A URL You Should Know
Nov 1, 2009 1:00 AM, By Conrad Trautmann, CPBE
SES Americom, formally GE Americom is now known as SES World Skies. This Web address has a number of important tools you should know about. The radio network community all use the AMC-8 satellite, which is important to know when using these tools.
First is pointing data. You can enter your latitude and longitude to find out the elevation and azimuth settings for your dish.
Next are the center-of-the-box charts. Satellites fly within a virtual box in the sky. It’s important for best reception that you tune your downlink dish at the time that the satellite is in the center of that box. This way as it flies around within the box it your antenna is peaked for the best reception possible.
Finally there is the sun outage calculator. Sun outages can occur when the sun lines up directly behind the satellite. The radiation from the sun interferes with the satellite reception and can cause an outage. The calculator uses your latitude and longitude information to determine exactly when you might experience this type of outage.
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