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AMC-8

L

larose

Guest
As some of you know by now, AMC-8 has suffered a 25% power loss as 3 power modules have crapped out. This sat feeds most of the Starguide stuff,has anyone out there experienced any interruptions, or drop outs in programming??? Just curious...
 
> As some of you know by now, AMC-8 has suffered a 25% power
> loss as 3 power modules have crapped out. This sat feeds
> most of the Starguide stuff,has anyone out there experienced
> any interruptions, or drop outs in programming??? Just
> curious...

WW1 east ebno sucks and I always get audio drop out, while jones never has a problem.

I was flipping out for about an hour at work...then I realized that NO ONE is stupid enough to have every freaking affiliate across the country realign their dishes. They'll probably de-orbit amc-8 and move someone else over with less usage.<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
Don't count on it. Has happened before.

Backup is supposed to be AMC-7, which is only 2 degrees "left" and "up"
 
We've seen some drop outs or fades in the wrong place but I am not sure if that is the Adult Standards jocks in LA or if it is the bird...
 
> Don't count on it. Has happened before.
>
> Backup is supposed to be AMC-7, which is only 2 degrees
> "left" and "up"
>

I agree, I dont think another bird will be moved to the place AMC-8 is currently. (It's costly to move a bird to that slot even if temporary and they have to have one to move and I dont think SES Americom wants to move any right now)

If AMC-8 has a catastrophic failiure, a lot of people will be moving their dishes and right now AMC-7 is probally the likely target, as all the starguide providers will want to stay in a group to avoid hassles of programming spread across the arc. At least that's what I have read.

The folks affected will be those that use 24/7 Music formats and those running any syndicated talk. If I was a station relying on a 24/7 Music format with no local-ness or heavy plate of syndicated talk, I would be loading up my automation system with "backup material" incase the bird did fail then it would be a "easy temp fix"

The ones that will be the most hurting will be the stations not corporately owned, I suspect if something major happens with AMC-8 that CC will use their WAN ablities to get Rush and etc to their owned affilliates. If Clear Channel has any planning they could easly "WAN" "best of" shows to their owned stations that run thier syndicated faire.

Oh and all the "God-casters" are on other birds at the other side of the arc so KLove and CSN etc will chug along (I know many in these forums would love to hear a couple hundard klove stations go dark at once) sorry you will luck out there if AMC-8 fails.

--Matt

<P ID="signature">______________
Program Director/Music Director
X Music Online
The X
Today's Best Music
http://www.xmusiconline.com/</P>
 
Two examples of failure...

> I was flipping out for about an hour at work...then I
> realized that NO ONE is stupid enough to have every freaking
> affiliate across the country realign their dishes. They'll
> probably de-orbit amc-8 and move someone else over with less
> usage.

It has happened in the past.
Two good example of high profile/high usage satellites which failed, causing MAJOR impact.

Galaxy 4. When Galaxy 4 failed, 90% of the US paging companies lost satellite reception, along with PBS, WB networks (before the WB network itself), and several syndicated content including Regis & Kathy Lee (at the time).

Telstar 4. When Telstar 4 failed, it was ABC's main primary satellite, and FOX's backup. All the ABC affiliates nationwide had to scramble to get alternate feeds up until both fired up on the , then new, Telstar 6. (Now IA-6).
(Fortunatley ABC and FOX all had feeds on Telstar 5)

<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by TXengineer on 04/05/06 12:03 AM.</FONT></P>
 
Re: Two examples of failure...

> > I was flipping out for about an hour at work...then I
> > realized that NO ONE is stupid enough to have every
> freaking
> > affiliate across the country realign their dishes.
> They'll
> > probably de-orbit amc-8 and move someone else over with
> less
> > usage.
>
> It has happened in the past.
> Two good example of high profile/high usage satellites which
> failed, causing MAJOR impact.
>
> Galaxy 4. When Galaxy 4 failed, 90% of the US paging
> companies lost satellite reception, along with PBS, WB
> networks (before the WB network itself), and several
> syndicated content including Regis & Kathy Lee (at the
> time).
>
> Telstar 4. When Telstar 4 failed, it was ABC's main primary
> satellite, and FOX's backup. All the ABC affiliates
> nationwide had to scramble to get alternate feeds up until
> both fired up on the , then new, Telstar 6. (Now IA-6).
> (Fortunatley ABC and FOX all had feeds on Telstar 5)
>
Sometimes a single tramsponder can also fail. Usually there is a way to roll in or switch in a transponder from ground control, but that may not always work.
I was on duty at the satellite control center for Americom back in the 80's when TWC, The Weather Channel went off the air. We had a local station engineer in the Atlanta area who ran that earth station go in and try flipping HPA's (High Power Amps)(what the klystron transmitters are called)until we figured out the satellite's transponder went bad. After rolling in a backup was unsuccesful, they wound up staying on the same bird but switching to a different transponder and bumping CSPAN in the process. It all depends what level of backup you pay for when you lease the transponder. CSPAN eventually moved over to a different bird since they where under a less protected rate structure. I'm thinking the satellite in question was C4, which eventually was replaced with a newer bird, but did have 1 transponder out for several years until then.

There are also spare receivers onboard the satellite that can be switched in from ground control (TT&C) if needed.

George Kowal CBNT
 
> WW1 east ebno sucks and I always get audio drop out, while
> jones never has a problem.

A SGIII switched providers from ABCNEWS to ABCNY on it's own last Thursday afernoon. Lucky ESPN wasn't on live at the time & we caught it before it was needed.

Bill Frahm - Boise
 
Re: Fate of Telstar 4 (was: AMC-8)

Did they ever determine what happened to Telstar 4? I was a TV MCO at the time it went dark, and there were many phone calls made that day to line up alternate feeds for our syndicated stuff.

A meteor, perhaps?


KL<P ID="signature">______________
<a href="http://home.nc.rr.com/gttyson/lastradio.html">The Last Radio Station<a></P>
 
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