Offical AMC 8 Transition Thread (was Sat. AMC-8)

[ChuckG]

Never a dull moment but I don't know if my nerves can stand much more vehicle problems.

Agreed there. At the end of the day you really just want to get back home.
Having to call a second tow truck ("how the hell did you do that?") to extricate the first tow truck you called ("how the hell did you do that?") to get your jeep unstuck from swampland is just part of the job,
but getting hit head-on by a drunk at highway speed while doing my weekly travel was almost a career changer for me.
Not much makes me throw up my hands and walk away, but that nearly did it.

[kkiddkkidd]

In case you were wondering...

I emailed all of the major network syndicators this morning with a couple of questions...

1. How many of their affiliates are still on AMC8?
and
2. Is 06/30 the real drop dead date?

I received a number of responses that has led me to believe that...

1. By 06/30 the number of procrastonators will be surprisingly small (although the exact definition of "small" is probably larger than we would like).
2. Someone will forget to turn off AMC8 until after the July 4th holiday.

Responses were all understandably vague and non-committal but a couple said that they themselves didn't want to have to deal with that bs over a holiday weekend. Then again, essential services _could_ absolutely go silent on AMC8 at mid-night 06/30.

So, hopefully the number of "emergency" satellite calls will be few and far between over the long holiday weekend.

Regards,

[radio_guru]

Anyone installed the new MAX receiver from Orbital Media (old CCS) to replace the SGIII as part of the AMC18 conversion?

What are your thoughts on the difference in audio quality between the two systems?

RG

[kkiddkkidd]

I haven't installed a Max rx in quite some time but have never heard any complaints about audio quality. I do have a station complaining about audio quality on the TN Radio Network after they changed from ComStream ABR's to XDS's. I am going to guess that they are sending a narrower stream on the XDS than they were the ABR's. TRN sounded just OK to me but didn't have the ABR stream to compare.

With the new systems, it could be anything from differences in the RX to sat stream width to terrestrial transport method / stream width to dueling codecs from production to on-air.

Anyone installed the new MAX receiver from Orbital Media (old CCS) to replace the SGIII as part of the AMC18 conversion?

What are your thoughts on the difference in audio quality between the two systems?

RG

[kkiddkkidd]

I am down to one 4 station client to move and they are on cash-only terms and don't have any cash... They think that maybe next week or the week after they will have some cash available... Sad situation.

[awsherrill]

I left one of our (unused) receivers connected to a dish pointed at AMC-8, just to see if we could tell when they turned it off. Just walked by it a short while ago and it looks like it's down.

Is it off for good? I think the unofficial note we got said the bird operator might be randomly dropping carrier through 7/14, to make people get the hint

[kkiddkkidd]

I had been wondering if it was down yet. My remaining client that hasn't been moved still doesn't have cash to do so and I haven't had time to log into any of their receivers to see if they are down.

Thanks,

I left one of our (unused) receivers connected to a dish pointed at AMC-8, just to see if we could tell when they turned it off. Just walked by it a short while ago and it looks like it's down.20170712_185643.jpg
Is it off for good? I think the unofficial note we got said the bird operator might be randomly dropping carrier through 7/14, to make people get the hint

[ChuckG]

I had been wondering if it was down yet. My remaining client that hasn't been moved still doesn't have cash to do so and I haven't had time to log into any of their receivers to see if they are down.

If they're on a service that offers a backup stream they may not even notice unless they catch the timing being off from the delay.

[TPT]

We have a pair of stations run off STORQ systems (which update from either satellite or internet), as well as several conventional satellite receivers for various programs (Delilah, Alice Cooper). About 6 months ago the old LNB started to fail, was bugging our DAWNCO splitter/DA so we put in an old LNB supply just to feed the conventional receivers. Had the new dish up well ahead of the deadline, but took my time getting the DAWNCO DA back in place. Then WW1 started pressuring affiliates to get back on a satellite feed because their servers couldn't handle all the stations running off internet feeds.

So, back on the little "Kalypso" satellite receivers for the STORQ boxes. Had to re-program, but was not difficult.

[awsherrill]

AMC-8 seems to be back up today on our "nightlight" receiver. EB is varying up and down by a couple dB or so. Guess somebody at SES is having some fun with the knobs

[grich]

...Then WW1 started pressuring affiliates to get back on a satellite feed because their servers couldn't handle all the stations running off internet feeds...

I was figuring that would happen.

I guess if I were a jerk at WW1, I would compile a list of receivers that were a-never tuned to AMC18 and b-on the backup stream, and block their streams.

Almost a third of WW1 receivers were on AMC8 two weeks before the deadline. WAG, maybe a fourth still aren't. If they're having trouble serving a backup stream to a quarter of the receivers, they certainly couldn't back up the whole net in case of spacecraft failure. Not surprised there either...that's a lot of bits.

Speaking of backup spacecraft, I wonder what that is? It used to be whatever sat is at 137 degrees.

[kkiddkkidd]

I pointedly asked a network official about the unmigrated number in the middle of June and got a response of something like, "25% still on AMC8 but declining rapidly".

...Then WW1 started pressuring affiliates to get back on a satellite feed because their servers couldn't handle all the stations running off internet feeds...

I was figuring that would happen.

I guess if I were a jerk at WW1, I would compile a list of receivers that were a-never tuned to AMC18 and b-on the backup stream, and block their streams.

Almost a third of WW1 receivers were on AMC8 two weeks before the deadline. WAG, maybe a fourth still aren't. If they're having trouble serving a backup stream to a quarter of the receivers, they certainly couldn't back up the whole net in case of spacecraft failure. Not surprised there either...that's a lot of bits.

Speaking of backup spacecraft, I wonder what that is? It used to be whatever sat is at 137 degrees.

[kkiddkkidd]

Reportedly SES-1 at 101d. I asked a number of providers if their carrier would be hot on the backup and all said that they would not have
a carrier on the backup unless AMC-18 fails. They supposedly negotiated a prime user contract with SES that would kick cochannel, lower tier users off SES-1 if AMC-18 goes down. This was early on in the transition but I assume that it is still correct.

I was curious about the potential of a hot backup up there somewhere after a call from another engineer who swore that he was getting an RX lock at different AZ/EL's. I think that he was seeing blips of EB on adjacent birds but no real lock. I reaimed 20+ dishes and never saw a lock anywhere other than AMC18. But then again, I was starting almost right on AMC18 and wasn't doing much hunting around.

Or maybe his dish had horrible side lobes...

Speaking of backup spacecraft, I wonder what that is? It used to be whatever sat is at 137 degrees.

[ChuckG]

Lost satellite signal, found the dish pointed across the street. Actuator arm stripped and let loose, the force of the dish dropping down to vertical bent or loosened almost everything. Ugh.
I think that dish is far too heavy for the light-duty polar mount it was installed on. After tilting it back to see AMC-18 the stress on that actuator must've increased and the clock finally ran out. Of course it is rusted solid to the (too small) mounting pole. Has to all be re-done .

Hoping the little SA 9000 next to it will work until a new dish arrives and can be set. No really good options at this point.

ETA: After re aiming, the 9000 is not only is working, but has better EB numbers than the large dish did.

[kkiddkkidd]

RIP AMC8...

My broke client finally got money together to move their dish last Thursday. All receivers (abt 6ea) were in alarm when I arrived. Some displayed a normal looking AG but none had an EB nor were locked.

I still have a couple of dishes to replace but those clients are working fine with less than desirable AGs on old beatup mesh dishes.

The end of an era (or error)...