i t ions and the qua l -i t y o f workmansh ip i s impress ive .

I have jus t re tu rned f rom the DC show and I won ' t rake youover the coa ls . But , I do be l ieve an e f fo r t shou ld be made tosepara te the hobb ies t and commerc ia l en t repreneurs . I wasone o f those peop le in DC who suggested tha t a t the nex tSPTS you s tage a "Shoot Out " a t the Nebraska Cor ra l fo ran tennas. Th ings have evo lved pre t ty rap id ly s ince you and as m a l l g r o u p o f p e o p l e b e g a n p o i n t i n g y o u r a n t e n n a s i n t oempty sky and s ta r ted rece iv ing pre t ty good W recept ion .The e lec t ron ic por t ions o f the 'mag ic sys tem'were and s t i l l a rea pre t ty exac tsc ience. But i tappears the an tenna par t i s moreo f a n ' a r t ' t h a n a s c i e n c e . S o m e o f t h e c o m m e r c i a l p e o p l e w h ohave been s t rugg l ing fo r a long t ime are do ing i t p re t ty we l l .Bu t many o f the res t o f us need to know exac t ly what worksand what does no t ; and why. My suggest ion is tha t we have ates t o f sk i l l s ; s ta r t o f f w i th d is -assembled an tennas and thent i m e h o w l o n g i t t a k e s f o r e i t h e r t w o o r f o u r m a n t e a m s t o p u tt h e a n t e n n a s t o g e t h e r a n d f i n d F l ( f o r e x a m p l e ) . T h e n s u p p l ya n L N A t o t h e a n t e n n a c r e w a n d g i v e t h e m m a y b e 1 5 m i n u t e st o a d j u s t i t t o t h e i r s a t i s f a c t i o n . F i n a l l y , t h e t i m e h a v i n g r u no u t , b r i n g i n t h e m e a s u r e m e n t e q u i p m e n t a n d c a l i b r a t e t h eq u a l i t y o f t h e i r w o r k m a n s h i p . l f y o u s e t u p a n i m p a r t i a l p a n e lo f peop le to judge the an tenna 's ease o f assembly and youhad rea l power meter numbers fo r an tenna per fo rmance,you 'd have some data wh ich wou ld s ta r t to separa te the menf rom the boys .

I hope I have been ab le to p lan t a seed and there aree n o u g h e n t h u s i a s t s o u t t h e r e w i l l i n g t o p a r t i c i p a t e t o m a k et h i s w h o l e t h i n g p o s s i b l e . I ' m r e a d y t o g i v e i t m y b e s t s h o t .

D o u g D e h n e r tU n i v e r s a l S a t e l l i t e S y s t e m sD i v i s i o n o f D o u g ' s I n c .S t . H i l a i r e , M N 5 6 7 5 4

As th is i ssue announces there w i l l be some type o fan tenna 'shoot ou t , a t Omaha. Measur ing how fas t theantenna goes together and how we l l i s one way to do i t .Measur ing how good i t works , o r can work . i s another .The two may no t be mutua l l y compat ib le . We ' l l see as the" ru les" fo r the shoot ou t evo lve .

I a t t e n d e d t h e S P T S i n W a s h i n g t o n a n d c a n ' t t h a n k y o ue n o u g h f o r m a k i n g t h e p r o g r a m p o s s i b l e . I a m a s u b s c r i b e r t oC S D a n d I h a v e p u r c h a s e d a n u m b e r o f t h e t e c h n i c a l m a n u a l swh ich STT o f f e rs . Sate l l i te TV is chang ing my l i fe and I p lan tos h a r e m y e x c i t e m e n t w i t h e v e r y o n e I c a n .

About a year ago I fo l lowed Rober t Co leman,s example o ft rack ing down surp lus mic rowave an tennas. A f te r my d is -appo in tments and severa l la rge phone b i l l s I loca ted a

T 1 5 - 6 / 8 1

number o f h igh qua l i t y used an tennas. I know tha t a l l CSDreaders want the i r own sys tem but perhaps lack the f inanc ia la b i l i t y t o p u r c h a s e h i g h g r a d e e q u i p m e n t .

lhave the fo l low ing an tennas ava i lab le wh ich I am wi l l ing tose l l fo r a f rac t ion o f the i r o r ig ina l o r p resent marke t cos ts o i tot rade them f o r rece iversor LNAs. l f anyone is in te res ted in theantennas I can be reached (21 6) 779-8539 be tween 6 :30 pMand 1 1 PM eas tern t ime. The an tennas ava i lab le a re (a )one15 ' h igh per fo rmance Andrew, (b ) th ree 16 ' p rode l in , (c ) two1O' Cab lewave and (d ) two t O ' Andrew.

J i m B u d z i l e k272OO Det ro i t RaodW e s t l a k e , O h i o 4 4 1 4 5

Before you RUSH to the te lephoneto t ry to ta lkJ im outo f one or more o f theseantennag, cons lder the fo l low ing :J im does no t te l l us what the f /D o f these d lsh€s happensto be . For p roper teed ing in th is serv lco they ehou ld beb e t w e e n . 3 a n d . 6 w i t h a . 4 t o . 4 S i d e a l . N o n e o f t h eantennas have mounts so you ' l l have to c r€a te your ownmount . Las t ly J im does no t te l l us how many p leces theantennas are in; before you get too excltsd conslder howyou are going to move the ref lector gurface to your home.NOW - rush to the te lephone!

THE YEAR GOES FASTS i n c e o b t a i n i n g t h e H o w a r d a n d C o l e m a n M a n u a l s a l o t h a s

happened. The b igges t p rob lem has been the long wa i t ingt ime to r par ts such as the Avantek VTO wh ich took fourmonths to a r r i ve . H P was no t too bad fo r the GaAsFETs and b i -po la r t rans is to rs ; a coup le o f weeks . I want to comol iment oneof the CSD adver t i sers (Sate l l i te Innovat ions) f rom whom Irece ived a n ice assor tment o f ch ip capac i to rs n ice ly packedin jus t a mat te r o f days . I ran in to one major p rob lem. . .ge t t ingan e tchant f o r tabr ica t ing the Tef lon LNA, mixer and osc i l la to rboards . I f ina l l y so lved the prob lem by go ing to a loca l p las t i csupp l ie r . I p lan to have two comple te rece ivers cons t ruc ted ;one a t 'work ' and another a t 'home ' , p lus a th i rd tha t i s be ingcons tan t ly upgraded. I a lso p lan to use an Avantek WO as as igna l source f o r p roo f ing and a l ign ing the equ ipment . Bes t o fa l l I expec t to have the t h ree un i t s opera t ing f o r u nder $ 1 2OO.Thanks to CSD and be ing invo lved w i th sa te l l i tes th is pas tyear sure has gone fas l :

T o m M o g i l n i c k i1 1 3 9 C r e s c e n t S t r e e t N EG r a n d R a p i d s , M l 4 9 5 0 3

I t occurs to us tha t there shou ld be a la rge amount o f' second genera t ion ' Howard and Co leman t ips and t r i cksnow tucked away in do i t -yourse l fe r shops around thecount ry . l f you 've found a be t te r , cheaper , eas ie r (e tc . )way of making receiver system or aub-eystem I work let ushear f rom you. Prov ide su f f i c len t de ta l l s on what youhave done, what parts i t takes and where you get the partsso o thers can benef i t f rom your work . We ' l l p r in t i t .

READY TO TOURln regards to Coop 's cons t ruc t ion o f a cha in o f te lev is ion

s ta t ions in the Turks and Ca icos , I wou ld l i ke to o f fe r myPro fess iona l Wres t l ing Program,Wor ld League Wres t l ing- 'to the program schedu le . I fee l our p rogram wou ld be f inbenter ta inment and we may be ab le to co-venture a l i ve eventpromot lon on one o f our tours . Our te lev is ion program cur_ren t l a i rs on Sate l l i te Program Network .

Lars AndersonPresidentWor ld League Wrest l ingP. O. Box 1 1 593At lanta, Georgia 303S5

COOP'S SATELLITE DICESTT 1 6 - 6 / 8 1

Wrest l ing is the number one sp€ctator spor t in theTurks and Caicos. We dare say that i f somebody actual lybrought a ' l ive ' professional wrest l ing event to the is-lands 7,599 of the is lands tota l populat ion of 7 '600would turn out . The one miss ing would have to be le f t t iedto the local te lephone company's operator board whereal l 5 l ines in and out o l the country terminate to expla inwhy nobody was h ome should any overseas cal ls come inwhi le the event was on.

PRETTY SHARPWith our 8 meter range sel f constructed screen mesh d ish

we bel ieve we are get t ing excel lent qual i ty s ignals f romInte lsat IVB ( the Brazi l ian 1 8 hour a day feed) and Ghor izont2. Enclosed are some photos showing our resul ts as of ear lyAp r i l .

Hector PosadaMede l l i n , Co lumbus

RIO in Co lumb ia

W IN BRAZILI 've read the CSD ar t ic les concerning the EIRP footpr int

repor ts in the Car ibbean and Centra l Amer ica. These repor tsare very helpfu l and I have f i led them away for fu ture refer-ence. However, I am interested in the EIRP footpr ints avai l -able in Brasi l . Do any of the US domest ic sate l l i tes reachBrazil? What about the INTELSAT birds? Also, how do you get

in format ion on programming re layed by these b i rds?I speak f luent Por tuguese and am interested in market ing

pr ivate TVRO terminals in that country. However I know veryl i t t le about the laws or what is avai lable there now. I enjoyCSD and i t is ext remely helpfu l and intormat ive. I only regrett ha t i t i s pub l i shed once pe rmon th ra the r than once pe rweek !

R icha rd S . Mu l lP. O. Box 5OgB7Jacksonv i l l e Beach , FL 32250

The only US bi rds that might reach into Brasi l ( thenorthern edge wi th the nor thwest edge being most l ike ly)is the COMSTAR D2 and D3 b i rds when they are t ransmit -t ing on the Puerto Rican boresight beam. l t is l ike ly thaton the PR boresight you could have 26 dBw s ignals (20foot antenna level s tuf f ) down perhaps into the nor th-western 1/3rd of the country. Most of the programmingsent on th is boresight is occasional in nature, spor t ingevents and specia ls wi th perhaps an 'average' of an houra day or so (heavier on weekends) . INTELSAT IV-AA at 24degrees west (nominal ) p laces a 26 dBw level s ignal overal l o f Brasi l . l t carr ies for about 1 I hours perdaythe Rede'Globo TV Network for sate l l i te feed l rom Rio and SaoPaulo to several dozen Brasi l ian TV gtat ions. This is ahigh qual i ty serv ice, not unl ike NBC orCBS orABC herein the states. A 20 toot antenna wi th r ight hand c i rcu larfeed and 1 20 LNA wi l l produce per fect p ic tures f rom th isb i rd a l l over South Amer ica (see pholo of th is recept ionfrom some fe l lows in Columbia in th is issue) .

BIG BLOW IN VANUATUIn the ear ly hours of February 12th we were v is i ted by

tropical Cyclone Cl i f f wi th top wind speeds recorded of 1 08knots. I thought fe l low CSD readers might be in terested inknowing what can happen to a parbol ic antenna wh en ut i l izedas a sai l in such winds. The d ish. . .or I should say remains of adish. . . is shown in the photograph. l t is point ing south here,where the winds dumped i t . The day before i t was point ingnorth at INTELSAT lV/FB. Wel l , back to the drawing boardsand workshop for a couple of months or so whi le a newantenna is bu i l t . I suspect th is photo makes a good 'adver t ise-

men t ' f o r mesh sohe r i ca l s and d i shes !

Pete DuddyP. O. Box 349Port Vi la , VanuatuSouth Paci f ic

That's the f irst dish we have seen with a self supportinglower l ip Pete!

MOSCOW ln Columbla

SATELLITE OPERATIONSMANUAL by Bob Cooperreveals innermost secrets ofsatel l i te operat ions, who usesthem, how and where. ALSOextensive coverage of s impletr icks to improve recept ion,troubleshoot terminals, main-tain high performance, locate

UAL by Ne lson E th ie r de -scr ibes theory behind and stepby step construct ion of 10 and12 foo t f i be r /me ta l sandw ichhigh per formance TVRO an-tennas. l - i tera l ly a manual tostar t an antenna business inyour garage! Inc ludes com-plete mount , feed inst ruct ions.

TELLITE NAVI -GATOR - superb t reatment ofantenna mounts, t rack ing sys-tems , f u l l unde rs tand ing o fhow complex wor ld of geosta-t i ona ry o rb i t be l t can bereduced to s imp le l aymante rms . No sa te l l i t e bu f f shou ldven tu re t h rough the sk iesw i thou t i t !

\,

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tail!HgTE; 82

- YES - Enter my order for Coop's Sale l l i te Operat ions Manual v ia f i rs t c lass mai l . $30 (935 out-s ide US, Canada, Mexico) enclosed.

- YES-En te rmyorde r fo rNe lsonParabo l i cAn tennaManua l v i a f i r s t c l ass ma i l . $30 ($35ou ts ideof US, Canada, Mexico) enclosed.

- YES-En te rmyorde r fo rG ibsonSa te l l i t eNav iga to rManua l v i a f i r s t c l ass ma i l . $30 ($35ou ts ideof US, Canada, Mexico) enclosed.

N A M E

COMPANY AFF IL IAT ION ( i f app l i cab le )

ADDRESS

TOWN /CITY STATERetu rn o rde r f o rm wr rn paymen t enc losed t o : STT p . O . Box G A rcad ia . OK 73007

SATELLITE BUS!NESS MAN-UAL by Coop prov ides f u l lb u s i n e s s g a m e p l a n f o r s e l l i n g ,ins ta l l ing pr iva te sa te l l i te te rmi -na ls as a bus iness venture . ln -c ludes comprehens ive look a tmost o f the equ ipment now on themarke t , d iscusses dea ler /s u p p l i e r r e l a t i o n s h i p s .

, . N E W ' ' H O W A R D T E R M I N A LM A N U A L - A s m o d e r n a s t h e1 9 8 1 s a t e l l i t e i n d u s t r y ; t h i s n e w l yr e v i s e d e d i t i o n c o v e r s t h e c o n -s t r u c t i o n o f t h e H o w a r d T e r m i n a lr e c e i v e r f o l l o w i n g t h e h i g h l yp o p u l a r c i r c u i t b o a r d s a v a i l a b l e .T h o u s a n d s h a v e b e e n b u i l t : t h i so n e t e l l s h o w t o d o i t !

L O W P O W E R T V H A N D B O O K .The comple te s to ry f rom re-s e a r c h i n g a n o p e r a t i n g f r e q u e n -c y a n d p r e p a r i n g a l i c e n s e a p p l i -c a t i o n t o t h e d e s i g n o f t h e s t a t i o n ,s e l e c t i o n o f t h e e q u i p m e n t , a n dd a y t o d a y o p e r a t i o n . A s p e c i a l' D o u b l e - M a n u a l ' f r o m S T T t h a tl e a v e s n o t h i n g t o t h e i m a g i n a -t i o n .

- Y E S - E n t e r m y o r d e r f o r C o o p ' s S a t e l l i t e B u s i n e s s M a n u a l v r a f i r s t c l a s s m a i l . $ 5 0 ( $ 5 5 o u t s i d e o f U S A ,Canada, Mex ico) enc losed.Y E S - E n t e r m y o r d e r f o r t h e ' N e w ' H o w a r d T e r m i n a l M a n u a l v i a f i r s t c l a s s m a i l . $ 3 0 ( $ 3 5 o u t s i d e o f U S A ,Canada, Mex ico) enc losed.Y E S - E n t e r m y o r d e r f o r S T T ' s L o w P o w e r T V H a n d b o o k ; t h e s p e c l a l ' D o u b l e - M a n u a l ' . $ 6 0 e n c l o s e d ( $ 6 5outs ide o f USA, Canada. Mex ico) fo r f i r s t c lass mai l .

N A M E

COMPANY AFFIL IAT ION ( i f app l i cab le )

A D D R E S S

TOWN/CITY STATE Z I PR e t u r n o r d e r f o r m w i t h p a y m e n t e n c l o s e d t o . S T T - P . O . B o x G - A r c a d i a , O K 7 3 O O 7

csD'MONTHLY v ia 1s t c lass mai l'WORLDWIDE coverage ofa l l impor tan t sa te l l i te ac t i v i -t ies'EOUIPMENT rev iews. an-nouncements

COOP'SSATELLITEDICEST

'SATELLITE system reports'SATELLITE market ing news' DOMESTIC satel l i te reports' I NTERNATIONAL satel I i tes'SPTS/SBOC reoorts'CONSTRUCTION art ic les

-ENTER MY US/Canada/Mex ico one year subscr ip t ion to Coop 's Sate l l i te D iges t ; $50 (US funds on ly )enc losed.

-ENTER MY outs ide-o f -US/Canada/Mex ico one year subscr ip t ion to Coop 's Sate l l i te D iges t ; $75 (US fundson ly ) enc losed.

N A M E

C O M P A N Y A F F I L I A T I O N ( i f a p p l i c a b l e )

A D D R E S S

TOWN/CITY STATE ZIP

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SUMMER '81 SPTSAUGUST 14-1 5-16 lN OMAHA, NB.B A C K T O T H E B A S I C S - O m a h a i n A u g u s t . D u r i n g t h e p a s t y e a r m o r e a n d m o r e e m p h a s i s h a sb e e n p l a c e d o n t h e b u s i n e s s a s p e c t s o f s e l l i n g a n d i n s t a l l i n g s a t e l l i t e t e l e v i s i o n . P u s h e d t ot h e backg rou nd have been the bas ic how- to -do- i t exper iences o f those who have c rea ted th i si n d u s t r y . O m a h a w i l l b e t h e b i g g a t h e r i n g o f t h e y e a r f o r t h o s e p e o p l e w h o h a v e t h e a b i l i t y a n de x p e r i e n c e t o t e a c h t h i s n e w t e c h n o l o g y , a n d t h o s e w h o w a n t t o l e a r n . l f y o u c o m b t o O m a h a ,come prepared to learn why and how th is who le sys tem works . Be prepared to work w i the q u i p m e n t a n d p a r t i c i p a t e i n s h i r t s l e e v e s e s s i o n s d e s i g n e d t o b r i n g t o g e t h e r t h e e n g i n e e r sa n d t e c h n o l o g i s t s o f t h i s i n d u s t r y !

SIGN M E UP fo r SUMM ER '81 SPTS I N OMAHA - My reg i s t ra t i on fee o f $ ' 1 50 i s en -c losed. Return to me conf i rmat ion of my regrst rat ion and mote l reg is t rat ionin f o rma t ton .

)

C O M P A N Y

A D D R E S S

CITY/TOWNS U M M E R ' 8 1 S P T S

STATE ZIP

P. O. Box G Arcad ia , OK 73OO7

I

-sEND 'sate l l i te TV story ' on-vHS-BETA (speci fywhich) ; $60 enclosed in US f unds '

-SEND 'satel l i te W Story' on -VHS -BETA (specify which) with custom video ' tag'

identifying our business as fol lows (name, address, telco)t ,*r*,. . ,",o""O

N A M E

COMPANY AFFIL IATION ( i f app l i cab le )

ADDRESS

TOWN/CITY. STATEReturn order fo rm wi th pavment to : STT P. O. Box G Arcad ia , OK 73OO7

S. P.A.C. E. - The Society of Pr ivate And Commerc ia l Ear th terminals is impor tant to your f u ture.a member you are not on ly purchasing ' insurance ' for your own future as an owner or se l ler o fprivater earth terminals, you are also avail ing yourself of the legal resources of the organization.

_SIGN ME UP as a SPACE supporter at $25 per year. I want -own a private TVRO.

-SIGN ME UP as a -dealer -distr ibutor -manufacturer at $1 OO per year.

-SIGN US UP AS A SUPPORTER AT $5OO per year.

N A M E

COMPANY AFFIL IATION ( i f any)

ADDRESS

Z I P

At

t o e x p l a i n j u s t w h a t T V R Os e r v i c e i s , o n a o n e - o n - o n e ( l nh o m e ) b a s i s o r f o r P U b l i cd i s p l a y s s u c h a s s e r v i c e c l u b s .A lso on same tape, approx t -m a t e l y 5 0 m i n u t e s ' C o o P T a l k sTo Dea lers ' ; a f rank d iscuss iono f e q u i p m e n t q u a l i t y a n d m a r -ke t ing approaches.

PERFECT TVRO SELLINGTOOL! Coop has prepared avery spec ia l 12 minu te v ideo-tape descr ib ing the homesate l l i te revo lu t ion , the ser -v ices ava i lab le v ia sa te l l i te ,and a layman 's overv iew o fwhat equ ipment i s requ i reO.

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Th is tape is des igned to ass is tTVRO dea lers and d is t r ibu tors

CITY STATE Z I PJo in SPACE today w i th payment enc losed (US f unds on ly )

S . P . A . C . E .1521 O St ree t NWWash ing ton , D.C. 2OOO5

ArcOMstt's$tRsDEPENDON

$atelltteRemote Control

Modulor Circuitry

.6 ThecoM-J lmoge RejectScan-TuneUp to Six Audio SubcaniersVersatile Front Panel Controls

Downconverter

PositiveHandsome, Hand-etched, Anodized Front Pdnel DetentedLNA Power via Coax or Rear Panel Connector Chonnel Selector

HighPerformonce

COM-3R complete with REMOTE CONTROL UNIT

Everything you need for your completeSatellite Earth Station

See your ArcO]rfa dealer or contact us.

AVCOMOF VIRGINIA I NCORPORATED

AIrcOMa

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a

a

Conservative DesignExceptional ReliabilipQuality ConstructionTechnologicalSuperiorip

500 Research Road. Richmond. VA 23235.804/79+2500

For the Decler Who's Going Plcces

$$$tftldef -tn system thqt rotctes through all sqtellites . . . not just 20 channels

DEMONSTRATION TRAII.ERS ff ::,

*ss,:t _L*.. . . . . , in

We're "Old Timers."

SatFinder Systems pioneered theFIRSTqualityROTATABLE receivingsateUiteslfstem.WhYnot giveyotu customers IO TIMES qs mqny chqnnels for very little more. Easily progEqmmed lor presentondfuture satelliteswith just qtouch of thebutton.ThesatFinderSystemeliminatesgoingoutsideto cdjust gecrs and switches or usingf bullry moto$ and hecrvy wires. Let us show You how!

t

COMPAREOUR 10' DISH TO

AI\NT 13,DISH

MONEY BACK GUARAI{TEE

You must be comPletelYsatisfied with the Perform-once cnd ectse of instal-lction or your moneYbqck.

SS.3 COMPLETE ROTATA3LEAI{TENNA PACI(AGE

oNLY $4,780

SctFinder Slptems ctre reqdyforimmediqte del ivery. Thec o m p l e t e s Y s t e m s h i p scnywhere. Limited declershipsare csailable.

AVAIT.ARLE IN:T3METER5PIECEI g trtnrsn solloI sexoy gurer

STANDAXD COLOR

$cfi4er$y$eiltiFORMERLY HOME SATELLITE TELEVISION SYSTEM

For more inlormation call9$l6e-466

6 5 4 1 E . 4 O T H S T . T T U L S A , O K 7 4 1 4 5

CONTACT US TODAY!

Enter into the world of the 2lst Century television with the SatFinder satellite system. I'lre uniguecontrols and eqsir operation mckes the SctFinder the most INCREDIBLE eqrth station desigrned.

S o t F i n d e r c o m m q n dcontrol ql lows you toi n s t a n t l y s e l e c t q n y

sqtellite you choose with

iust q touchl

t

tir.i)ri;'i't,

{enccr

O Atbcrdive Demonshator Units a Complete Crcmmerciql Instqllationso Unhecnd oI low hices on Complete Systems o low Dish hices

o lcge Mcrnulccturing Plqnt o Meticulous Qucrlity Conbol

HOMEQuantities of 3G a l a x s c a n l 0 ' . . . . . . $ 3 9 9 5G a l a x s c a n I 0 ' . . . . . . $ 4 9 9 5G a l a x s c a n 1 3 ' . . . . . . $ 4 7 9 5G a l a x s c a n l 3 ' . . . , . . $ 5 7 9 5(Systems are complete wi th modulator , I20 'LNA, and e i ther Galaxscan 440 or 660 as noted.)

DISHESI 0 ' . . . . . . . . . $ 8 3 51 3 ' . . . . . . . . . $ 1 1 5 0t 6 ' . . . . . . . . . $ t g g S20 ' ' ' ' $3495(Discounts of up to 30Vo are available for quantity)

COMPTETE MECHANICAI. PACKAGEQuantities o{ 3lO'home with Polar . . $15951 0 ' h o m e w i t h 1 3 ' P o l a r . . . . . $ 2 0 9 5i 3 ' h o m e w i t h 1 3 ' P o l a r . . . . . $ 2 3 9 5l3 ' commerc ia l . . . . . $2650l 6 ' c o m m e r c i a l . . . . . $ 3 3 9 520 ' commerc ia l . . . . . $4695(lncludes: mount, dish, LNA mounts, Rotor Motor,feedhorn)

MICNOWAVE ASSOCI.ATES LNA1 L N A .3 LNAsl0 LNAs25 LNAs100 LNAs

$69s$645 ea.$625 ea.$595 ea.+ J / J g q .

50 Db gain minimumGalaxscan 660 Receiver 6268 audro, Comtech,KLMA11 off sheli delivery

RECEIVERSG a 1 a x s c a n 6 6 0 . . . . . $ 2 5 0 0Commercia l Qual i ty wt th 6.2-6.8 audio remotecontro l a lso avai lableG a l a x s c a n 4 4 0 . . . . . $ 1 6 9 5Super Home Qual i ty wi th 6.2-6.8 audio downconverter hermatically sealed with only onestrand of RG 59 into the house. Positive 24 chan-nel tuning.

MID-AIT{ERICA VIDEOP.O. Box 5l l . (501)753-3555North Little Rock, AR 72115

!

ANYWAYYOU IOOKAT ITOOOADM HASYOUR

ANTENNA!AND YOUR TVRO SYSTEM. Rapid del iveryon ADM's super-ef f ic ient 11 f oot po lar mountantenna ( includes remote control led polariza-t ion rotat ion system as wel l !) , plus, packagesare avai lable for complete systems includingLNA, 24 channel tuneable receiver andcabl ing . Why wai t in a long l ine when you canget the best, todaY!

A SUPER TVRO ANTENNA SYSTEM. Highqual i ty panel ized a luminum 11 foot d ish andsteel polar mount. Dish weighs approximate-ly 200 pounds, mount 265 pounds. Precisiondesigned, easy instal lat ion, zinc chromatebase primed and heavy duty white top f inish.The rotat ing feed is standard ! Easi ly shippedand instal led. Choice openings for dealersand d is t r ibutors .

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' - - - l- lE i; lE \lnt \T \; r \f l lr n l

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Rnt en nal feuelopment &l l lanulactur i rg, lnc

P.0 . Box 1178Poplar Bluff, Mo. 63901

(1 -31 4-785-5988)

I

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'} NOTICE ! ! - v id iark E lect ron ics , p ioneer o f the famous "S-Bal l " sate l l i te antenna has developed and is now in product ion of an a l lnew high performance sate l l i te receiver . Also, f rom now on, wi l l beopera t ing under the name o f McCul lough Sate l l i te Sys tems, Inc .

tr

hili,,{

Size 1 -38- f t . $49s

1o - f t . 55012-t t . S95

Heavy4-Up Mesh$ 3 9 5 3 0

4 4 5 4 54 7 5 6 0

A v a n t e k L N A ( 1 2 0 ' I n S t o c k . . . . . . $ 7 3 0 . 0 0Microdyne Commercial Receivers . . . . $2600.00

McGullougln gatel l i te Sytems, Inc.P. O. Box 57 - Salem, Arkansas 22526

phone: 501-895-31 Oz

rhe 8-BALL

HASIT

,!

4,,a

PRICE: Less than hal f the cost o f o theran tennas .PE RFORM I NG: The "B-Bal l " cons is-tent ly out per forms a l l o ther antennasof equal s ize.DURABILITY: Wi th i ts open mesh sur-face and wide s tance f rame. The "B-Bal l "wi l l surv ive winds fa ta l to o ther antennas.APPEARANCE: Blends in p leasani lyw i th the env i ronment .

SATE LLITET E L E V I S I O N

ANTE N NA

Extra GalvanizedBracing Frame

4 0 B 05 0 1 0 0

The

McCul lough Rece ive rs

Sing le Sho t$1 085

Skyl ine$1 285

_ FEATURES _

o Removable downconver ter - can belef t in rece iver or p laced at antenna

o Sing le convers ion wi th image re jectm ixer

.6 .2 & 6 .8 Aud io - o the rs on reques to Discr iminator type v ideo detectoro Polar i ty ro ta tor swi tcho LNA Power Jack (*1 Bvdc)o Modu la to r power j ack (+12vdc )

Add i t i ona l f ea tu res on sky l i ne mode loSmooth ac t i on 1O- tu rn tun ing con t ro l

w i th LED bar channe l i nd i ca to ro Remote con t ro l i nc ludedo LNA c i r cu i t mon i to r

Crysta l contro l led modulators ( type used inhome v ideo recorders) - Ch 3 & 4, wi red to p lug inrear of receiver - Cost $75.00.

- Feed Horns -G a l v a n i z e d . . . . . . . $ 2 5A l u m i n u m . . $ 4 O

ALL

D

II

THE TM

WASHBURN TVRO RECEIVERE X C E P T I O N A L P E R F O R M A N C E. f C U e E X T E N D E D T H R E S H O L D - 7 d B u n d e r f u l l v i d e o m o d u l a t i o n c o n d i t i o n s , a c h i e v e d t h r o u g h m e t i c u l o u s a t t e n t i o n t o r e -

m o v i n g l i m i t a t i o n s i m p o s e d b y c o m p o n e n t s .. H f G H i l D E L l T y V I D E o - r u t t s o t v u z l . F . b a n d w i d t h a n d 8 . 4 M H z v i d e o b a n d w i d t h p r i o r t o f i n a l s u b c a r r i e r f i l t e r i n g ,

coup led w i th heavy negat ive feedback in a l l h igh leve l v ideo s tages fo r very low d i f fe ren t ia l d is to r t ion and cont ro l led

t r a n s i e n t r e s p o n s e .. H i c n p E R F b R M A N c E A F C - E l i m i n a t e s t h e n e e d f o r f i n e t u n i n g a n d p r o v i d e s a d d i t i o n a l d i s p e r s i o n r e j e c t i o n f o r f u l l u s e o f

t h e l . F . f i l t e r b a n d w i d t h a n d s u p e r b i n t e r l a c e .. iuLL REMOTE CONTROL - 25 f t . (ex tendab le) remote a l lows an un t ra ined user toeas i l y se lec t t ransponders and cont ro l the

u o r r r " o f t h e H i g h F i d e l i t y A u d i o b u t p u t . N o i m a l t r a n s p o n d e r s e l e c t i o n a u t o m a t i c a l l y c o m m a n d s c o r r e c t f e e d p o l a r i z a t i o n

throug h a c losed- looP servo ..sELE"CTA BLE SU BCAR R IER pRloRlTy - w i th v is ib le subcar r ie r ind ica tors and two eas i l y changed p lug- in de tec tors (5 .5 to

8 . 4 M H z a v a i l a b l e , U . s . o r c c t n t o r m a t l . U s u a l l y e l i m i n a t e s t h e n e e d t o m a n u a l l y s e l e c t s u b c a r r i e r s , w h i l e a l l o w i n g m a n u a l

c o n t r o l w h e n d e s i r e d .. F U L L F U N C T I O N M E T E R I N G - W i t h s e l e c t a b l e m a n u a l t u n i n g a n d A F C d i s a b l e a l l o w s c h e c k s o f s y s t e m C N R w i t h o u t a d d i -

i i o n a t e q r i p m e n t . C o n t i n u o u s m o n i t o r i n g o f S i g n a l S t r e n g t h ( i n l i n e a r d B ) a n d t u n i n g e r r o r ( i n M H z ) .. V C R C O M p A T I B L E - V i d e o a n d a u d i o l d v e l s a l l o w u s e o i y o u r V C R a s a m o d u l a t o r , p r o v i d i n g i m m e d i a t e r e c o r d i n g w i t h o u t

c a b l e c h a n g e s w h e n d e s i r e d .. D E S I G N E 6 F O R R E L I A B I L I T Y - C a r e f u l c o s t / p e r f o r m a n c e b a l a n c e t o i n s u r e c o n t i n u e d q u a l i t y r e c e p t i o n .

S U P E R I O R V A L U E.LOWEST lN-PLACE SYSTEM COST - "Barga in" rece ivers s top be ing a barga in when you add up the an tenna and LNA

costs f o r spark l ie - f ree recept ion w i th h igher th resho lds ..USER AcbEpTANce -Cc impact , p lea lan t packag ing , easy opera t ion , and h igh per fo rmance w i th smal l an tennas su i t i t to

homes and ne ig hborhoods where "exper imenter 's ' ' eq u ipment wou ld be u nacceptab le ..VERSATILE - Eas i l y reconf ig u red f o r ' shared use o f a s ing le o r tho an ten na by mu l t ip le rece ivers and homes..S t f r4pUFtEO INSTALLATIdN - Separa te Demodu la to r Conso le , Downconver te r , and Rotor Cont ro l Assembl ies e l im ina te

r o u t i n g ( c o s t l y ) h a r d l i n e t h r o u g h f i n i s h e d r o o m s a n d a l l o w e a s y r e l o c a t i o n o f t h e c o n t r o l p o i n t .

EARTH TERMIIIIA|.S Rochester Of l iceP. O. Box 636Fairport, New York 14450716-223-7457

c f

I

II

{

Starview Systems HasALL OF THE STARS COVERED!

In t roduces the MODEL 12K SYSTEM. . .A comple te home sa te l l i te rece iv ing sys temthat you can assemble yourself as a week-endproject.

Why spend $7,000 tosomeone e lse to insta l lweek-end and save.

50Channels

NEW!! ! Coleman 3742 Receiver !Scan- tuned, mu l t ip le aud io sub-car r ie rs , loca l o r remotecont ro l , super io r th resho ld per fo rmance, fu l l meter ing ,doub le convers ion o f course . And ava i lab le exc lus ive lyf rom Starv iew Sys tems. Ask abou t ear ly de l i very today I

LNA SUPER SALE - Cont inues!Y O U R C H O I C E - 1 0 0 d e g r e e ( ! ) K , 5 0 d B g a i n t o p o f t h el ine LNAs fo r jus t $1095. OR - Avantek 120 degree K, 50dB ga in low no ise ampl i f ie r w i th the new 'power b lock 'DC coup l ing sys tem tha t a l lows you to use your TVROd o w n l i n e f o r p o w e r i n g ! I n s t a n t d e l i v e r y o n t h i s t o pgrade LNA a t the unbe l ieveab le p r ice o f $795!

$10,000? Why payi t r Do i t yourse l f in a

Suggested Retai l :oNLY $3.69s.00

K I T C O N T A I N So 1 2 ' A n t e n n a . A l l M i s c e l l a n e o u s C a b l e.AZIEL Mount and Connectors neededo24-channe l .Every th ing You Need

tuneable receiver .No Special Tools Needed. .1 20 ' LNA nGo Foort r{nrn - iALER COST $2995.00' " " '

U . P . S . S h i p a b l e a n y w h e r e i n U S A .

STARVI EW DEALER SPECIALGet in on the ground f loor as a TVRO dea ler inyour area! Starview Systems provides youwi th every th ing you need; p ro fess iona lins t ruc t ion p lus the f ines t mob i le sa lestermina l on the road today . Inc luded is a 10foot Starview parabol ic equipped with rotat-ing feedhorn , Avantek 120 degree K LNA, topof the l ine Starv iew 24 channe l tuneab lereceiver, 75' of coaxial and connect ion cablesp lus a t ra i le r to ge t you to the demo s i te andopera t rona l in 30 minu tes t ime. And the pr ice?A n u n b e l i e v e a b l y l o w $ 6 , 4 9 5 ! ! !

STARVIEWSYSTEMSH & R Communicat ionsRoute 3, Box 103GPocahontas, Ark.72466

5011647-2001 . 501 1647-22911 -800-643-01 02

) f o

Get in on the Ground Floorof Outer Space!

SATELLITE EARTH STATIONTELEVISION RECEIVER SYSTEM

Getting started in your newTVRO business can be veryexciting!!

Especially when you startdeciding on what kind ofequipment you want to sel l .You want it to be asinexpensive as possible, so youcan make a reasonable profitmargin, and at the same timebe of good quality anddelivered PROMPTI)/ so yourcustomers will be glad theybought from you.

There are several firmsacross the country who sellone or more pieces of earthstation equipment. The otherfirms usually have varyingwarranties, performance anddelivery times, etc. However,there is another alternative. . .

Advanced Electronics, theEarth Station People, areoffering a COMPLETETURN.KEY PACKAGE todealers that has completedealer orientation and back-up included and is theONLY EARTH STATIONSUPPLIER we know of who isactually aggressively retailingevery day.

We know how to advertise,how to generate leads, how toqualify prospects, how to setappointments, how to handleobjections (of which there arefew!). and how to close the sale!

Advanced Fllectroni cs, theEarth Station People, also hasa full training programcovering all facets of the EarthStation business from leadgeneration to installation andservicing. This consists ofvideo tapes, printed materials,and l ive seminars.

We also have a completeengineering department atyour disposal to handle anyspecial problems. (We recentlycompleted an installation inMontana where the dish andreceiver are 3000 feet awavfrom the home.)

We also feature a fullyequipped and staffed servicedepartment reachable by our800-6114-6047 toll free numberto promptly handle anyrequirements you may have.

As for advertising, weemploy a full service agency toprepare printed materials,direct mail pieces as well asradio, television, billboards,magazines and newspaper ads.'I}-rey will even place theadvertising for your market atno cost to you for theirservices.

You can see that AdvancedElectronics not only offers aturn-key system for theconsumer, but also a turn-keysystem for all of our valueddealers:

1. Warehousing facilities todeliver the entire packagefrom one source,2. Sales knowledge to impartto dealers,3. Engineering for anyproblems you have,4. Total marketing andadvertising programs, and5. Complete servicedepartment.In short, Advanced

Electronics, the Earth StationPeople, want to help you getstarted in this very excitingand rewarding business.THE SKY'S THE LIMIT!!

ADVANCED ELECTRONICS. /NC.5081 Arville Street, Las Vegas, Neyada 89118702-871 -8766 or 800-634-6047

THE EARTH STATION PEOPLE

t1 .2d8 MORE GAIN -

1.2d8 LOWER SATELLITEE I R P M I N I M U M S !

l f you buy a 100"K LNA and a t rue 7 .0 dBthreshold receiver with your Paraframe antennayou-wi l l en joy threshold equal l ing recept ion wi ththe fo l lowing sate l l i te El RP's . *

AntennaET/3.66ET/4.85ET/6.00

28.026.1

w/old feed w/SEAVEY feed30.4 dBW 29.2 dBW

26.824.9

MORE GAIN _LOWER PRICES!

Paraframe antennas now come equipped wi thu l t ra h igh ef f ic iency s ing leor dual mode feeds f romSEAVEY ANTENNA ENGtNEER|NG. Ga in i s up1 .2d8 , ye t edge i l l um ina t i on i s down a f u l l 16 dB .

*E IRP 's shou ld be 1 .5 dB h ighe r f o r t ransponderswi th numerous subcarr iers .

PROOFED ON SITE -IT MUST BE RIGHT!

Learn how Paraf rame antennas are adjusted andproofed at_the job s i te for v isual ly ver i f iab leprec is ion!_Request ? copy of , ,Assembty, Adjust_ment and Proof ing of Paraf rame Antenna-s. "

MAKE MONEY!Demonstrate and sell Paraframe earth stations.

Contact one of the fo l lowing Independent para-f rame TVRO Contractors. He wi l l h6 lp you designsystems and b id compet i t ivety . He wi i l do theturnkey insta l la t ion and prov ide you wi th technica lsu ppor t .

PARAFRAM E DTSTRIB UTORSDelstar Systems

Hous ton , Texas . . . 713 -776-0542Earthstar Coro.

S t e g e r , l L . . . . . . . . . 3 1 2 - 7 S S - S 4 O O

D E A L E R . I N S T A L L E R SRoh 's

Tucson , A r i zona . . . 602 -795-8573W. H. Rose

S a u g u s , C A . . . . . . . 8 0 5 - 2 6 8 - 0 6 9 6New Eng land Sa te l l i t e TV

Worcester, Mass.Peakecom

.617-757-2531ordList

A ntenna Pr iceETl3 66 $3390ET /4 .85 $5390ET/6.00 $6990

.Add $300 for dual mode f eed.

S i l v e r S p r i n g , M D . . . . . . . 3 0 1 - S B 7 - 2 5 1 5A l t comm, Inc .

E p h r a t a , P A . . . . . . . 7 1 7 - 7 3 8 - 2 9 3 0J. V. E lect ronics

L a n d i n g , N . J . . . . . . . 2 0 1 - 3 4 7 - 3 2 0 6Mid -Con t inen t Ea r th S ta t i ons

Lincoln, Nebraska. 402-476-2211Tr i -Star Systems

* N e w

L i s tPr iceg 2 7 9 0s 4 3 7 5$ 5880

ordG a i n4 1 . 1 d B i4 3 . 54 5 . 4

N e wG a i n42.3dBi4 4 . 74 6 . 6

Jane Lew, WV. 304-624-5909

P. O. Box 423 - Dept. C o 1000 Sunset Dr ive West o Monee, l l l ino is 60449 . 312-534-7435

slxMETERS

B I G T T T

READY for the TOUGH ass ignments anyplace on ear th ! Unequal led ga in,superb cont ro l o f s ide lobes, an outs tanding per former for those 'o f f -boresig ht ' reg ions where noth i ng less tha n the best wi | | prod uce sat isfactoryp ic tures.

. THE ANTENNA THAT HA.S OPENED UP THE MIDDLE AND DEEP Car ibbean to US DOMSATserv ice. Now avai lab le in 1 6 and 20 foot d iameters wi th the industry 's on ly rugged hor izon tohor izon motor dr iven remote antenna posi t ion ing contro l system.

. B l G b u t l i g h t w e i g h t . A . p p r o x i m a t e l y 3 0 O p o u n d s t o t a l w e i g h t ( a c t u a l l y w e i g h s l e s s t h a n m a n y l 0footers! ) ; no crane requi red for insta l la t ion, can be put in ' t ight spots 'where mount ing space isa t a p remium.

. FIELD accuracy is proven on the s i te wi th a ' f ina l -check ' proof ing template. Your b ig 20 footsur face is ad justed by the insta l ler us ing our proof ing j ig so you KNOWthat every f ract ion of a dBof ga in is achieved wi th every insta l la t ion.

o EASILY shipped in sp i te of i ts impress ive s ize. The ent i re package is so carefu l ly des igned andwe l l t hough t ou t t ha t i t sh ips and goes toge the rw i th the p rec i s ion o f a f i ne i ns t rumen t .

. SMOOTH operat ion. Touch the motor dr ive swi tch and watch the t ransponders z ip by; f rom F1on the wes t a l l t he way to the INTELSAT and GHORIZONT s igna ls i n t he fa r eas te rn sky i n j us ts ix ty seconds t ime!H E R O C O M M U N I C A T I O N S i s n o w a c c e p t i n gapp l ica t ions fo r new dea lers . We o f fe r the wor ld 'sf ines t s ix meter an tenna sys tem (5 meters a lso)d i rec t f rom the manufac turer . Our exper ience inso lv ing tough ins ta l la t ion prob lems w i l l save youmoney and t ime in comple t ing your own ins ta l la -t ions . We o f fe r sound techn ica l backup based uponyears o f exper ience in th is f ie ld .P L U S - f r o m H E R O C O M M U N I C A T I O N S y o u d e a lw i t h a w a r e h o u s i n g d i s t r i b u t o r f o r W A S H B U R N ,AVCOM, and ICM rece ivers , a comple te l ine o faccessor ies inc lud ing /z inch hard l ine , connectors ,m o d u l a t o r s A N D t h e f a n t a s t i c B 5 a n d 1 0 0 d e g r e eDEXCEL LNAs. We manufac ture and hand le no th-ing bu t the f ie ld -proven-bes t equ ipment in the in -d us t ry today . Whether you need a s ing le connectoro r a c o m p l e t e s y s t e m , H E R O C O M M U N I C A T I O N Sis here to serve you.

^t t l H E R OI U couMUNtcArtoNsl - l r 783 w. 32nd PraceI l \ H i a l e a h , F L 3 3 0 1 2

\ (305 ) BB7-3203\-/

E X C E L L E N C E I N P E R F O R M A N C E T H R O U G H P R E C I S I O N E N G I N E E R I N G

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ATIENTION DEAIERS:Nqtionql Scrtellite Systems is one of the fqstest grrowing distributors of TVRO

Systems, Since 1978 we hcnre plqced no minimurrls on orders, no pressuresoles, no conllicting deqler territories, we simply ofier you excellent TVROequipment crt low prices to compete in the TVftO mctrket. In most coses,delivery is ftom stock. Our stcfi qt Ncrtionol Satellite Systems hqs over 82 totolyecns of microwcve experience, Also, we ccrn be reoched on the weekendsfor your convenience, We ctre constontly resedching new products for ourdeqlers.

Ncrtionol Sctellite Systems hos over 560,000 of test & oligrnment equlp-ment for cdterthe-sole service,

AVAII.ABIJ 1IIIS MONTIT

FEATI'RES,L Drcl Convenion2 Bult-in RF

ModulcrtorINA powered thrucqble24 Chcmnel detentswitchwithtinetrne62{.8 qudio switchAFC control lor nodrifl operction

RETNT PRICE $1595

9.lo.

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56

NATIONAL SATELLffi SYSTEMS is proud to be the stockingdistributor for the lollowing lines of eguipment,

AIIIEITNNAS - 2' , 4' , 6' , 8' ,IO' ,12',13' ,15', ond 20' diometers.ADM - KLM - Mid Americq - Mirolite - Prodelin - Vidiork . Wilson

nECEntEnS-4 ond D GhzAutomcrtion technigues - Comtech - Vitolink - KLM- Ncrtionol SatelliteSystems - Microdyrre

INA's - 4 ond 12 GhrzAmplico - Avontek - IMA/Conqdcr

nF MODULATORS -ATV Reseorch- Sony- Uhf Associcrtes

Plus, miscellqneous little items in stock thcrt ore obsolutely necessqry tomoke every system complete.

Need to set yo; iH iHfT; Audio to somedistont point? We hove complete microwcrvetrqnsmitters qnd receivers to get you point{o-pointover distonces oI20 miles or morel Complete systerrrstom 5995,

NATIONAT SATETIJTE SYSTEMSDvision oI

SOUTHWESTERN SATELLM SYSTEMS25OI Ccrrdelcnio N,E,

Albuquerque, NM 8nO7Phone (5O5) 883-3626 Mondcry thru Scttrdcry

Sigrncl sbengrthcrrd ccnrier nullmeter controlRF Modulcriorchcmnel select ontont pcnelAttrqdive cqbineiDown converter crtihe qntennaRemote control lortuner qrd signolmeter cnrcdlqblelow prices lor ourdeqlen

COOP'SSATELLITE DICEST)

We Couldn't Settle For The BestSo We Made lt BetterTaylor Howard helped us design the first Chaparral feed system forsatel l i te antennas. After having been proven in hundreds ofinstal lat ions, the Chaparral Super Feed'" began to replacehorns and other non-precision feeds because of i tsincreased antenna gain. We called it Super Feed'"because we found that antenna gains in oursystems went up as much as 1.5 dB over otherdevices on the market,That was pretty good, but not good enough.So we developed a method for one-piececast ing that provides greater precisionand improved VSWR. The result is easyassembly, better Performance, lesscost and the best feed You can getfor dish f /D's in the .3 to .5 range.

Super Feed'u is in production now and readyfor immediate del ivery at $125 per unit or atquant i ty discounts.

CHepennelCorrruuNtcATIoNS

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P.O. BOX 832, Los Altos, CA 94022 415'941-1555

DIRECTMAilU-

FACTURER

TO FEATURESoDown Link at DishoRG-59 To HouseoLNA PoweroRotor PoweroModulatorrSignal Strength MeteroAF0/Manual TuningoSwitch Stop Channel Selectiono4 Channel AudiooStudio Quality Picture

You!! !3.25 Meter4.00 MeterI or 3 PieceShippable AnywhereSolid Polar MountRemote Motor ControlAvailableLNA/Rotor Mount Incl'dTrailer Mounted Availeble

'yDealer Net $169500

LNA'g l20o 40DB - $49500

KAR Satellite Systems Model SL200B Commercial Qudity Rack

?oisdE

t ; " ' ( ) ( ) *

AStartrak RLg8530D

P.0. Box 301, Hwy. 60 West, Dexter, Mo. 63841lMountea RcvRS - $174500

COOP'SSATELLITE DICEST{

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O H M 1 / 2 W a n $ 1 . 5 0 Triko 201-01td .5-3pf, t -8pt, .3-1.8pt $2.50

BNC

Chassrs mt sq t range $ i 95Prug to. FG-58 $i 95

SMA

Chass is mt sq t tange $6 10Chass ismt p tugsq t tange g850

Chases mt s l rp t ine lab g6 ?5Plug ro. FG-58 $6.75Plug lo r RG-174 $6 .75Plug lo r 141 s€mFr ig rd S3 98

Type N

Chassrsml sq l rang€ t3 .25Plug lo r BG-g /BG-8 03 .75Oolb ta Mate St 25

NEC MC 5121 75 oHM4 lerminal in, out, cND,& vcc 30lo 890 MHZplus/- 1OB Typ 27DAgain plus 20V VCC $13.00

NE 564 PLL $7.65NE 592 Video AMP $1 75MCr3s8 (CA3065) TV

MRF 901 FT4.s cHZ $3.00MRF 911 FTs.o cHZ g4.OOBRF90 FT5.oGHZ $3.008FR91 FT5.oGHZ $3.50NEC 02137 FT4.scHZ $3.25NEC 02135 FT4,5GHZ

Typ NF 2.708 MAG15DB @ 2.0cHZ $5.00

NEC 64535 FT8.5cHZNF 2.ODB MAG 1sDB@2.OGHZ 914.00

4pprox 3.25"x5.0 x.010 95.50Approx 3.25 15.0 x.0312 S6.50appror 3.25"r5.0"x.0625S10.50

1 . 2 , 2 . 2 , 3 . 3 , 4 . 7 . 6 . 8 .10, 18, 22, 27 , 47. 100,120, 180,220.270,330,390, 470. 560, 680, 820,1K, 1 .2K, 1 .8K, 3 .9K, 8 .2K,10K,100K $ .60

141 Soml r ig id CabteApprox .2408 Loss psr 1OO t t

@4GHZ pr ice is per l t p tus /- l l4 Inch max tength is 5 t t .Oth€r lengths byspecial order $4.00

MBO l0l UHF-tvl icro $1.50N D 4 1 3 1

4cHZ NF_5.75D8 $21.00 MGF1400 NF 2.0 DBH N _ 1 4 G H Z N F - 6 5 D 8 S 2 . 0 0 . @ 4 c H Z M A G 1 5 D B $ 2 8

M G F 1 4 1 2 N F 0 . 8 D B

3 7 l o 4 2 c H Z M A X L o s s . 4 D B -1000 Pt Sotder Type $.SO I tsoratron 20DB mrn.470 Pl Solder Type g.5o

I vswR t.2s MAx sr rs.oo f nCn aOOzS 51.50

TIIE NEMO FIT ITITM0Tonrut ilfilfltfi Acfltf,T0n

TTIE TINGERITP CONVENIENCE OF

5ll-60 GII[tftfELSINSTEAD OF 20

Fits a[ll existing 2Yt" ecrew jacl<s.Simple installation (1 person approx. Vz hr.)lIsV AC operation (no batteries)Simple instruc$ons included for2-switch control installation.

No mote hand-crqnking andno costly strucfurol instollotion

oNLY $236.00Includes motor, couplinqs, oluminummountinq brackets ond instructions.

ULL ON WRITE:SPACEAGE ETECTROMCSP.O. BOX 15730, New gyl6anr, Lll7017s (504) 89r-72r0

AVAILABLE SOON:THE AFFORDABLE DIGITAL LOCATEN

DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME.

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S P E C I F I C A T I O N S :

SiSnsl mput 70 MHr at 2odtrn{22m!)AFC lNt ran8. &raarcr then J MH?Sound subcarncrs 6 2 MHr and 6 t

MH? ful ly IndcpcndcnrVrdco lcvcl our srd I vol t ppAudro lcrcl our. I volr ppPowcr rcqurcmcnb I5VDC (d 2mmeDcmriularrr N8564 PLL lCTunrnS voha8c our 2 ro I l 5 vohsTunrng vohagc rtr 0 r0 | 5 vohs max

D , l D e m o d u l a r o r K i r . . . . .Dl f)emodularor pC board only

Pan NumbcrArantcl CPD I 0O2Watlrns Johnson V802Walkrns Johnson V705SrSnctrcs NF-564van L DBM 500Ahp.r.x ATF.4 | ?M o t o r o l a M W A l l 0Motorola MWA I20M o t o r o l a M W A . 2 2 0Motorola MWA 2J0Molorola MWA I t0Molorola MWA 120Motorola 8F R 90MoiDrola MRF.90lRcgulaton 780O ScrrcsRcgulsto6 l9m ScncslF TransfomcrTunrng capacrtorCorl fom + can scl

?0 MHz DEMODULATOR CARDThe Sat-tcc D I demodulator is the last block in aTVRO system, it is whcre rhc ?0 MH z IF signal isconvened to video and audio. The D- I contains aPLL demodularor, video prccessor (CCIR deemphasis,4 MHz low pass fi l tering and J0 Hzclmp), dual sound subcarrier demod md AFCcircuitry. The powcr requirement is smal, l5 VDC(a 20oma.. signal input is -20dbn (o 70 MHz.AFC will enablc the user to lck most anv VTOL.O wirh no problem whatscver. Vidio andaudrooutputs are asundard I voltppsuilablefordriving any monitor, VTR or modulator.

I GHr, l2 dbgain TO8 cen mpti f i . r . | 5VDC2 5 I ?Gll2 VTO.lwrndr de Avret t}?660(} lmOMHr vTO,l@cr noi* rhM AvMlclPLL sclcctcd to opcrata sl 70MHz4GHr mrrcr, SMA connactorsI GHu. 25db gain hybrid mpl i f icr . 2G24VDC4mMHr. l4db 8ain, 2 5dbd4mMHz. l4db 8ein. +8dbn60OMHZ. lodb 8r in. +10 5dbm6mMHz, Iodb 8sin. + t8 5dbhI C H z . 8 d b t a i n . + l . s d b mI G H z , 8 d b g a r n . + | | . 5 d b m3CHz FINPN trusista. lsdb$u(a l .2cHzJ CHz F1 NPN l i tc BFR 90 bur 2 cmicr t .aos5 V . t V . l 2 V . t 5 V . t A T O 2 2 0, 5 V . 8 v . . t 2 V . . 1 5 v . t A T G 2 2 0 .l0 ? MHr IF can bc prdd€d ro6.2 or 6.8M Hzlopf mul! rurn for f i l r rs. PLL. crc.Nrce coil fom scr for filtars. tood lo | 20M Hz

B*,[:i#',i?ii3i6,'3i31*,* eE x':i;i;r

STAR TRAK SYSTEMS, INC.EXPANDS!

RLSB530D ReceiverSL200B Commerc ia l RXLNAsDealer Demo PackageComplete SystemsMotor Drive

$169s1745495

49954240295

Need Parts? We probably have 'em . . ,Modulators - 3-4 swi tchable

lN sTocK $79.9svTo - wJ907

IN STOCK 120.00W H Y P A Y M O R E ? ? ?

We manufacture our own receivers, LNAs,dishes, stands & motor dr ive assembly. Buyat fac to ry p r ices . Quant i t y p r ic ing on-someitems.

CAIT TODAY FOR DEIIVERY8530 Woodcrest Dr.

Colorado Springs, CO 80908 (303) 495-4020

100 K I 50 dB GAINLow Noise Amplif iers

A M A J O R B R E A K T H R O U G H i n l o w n o i s ea m p l i f r e r s l A B E l e c t r o n r c s p u s h e s b a c k t h eL N A ' n o i s e b a r r i e r ' b y a n i m p o r t a n t 2 0d e g r e e s f r o m s t a n d a r d 1 2 0 d e g r e e u n i t s a n dd e l i v e r y i s f r o m s t o c k5 0 d B o f g a i n ( m r n t m u r n ) . 1 0 0 d e g r e e s K ( n r a x n r u m )a c r o s s t h e f u l l 3 7 t o 4 . 2 G H z r a n g e A m a j o r b r a n d L N Aw i l h c r e d e n t r a l s y o u h a v e t o s e e l o b e l l e v e A n o a t a p r l c em o r e t h a n 2 0 ' " b e l o w p r e v l o u s 1 O O o . u n r l s T h eu l t i m a t e L N A ; p r i c e d a t i u s t $ 9 9 5 ! C a l f o r t u l l d e t a r s

Elec t rOn iCS (30s -887 -3203 )1 7 8 3 W 3 2 n d P a c e . l - l r a e a h . F L 3 3 0 1 2

COOP'SSATELLITE DICEST

RF MODUTATORSCrys to l Con i ro l l ed

Sw i t chob le Ch . 3 o r 4 W i red ond Tes ted2 Phono Jocks - Aud io - V ideo i n

I "F " F i t f i ng Aud io - V ideo ou t

Requ i res | 2V Powers99" ' W i thou t Power SuPPIYs l 1 9 " ' W i i h P o w e r S u p p l y

S . T . E . S . I n c .P. O . Box 188 Pe fe r sbu rg , WV 26847

Phone 3O4-257 '4577

V r s o M o s l e r C h o r q e

)Jz

ilfr'ilit'ri$f';ffiAn excel lent average performance LNA that won't empty your pocketsThese ready-to-instal l units are special ly prtced.M0DEL t {0 . LCl100-100 ' K 50 dB Gain . . 'M0DEL t{0. LC/80 - 80" K 50 dB Gain . . . .

. . $ 950.00

. . 1695.00

HIOH PERFORMOilGE tlIOlNTR0DUClNG. . .a new Low Norse Ampl i f ie r tha t d rops the ke lv tn ra t tngto HALF the present 120' K standard Based on a new design concept,the remarkab le XCEL-N-A/60 permr ts the use o l smal le r d tshes andeven sphericals with excel lent receptl0n Al l prrces F0B Hartford, CT.M 0 D E L N 0 . X L C / 6 0 - 6 0 ' K 5 0 d B G a r n . . . . . $ 2 9 9 5 . 0 0 .

Satellite Electrcnics Systerls, im.P.O. Box 14418 . Hadford, cT 06114 o (203) 589-0473

Dli l ip sPA('B( 'o l l l l l ' r l ( 'ATloNs. lN( ' .

12- foot d iameter parabol ic f iberg lassantennas - 2 or 3 p iece construct ion. Polarmount wi th spars and remote contro l ro tor .

To ta l package p r i ce . . . $1 ,85O

D tsts P Sl)^t l ' H ( ' l ) l l l l l ' \ I( ' . tTlors. Ir- l ' .Rou t€ 1 , Box 351 A

Chance l l o r , A l abama 3631 6205 '393 '3211

G E N U I N E H O W A R D T E R M I N A LPC CARDS

B o b C o l e m a n a n d T a y H o w a r d a r e n o w p r o d u c i n g s i x

P C c a r d s w h i c h m a k e d u p l i c a t i o n o f t h e H o w a r d T e r m i -

n a l ( l a t e s t v e r s i o n ) a s n a P l

/ . . 1 ) I ) uu l C -o r t t , ' r s i o t t t 1 ( i l l : t o 70 . \ I I I : ) 525 .00

r l l t 70. \ l l l : l l - ot t t l l : i l t t r S)5.00

/( ' ) l totur t l I ) t 'n todulutr t r 510.0()

( l ) ) I ) uu l1 ) t hun t t t ' l ) . l u t l i o S )5 .00

( l ; t .S i r t s l t ' C l t u t t t t ' l . . 1ud io S l 5 .00

( l ) . . 1 1 C u t t d . \ l t r t r i t t q 5 1 5 . 0 0

O r d e r f r o m : R o b e r t M . C o l e m a n , R t e . 3 . B o x 5 B - A

T r a v e l e r s R e s t . S . C . 2 9 6 9 0

I

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R o t a t i n g A n t e n n a D r i v eo U A N T U M

W i t h P o s i t i o n I n d i c a t o r

REMOTE-CONTROL V 7ALL D ISH MOVES BY I \ ZLOW VOLTAGES Y S T E M !

$850

O U A N T U M A l f l e a l e r ( l r s ' o r r n l s

A s s o c . a l a r a r r c )

P O B o x 1 8 A p i n e , W Y 8 3 1 2 8 ( 3 0 7 ) 6 5 4 - 2 0 0 0

t 'Al tAl lol . l (AN' l ' l rNNA

inc lu t l i r rsI)OLA R \ , IOUN' l '

I " ibc rg lass , \n te l rna in l2 . 30" Scc t i r t l t s

Stee I IV lount ' l ' racks Al l Sate l l i tes

12 '_ � f l r l - . 45 - $11oo t " '

10 ' - f t r l - . 51 - $1o5o t " 't ' s h i p p i n g N o t I n c l u d e d

S a t r o n i c s C o m m u n i c a t i o n s P ' O . B o x 2 9 2 4Sta . A Champaign , lL 61820 e17r3ga '2a73

1' ls . t l , l , l ' . . .Bes t p r i ces comb ined w i t h bes t p roduc t know ledgeab i l i t y

We can answer a l l you r ques t l ons hones t l y and f r om f i r s t handexpe r i ence . We hand le VCR, Co lo rCameras ' P ro . i ec t i on TV ,

Sa te l l i t e Ea r t h TvRO Sys tems , ou r p r i de and j oy , t he f i nes t

aud io soeake r l i ne i n t he wo r l d , t he supe rb Janszen E lec t r o 's t a t i c speake rs . Cu r ren t spec ia l s a re :

R C A V E T 1 8 0 G H R V H S V C R $ 6 4 9Zen i t h VR9OOW w/BETASCAN $699H i t a c h i V K 7 5 0 C o l o r Z o o m C a m e r a $ 4 9 9T D K T - 1 2 0 V H S T a p e 1 0 / $ 1 4 9S o n y K P 5 0 2 0 P r o j e c t i o n T V $ 1 , 8 4 9Kloss Novabeam (Ca l l fo r Pr ice)

For in to rmat ion , p lease ca l i a t te r 4 :OO PM (2O1)347-3206

. f . l ' . 1 : l ,n ( 'T l l ( ) \ l l ' sJoseoh Valent no. Presldent

5 t cA l |A t ST . - LA l l 0 l f lG , [ . J . 07850

I

SATELLITE DICEST

cooP'sCOMMENT ON

PROGRAMMING

THE WINDS OF CHANGEThe Washington, DC SPTS was a bit of a revelation tor those

who have followed the seminar 'trek' for low these manyyears. I don't know about the other veteran SPTS attendeesbut I believe I detected the first seeds of a substantial newdirection for this young industry.

Flrst there was the announcement, never formal but frequently discussed, that the Channel Master Corporailonwould be in the home satell i te terminal business shorily.Channel Master saved their formal disclosu re for a gatheringof the nation's electronic wholesale distributors held inAtlanta over the sth-7th of May. CM has been carefullystudying th is industrys ince the February 198OSPTS in Miamiand recently obtained an agreement from KLM whereby theKLM single conversion receiver design wil l be manufacturedfor CM under their own label. The significant part of this reportis that Ghannel Master has one of the most well developednational distributor/dealer networks in home electronics andthey therefore possess the capacity to go'nationwide' in onejump. Not to be outdone by the CM announcement, BlonderTongue has signed a deal with Scientif ic Ailanta to handle SAterminal packages; BT of course is also feeding a wellmatured network of national distributors and dealers. JerroldElectronics, meanwhile, has purchased the rights to manu-facture a l ine of 4 and 1 2 GHz terminal hardware from theCanadian firm SED Electronics and this may also suggestthat the 'big J' wil l be sell ing US terminal packages soon. Ofthe majorfirms in the homeW parts business, onlyWinegardseems to be sitt ing it out and we don't expect them tocontinue to do so long since firm founder and President JohnWinegard has attended many of the recent SPTS/SBOCevents.

Of these three new f irms in the field, CM and Jerrold haveconsiderable experience in packaging electronic hardwareoff shore and then bringing it to the US ready to sell. CM has asubstantial plant in Taiwan: Jerrold uses Mexico. the otF

shore 'angle 'came up in anothercorner at SpTS,8 ' l Washing-ton; from the well known folks at DEXCEL.

Now DEXCEL has been with this industrylrom theveryfirstSPTS in 1 979. Art Kawai, Yozo Satodo and the DEXCELieamhave been active in seminars and'in working to push LNAtechnology to new heights. They were first with reasonablypriced 1OO degree units and their 85 degree units are nowconsidered state of the art for those of us who need that extrafraction of a dB in lower noise temperature. DEXCEL pre-viewed a combination LNA plus downconverter in March; theentire unit is barely different visually from a standardDEXCEL version LNA and with it you leave the antenna at ZOMHz. At Washington they stopped the show with the rest ofthis package; a snappy designed complete home receiver/LNA package. The LNA and downconverter technology isAmerican, for now. The balance of the receiver is Japantse.

Now allow me to postulate Just a blt. The name of thegame in Japan (or Taiwan or Mexico) is quantity. In our field1,000 complete receivers per monlh is a pretty decentquantity and since this has to represent no less than$1,000,000 per month in OEM pr ic ing (1OOO x $1,OOO)i t ispractical to think in terms of $ 12,000,000 to $2O,OOO,OO0 peryear in annualized shipments for packages such as this at theJapanese / Taiwan source. DEXCEL plans to have thelr newLNA plus receiver package avai lable in the states, , in quan-tity" around the f irst of August. Their package wil l carry a usersuggested pricing in the $1995 region. Distributor / dealerpricing is reported to be at least 3O% off of suggested usernet; lower for substantial purchases. Remembei [his is for anLNA plus a full recelver.

The combinat ion of Channel Master and DEXCEL, bothnew to the marketplace, is going to send shock wavesthrough the existing marketplace. Both have the expertiseand dollar resources to produce product in large quantit iesan-d to back up that product with highly visible marketingefforts. By the start of the fallTV'season'both wil l be ready t6go in the marketplace.

Older l ine firms are hardly standing sti l l however. Inter-national Crystal showed privately their new two.plecodouble conversion package at Washington; KLM trotted outtheir own version of an LNA plus downconverter package.Others reacted by indicating their conversion stages couldbe hung separately at the antenna.

The competlt lon ls golng to gilffen up this fall. A few ofthe 'o ld l ine ' f i rms wi l lprobably f ind the going a l i t t le rough. Fordealers and distributors the opportunities to add new linesand expand marketing opportunities wil l be better than in anyprevious period of our history. With the new entrants andmass marketed hardware wil l come new mass marketingstrategies and a new v is ib i l i ty for home terminals in themarketplace. The marketing opportunities we can all adaptto; the increased v is ib i l i ty , coming as i t wi l l when numerousnew pieces of federal legislation are being considered to'curb ' home terminal v iewing, wi l l be qui te another mat ter . l fyou th ink you've been through i t a l l in home terminalspreviously...stick around. You aln't seen nothing yet!

P1-6 /81

a,D

PROGRAMMING) (

P 2 - 6 / 8 1

SPTS '81 DCA STUDY IN

INDUSTRY GROWTH

O V E R T H E T O PThey came f rom Tokyo and Melbourne; Med i l l i n and K ings-

ton . From A laska and Ca l i fo rn ia ; Ma ine and Ar izona. Theycame some 1 2OO s t rong to spend the Eas ter weekend in thenat ion 's cap i to l soak ing up EIRPs and dBw. They came towander the a is leways o f the la rges t s ing le concent ra t ion o flow cost satel l i te TV hardware in the history of the world;some 80 exh ib i t booths in a l l . They came to par t i c ipa te in the"gather ing o f the c lan , " to ta lk w i th the Rober t Co lemans andthe Dav id Broughs and and to sample more than 30 hours o l

COOP'SSATELLITE DICESToast SPTS/SBOC events th rough the in -house te lev is iond is t r ibu t ion sys tem. They ar r i ved f resh and fu l l o f expec ta-t ions . They le f t t i red and f i l l ed w i th new knowledge

Was SPTS Washington a succoss or a bust? A great dealwas aga ins t i t go ing in . There was shor t no t ice bs to the da tesand loca t ion in advance. The loca t ion was magn i f i cen t bu t

exoens ive . The da tes were unavo idab le o f course ; we d id

every th ing we cou ld to f ind a su i tab le loca t ion and se t thedates in the DC area and f ina l l y had to se t t le fo r the ho l idayweekend. Eas ter i s a fami ly t ime; th is year , fo r the f i rs t t ime in

severa l decades, the Jewish Passover a lso fe l l on the samew e e k e n d .

SPTS was des igned to p rov ide an on-go ing update on the

techno logy changes rampid in our f ie ld and to b lend w i th tha ttechno logy the newest c rea t ion on the te lev is ion f ron t ie r ; lowpower tV (LeTU. There were ' super -s ta rs ' on hand f rom theWash ing ton "scene" ; Ra lph Nader addressed the ga ther ing ,

and sa id - the par t i c ipants were par t o f a new v is ionary g roup o fo ioneers who wou ld f ree Amer ica f rom the bonds o f th reechanne l ne twork te lev is ion . Congressman Char les Rose ' anin f luen t ia l member o f the House who drove the e f fo r t to pu t C 'SPAN on the a i r , s ta ted i t was h is persona l op in ion tha t anyand a l l ( ! ) sa te l l i te s igna ls , rece ived in the home by a p r iva te

v iewer , were beyond any sys tem o f charges . He ind ica ted tha the was p lann ing the ins ta l la t ion o f h is own pr iva te te rmina l in

h is Nor ih Caro l lna home and he d idn ' t p lan to pay anyone " fo r

any th ing . FCC Commiss ioner James Que l lo sa id h is agencymain ta ins an open mind about the deve lopment o f a t homesate l l i te te rmina ls and inv i ted SPACE and the indus t ry to

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THREE FEEDS - Downl ink 's 1 2 foo t spher ica l poo ls ide had th ree separa te feeds 'p lay ing ' on a var ie ty o f b i rdsources .

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BOLT ITTOGETHER's€c t l ona l i zedan tennas con t i nue to be the o rde ro f t heday , even fo r , re la t i ve l ysma l l ' 1oand ,1 2 foot aper tures.

educate the FCC to our industry 's points of v iew.In the low power TV area a bombshel l had landed on the

group just days before the SPTS'81 DC gather ing; the FCCshut down v i r tual ly a l l new appl icat ions for LpW, havinglogged in more than 5,000 appl icat ions for new stat ions andadmit t ing the agency was so hopelessly covered up byappl icants that they were forced to shut of f the f lood. Welearned there was at least one area where the Commissionwould cont inue to accept appl icat ions however; i f the newLPTV serv ice wi l l go in to a region where there is no regular TVserv ice ( i .e . broadcast TV rather than t ranslator or cable) or i fthere is no more than a s ingle stat ion avai lable. . . the Commis-s ion wi l l cont inue to accept new appl icat ions whi le thetemporary "freeze" is on.

The LPTV e nthusiasts heard BT's lke Blonder say that eveni f they had no p lans to real ly bui ld an LPW ouf let , they shouldimmediate ly f i le for as many as they could s ince , the Com.miss ion wi l l a l low you to t rade (as in sel l o f f ) suchl icenses af te r they are granted. . .and, i f you wai t , a i l o f thepossib le good channels wi l l be gone". They heard LpTVpioneer Parry Teasdale who operated an extra- legal ( i .e .unl icensed) LPTV out let in an upstate area of New york statef or several years say that " local involvement , get t ing localpeople on TV regularly, is the key to success of an LpTVoutle_t". And they heard Sruki Switzer, TV and CATV gruruf rom Canada suggest that "LPTV plus satell i te services canand wi l l change the d i rect ion of communicat ions inNorth Amer ica" . l t was ex-FCC staf fer Michael Couzens

(who appeared whi le s t i l l wi th the FCC at SOBG'80 Houston)who provided the greatest ins ight in to the new communi tyservice and business opportunity. "Low powerTV ls an ldea,a concept , who's t lme has come" said Couzens "and theopportunity to be a televlglon brosdcastor lg now".

SPACE had been in t ight secur i ty negot iat ions for monthspr ior to the Washington gather ing hoping to be able toannounce formal ly a break through at the gather ing. Af terjumping upon the corporate bones of West inghouse, Tele-Prompter and Showt ime (see CSD for March and May 1 981 )SPACE had been successfu l in br inging SHOWTIME to thebargain ing table. Concerned that a h i tch might develop,because of SPACE opposition, in the purchase by Westing-house of TelePrompter (and the la t ter 's S0% interest inSHOWTIME), the g iant f i rms decided to enter in to negot ia-t ions wi th SPACE to see i f something might be worked out forthe legal l icensing of (1) s tand a lone apartment , condomin-ium and motel systms being sold by SPACE member dealersand d is t r ibutors, and, (2) pr ivate (at home) terminals f rom theSPACE membership. The deal was c loge, subject to theinevi table f ina l juxtaposi t ion ing of at torneys on both s ides, asSPTS'81 Washington convened. But i t missed the t iming by atad and hung in l imbo wi thout formal acceptance by the twosides as the group met . St i l l , the progress made by SPACE'sRick Brown and the Board was common "aisle talk" at SpTSand there was a feel ing of a major break through just aroundthe corner .

On the darker side SPACE Counsel Brown shared with

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P4-6/81

WELCOME TO DCI Susan Cooper opens the fostlvlt legwhlle Coop and Tay Howard ponderthelr own remarkg tofollow.

Board Members h is ins ide/s in format ion concerning severalp ieces of leg is lat ion being readied for the h i l l hopper. One,wi th the b less ing i f not the actual backing of HBO, in tends tomake i t some type of federal cr ime to tune into any HBOprogramming (whether del ivered by cable, MDS, STV orsate l l i te) wi thout the wr i t ten contract author i ty of the f i rm. Onthat possib i l i ty Congressman Char les Rose to ld the exci tedaudience "Nobody ls golng to com€ lnto my homo andmonltor what I watcht " Rose called SPACE's Brown "a boy8cout" because of the official and now respected position ofSPACE that private terminal viewers "wlsh to pay for theserv lces" . l f anyone other than an in f luent ia l Congressmanhad stood on the podium and said what he said, the zealousremarks of Congressman Rose would have gone unnot iced.Because he did say it, loudly and clearly and because headded "l belleve you wll l f lnd there ls a malorlty of theCongrese who would agros wlth my posltlon" the severalyear o ld r i f t between those whofeel that the industry can onlygrow if there is a legal foundation for paid-for services, and,those who feel that Congressman Rose iscorrect ,once againopened up. Nei ther Brown nor SPACE President TaylorHoward seemed concerned wi th the re-opened chasismhowever. As Howard later said "lt cannot hurt us to havesome msmbers of Congrese taklng that vlewpolnt; it wil lperhapg make lt eagler for ue to arrlve at a lalr and

YOU SAWWHATON GHORIZONT? Ralph Nader(r isht ) lslntroduced to the Saturday morning audlence by SPACEPresldent Taylor Howard.

equi table p i€c6 of leg is lat ion th ie eession to have peopleins ide of Congrees espouslng the st rong ' i f i t ra ins on myhead it is mine' polnt of view".

l f the legal posi t ion of the industry , as i t may applyto the twopay-cable-program giants HBO and SHOWTIME, was notent i re ly c lear at SPTS '81 DC, the technical equipmentadvances were crystal clear. The day of the two-piece re-ceiver is now here. DEXCEL dropped a $1995 ( reta i l ) bomb-shell (see Cooy's Comment on Program ming, this issue). Notonly had the Cal i forn ia t i rm marr ied a 1 20 degree K LNA to adownconverter and p laced the ent i re assembly at the feed ofthe antenna, they a lso had on d isplay pre-product ion ver-s ions of the whole ins ide-of- the-house demodulatorpackageas wel l . The gear was probably the most impressive ' looking 'hardware on d isplay; wi th the s imple but e legant look thatone f inds in Japanese h igh dol lar component s tereo systemhardware. Two-piece uni ts were a l l over the four exhib i trooms and 80 booths. Some are double convers ion in design( lCM, Telecom Industr ies) but most were s ingle convers ionimage-re iect (or " imageless") designs. Several suppl iers whohad not foreseen the rush to two piece receiver units werequick on thei r feet and point ing out to in terested buyers that"our downconvers ion stage can be 's imply ' mounted in anoutdoor enclosure" . The advantages to two-piec ing are wel largueo.

COOP'SSATELLITE DICEST

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LOWEST COST - Global Electronlcg under $18OO totalpackage Included thls all wood constructlon spherlcal.

SPHERICAL CONSTRUCTION - Downl ink spher ica l dur-ing assembly 'pools lde ' at the Shoreham.

COOP'SSATELLITE DICEST P5-6/81

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PROOF OFTHE PUDDING. af tera l l o f thework i lme forabreak and the opportunlty to obgerve the servlce. Mosrantennas wore up and runnlng by late Thursday afternoon,

.One p iec ing (LNA plus fu l l receiver at the antenna; or thewhole receiver ins ide) has been wi th us s ince 197g. Every-th ing at the antenna (only remodulated RF or basebandaudio and v ideo comes in the 'down l ine ' ) was f i rs t conceivedand bui l t in prototype form by Robert Coleman in 1979.However the state of component technology at that t imemade i t not su i table for mass product ion. So the other ,onepiece' system evolved; the full receiver inside, ala the moreexpensive CAW type receivers. DEXCEL, with their in-houseLNA technology, may have been the first to package it into asui table uni t but KLly l was not far behind, showing thei r ownLNA plus downconverter (in a weatherproof antenna mount-ing container) at Washington. ICM had production samples oftheir dual convgrslon package outdoor system on hand aswel l .

By getting the downconversion stages outdoors the ,bigcable' problem is eliminated. lf you reduce the output frelquency at the antenna uni t to say 70 MHz ( the common lFformost receivers) then low cost RG-Sg/U or RG-1'l /U coaxialcables can run indoors to the balance of the receiver; thedemodulator. Saving a few hundred dollars in system cost, byeliminating the expensive and often hard to work with 1 /2" orlargercable, isan admirablefeat of course. From the receivermanufacture/s point of view there are other reasons to gothis way. lf he can marry the LNA plus receiver together andprovide the dealer/distributor with a single source packagehe has a larger share of the business. With LNA oricescont inuing to drop (you could buy 120 degree uni ts forapproximately $450 in quantity at the show) a firm such asDEXCEL is quick to realize that its dollar share of the typical

TIGHTEN !T DOWN . compleilng a feed Ingtailailon In DCthe exhlbltor prepares to button lt up.

insta l la t ion was heading down rapid ly .Single convergion arguments permeated the show. In

the main antenna d isplay area in ter ference between antennasystems was bordering on dreadful during most of the show.For at least one f u l l daysomeone's s ingle convers ion receiverpackage sat parked on transponder 8 or so and tore upvirtually everyone else's reception on WTBS on Fl. We spentan hour snooping around and turn ing of f one receiver at atime trying to locate the offendor; with no luck. Talk surfacedabout creat ing, through SPACE or by some other forum, an'industry seal of good practice'.. The concept is thata steeringcommit tee, put together by SPACE, would establ ish somehard engineer ing guidel ines for what amounts of LO , , radia-t ion" might be acceptable, under what condi t ions and how. Al lreceiver manuf actu rers wou ld be asked to volu nta ri ly certifythat their equipment met or exceeded those specifications.And i f they d id not . . .wel l , the word would get around. Natura l lynot a l l receiver designers were wi ld ly enthusiast ic about theproposal and although it got off to a rapid start at the SpACEBoard meet ing on Saturday the 18th, by Sunday the 1gth i thad few act ive supporters le l t . The s imple t ruth is that i f theLO radiation found in single conversion receivers is reducedto 'harmless levels' many of the existing receiver designsprobably could not comply; no matter what they did tochange. thei r designs. The real ism that such a move might!orc_e_a big division in the industry (and a softening of supp-ortfor SPACE) became a polit ical football at SpTS and the matterquiet ly moved to the back burner .

One point that d id sur face was the explos ionof the,par t 1 5,myth. Most people assumed that under present FCC Rulesand Regulat ions receivers operat ing in th is serytce wereprobably in violation of radiation l imits. Subject of course to

COOP'SSATELLITE DICESTP6-6/81

BEHAR AND RUSSIA . no st ranger to tunlng In Rugslantransmlsslons, Horo'8 Bob Behar shows off the Ghorl 'zont test pattern lete on Saturday afternoon.

an FCC off icial making hls own clarif ication of the rules, anintensive search of FCC regulations suggests that at themoment at least there is noth ing on the books which wouldapply to the 'uniqueness' of the WRO receiver LO radiationsi tuat ion. Bot tom l ine? Nobody isv io lat ing anyth ing f or now, l tappears, except perhaps good engineering practice.

The antenna arrays on display represented just about everypossib le var iat ion of d ish design concepts p lus the usualsampl ing of Spher ica ls . F iberg lass is (by actual count) themost popular ' re f lector sur face suspension medium' butthere are sti l l some creative people working in bare metal.HERO Communicat ions unvei led a new 5 meter super l ightweight package wi th motor dr ive polar mount ing. Comm-Pluschose SPTS to unwrap a new 12 foot super l ight weight a l lmeta l parabol ic wi th uncommonly good engineer ing. Dur ingthe seminar an at tendee f rom New York Ci ty posted a s ign ona bul le t in board:

$1OO REWARDTO THE FIRST EXHIBITOR TO

DISPLAY RUSSIAN GHORIZONTRECEPTION!

With the gaunlet down Hero 's Bob Behar cranked h is motordriven five meter off of Fl at 1 35 degrees west. Swinging eastit had to look dead through a two story brick and mortarbui ld ing, a ser ies of 40foot t rees and most of the ta l l bu i ld ingsin downtown DC. As the big dish came to a rest at 1 4 degreeswest there was Ghor izont d isp lay inq the famous Russiantest pattern. Word spread and acrowd crammed into the boothto see what Russian TV looked like. Behar had arranged,

COMM.PLUS 12 foot mesh sur faced d lah got h lgh marksfor good deslgn and qulck lneta l la t lon ' l t a lso was one oftwo antennas to locate the Russlan Ghorlzont blrd.

us ing ver t ica l in terval swi tchers, a l ine up of s ix d i f ferentcommercia l receivers in h is booth and the at tendees coulddi rect ly compare the fu l l range of receivers on not only theRussian s ignal but on the more common US and Canadiansignals as wel l . We' l l have more to say about one-on-onecomparisons shortly.

l f the HERO recept ion of Ghor izont was mi ld ly impressive,the subsequent recept ion of the same Russian s ignalon theComm-Plus 1 2 footer was mind boggl ing. l f you stood at theantenna s i te and looked at where the Canadian antenna waspointed you had to come to the conclus ion that the antennawas complete ly b locked on the Russian heading. Par ts ofthe Shoreham Hotel were less than 20 feet awav and dead inl ine wi th the Russian b i rd. Yet there i t was, on theComm-PlusTeknimat receiver cranking out a mid-18th century Russiansoap opera for most of the Sunday af ternoon. Comm-Plusdidn ' t co l lect the $ 1 00 " f inder 's f ee" s ince they were secondto f ind Ghor izont ; but they got our vote for making theimpossib le happen.

Why would someone of f er $ 1OO f or Ghor izont recept ion?Ken Schaf fer d id i t . " l came here to learn how I wouldut i l ize th is technology" he commented. "Af ter a day Iknew that in my audio buslness in New York Ci ty I couldget a lot of mlleage out of satell i te TV and if I coulddemonstrate Russlan reception in downtown New York. . .wel l , that would be good for me". We last say Kenny lateSunday t ry ing to ta lk a Hertz agent in to rent ing h im a car sothat he could haul a t ra i ler mounted antenna he found instock at an exhibitor's booth back to New York City. "l know Iam crazy - there is no place to park it on West 58thAvenue: i t wi l l be defenseless and af ter s i t t ing out one

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n igh t i t w i l l have so much gra f f i t i on i t tha t I won ' t be ab leto see the wh i te sur face anymore . But I 'm one o f you now.I want i t . l t i s jus t tha t s imp le . " We hope Kenny made i t !

An tenna qua l i t y came up fo r a lo t o f d iscuss ion . Ne lsonEth ie r , au thor o f STT 's do- i t -yourse l f parabo l ic an tenna man-ua l no ted " l cannot be l ieve some o f the poor workmansh iphere" . Ne lson may be a pur is t bu t he had a po in t . Some peop leseemed to have los t s igh t o f the c lose to le rances requ i red toget p roperd ish ga in a t 4 GHz. " l f you can s tand on one s ideof a d ish and s igh t across the sur face . . .and the fa r s idedoes no t a l ign w i th the s ide near you, the d ish is s imp lynot go ing to g ive you any th ing approach ing theore t ica lga in" added Canad ian Ne lson.

C o n c e r n e d t h a t a l l a n t e n n a s o f s i m i l a r ' s i z e ' a r e n o t e q u a l ,and anx ious to c rea te a sys tem to separa te the 'wheat f romthe chaf f ' severa l exh ib i to rs approached us regard ing s tag ingan "an tenna shoot ou t " a t the fo r thcoming SPTS '81

O m a h a . O n e f i b e r g l a s s d i s h a n t e n n a m a n u f a c t u r e r w a sthe t i rs t to do so . "Look" he sa id "a ren ' t we go ing tohave a ten acre park ing lo t w i th no obs t ruc t ions in Omahain August?" We agreed tha t we were . "OK then. . ,howabout care fu l l y es tab l i sh ing some measurement c r i te r iaand then le t us do an tenna to an tenna to an tenna tes t ing ,measur ing car r ie r to no ise w i th a power meter and us ingthe same LNA and rece iver on each an tenna?" . Je f f ' sconcept i s tha t by se lec t ing a t ransponder w i th co lo r bars andt h e n d o i n g m e a s u r e m e n t s o f t h e a n t e n n a g a i n s o n l y ( t h epat te rn be ing c lear ly beyond the ab i l i t y o f such a tes t exer -c ise) swapp ing the LNA and rece iver f rom antenna to an-

tenna ( to keep th ings equa l ) the an tenna manufac turerswou ld be ab le to do rea l wor ld s ide by s ide tes t ing . Wethought nobody wou ld go a long w i th Je f f and sa id we 'd checkin to i t . We managed to ta lk w i th James Gowen o f ADM, BobBehar o f Hero and Dan ie l Bernes i p lus Chr is Schu l the iss o fComm-Plus be fore we le f t Wash ing ton . Surpr ise ; a l l fouragreed i t was a good idea and sa id they wou ld par t i c ipa te l

So a t leas t fo r now i t looks l i ke a 'vo lun tary 'an tenna shootou t in Omaha is l i ke ly to be an impor tan t par t o f the event .That may have been the easy par t ; ge t t ing a representa t ivenumber o f an tenna manufac turers to agree to do i t . The rea l l yhard par t w i l l be to es tab l i sh the techn ica l gu ide l ines fo r theshoot ou t . We ta lked i t over w i th Tay lo r Howard and came tot he conc lus io n tha t even i f we se t up a re fe rence an ten na tha tprov ides fu l l t ime mon i to r ing o f the chosen sa te l l i te t rans-ponder s igna l wh i le the tes ts and swi tch ing f rom antenna toantenna are go ing on (hav ing a re fe rence is mandatory ! ) wewere probab ly go ing to have someth ing less than to ta l l yconc lus ive resu l ts . None the less we w i l l be g iv ing i t the o ldco l lege t ry and i f you ever wanted to see jus t what i t takes tog e t m a x i m u m g a i n o u t o f a n a n t e n n a , a n d w h i c h a n t e n n a s d oi t bes t , Omaha is to r you in mid August !

Once tha t hurd le seemed over (a t leas t the dec is ion par t )the nex t suggest ion to sur face was tha t the same type o fshoot ou t tes t be done w i th TVRO rece ivers . Th is one go t a lo to f in te res t bu t f rank ly the prob lems assoc ia ted w i th th is may bebeyond the ' f ie ld s i te ' capab i l i t ies in Omaha or anyp lace e lse .Whi le i t wou ld be a ta i l y s imp le mat te r to use a pa i r o fan tennas (one re fe rence fo r mon i to r ing and the o ther fo r

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J U S T A B O V E T H E H O R I Z O N - ' P o o l s i d e ' a n t e n n a s h a d a s h o t a t F l . . . b a r e l y . R e m e m b e r t h e s e a n g l e s w h e n w eg a t h e r i n O m a h a !

PB-6/8 1

DEXCEL TECHNOLOGY ' f rom the i r f i r s t en t ry in to LNAsfor the pr iva te te rm ina l marke t DEXCEL has s tuck w l th ah lgh techno logy message. Now wl th a comple te rece lverp lug LNA package they appear to have s t ruck pay d l r t .

rece iver tes t ing) and se t up power meter car r ie r to no ise tes tmeasurements , keep ing every th ing equa l i s much more d i f f -i cu l t w i th rece ivers than w i th an tennas. Some rece ivers musthave lo ts o f LNA ga in ou t f ron t (and they admi t i t ) wh i le o therscan ' t take much LNA ga in in f ron t . As soon as you s ta r tswapp ing LNAs around to accomodate the var ious rece iverrequ i rements you have jus t los t your rece iver to rece iverre fe rence ab i l i t y . Fur thermore the power meter car r ie r tono ise tes ts may no t be as impor tan t as the o ld tash ioned'eyeba l l ' sub jec t ive tes t ing . Meter read ings mean a lo t bu t'eyeba l l p leas ing ' means more in the end. Some rece ivers dopoor ly in the fo rmer and f ine in the la t te r . We are work ing onth is one bu t un less somebody can come up w i th some hard ,work- in -every s i tua t ion tes t ing procedures tha t the rece iverdes igners w i l l accept , th is one may be too ambi t ious even fo rSPTS.

That sa te l l i te TV is becoming a househo ld was neverc learer . A surpr is ing number o f a t tendees came f rom the' f inanc ia l communi ty ' . Per iod ica ls such as the Wal l S t ree tJourna l , Bus iness Week e t a l were on hand and veryin te res ted in what they saw. On ly a few seemed concernedwi th the 'p i ra te ' labe l some s t i l l hang on us ; most werein t r igued by the promise o f the new techno logy and what i t

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LOTS OF ROOM? - From above,the cramped quarters ofthe pr imary an tenna lo t looks decept ive ly roomy. Ac-tua l l y , w l th low F l look ang les l t took a lo t o f coopora t ionto keep f ron t an tennas f rom b lock lng thos€ to the rsar .

migh t mean to r Amer ica in the la te B0 's decade. Ter ry Eas tonw h o i s p u t t i n g t h e f i n i s h i n g t o u c h e s o n a b o o k f o r P l a y b o yBooks , Inc . (The Home Sate l l i te TV Book; How To Put TheWor ld In Your Backyard) announced h is book wou ld be onthousands o f P layboy a f f i l i a ted newsstands by la te fa l l .F i n a n c i a l a n a l y i s t s w i t h b i g d o l l a r s i g n n u m b e r s i n m i n d w e r es p r i n k l e d t h r o u g h o u t t h e S e m i n a r . R u m o r s o f n e w p u b l t cs tock o f fe r ings , in the $3 to $ 1O mi l l ion range to f inance newTVRO manufac tur ing f i rms were f requent ly heard . The an-nouncement tha t Channe l Master , B londer Tongue andJer ro ld wou ld be supp ly ing WRO recept ion te rmina l hard-ware (see Coop 's Comment th is i ssue) f e l l on a t ten t ive ears .As we pred ic ted in our February and March issues o f CSD, thecat i s ou t o f the bag. We can no longer h ide our indus t ry undera bushe l basket o r an over tu rned surp lus ten foo t d ish .

The Wash ing ton Seminar may no t have been a 'd i rec t

se l l ing show' fo r many o f the supp l ie rs . Severa l no ted tha tthey had lo ts o f t ra f f i c and good in te res t bu t on ly one boas tedof hav ing wr i t ten a mi l l ion do l la rs o r more in o rders d i rec t l y onthe f loor . Severa l supp l ie rs on hand were there to tes t thewaters fo r new produc t concepts ; no t rea l l y expec t ing to dob ig bus iness on the spot One o f these, Indra Sate l l i teCommunica t ions , Inc . o f Scot tsda le , Ar izona brought an

YOUR STANDARD BATHTUB SHOT 'sooner or la tersomebody ends up ins ide a d ish t ry ing to get the panelsto a l ign. l t is par t of the r i tua l !

ANTENNA CONTROLLER - Comtech Antenna Corp 'sdish control system offers glx pre-programmed stopgplus a cont inuous sweep through the orb i t bel t .

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P 9 - 6 / 8 1

The lCtl/lTV-44OO

r New uestgn . Buttt-tn tsandpass Filter. lmproved Selectivity o Built-in D.C. Block

The ICM TV-4400 two-unit design offers advancedreceiving techniques that improves satellite TV reception.The "system" consists of two units. The smaller ol the twounits is the RF downconverter which is enclosed in aenvironmental protective box (3,, x 4,, x7"\. The dualconversion RF downconverter is intended to be mounted atthe antenna site as closely as possible to the LNA. Theadvantage . . . cable losses at the high frequency arenegligible.

The baseband receiver unil (31/z" x 8,, x 8,,) has 6.2 or 6.gMHz audio selector switch, channel step tuning selector,fine tuning, power switch, all on front panel.

Features include: Automatic frequency control, automaticgain control, standard video output, subcarrier output forfuture accessories, wideband

ii3,.""ilTJ:i"tfl"ff,ii,i'3iil;* $1.395oointernal audio and video iontroti. ^

t ... -.

provisionsforRFmodulator. Quanll ly.ulscounts

Receiver is equipped with a Avallaole

standard jack for optional remotecontrol.DUAL POLE - for those who have never aeen how two

separate LNAs are fed out of a slngle teed, h6re i t 18.While most prlvate termlnal Instal lat lons coni lnue to'rotatg' the feed and slngle LNA, the mor€ elaboratelns ta l la t ione and the geml -commerc ia l Ins ta l la t lons areopting fortwln LNAo fed by the orth-coupler feed and twoor more separate rocelvera.

in te res t ing package to Wash ing ton , Indra makes rece ivers ,sor t o f . Bu t they on ly in tend to se l l to OEM's ; tha t i s , to peop lewho w i l l take the Indra des igned and manufac tured ,modu les 'and then do the f ina l packag ing in to a fu l l rece iver . Indra ine f fec t does the R&D des ign work fo r a wou ld-be rece iversupp l ie r and sh ips ou t the necessary p roduc t ion modu lestes ted and ready fo r the "OEM" to package in whateverconf igura t ion he chooses . The rece iver des ign is two-par t ,s ing le convers ion w i th an "unusua l " lF o f I50 MHz ( ra therthan the s tandard 70 MHz) . Th is says the downl ine cab le canbe low cos t cab le such as RG-59/U. The ' ,OEM" cusromer ge tsin to the rece iver bus iness by se t t ing up a ' low techno loEVpackag ing assembly l ine and concent ra t ing h is e f fo r ts onmarke t ing . The gear looked l i ke h igh qua l i t y s tu f f and the i rconcept may we l l have mer i t .

The mass merchand is ing concept fo r TVRO hardwareseems to be p ick ing up s team as we l l . A t the moment thereare th ree lead ing f i rms in the f ie ld ; each has un ique approachto the way they are do ing th ings so there is p robab ly on lyl im i ted compet i t ion head to head in th js segment o f theindus t ry r igh t now. H&R Communica t ions , a ve teran a tSPTS/SBOC events a f te r John and V i rg i t a t tended the f i rs tSPTS in 1979 and went home wi th the one-o f -a -k ind JohnKin ik assemble- i t -yourse l f d ish , used a fu l l exh ib i t su i te toshow o f f the i r b road l ine o f an tennas, rece ivers and the i rmass merchand ised LNA produc ts . Downl ink took four ex-

INTERNATIONAL CRYSTAL MFG. CO.. INC,10 North Lee, Oklahoma City, Oktahoma 73102

40,5t23$3741

oPTtol{S:REMOTECONTROTUNITll09.45

TUNABLEAUDIO UNIT3109.9s

[trhI

SatelliteTelevision

Built-in Bandpass FilterBuilt- in D.C. Block

Lt*

NORSAT SYSTEMS ' a Canadlan supplier with two goodoperatlng dual converelon recelvers displayed for theflrst t lme at SPTS '81 DC.

hib i t booths to d isp lay thei r rapid ly growing l ine of productsdesigned to put a dealer in the sate l l i te TV business for aminimum of investment . Nat lonal Mlcrotech swal lowed upsix exhib i t booths to expla in thei r unique concept of of fer ingdealers not only a wide var iety of hardware but a h igh levelnat ional market ing program and 'mobi le terminal downl inkrenta l ' system. Al l three of these f i rms have sprung up f romthe ground to serv ice the growing industry and whi le newentr in ts such as Channel Master enterwi th a bui l t in networkof potent ia l dealers thesethree probably have a good enoughhead start that they wil l not feel the emergence of newnat ional se l l ing programs.

In the good news department Bob Luly 's umbrel la antennais now being shipped and for those who have been wai t ing(perhaps not pat ient ly ! ) , por table, l ightweight f ie ld demon-itrations can now proceed. Global TV Electronics showed offa complete system that can wholesale for around $ 18OO orso( less in quant i ty) ; and that inc ludes the LNA, receiver andihei r own low cost Spher ica l antenna tota l ly constructed f romwooden p ieces ( the ref lector is metal l ic of course) . L indsayshowed of f a very imaginat ive 8.5 foot antenna that got h ighmarks f rom cr i t ica l antenna fo lks and based upon per for-mance i t looked l ike a ten footer or larger to most of us.Mac/L ine d isplayed a f iberg lass antenna that many fe l t wasthe h ighest qual i ty f iberg lass sect ional d ish on d isplay.Whether i t was the best or not is a moot point ; i t cer ta in lylooks l ike th is par t icu lar new f i rm is going to of fer a qual i typroduct .

l f there is as ingle overal lv iewof the industry in mid-198f i tis th is . No, not a l l equipment is created equal . However, ofgreater importance perhaps is the shor t cuts which many newentrants in to the industry seem to be fo l lowing when they setout to make thei r f i rs t insta l la t ion or two. When the combi-nat ion of novice ( i .e . inexper ienced) insta l ler and improper

P10-6 /81

WILL lT FLY? Coop with Nelson Ethier (author of STT'sNelson Parabol ic Manual) 'on camera 'dur ing the morning'Today At SPTS' TV program sent to attendees daily at IAM.

COOP'SSATELLITE DICESTequipment select ion merge the resul ts are of ten unsat is fac-tory. l t cont inues to be t rue that ta lented people such as Hay-den McCul lough (McCul lough Electronics) and David Broughand David Barker can seem to make near perfect picturesiump out of the p ic ture tube wi th a hank of rope and a b i t o fmetal p lus thei r own vers ions of b lack magic. There is nosubstitute for experience, understanding how the systemreally works, and what you can do to optimize every part ofevery insta l la t ion for peak per formance. The bot tom l ine, ashas been t rue f rom the beginnings of low cost terminals, isthat you cannot take shor tcuts and have opt imum perfor-mance nor can you t rust to luck. Wi th each insta l la t ion madethere must be at least one knowledgeable person involved. l tis not a d i f f icu l t nor impossib le task to learn. . .but there is nosubst i tu te for that knowledge. We are not the home TVantenna business. . .yet .

THE WASHINGTON DC EXHIBITORS

AVCOM OF VlRGlNlA, lNC. ' 500 Research Road' Rich-mond. VA 23235 804-794'2500). Total systems. Andy Hat'f ie ld, Pat Hat f ie ld.ANTENNA DEVELOPMENT & MANUFCTURING ' INC. .

Hwy . 67Sou th , P .O . Box 1 1 78 ,Pop la r B lu f f ' MO639O1 (314 -785-5988). Tota l systems. James Gowen, L inda Gowen'David Shumate.ADVANCED ELECTRONICS ' 5079 Arv i l le St . , Las Vegas,NV 89118 (800-634-6047). Tota l svstems. Jef f Stouf fer ,Howard Wi lson, Ron Runswick, Pam Bear, Doug Dehnert , K imDehnert , Dave Shumate.BIRDVIEW SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS' INC. . P. O.Box 9 63, Chanute, KS 667 20 (3 1 6-43 1 -O4OO). Tota l svstemsChar les Ross, Guni l la Ross, Robert Owens.BOB LULY AND ASSOCIATES - P. O' Box 231 1, San Ber-nadino. CA 92406 i714-888-7525). Antennas Bob Luly.

COMM/PLUS ' 3680 Cote Vertu, St . Laurent , QuebecCanada H4R-1P8 (514'337-7255). Antennas, LNAs, Re-ceivers. C. J . Schul theiss, D. Bernesi , Glor ia Bernesi ' M.Jurgenl iemb, D. Lester .COMSEARCH, lNC. ' 7633 Leesburg Pike, Fal ls Church,VA 22043 (703-356'9470). LPTV engineer ing serv ice.JerrySchulman, Mike Mor in, Harry StempleCOMTECH ANTENNA CORP. ' 31OO Commun ica t i onsRoad, St . Cloud, FL 32769 (305'892-61 1 1) . Tota l svstems.George Cirut is , Glenn Higgins.COMTECH DATACORPORATION - 61 3 S. Rockford Dr ive 'Tempe, AZ 85281 (602-968-2433) ' Receivers. Robert L.Mi l ler , B i l l Merkes, Jeannine Gr i f f in .COSMIC TECHNOLOGY, lNC. - 3102 W ' Lew is , Phoen tx ,AZ 85OOg (602'245'1696). Tota l svstems. Ralph Hel ler 'Steve Crowe, RaY Car l . .DEXCEL. lNC. ' 2285C Mart in Avenue, Santa Clara ' CA95050 (408'727-9833). LNAs, receivers Art Kawai, YozoSatoda.DEEP SPACE COMMUNICATIONS, lNC. ' Rou te 1 , Box351A, Chancel lor , AL 3631 6 (205-393-321 1 ) . Tota l systems.Dave Braswel l , Frank Lambert , Margaret Braswel l .DOWNLINK, D IV . OF B AND W ENTERPRISES ' LTD ' -Park St . , P. O. Box 33, Putnam, CT 06260 (203-928-3869).Tota l systems. Por tus Bar low, Kathy Bar low, Sue Suick, MarkKu laga , Pe te Auco in , Ne i l Cunn ingham, John Now lan , TedBaginet .EARTH STATIONS, lNC. ' Hwv' 22, Bar l ing, AR 72923(501-452-4391). Tota l systems. A. B. Richmond, StanleyJohnson, Bob Beaty.EARTH TERMINALS ' Rochester ofc , P. O. Box 636'Fai rpor t , NY 1 4450 (716-224-7457). Receivers. Clyde Wash-burn, James Jaeger, StePhen Corwin.GILIASPIE AND ASSOCIATES - 177 Webster St . ' 4455'

F

L

COOP'SSATELLITE DICEST P 1 1 - 6 / 8 1

Monterey , CA 93940 (408-372-4771) . To ta l sys tems. NormanGi l lasp ie , Lyd ia G i l iasp ie , Werner Vauken, Sher ry Vauken.G L O B A L T V E L E C T R O N I C S - P . O . B o x 2 1 9 , M a i t l a n d , F L32751 (305-628-2OBB) ' . To ta l sys tems. S tephen Reed, JohnReed, Scot t McNea lus .H A N D R C O M M U N T C A T T O N S ( S T A R V | E W S Y S T E M S ) -R o u t e 3 , B o x 1 0 3 G , P o c a h o n t a s , A R 7 2 4 5 5 ( 8 0 0 - 6 4 3 - 0 1 0 2 ) .To ta l sys tems. John Hast ings , V i rg i l R ichardson, RandyThompson, Ann Hast ings , Mary L . R ichardson, Lar ry Poe.H E R O C O M M U N I C A T I O N S - 1 7 8 3 W e s t 3 2 n d P l a c e , H i a -leah, FL 33012 (305-887-3203) . To ta l sys tems. Bob Behar .H O M E S A T E L L I T E T V , l N C . - R o u t e 3 , B o x 1 3 5 , P r i n c eGeorge, VA 23875 (BO4-733-5424) . To ta l sys tems. JohnWi lson, Tom Pr ice , T im Rogers .H O O S I E R E L E C T R O N I C S , l N C . - P . O . B o x 3 3 0 0 , T e r r eH a u t e , l N 4 7 a O 3 ( 8 1 2 - 2 3 8 - 1 4 5 6 ) . T o t a l s y s t e m s . S t e p h e n M .B land. Norma B land. Je f f V icars .I C O N E L E C T R O N I C S C O . - 3 3 3 M c P h i l l i p s S t . , W i n n i p e g ,Man i toba, Canada R3E-2Kg (2O4-284-1703) . Rece ivers .W i l l a r d E l l i o t t , B r e n d a H i l l .I N D R A S A T E L L I T E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S , l N C . - P . O . B o x11 18 , Scot tsda le . AZ 85252 (602-994-3435) . Rece ivers .A r u n P a n d e , W i l l i a m K D e l a n e y , R a y C a r l i .K L M E L E C T R O N I C S , l N C . - 1 7 0 2 5 L a u r e l R o a d , M o r g a nHi l l , CA 95037 (4OB-779-7363) . To ta l sys tems. Peter J . Da l -t o n . N i l s N . M u s e a u s . D a v i d B a r k e r .L INDSAY SPECIALTY PROOUCTS LTD. - 50 Mary St ree tWest , L indsay , Ontar io , Canada K9V-4S7 (705-324-3709) .To ta l sys tems. John Thomas, Koer t Kos ter , Gord Chamber -l a r n .M A C / L I N E , l N C . - W . 3 1 2 5 S e l t i c e B l v d . , C o e u r d ' A l e n e ,l d a h o 8 3 8 1 4 ( 2 0 8 - 7 6 5 - 0 9 0 9 ) . A n t e n n a s , c o n t r o l s . C h a r l e s A .M c D o n a l d , J o s e p h H . B e r u b e , P a t M c D o n a l d .M E R R I M A C I N D U S T R I E S , l N C . - 4 1 F a i r f i e l d P l a c e , W e s tC a l d w e l l , N J 0 7 0 0 6 ( 2 0 1 - 5 7 5 - 1 3 0 0 ) . R e c e i v e r s , s i g n a l s p l i t -te rs , down conver te rs . Dan Brodow, A lan Egger , GeneN i e m i e c .M I C R O D Y N E - 4 9 1 O a k R o a d , O c a l a , F L 3 2 6 7 2 ( 9 0 4 - 6 8 7 -4633) . Rece ivers , an tennas. Dave A lvarez .M r c R o w A V E A S S O C T A T E S C O M M U N T C A T T O N S ( M / AC o m ) - 1 1 2 1 1 K a t y F r e e w a y , S u i t e 2 1 5 , H o u s t o n , T X 7 7 O 7 9(71 3-827-0303) . To ta l sys tems. Tom H umphr ies , Ken McKee,C h a r l e s S t a n t o n .M f D - A M E R I C A V I D E O C O R P . - 3 2 4 W . P e r s h i n g B l v d . , P . O ,B o x 5 1 1 , N o r t h L i t t l e R o c k , A R 7 2 1 1 5 ( 5 0 1 - 7 5 3 - 3 5 5 5 ) . T o t a ls y s t e m s . G e n e M u l l e n a x , H u b e r t S m i t h , T o m H u n t , D o nG r e e n w e l l .N A T I O N A L M I C R O T E C H - P . O . B o x 4 ' l 7 , G r e n a d a , M S38901 (800-647-6144) . To ta l sys tems. Dave Fedr ic , Hor tonT o w n e s , J o h n G r a n t h a m , B i l l y F e r g u s o n , D o n V a n c e , J o h n n yB y f o r d , O l i v i a A n t h o n y , C a r o l H e n d r i x , D e b r a W a r d , K e n n yWeaver ,N O R S A T S Y S T E M S - B o x 2 3 2 , S u r r a y , 8 . C . , C a n a d a V 3 T -4WB. Rece ivers . Rod Whee ler .S A T F I N D E R S Y S T E M S - D i v i s i o n o f R i e c o E l e c t r o n i c s -6 5 4 1 E . 4 0 t h S t . , T u l s a , O K 7 4 1 4 5 ( 9 1 8 - 6 6 4 - 4 4 6 6 ) . T o t a ls y s t e m s . D a v e M a c Z u r a , A n i t a M a c Z u r a , L a r r y J a m e s , J i mM a c k e r e l l e .S A T E L C O - 5 5 4 0 W , P i c o B l v d . , L o s A n g e l e s , C A 9 0 0 1 9( 2 1 3 - 9 3 1 - 6 2 7 4 \ . T o t a l s y s t e m s . S a m K l e i n m a n .S A T E L L I T E E L E C T R O N I C S Y S T E M S - P . O . B o x 1 4 4 1 8 ,H a r r f o r d . C T 0 6 1 1 4 ( 2 0 3 - 5 8 9 - 0 4 7 3 ) . L N A s . R i c k L e e r s , J a y uGates .S A T E L L I T E T E C H N O L O G Y S E R V I C E S , I N C . . . 1 1 6 8 4

L i l b u r n P a r k R o a d , S t . L o u i s , M O 6 3 1 4 1 ( 8 0 0 - 3 2 4 - 4 0 5 8 ) .T o t a l s y s t e m s . J i m R o t h b a r t h , D o n M c C l a u g h t i n , D a v eMcClasky .S A T E L L I T E T E L E V I S I O N T E C H N O L O G Y . I N C . - P . O .

r l

SYSTEMSDistributors of Earth Satellite Systems Equipment

ANTENNAS AND ACCESSORIES

PRODELIN 3 meter dual feel w/polar mountPRODELIN 3 meter rotate feed w/polar mountPARAFRAME 3.66 meter w/oolar mountPARAFRAME 4.85 meter w/az-e l mountPARAFRAME 6.00 meter w/az-el mountPARAFRAME 7.32 meter w/az-e l mountMINICASAT 3 meter d ish onlyDELSTAR 13 foot w/polar mountPARAFRAME 3.66 t ra i ler mountedDELSTAR 3 meter t ra i ler mountedCHAPARRAL feed hornSEAVEY l inear feed hornSEAVEY dual feed hornDELSTAR AutoSat Locator

RECEIVERSMICROWAVE ASSOCIATES VR-3XTMICROWAVE ASSOCIATES VR-4XMERRIMAC INDUSTRIES SR-1AVANTEC AR-1000 SeriesSAT-TEC R2-BSAT-TEC R3AUTOMATION TECHNIQUES GLR-sOO

LNAs AND ACCESSORIESAVANTEK AW-4215120"AVANTEK AW-4213 1OO'AVANTEK DC BlocksMERRIMAC 2-way power d iv idersMERRIMAC 4-way power d iv idersMERRIMAC 8-way power d iv idersMERRIMAC terminatorsDELSTAR latching coax re lays1/2" a i r or foam hardl ine1 /2 " CO?x COnneCtOrSFlexib le p igta i ls"N" connectors and adapters

MODULATORSMICROWAVE ASSOCIATES VR-MOdDYNAIR TX-28 JERROLD UMDYNAIR TX-3 ATV UHF & VHF

Complete earth station systems starting at $3995.00Cal l or wr i te for dealer pr ices and cata log sheets.

DELSTAR SYSTEMS7800 Bissonnet, Suite 200 Houston, fX77074

713n76-0il2

Pl2-618 1 | \-L,/ '\-

Box G, Arcad ia , OK 73007 (405-396-2574) . TVRO, LPTVp u b l i c a t i o n s , m a n u a l s , c h a r t s . S u s a n C o o p e r , G l o r i aS c h n e r i n g e r .S A T E L L I T E T V S E R V I C E S , L T D . - 4 5 1 5 W i l l a r d A v e n u e# A , C h e v y C h a s e , M D 2 0 0 1 5 ( 3 0 1 - 6 5 2 - 5 3 3 3 ) . T o t a l s y s t e m s .R i c h a r d W e l l s , O . D . P a g e , J o h n T h o m p s o n .

SATELLITE VIDEO SYSTEMS - P . O. Box 673, Cabot , AR72023 (51 0-843-21 86) . To ta l sys tems. Bobby Kay lo r ,B a r b a r a K a y l o r , W i n n S p u r l i n g , J o a n S p u r l i n g .S A T S H A R E , l N C . - T 6 T 6 W o o d w a y , S u i t e 2 1 O , H o u s t o n , T X7 7 0 6 3 ( 7 1 3 - 7 8 9 - 5 9 1 3 ) . T o t a l s y s t e m s . N e l s o n T h i b o d e a u x ,T o m H a l f a r e , E . C . M i n g .S A T . T E C S Y S T E M S , D I V , R A M S E Y E L E C T R O N I C S , I N C .- 2 5 7 5 B a i r d R o a d , P e n f i e l d , N Y 1 4 5 2 6 ( 7 1 6 - 5 8 6 - 3 9 5 0 ) .

R e c e i v e r s . J o h n R a m s e y , J u d i R a m s e y , M i k e L e o .S I G M A C O M S Y S T E M S , l N C . ' 1 1 1 l n d u s t r i a l D r i v e , W h i t -b y , O n t a r i o , C a n a d a L 1 N - 5 2 9 ( 4 1 6 - 6 6 6 - 1 6 6 1 ) . T o t a l s y s t e m s .R a n d y Z e d i c , M i k e T a y l o r , D o n V a n A l s t y n e .

s . P . A . C . E . ( S O C T E T Y O F P R T V A T E A N O C O M M E R C I A LE A R T H T E R M I N A L S ) - 1 9 2 0 N S t r e e t , N . W . , S u i t e 5 1 0 ,Wash ing ton , D.C. 20036 (202-887-0608) . R ick Brown andstaff.S P A C E C O M I N D U S T R I E S - P . O . B o x 6 6 , C a p e G i r a r d e a u ,f U O 6 3 7 0 1 ( 3 1 4 - 3 3 4 - 2 0 1 1 ) . A n t e n n a s . R o n n i e L . M o r g a n ,D e n n i s A l l b r i g h t , C h a r l e s P e r r y .S T A R V I S I O N - 2 3 5 6 W . O a k R i d g e R o a d , O r l a n d o , F L32809. To ta l sys tems. Dwight Brewster .S . T . V . N . - 2 3 2 8 M o n t g o m e r y S t . , S i l v e r S p r i n g s , M D 2 0 9 1 0(3O 1 -587 '22 1 5 ) . To ta l sys tems. Ch ip Peake, Joseph Hopk ins ,Mar ion F . Peake.T E L E C O M I N D U S T R I E S C O R P . - 2 7 B o n a v e n t u r a D r i v e ,San Jose, CA 951 34 (408 '262-3100) . Rece ivers . J imB e r t o n i s , A n d y G i b b s , V i n n y F i n e l l i .V f D f A R K E L E C T R O N I C S - P . O . B o x 5 7 , S a l e m , A R 7 2 5 7 6( 5 0 1 - 8 9 5 - 3 3 1 8 ) . T o t a l s y s t e m s . H . D . M c C u l l o u g h , J o h nM c C u l l o u g h , D u t c h W a l k e r .WATKINS-JOHNSON - 3333 H i l l v iew Avenue, Pa lo A l to ,CA 94304 (41 5-493-41 41) . Vo l tage cont ro l led osc i l la to rs . Va lJ a c k s o n . H u t c h C o l l r e r , B o b S m i t h .Z A N D E X C O M M U N I C A T I O N S - P . O . B o x 2 6 6 7 , Z a n e s -v i l l e , O H 4 3 7 0 1 ( 8 0 0 - 8 4 8 - 0 5 2 8 ) . T o t a l s y s t e m s . P a u l F i e l d s ,Guy Dav is , Deborah F ie lds .

SPTS '81 OMAHAW I L L B E

BACK TO BASICS

BACK TO BASICSI n s p i t e o f t h e e n c o u r a g i n g g r o w t h i n t h e i n d u s t r y d u r i n g t h e

pas t two years there are 'danger s igns ' a round tha t much o fwhat the newer en t ran ts in to the f ie ld a re do ing is go ing to ge tthem (and the indus t ry ) in to a p i le o f d i f f i cu l t ies in the monthsand years ahead. A no t uncommon s ta tement heard repeated

b y a t t e n d e e s a t S P T S ' 8 1 W a s h i n g t o n t h i s p a s t A p r i l w e n ts o m e t h i n g l i k e t h i s :

" Y e s , I a m s e l l i n g s i x T V R O t e r m i n a l s e a c h m o n t h . l t i s agood bus iness lo r me. No, I don ' t have any idea how aTVRO termina l works and what 's more I don ' t want tok n o w . . . " .As "easy" as peop le such as Hayden McCul lough

make sa te l l i te TV recept ion " look" th€ t ru th i s tha t therei s n o t h i n g s i m p l e a b o u t g e t t i n g p e a k o r o p t i m u m p e rfo rmance f rom an ins ta l la t ion . YES - many o f the manufac-tu rers o f an tenna sys tems have s imp l i f ied the an tenna por -t ion o f the sys tem and the chances fo r e r ro r a re g rea t lyreduced f rom the ear ly ins ta l la t ions o f perhaps two years ago.B u t t h i s i s s t i l l n o t t h e " h o m e T V a n t e n n a b u s i n e s s " a n d i t i sno t l i ke ly to become " tha t s imp le" f o r many years to come.

The very f i rs t SPTS, he ld less than two years ago inO k l a h o m a C i t y i n J u l y o f 1 9 7 9 , w a s a v e r y " b a s i c " s e m i n a r .Peop le who a t tended tha t SPTS came anx ious to learn howyou squeeze the las t t rac t ion o f the dB o f sys tem ga in ou t o ft h e a n t e n n a , t h e t r a n s m i s s i o n l i n e , t h e L N A p l u s f e e d a n d t h erece iver . They went home f i l l ed w i th p rac t ica l da ta and wh i lei n O k l a h o m a C i t y a t S P T S t h e y h a d t h e o p p o r t u n i t y t o t o u c hand f ee l and work w i th sys tems o f tha t e ra . Subseq uent SPTSevents and the Houston SBOC event g radua l ly go t away f romthe bas ics and became more or ien ted towards the bus inessend o f se l l ing te rmina ls . The bas ics o f sys tem des ign , p lan-n i n g , a n d i n s t a l l a t i o n c a r e a n d r o u t i n e m a i n t e n a n c e h a v ebecome an a lmos l " los t a r t " in less than two years .

We fee l tha t a t leas t one SPTS event per yearshou ld zeroin on the bas ics . We f ee l tha t ge t t ing peak per f o rmance ou t o fa sys tem is no t on ly needed in fo rmat ion bu t very impor tan tda ta even i f you fee l tha t sys tem des ign has become sos imp le and repeatab le tha t they w i l l work fo r you v i r tua l l yevery t ime. . .s t ra igh t ou t o f the box .

S P T S ' 8 1 O m a h a , A u g u s t 1 4 - 1 5 a n d 1 6 i s o u r " b a c k t obas ics" event fo r '1 981. The loca t ion is idea l fo r th is type o fg a t h e r i n g . W e w i l l b e g a t h e r i n g a t t h e w o r l d ' s l a r g e s t H o l i d a yl n n ( H o l i d a y I n n 7 2 n d l o c a t e d a t 7 2 n d a n d G r o v e r i n O m a h a )w i t h 5 0 4 s l e e p i n g r o o m s o n p r e m i s e . A d d i t i o n a l l y t h e r e a r etwo o ther mote ls w i th a to ta l capac i ty o f another 5OO rooms orso d i rec t l y (wa lk ing d is tance a t tha t ) across the s t ree t f romt h i s H o l i d a y I n n . T h e f a c i l i t y h a s a g i g a n t i c C o n f e r e n c e C e n t e rf o r e x h i b i t s a n d m o r e t h a n a d o z e n ' s m a l l e r r o o m s ' f o rg a t h e r i n g s o r g r o u p s i n t o t h e l o w h u n d r e d s . B e s t o f a l l f o r t h ea n t e n n a p o r t i o n o f t h i s b u s i n e s s , w e h a v e a t e n a c r e ( ! ) p a v e dpark ing lo t , f la t , no t b locked by any th ing bu t Nebraska b luesky , d i rec t l y ad jacent to the Conference Center . Th is meansp len ty o f room fo r an tennas, re la t i ve ly shor t feed l ine runs ,and none o f the b lockage or low s igna l leve l o r in te r fe rencem e s s t h a t w e h a v e h a d t o p u t u p w i t h i n H o u s t o n a n dWash ing ton recent ly .

T h e p r o g r a m i s b e i n g d e s i g n e d a r o u n d t h e u n i q u e o p p o rtun i t ies p resented by the huge fac i l i t y . For example :

' I )Genera l sess ions - there w i l l on ly be four a l l inc lus ive"genera l sess ions" ( i .e . w i th everyone a t tend ing) . Therewi l l be one each on Antenna Bas ics , LNA Bas ics , andRece iver Bas ics . Each o f these th ree sess ions w i l l bedes igned to teach you, in two hours o f thorough ly p re-pared mater ra ls jus t how each o f the th ree major seg-ments o f a TVRO ins ta l la t ion work . You ' l l learn what i sgood and what i s bad and how to avo id p rob lems in eacharea. The four th "genera l sess ion" w i l l be the SPTSg a t h e r i n g o f S P A C E .

2 ) B u i l t a r o u n d t h e s e " g e n e r a l s e s s i o n s " w i l l b e a n e x t e n -s ive ser ies o f in -depth smal le rsess ions loca ted in smal le rmeet ing rooms. In these smal le r sess ions you w i l l be ab leto s i t down w i th exper ts in a f ie ld (such as an tennas) andta lkabout the prac t ica l p rob lems assoc ia ted w i th (say)an tennas; o r whatever . The "genera l sess ions" w i l l ' teach 'w h i l e t h e s p e c i a l i z e d s m a l l e r s e s s i o n s w i l l b e i n f o r m a l ,hands-on, two-way par t i c ipa t ion .

3)There w i l l be a room ded ica ted to each o f the th ree

COOP'S SATELLITE DICEST)

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COOP'SSATELLITE DICEST P 1 s - 6 / 8 1

ffibbAudio

o For Use With All Satellite Receivers*o Single Knob Tuning. Mono and Stereo Outputs

The ICM Tunable Audio is desiqned for usewith all satellite receivers havinq i.subcarrieror unfiltered video output. Input-levels in the-30 db to + 10 db ranqe are acceotable. BNCand phono inputs are sipplied. Ouiputconnectors are RCA phono type.

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INTERNANONAL CRYSTAL MFG, CO.. INC.10 North Lee, Oklahoma City. Oklahoma 73102

4051236-3741

specia l ized sub-par ts of the system;antennas, LNAs andreceivers. Test equipment , d isp lays (not commercia l d is-plays but operating test systems), and the working toolsof each trade wil l be permanently left set up in each of thethree dedicated rooms for the fu l l three day seminar .Experts and other knowledgeable people in each of thethree sub-par t areas wi l l man these specia l ized rooms ona schedule. You wi l l know when you can go to a cer ta inroom and f ind a speci f ic person there to d iscuss andanswer your quest ions in that area of expert ise.

4) ln the antenna area, we are at tempt ing to put togetheran antenna' test range' program. Now we hesi tate to cal lth is an "antenna contest" or "antenna shoot-out" (assome al ready are doing) but in the f ina l analys is that maybe what i t turns out to be. The conceot is that thoseantenna suppl iers who wish tosubiect thei r antennas to atest ing procedure wi l l have the opportuni ty to have testsrun wi th thei r antenna/ feed. We' l l use the same LNA andreceiver for each antenna tested and take other ore-caut ions to insure that apples and apples are beingcompared. This wi l l be an on-going event s tar t ing ear lyand running unt i l the last antenna of fered tor test ischecked out . Anyone who spends a f ew hours wi tnessinghow these tests are conducted wi l l learn more aboutsqueezing the last mi l l i -dB out of an antenna system thancould be learned in months of text book reading.

Unl ike recent SPTS/SBOC events there wi l l not be as ingle (center) day wi th emphasis on the exhib i ts . We wi l l beheavi ly involv ing many of the exhib i tors in the teaching of thebasics process and th is wi l l create a 'patch work qui l t ' o fexhib i t hours spread through a l l three days. We wi l l a lso beusing the in-house MATV system in a new and novel way, toal low you as an at tendee to not only sample past SpTS andSBOC events but to a lso par t ic ipate in d i rect two-way d ia-logue wi th session leaders even i f you are back in your ownmotel room get t ing a l i t t le rest !

Specifications:Built-in AFCTunes 5.5 to 8.5 MHzStereo Decoder Standard

$l€!S).es1-4 PRTCE

PowERl'k,&qdab

Separate Mono and Stereo OutputsOutput Level 1V P.P. NominalSeparate Power TransformerSmall Size

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LNA SALEDEXCEL 12o^ '

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RECEIVER SALEGARDINER MOD 41 OO

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6590 VICTORIA DRIVE. VANCOWER B.C. V5P 3X9

P 1 4 - 6 / 8 1 COOP'S SATELLITE DICEST)

NOW on the sur face th is migh t seem l i ke a lo t o f fun bu t no t

a very good oppor tun i ty f o r bus iness peop le to meet po ten t ia l

supp l ie rs o f equ ipment . Ac tua l l y qu i te the oppos i te w i l l be

t rue . NO, there w i l l no t be any d i rec t sess ions a imed a t ge t t ingyou s ta r ted in the bus iness o f se l l ing TVROS. BUT - what therewi l l be is a so comple te and thorough t rea tment o f how

every th ing rea l l y works and how you avo id b ig and cos t lym i s t i k e s i n t h e s e l e c t i o n o f e q u i p m e n t t o s e l l a n d i n s t a l l t h a tyou w i l l (as a p resent o r po ten t ia l en t ran t in to the sa le andie rv ic ing o f equ ipment ) be ta r be t te r p repared to dea l w i thyour loca l p rob lems.

Rooms. In sp i te o f th is be ing such a la rge fac i l i t y , those504 rooms are no t go ing to ho ld everyone tha t w i l l a t tend 'The recent Wash ing ton SPTS, fo rexample 'a te up an averageof 7OO rooms to r the two b ig n igh ts and many many morep e o p l e c a m e f r o m t h e ' l o c a l ' D C a r e a t h a n w i l l c o m e f r o m t h eioca l Omaha area . The exh ib i to rs a lone, w i th the i r s ta f fs andpar t i c ipants , usua l ly take upwards o f 200 rooms. There isno th ing wrong w i th your be ing "across the s t ree t " a t one o fthe o t h -er two 'over f low ' mote ls EXC E PT - tha t i f you are th e rey o u w i l l n o t b e a b l e t o p a r t i c i p a t e i n t h e H o l i d a y I n n T V

b is t r ibu t ion serv ice (we cannot ge t the serv ice over to thosetwo fac i l i t i es ) . YES - th i s suggests tha t i f you wa n t to be a to ta lpar t i c ipant tha t you ge t a move on and ge t your reg is t ra t ionio rm in today . One appears in th is i ssue in the center sec t ionjus t a f te r the T por t ion o f CSD. See you in Omaha in August !

PROGRAMMINGCORRESPONDENCE

D E A R R E A D E R S -

I h a v e j u s t r e t u r n e d t o O k l a h o m a v i a t h e A t l a n t a E l e c t r o n i cD i s t r i b u t o r s S h o w . T h i s i s o n e o f t h o s e a n n u a l a f f a i r s w h e r e i nt h i s c a s e t h e f o l k s w h o d i s t r i b u t e r e s i s t o r s , c a p a c i t o r s , t r a n -s i s t o r s a s w e l l a s i t e m s s u c h a s T V A n t e n n a a n d a m p l i f i e r l i n e sg a t h e r t o s e e w h a t i s n e w i n t h e i r i n d u s t r y f o r t h e y e a r a n d t o

i h a r e s a l e s s t r a t e g i e s . I w a s i n v i t e d t o s p e a k t o t h e d i s t r i b u -t o r s a b o u t t h e e m e r g e n c e o f h o m e o r p r i v a t e s a t e l l i t e t e r m i -n a l s . A t t h e s h o w l f o u n d p e r h a p s 1 0 0 e x h i b i t s m a n n e d b y

s a l e s a n d e n g i n e e r i n g p e o p l e a n d t h e r e w e r e s o m e f a m i l i a rl a c e s i n t h e g r o u p . B o b B e h a r ' s H e r o C o m m u n i c a t i o n s w a s

o n h a n d t o t r y t o t a l k d i s t r i b u t o r s i n t o b e c o m i n g a p a r t o f t h e

s a t e l l r t e T V r e v o l u t i o n . I n t h e L i n d s a y E l e c t r o n i c s b o o t h w es a w o n e f o t h e C o m m - P l u s T e k n i m a t r e c e l v e r s . B u t t h e c l e a r' h i t ' o f t h e s h o w w a s C h a n n e l M a s t e r '

E l s e w h e r e i n t h i s i s s u e I r e p o r t o n t h e e n t r y i n t o t h i s f i e l d o fo l d l i n e h o m e a n t e n n a s u p p l i e r C M l n A t l a n t a , a t w h a t t h e yc o n s i d e r " o u r s h o w " , t h e y c l e a r l y w e r e a f t e r t h e i n t e r e s t a n do r d e r s o f d i s t r i b u t o r s . I i n s p e c t e d t h e i r n e w t e n f o o t f o u rs e c t i o n f i b e r g l a s s d i s h , t h e i r n i f t y f o u r w h e e l t r a i l e r d e m o r r g s '

a n d t h e i r K L M b u i l t s i n g l e c o n v e r s i o n r e c e i v e r w h i c h t h e yh a v e i n s t a l l e d i n t o a n e w n o n - m e t a l l i c c o n t a i n e r f o r m o u n t i n ga t t h e a n t e n n a . C M i s o f f e r i n g f o u r p a c k a g e s ; a 1 O f o o t w i t he i t h e r a 1 2 0 o r a ' 1 0 O d e g r e e L N A , a n d a 1 2 f o o t w i t h t h e s a m eL N A c h o i c e . T h e ' l i s t p r i c i n g ' o n t h e t e n f o o t , 1 2 0 p a c k a g e i s

jus t under $6 ,OOO and the d is t r ibu tors w i l l be work ing on a

i5o /o marg in . The dea lers w i l l in tu rn be work ing on a 25Vo

marg in . A l lo f th is says tha t the package leaves the CM f ac i l i t yin th -e $4 ,OOO reg ion . The dea ler in tu rn can be expec ted to

charge a few thou to make the ins ta l la t ion ( r .e . the labor

fac to r ) .I am guess ing (and I c lear ly labe l i t as such) bu t i t appears

they may be ab le to be de l i ver ing around 250 to 300 o f theseper month by say August 1s t . For now the rece lvers a re

coming d i rec t l y ou t o f KLM as assembled un i ts bu t they are

b e i n g ! i v e n f i n a l t e s t i n g a n d c h e c k o u t a t C M b e f o r e t h e y e n d

u p i n t h e i r c o n t a i n e r s .And aga in I am guess ing , bu t I wou ld expec t tha t by the

t i m e t h e s a l e s f o r t h e i r p a c k a g e s r e a c h t h e 7 0 O l e v e l o r s o

they w i l l be look ing ser ious ly a t s ta r t ing up rece iver assemblyin t i re i r Ta iwan o lan t . Someplace around the 1 '000 rece iverp e r m o n t h r e g i o n , I s u s p e c t , i s w h e r e b u i l d i n g t h e e l e c t r o n i c so f t shore s ta r ts to make do l la r sense. I can see tha t happen-i n g w i t h i n a y e a r o r l e s s , b u t b y t h e t i m e y o u g e t t o t h a t k i n d o fn , imbet o ther fac to rs such as c rank tng ou t 1 ,0OO 10 and 1 2foo t d ishes per month a lso beg ins to become a subs tan t ia l' c h a l l e n g e ' .

I can iepor t tha t the e lec t ron ic d rs t r ibu tors , in sp i te o f the i r1 5o /o ' share ' , were very exc i ted about berng ab le to o f fe r ahome package. Severa l I ta lked w i th sa id tha t they wou ld f o rmt h e i r o w n ' r e i a i l o u t l e t s ' i n t h e i r a r e a ( s ) i n a d d i t i o n t o s e r v i c i n gd e a l e r s w h o n o w b u y f r o m t h e m O n e f e l l o w f r o m I n d i a n asummed i t up by no t ing "Th is bus iness has go t ten k ind o ft i r ing in the pas t few years ; we have los t the ' fun ' o f

dea l lng w i th exc i t ing produc ts . Sate l l i te TV br ings i t a l l

back aga in and I am very exc i ted about the prospec ts" '

CM h is done severa lvery in te res t ing (even c lever ) th ings input t ing together the i r marke t ing e f fo r t . Every sa les rep and

every b is t i ibu tor must go th rough a th ree day schoo l a t the

C M f a c i l i t y i n O x f o r d , N C . E v e r y d i s t r i b u t o r m u s t t h e n g o h o m ea n d h o l d s i m r l a r s c h o o l s ( u s i n g v i d e o t a p e a n d p r i n t e d m a n -u a l s ) f o r h i s o w n p e r s o n n e l l n t h e t h r e e d a y s c h o o l t h e y

spend the f i r s t day learn ing how the sa te l l i te sys tem works ,

t h e s e c o n d d a y l e a r n i n g h o w t h e C M p a c k a g e g o e s t o g e t h e ra n d t h e n o n t h e t h i r d d a y e a c h s t u d e n t i s a s s i g n e d t h e t a s k o f

t a k i n g a t r a i l e r m o u n t e d d e m c r i g ' d r i v i n g t o a s t t e w h e r e h e

has r io t p rev ious ly been, and se t t ing up and f ind ing th reeb i r d s w i t h i n 4 O m i n u t e s t i m e . T h e r e c o r d f o r t h i s e x e r c i s e i sj u s t u n d e r t e n m i n u t e s . S e v e r a l d o z e n m a l e s a n d o n e g a l

h a v e ' s o l o e d ' t o d a t e a n d e a c h w h o d o e s s o i s a w a r d e d a

h a n d s o m e l a p e l p i n t h a t t e l l s t h e w o r l d t h e y p a s s e d t h e t e s t

a n d c a m e t h r o u g h t h e c o u r s e w i t h f l y i n g c o l o r s .

C M ' s a t t i t u d e o r p o s i t i o n r e g a r d i n g t h e l e g a l i t y o f r e c e p t i o nis s t ra igh t f o rward . "We are very care fu l to exp la in to ourdea lers and reps the th ree ca tegor ies o f s igna l serv icesa v a i l a b l e " . C M b e l i e v e s t h a t w i t h p e r s i s t e n c e S P A C E w i l l b ea b l e t o r e s o l v e t h e p r o g r a m m i n g p e r m i s s i o n i s s u e t h r o u g hnegot ia t ion . They are suppor t ing SPACE in these e f fo r ts andc a r r y n o s h a m e f o r m a k r n g a v a i l a b l e t o t h e A m e r i c a n c o n -s u m e r a w i d e c h o i c e o f h i g h q u a l i t y t e l e v l s i o n .

l m m e d i a t e l y a f t e r m y t a l k i n A t l a n t a B o b F l e m i n g w i t h t h eC o n i f e r / W i n e g a r d g r o u p c a m e u p t o t e l l m e t h a t W i n e g a r dn o w p l a n s t o o f f e r t o t h e i r d e a l e r s a p a c k a g e o f a n t e n n a a n d,ece iver f rom Comtech in the very near fu tu re . Comtech o fc o u r s e h a s b e e n s e l l i n g b o t h r e c e i v e r s a n d a n t e n n a s i n t h i sf i e l d f o r s o m e t i m e n o w , t h r o u g h d i s t r i b u t o r s s u c h a s H & R(rece ivers ) . F leming a lso to ld me tha t h is f i rm has a ta rge t da teo f 1 J a n u a r y f o r t h e c o m i n g y e a r t o i n t r o d u c e t h e i r o w n l i n e o fs i n g l e c h a n n e l T V R O r e c e i v e r s a i m e d a t t h e s e m i - p r o c o n d o ,ap i r tment (e tc . ) marke tp lace . A f requency ag i le ( tuneab le)r e c e i v e r w i l l f o l l o w l a t e r i n ' 1 9 8 2 .

M y o w n g u t r e a c t i o n t o w h a t i s h a p p e n i n g i s t h i s . A n y o n ewho can en le r the indus t ry w i th a bu i l t - in ne twork o f dea le rsa n d d i s t r i b u t o r s h a s a l e g u p o n t h e u l t i m a t e m a r k e t i n gs t ra tegy tha t i s evo lv ing . Dozens o f d is t r ibu tors I ta lked w i thsa id t l ia t they have wanted to ge t in to TVRO hardware fo r ay e a r o r m o r e b u t f e l t u n c o m f o r t a b l e w i t h t h e ' n e w n e s s ' o t o u r

COOP'Sex is t ing supp l ie rs . Between the uncer ta in lega l s ta tus fo rsome s igna ls and the uncer ta in economic f u tu re o f f i rms tha tare new to bus iness , they d id no t fee l the c l imate was r igh t fo rthem. Channe l Master ' s en t ry has changed a l l o f tha t . Basedupon the reac t ion I saw in A t lan ta I doubt CM wi l l be ab le tosupp ly even the i r own d is t r ibu tors w i th su f f i c ien t o roduc t th isyear . In fac t I w i l l be surpr ised i f they can hand le the i r ownmarket ing ne twork demand unt i l they make the f i rm dec is ionto take the rece iver (and poss ib ly LNA by then) o f fshore toTa iwan fo r manufac ture . Some o f the i r d is t r ibu tors w i l l ge thooked and then f ind they can ' t ge t as much produc t as theycan se l l . That w i l l b r ing them, hooked, back to the ex is t ingsupp l ie rs in the indus t ry to f i l l i n the i r inventor ies . Add ingperhaps a hundred new d is t r ibu tors to the indus t ry , overn igh t ,i s go ing to cause some prob lems we w i l l a l l have to ad ius t to .

CM has p len ty o f add i t iona l work to do on the i r package.The Az-E l mount i s a good one bu t sooner o r la te r they arego ing to need a motor d r iven po la r . They te l l me tha t theydon ' t th ink anyone has rea l l y made a good motor t rack ingpo lar mount ye t and they are work ing on i t . I th ink severa l o fthose now ava i lab le work qu i te we l l bu t we can a lways usesome new ideas s ince any th ing can be improved upon. The i rse lec t ion o f KLM rece iver i s unders tandab le bu t the dec is ionto s t i ck i t in to a t lberg lass conta iner bo thers me s ince s ing leconvers ion LO rad ia t ion is no t a t tenuated by a hous ing suchas th is . They say they are conduct ing eng ineer ing tes ts to p indown where the LO s igna l i s p resent and what they w i l l needto do to s top i t . I have asked them to share w i th us the de ta i l so f what the i r eng ineer ing measurements d isc lose s ince Ihappen to be l ieve tha t once somebody rea l l y se ts ou t to so lveth is par t i cu la r p rob lem the ' f i xes 'c rea ted w i l l app ly to v i r tua l l yany rece ivers tha t fo l low the same des ign approach. Keep ing'secre ts ' in a compet i t i ve env i ronment i s necessary in mostins tances ; bu t when i t comes to a l low ing a p rob lem such asth is to cont inue those who f ind so lu t ions need to share themsince unreso lved or on ly par t ia l l y reso lved th is p rob lem cank i l l u s a l l .

Th lg lg the year TVROg go pub l ic . Channe l Master hastapped a ve in o f in te res t in a very subs tan t ia l por t ion o f theAmer ican e lec t ron ics indus t ry . Others w i l l be do ing the sameth ing jus t as th is pub l i ca t ion reaches you a t the summer"CES" ga ther ing in Ch icago. Accord ing to indus t ry sourcesthere are thousands o f 'dea le rs ' ou t there in the bus iness .Through d is t r ibu tors and d i rec t l y th rough shows such asCES, I p red ic t 1 981 w i l l be remembered as the year many o fthese peop le d iscovered the go lden ve in h idden above theeouator .

SATELLITE DICEST

and is nowf rame/mesh

P 1 5 - 6 / 8 1

i ng . Antenna was we l l rece ived a t A t lan ta E lec t ron ic D is t r ibu-to r Show and w i l l be seen a t CES gather ing in Ch icago as we l l .

CHANNEL MASTER may have wr i t ten as mucn as$5,OOO,OO0 in o rders fo r the i r new 1 0 and 1 2 f oo t packages a tAt lan ta EDS meet ing ; one ins tan t reac t ion was pre-announcement by Winegard tha t i t w i l l be o f fe r ing 1O foo tProde l in an tenna, M/A COM LNA (1 2O)and Comtech rece tveraround August 1s t fo r i t s d is t r ibu tors .

FCC APPROVED the COMSAT proposa l fo r DBS serv ice . l tw i l l be f ina l someplace someplace around the l i r s t o f Juneaf te r another round o f comments . Under the approved p lanCOMSAT may lau nch an 'exper imenta l ' DBS serv ice pr io r tothe 1 983 Nor th Amer ican/South Amer ican " reg iona l " con-f e rence on space a l loca t ions . The up l ink f requency range ist o b e 1 7 . 3 - 1 7 . 8 G H z w h i l e t h e d o w n l i n k r a n g e w i l l b e 1 2 . 2 t o12.7 GHz. However 'exper imenta l serv ice ' seems very un-l i ke ly as even COMSAT admi ts they cannot launch a ' rush '

b i rd p r io r to perhaps 1 984.OTHER APPLICANTS fo r DBS immedia te ly sur faced. A

n e w g r o u p c a l l e d D B S C O R P s a y s i t w i l l a s k f o r 3 2 ( l ) c h a n n e l so f serv ice cover ing 1 /2 o t the US per b i rd . Some o f those 32c h a n n e l s w i l l n o t b e a v a i l a b l e i n t h e f u l l b o r e s i g h t r e g i o n ;l im i ted to spot beam reg iona l serv ice . Un l ike the COMSATproposa l , DBS says i t w i l l no t charge f o r serv ice bu t w i l l ra thercharge $500 to $ 1O0O per hour to p rogrammers who w ish toreach home v iewers .

YET THIRD app l ican t to r DBS to f i le i s Hubbard Broad-cas t ing . Hubbard owns cha in o f te lev is ion s ta t ions . Nove lp lan ca l l s fo r on ly a channe l o r two, us ing resources o f loca lTV s ta t ions in top 50 marke ts to teed programs to b i rds .

COMSAT meanwhi le s t i l l search ing fo r s ing le en t i t y tolo in t ven ture ' the serv ice ; reca l l tha t SEARS dea l fe l l th roughlas t w in te r leav ing COMSAT wi th a p roposa land funds bu t noway to rea l l y imp lement huge an t ic ipa ted ear th por t ion o fbu_s iness ( i .e . se l l ing and ins ta l l ing and serv ic ing te rmina ls ) .

CANCOM, a Whi tehorse , Yukon f i rm got Canad iangovernment approva l to c rea te a new sa te l l i te de l i verednat iona l TV package serv ice v ia ANIK A-3 wh ich w i l l supp lyfour Canad ian TV Sta t ions ( i .e . super s ta t ions) and 5 FM rad ios igna ls fo r approx imate ly $4 per home per month . Serv icecou ld s ta r t as soon as 1 September and w i l l be d is t r ibu ted onground in sc rambled mode but p robab ly de l i vered v ia sa te l -l i te unscrambled . A-3 b i rd i s serv iceab le a t moment bu tCanad ian repor ts ind ica te i t requ i res ex t raord inary opera torv ig i lence w i th some er ra t i c hab i ts .

SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA may be back ing in to semi -pro andres ident ia l marke tp lace ; announc ing a new Mode l 6650v ideo TVRO rece iver wh ich appears to be pr iced in the $21 OOreg ion in fa i r l y s izeab le quant i t ies .

M E R V G R I F F I N s h o w m o v i n g t o s a t e l l i t e , W E S T A R 3 ,under agreement w i th Rober t Wold sa te l l i te t ransmiss iono u t f i t . S e r v i c e s h o u l d b e g i n i n f a l l , w i l l b e i n 1 / 2 , f u l l a n d o n eand a ha l f hour fo rmats . For MG a f f i l i a tes no t p resent lyequ ipped w i th WRO termina ls , M ic rodyne w i l l p rov ide themthrough a dea l w i th Wold .

I-ATEST word on when SATCOM 3R wii l f ly suggests Augusta t ear l ies t . Wi th de lay in 3R CSD wi l l ho ld o f f un t i l a t leas tAugust i ssue present ing comprehens ive overv iew o f how thelaunch o f SATCOM 3R and SATCOM 4 w i l l impact on thepresent l ine ups and EIRP contours fo r bo th b i rds .

R C A i s a d d i n g a M i a m i , F l o r i d a u p l i n k s i t e w i t h a n 1 3 m e t e rHar r is an tenna. The South Mounta in (southern Ca l i fo rn ia )up l ink i s a lso ge t t ing a new 1 1 meter Har r is d ish .

INTELSAT V b i rds schedu led fo r launch; F1 (F2 went f i rs t )shou ld go up by t ime you read th is ; F3 b i rd may go in August .

COMSTAR wi l l beg in hand l ing , a round end o f Octobe i th isfa l l , CBS and ABC network serv ices on a per event bas is w i thp lans to expand schedu le fo r a ' tes t per iod ' . The CBS serv icewi l l connect Ho l lywood fac i l i t y w i th ne twork headquar te rs inNew York . NBC was to have begun us ing COMSTAR D2 th isMay 1 Bth fo r regu la r ne twork feeds to Ch icago and Houston .

EFFECTIVE nex t January 2nd t ransponder 22 (Modern

Coop

B I R DOPERATIONAL

NOTES

HERO COMMUNICATIONS has announcedshipping a 12 foot vers ion of thei r a luminumsurface TVRO antenna: avai lable wi th or wi thout motor t rack-

COOP'SSATELLITE DICESTP 1 6 - 6 / 8 1

Satel l i te Network) on F3'R wi l l break down so that t rom noonto 1 PM MSN wi l l program, 1 PM to 5 PM Hearst / ABC VideoServ ices (HAVS) wi l l program new woman's channel serv ice.Hearst is in par tnership wi th ABC on th is one and wi l l useresources of magazines such as COSMOPOLITAN togenerate programming for women.-

lF YOU NEED a 'b ig ' motor dr iven antenna system S-A hasannounced a new 7 meter system that has 20 sate l l i tememory posi t ions and can move 100 degrees of arc in 60seconds t ime. . . for $39,OOO (d ish and dr ive and programmer) .

ARGENTINA wi l l io in Brasi l as a user of INTELSAT t rans-ponder space for the creat ion of a l ive, nat ional TV networkHowever unl ike Brasi l which ut i l izes a hal f t ransponderformat for v ideo, the Argent ine system wi l l lease 1.5 t rans-ponders f rom Inte lsat us ing one fu l l t ransponder for te le-v is ion and for sub-carr ier Argent ine nat ional radio. Whi lesome of the ear th s tat ions involved are expected to beinsta l led by the end of th is summer there is no hard word onwhen the use of the t ransponder may begin, Wi th some of thedishes as smal l as 6 meters in s ize th is suggests that theArgent ine feed wi l l , l ike the Brasi l -Sat feed, be on a hemis-pher ic pat tern. Such a pat tern would prov ide a 29dBw serv icethroughout a l l o f South Amer ica, par ts of Centra l Amer icaal l o f the Car ibbean and the southeastern USA.

TWENTY mi l l ion dol lars repor tedly is being ra ised tolaunch a sate l l i te del ivered Spanish language / Cathol icchurch programming serv ice.

PARTIAL SPACE victory has Showtime now agreeing tosell services to apartments, condos and other f ormerly taboolocat ions. Home Theatre Network now agreeing to sel l serv ice to indiv iduals for $45 a year ; deta i ls f rom SPACE.

TWO FOOT DISHES designed to recover only very narrowband s ingle channel audio communicat ions serv ice beingreadied for test market ing la te th is year by Commodi ty NewsServ ice. CNS provides commodi ty news and instant quo-tat ion serv ices to more than 7,000 customers now nat ion-wide. Using WESTAR transponder the new serv ice beingtested now at 7 locat ions uses a 'spread spectrum'approachsimi lar to that employed by mi l i tary communicat ion systems.lnf ormation f rom 81 6-842-5021 .

JUNE 16 is expected launch date for Indian exper imenta lgeostat ionary sate l l i te Apple. Bi rd is f i rs t for India, wi l l operatein 4 GHz band.

HOLIDAY INN now operat ional at 1 70 locat ions and p lansto expand to 250 by end of year . Use of thei r receive term inalsfor te leconferencing has been growing wi th more than 15such events s ince mid 1 980. Largest gather ing so far to ta led5,000 real tors gather ing at some 100 locat ions.

BIGGEST DEAL ever in sate l l i te t ransponders; Group W(Westinghouse) agreed to purchase total of 1 0 transponders,f ive on WESTAR 4 which wi l l launch shor t ly af ter f i rs t o f year ,f ive more on WESTAR 5 scheduled for launch near end of1982. Both of the WESTAR bi rds wi l l be 24 t ransponder, wi l lreplace WESTAR 1 and 2. How wi l l the ten t ransponders beut i l ized? "Largely for prov id ing te lev is ion programming toCATV systems and broadcasters" according to spokesman.

CRUEL HOAX? SPACE's Rick Brown wondered a loud inHouston whether the FCC's grant of LPTV act iv i t ies real lyamounted to a 'cruel hoax ' s ince each LPTV stat ion wouldhave to create or contract for its own programming and itseemed as i f t radi t ional (pay) program sources such as HBO,Showt ime et a l were re luctant to deal wi th the new industry .At SPTS '81 DC an answer came. A. Terrence Easton, Chair-man of the Board for Nat ional Enter ta inment Telev is lon,Inc. (NET) announced h is f i rm wi l l rent t ransponder t ime /space and make available to LPTV outlets a day's programschedule consist ing of adul t educat ion ( forcol lege credi ts) inthe dayt ime, and premium movies at n ight . NET is act ive lysol ic i t ing af f i l ia tes. The pay par t could of course be scrambledat the (local) option of the LPTV operator. NET is located at559 Paci f ic Av. , San Francisco, CA 94133 (415/474'4321).

PERHAPS over looked in the rush to LPTV is the FCC's

al lowance tor VHF t ranslators to ut i l ize separate ten wat tpower ampl i f iers for d i f ferent d i rect ional t ransmit t ing anten-na systems. l f you can serve four separate 'communi t ies ' orpockets of people from a site, you could in fact use fourseparate ten wat t output ampl i f iers to bend maximumpowers ignal in to each rather than having to spl i t the or ig inalten wat t source in to four component par ts . That 's a 6 dBimorovement in each of the mul t io le-served d i rect ions.

MYSTERY of unlucky transponder 1 3 on Fl is not a mystery.Transponder or ig inal ly was used by Tr in i ty Broadcast ing forfeed of KTBN 24 hour per day serv ice. Dur ing 1979 thetransponder developed erratic behavior and Trinity begandual feeding wi th COMSTAR D2 to mainta in serv ice. Thentransponder appeared to qui t a l together and Tr in i ty d is-appeared f rom Fl . By carefu l ground contro l l ing t ransponder13 has been brought back to l i fe again but only wi th theapparent capabi l i ty to operate for a por t ion of the day. Anyregular use of the t ransponder is unl ike ly .

REPORTS that F l may be exhib i t ing minor ( "but correct-able") errat ic contro l problems could be wel l founded. Num-erous observers report loss of polarization integrity (indica-ting the bird occasionally tries to rotate on its own axis) forbr ief per iods. CSD encourages those wi th measurementcapabi l i t ies to ' log ' t ime and date of observed abnormal i t ies.Send a long a fu l l descr ipt ion of what you saw and when yousaw i t wi th par t icu lar care g iven to checking a l l o f thetransponders at the same t ime ( to e l iminate abnormal i t iesonly associated wi th a s ingle t ransponder) . We' l l compi le theresul ts and publ ish them here as a guide to others.

MAJOR ef for t o f SPACE in coming months wi l l be cruc ia lleg is lat ion p lanned by HBO and others to create federalpenal t ies for unauthor ized v iewing of subscr ipt ion (premium)programming. HBO cont inues to be re luctant to deal wi th anybut cable and MDS operators and to teel that scrambl ing isnot the 'prope/ answer to protect ing thei r product .

CLANDESTINE LPTV operat ions, unl icensed by FCC andgenerat ing local programming and/or d i rect ly t ied to non-sanct ioned sate l l i te feeds are spr inging up in Rocky Moun-ta in s tates. Most such operat ions are us ing 1 wat t VHF'translators" fed by tape decks and/or low cost satell i tereceive terminals. One knowledgeable FCC source indicatedthe agency is aware of several operat ing ' \ l i th in one hoursdr ive t ime f rom Denver 's Stapleton a i rpor t " .

INTEREST in br inging US TV to Car ibbean and Centra lAmer ican regions mushrooming; numerous groups work ingon pro jects involv ing both US v ideotaped programs andsate l l i te fed spor ts and news for perhaps a dozen countr ies/is lands. Most of the ef for ts are being f unded by US businesspeople in concert wi th local 'nat ive ' par tners.

BERMUDA pr ivate terminals are now subject to s t r ic t localzoning ord inances as government there get t ing nervousabout growth of backyard terminals. Private use seems legal,even to government , so tack being t r ied to s low down interestis to force would be insta l lers to go through compl icatedconstruct ion permi t process ident ica l to that requi red for newhouses or commercia l bui ld ings.

ON AGAIN / of f again government in terest in the Bahamastowards regulat ing or even l icensing pr ivate terminals. Pr i -vate use, for s ingle fami ly , seems OK for now but p lans to'share ' serv ice through cable or over the a i r re-broadcast ingget t ing thumbs down pol icy f rom Bahamian government .

LIVELY business tak ing p lace just south of US/Mexicanborder where terminals are being insta l led ( fed by Fl and byXEW serv ice on W3) and connected to ten wat t VHF t ransla-tors. One VHF t ranslatorsuppl ier notes "several dozen ordersnow in house" for uni ts for that region.

AVCOM of Vi rg in ia may be f i rs t o f s ingle convers ion re-ceiver manufacturers to develop a 'cure ' to LO s ignal get t ingback out of receiver inout connector to LNA and antenna.Andy Hat f ie ld 's SPTS'81 DC booth had customized iso latorpackage that a l lowed mul t ip le receivers to share the sameantenna wi thout in ter-act ion. Commercia l avai labi l i ty andpr ic ing d i rect f rom the f i rm.

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KLM's sKY EYE I SYSTEM makes i t easy!I t used to be that put t ing together a TVRO system was a b ig job; hust l ing a downconverter here, and LNA

there, a d ish f rom who knows where . . then synchroniz ing del ivery dates, and f ina l ly , get t ing a l l that d iverseequipment to work together .

Get t ing the whole system up and running in one shot can save you t ime, money, and a lo t of headaches .and i t 's possib le NOW wi th KLM. Our SKY EYE ISYSTEM is complete; wi th 12 f t a luminum dish (or 16 f tscreened), pedesta l and AZIEL mount , our own M120K LNA (spec 'd at 120K or bet ter l , po lar i ty rotator , weathercone, cables, and last but not least , the popular and re l iab le Sky Eye I Receiver . The SKy EyE I SYSTEM isdesigned to in ter face per fect ly and produce beaut i fu l , razor-sharp p ic ture and sound. Best of a l l , de l iverv isrunn ing 30 days , A .R .O .

Sate l l i te TV the easy way? . . . . i t 's happening now at KLM.

KLM P. O. Box 816, Morsan Hii l , CA 9s037(4081779-7363

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\,

SAT.TEC'R2BTheleader in low cost TVRO

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SPECIFICATIONSFrequency range:Audio range:Threshold:IF bandwidth:

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5.2 7 .6 MHZ tunable8db CNR

30 MHz for full fidelity video

LNA power: 15 volts regulated for up to 2 LNAs

Outputs: Standard one volt audio and video,compatible with VCRs, monitors and modulators

Optional BC-1 RF modulator kit, tunable channels3-6 with sound