Westwood One, Premiere, Skyview Networks, et al. will be changing their satellite from AMC-8 at 139° W to AMC-18/SES-11 at 105° W longitude. More from AMC8transition.com. There are several considerations for this move:
- Dish design and two-degree compliance
- Obstacle clearance
- Transponder frequencies
- Timing
Two degree compliance is going to be an issue for many stations. Those old 2.4 and 2.8 meter mesh dishes are going to have issues with 105º West because that is a very crowed part of the sky. From New York, it looks something like this:
| Satellite | Longitude | Inclination | Azimuth | Elevation | Distance |
| TELSTAR 12 (ORION 2) | 109.21° W | 0.491° | 227.46° | 31.09° | 38596.91 km |
| TELSTAR 12 (ORION 2) | 109.21° W | 0.491° | 227.46° | 31.09° | 38596.91 km |
| MSAT M1 | 107.72° W | 7.430° | 231.14° | 38.16° | 38011.55 km |
| ANIK G1 | 107.33° W | 0.013° | 225.25° | 31.96° | 38518.62 km |
| ANIK F1 | 107.31° W | 0.020° | 225.22° | 31.95° | 38513.76 km |
| ANIK F1R | 107.28° W | 0.052° | 225.22° | 32.02° | 38510.37 km |
| ECHOSTAR 17 | 107.11° W | 0.019° | 225.01° | 32.08° | 38503.29 km |
| AMC-15 | 105.07° W | 0.025° | 222.76° | 33.28° | 38400.67 km |
| AMC-18 | 104.96° W | 0.027° | 222.64° | 33.34° | 38400.16 km |
| GOES 14 | 104.66° W | 0.198° | 222.21° | 33.38° | 38394.57 km |
| AMSC 1 | 103.44° W | 9.810° | 228.37° | 43.31° | 37616.42 km |
| SES-3 | 103.01° W | 0.041° | 220.41° | 34.42° | 38307.12 km |
| SPACEWAY 1 | 102.90° W | 0.032° | 220.25° | 34.43° | 38299.87 km |
| DIRECTV 10 | 102.82° W | 0.017° | 220.17° | 34.51° | 38292.86 km |
| DIRECTV 12 | 102.78° W | 0.035° | 220.12° | 34.50° | 38292.93 km |
| DIRECTV 15 | 102.71° W | 0.009° | 220.05° | 34.56° | 38290.50 km |
| SKYTERRA 1 | 101.30° W | 3.488° | 219.07° | 36.33° | 38131.32 km |
| DIRECTV 4S | 101.19° W | 0.011° | 218.24° | 35.35° | 38228.26 km |
| DIRECTV 9S | 101.15° W | 0.014° | 218.18° | 35.36° | 38228.57 km |
| SES-1 | 101.00° W | 0.016° | 218.02° | 35.45° | 38217.56 km |
| DIRECTV 8 | 100.87° W | 0.036° | 217.88° | 35.54° | 38211.02 km |
Generally speaking, dishes need to be 3.7 meters (12.14 feet) or larger to meet the two-degree compliance specification. For many, this means replacing the current dish. This is especially true for those old 10-foot aluminum mesh dishes that were very popular in the 90s because of the TVRO satellite craze.
If the existing dish is acceptable, then the next issue may be obstacle clearance. Generally speaking, the 105-degree west slot (south of Denver) will be easier to see that the 139-degree west slot (south of Honolulu) for much of the United States. Still, there may be trees, buildings, hills, etc in the way. Site surveys can be made using online tools (dishpointer.com) or smartphone apps (dishalign (iOS) or dishaligner (Android)). I have found that I need to stand in front of the dish to get the best idea of any obstacles. While you are there, spray all the dish-holding hardware with penetrating oil like WD-40, Rostoff, or something similar. Most of these dishes have not moved since they were installed, many years or decades ago.
Transponder frequencies will not be the same, so when the dish is aligned to the new satellite, those frequencies will need to be changed. The network satellite provider will furnish this information when it becomes available. This generally requires navigating around various menu trees in the satellite receiver. Most are fairly intuitive, but it never hurts to be prepared.
The window of opportunity is from February 1, 2017 (first day of AMC-18) until June 30, 2017 (last day of AMC-8). Of course, in the northern parts of the country, it may not be possible to install a new dish in the middle of winter. It may also be very difficult to align an existing dish depending on how bad the winter is. Therefore, the planning process should begin now. A quick site evaluation should include the following:
Network Satellite Receive Location Evaluation
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Satellite: |
Satellite Location: |
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Dish is 2°compliant? (Y/N) |
Distance to receiver location: |
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Dish Latitude: |
Dish Longitude: |
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Dish Azimuth (T): |
Dish Azimuth (M) |
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Dish Height AGL: |
Dish Elevation: |
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Observed Obstacles: (permanent or removable? Owned or not owned?) |
Comments: |
A .pdf version is available here. Based on that information, a decision can be made on whether or not to keep the old dish or install a new one. We service about 25 studio locations and I am already aware of three in need of dish replacement and two that have obstructive trees which will need to be cut. This work cannot start too soon.