sat truck

[FARMBOY]

I have a question about sat trucks. I heard tonight that at WJAC in Johnstown, Pa, the sat operator runs the truck and shoots the live shot as well. So he is not in the truck at the time he is up on the bird. Is this legal? Who should I report this to?

[satop]

No,

This totally illegal.

Here is the portion of FCC rules and Regs that deals with satellite operation.


TITLE 47--TELECOMMUNICATION

CHAPTER I--FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

PART 25--SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS

Subpart D--Technical Operations

Sec. 25.271 Control of transmitting stations.

(a) The licensee of a facility licensed under this part is responsible for the proper operation and maintenance of the station.

(b) The licensee of a transmitting earth station licensed under this part shall ensure that a trained operator is present on the earth station site, or at a designated remote control point for the earth station, at all times that transmissions are being conducted. No operator's license is required for a person to operate or perform maintenance on facilities authorized under this part.
(c) Authority will be granted to operate a transmitting earth station by remote control only on the conditions that:
(1) The parameters of the transmissions of the remote station monitored at the control point, and the operational functions of the
remote earth stations that can be controlled by the operator at the control point, are sufficient to insure that the operations of the remote station(s) are at times in full compliance with the remote station authorization(s);
(2) The earth station facilities are protected by appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorized entry or operations;
(3) Upon detection by the license, or upon notification from the Commission of a deviation or upon notification by another licensee of
harmful interference, the operation of the remote station shall be immediately suspended by the operator at the control point until the deviation or interference is corrected, except that
transmissions concerning the immediate safety of life or property may be conducted for the duration of the emergency; and
(4) The licensee shall have available at all times the technical personnel necessary to perform expeditiously the technical servicing and
maintenance of the remote stations.
(d) The licensee shall insure that the licensed facilities are properly secured against unauthorized access or use whenever an operator
is not present at the transmitter.
(e) The licensee of an NGSO FSS system operating in the 10.7-14.5 GHz bands shall maintain an electronic web site bulletin board to list the satellite ephemeris data, for each satellite in the constellation, using the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) two-line orbital element format. The orbital elements shall be updated at least once every three days.

[58 FR 13421, Mar. 11, 1993, as amended at 66 FR 10631, Feb. 16, 2001]

What I understand this as is, if you are doing a sat shot you must be able to be contacted and turn off the transmitter if there is a problem at a moments notice. So, if you are at a camera doing a live shot you are not in control of the transmitter anymore.

Who should contact? Try the local frequency coordinator first. Ask your chief engineer who that might be.

[<robbrad>]

go with above he's dead on. There is a station in WV does the same thing don't know if they have changed since I sent them a copy of the above FCC ruling

[<Trucker>]

If you put the camera on the sticks, and guide the reporter into their spot through ifb, you can get the shot off IN A PINCH while still remaining at the control point of the transmitter. But It must be said. This would be a cheap, and dangerous (quality wise) way to go. I did it once when the photog got hung up doing post game sound during NCAA Tourney and prayed for the battery gods to not fail me.

[HamCam]

Is this true for those of us in the Great White North? Is it only for SNG trucks or both Micro and SNG?

:cool: :confused: :cool:

[<Idunno'boutthat>]

While it is pretty bare bones and a wee bit ghetto to fly solo...I don't think it is illegal. Speaking to part b of that FCC writing...someone has to be present at the transmitter...but you don't have to be visually monitoring it the entire time. No different than an MCO operator being in the building but not looking at the equipment in the corner of master control at the time. You do have to be able to answer the phone when you get the call to correct/power down.

[PhrozenPhoto]

It is a grey area at best, one that I'm sure more and more stations are going to push with the advent of the DSNG vans. What needs to happen is those that provide access to the birds need to take control. They need to either put in the Use Agreement that the SNG operator will remain within reach of the power switch or be denied future access to the bird, or even better, severly penalize those who aren't around. As an example if a one man shot goes off and they don't power down in time and don't answer the phone their acess rate for the next 6 months is triple the normal published rate. And to make sure they're there... call them about 90 seconds before the window ends to make contact. Chances are if the SNG op is there they're either calling at that time to come down or extend if necessary. Hit the mangers in the pocketbook and they'll see it is better to do it right. Once they burn their bridges with network, CNN and the only provider they can get is either the triple priced window or one their master control op can never find, they'll start doing things the correct way and not the cheapest way.

It will get ugly on nights like elections when one station decides to go cheap and burns five others by going past their slot.

[PhrozenPhoto]

You know, look at part 4 above... a qualified maintence person available to service the unit. How many of us know how to rip apart a truck and fix it while your 500 miles from home?? Hmmmm smells like a violation to me if they don't teach you how to service the whole truck before you go out of the ADI.... just a thought. I'm sure their overpriced lawyers could argue otherwise.

[photog1199]

We always have a photog run the shot if it is indeed a SAT shot, if it is ENG thenh the truck OP is gonna have to do it 99% of the time.

[Shaky & Blue]

Originally posted by KCPhotog:
You know, look at part 4 above... a qualified maintence person available to service the unit. How many of us know how to rip apart a truck and fix it while your 500 miles from home?? I don't operate sat trucks, but looking at that regulation I believe you've misunderstood. That's part 4 of paragraph C, which specifically addresses operating "a transmitting earth station by remote control." In other words, they're talking about an operator at a control panel inside a building operating a transmitter and dish that are actually located somewhere else. Part 4 requires that you have people available "to perform expeditiously the technical servicing and maintenance of the remote stations," meaning that you have to have engineers available that you can get to the transmitter site reasonably quickly (expeditiously) if immediate repairs are needed.

In other words, you just have to have an engineer on call for transmitters operated by remote. That wouldn't apply to the trucks, since you're not operating them remotely but standing right there near the transmitter.

On the other issue, it seems pretty clear that unless you set up your camera right next to the truck, running a sat truck by yourself is a violation of paragraph b. One of the 24 hour cable outfits in North Carolina regularly violates this rule, training their photogs on the DSNG trucks and treating them like regular ENG trucks. The issue is FCC enforcement of the rule, which in Michael Powell's "deregulation" FCC seems far fetched.

[<FCC help>]

Our station doesn't believe in DSNG operators so the truck has to be ran by the photog shooting the live shot and running the truck. I have encountered many problems over the last 3 yrs finding myself doing the 100 yd dash in 3sec to get back to the truck to see what the heck is wrong with the encoder/HPA/reciever and powering up and down on time. I am really Tired of doing this. I am wondering what it would take to get the FCC to come in and tell the station that it is against the law to do this. Any ideas???? Where should I start if the GM doesn't listen.
thanks

[amp]

Not having a separate sat truck op just invites problems. The only people who would think about mandating it are morons who never left the newsroom.

[sng_turtle]

You are either a shooter or an engineer. to have a shooter run a truck just brings problems. As the truck op you need to know how to fix anything in the truck, cause something will always break on you. As for sitting in the truck at all times when you are transmitting, More times than not, I am chillin at the live position. I never sit in the truck the whole time, or my tent if I am with a flyaway. I just make sure axcess has my personal cell number to call me back on, not a truck phone.

[David R. Busse]

I'm a photog who runs satellite trucks.

I have done exactly two "one man band" live shots from satellite trucks. One was from a DSNG van (which we have scrapped--another story entirely) and the other was from a large multiple-path digital truck.

Both were "news emergencies" where the second person wasn't able to get there on time and I had to do everything.

The camera was on tripod, exactly two feet from the door of the truck.

I will never do "one man band" with the camera more than five feet from the truck, for all the reasons stated in above posts.

If you must do one-man band from sat trucks, never be more than a few feet from the truck.

Remember, if there's a problem with the transmission of your signal, and you cause problems with another signal on the satellite, your employer and YOU are liable. You'll get a disciplinary action by your employer--that's spelled out in the contract with the satellite owners and the news cooperatives. Operate the satellite truck as if your livelihood (and reputation) depends on it...because it does.

[David R. Busse]

Originally posted by KCPhotog:
You know, look at part 4 above... a qualified maintence person available to service the unit. How many of us know how to rip apart a truck and fix it while your 500 miles from home?? Hmmmm smells like a violation to me if they don't teach you how to service the whole truck before you go out of the ADI.... just a thought. I'm sure their overpriced lawyers could argue otherwise. Define "qualified." I'll bet I'm qualified.

I'm not a technical whiz by anyone's standards, yet I've worked on three sat trucks and have gotten pretty good at troubleshooting on the road...and 90 percent of the problems I've encountered aren't heavy electronics issues but ones related to vibration and connections coming loose, power cables getting disconnected, etc. And with cellphones, satcells and immeon on board, a phone call can usually put me in touch with experts who can talk me through heavier fixes.

Besides, all this is one of the many reasons why dual-path sat trucks make so much sense...redundancy.

Read the FCC rules but also pay careful attention to the rules of your satellite provider (Loral, Panamsat, etc). It's a contract between your station and them and it clearly states how the truck is to be operated. If there are problems, suggest contacting your satellite provider may be a way to get your station's attention.

The Absat website has a very good ongoing discussion of operational discrepancies.

PS--when I was starting in the news biz, I could fix many CP16 problems with a screwdriver, a set of Allen wrenches and a can of oil. Guess I was "qualified" in film days...

[Jax]

I one man band it all the time, I just don't F up.

[btsatman]

Whether it is legal or not, I think it is stupid. If your station is going to spend the money to get a sat truck, and spend the money to purchase sat time, why would they skimp and send a one man band?
Chances are that if it is a sat shot, it's not that close to home, so you are gong to have travel issues. You usually have parking issues. If you are the photog as well, you know that you are going to have reporter issues. Now you are in the middle of editing, and you have to worry about setting up the truck. There is so much going on in a sat shot that you just need the extra help. I know that this sounds just like a microwave shot, but there is so much more to it. If your microwave shot goes south, the absolute worst that can happen is you may blow off one of your competitions live shots. If something goes wrong with a sat shot, you could do anything from blowing up to 10 different stations live shots off, or a network program or sporting event. And if someone is in the truck to see this happen, it can be terminated a lot quicker and with less damage than will happen in the time that it would take for the satellite operations center to figure out that it is you, find your phone number and contact you to tell you to get back to your truck and shut it down.
Loral Skynet has been seeing such an increase in the number of incidents related to SNG, that they have posted an UPLINKER "HALL OF SHAME" (http://abcnewsabsat.com/forum/uplink_incidents.html)
If I ever found out that one of my shots got blown off by an unmanned transmitter, I will do everything in my power to see that the holder of the FCC license doesn't let it happen again.

[<Former Truck Op>]

As stated in an earlier post... "if you are doing a sat shot you must be able to be contacted and turn off the transmitter if there is a problem at a moments notice." Can someone define what a "moment" is?

Our truck ops are supposed to give their cell phone number (instead of a truck number). In theory, when the phone rings, they leave the camera and head toward the truck as they answer.

By the time sat access explains what's going on, the operator should be at the truck.

I disagree with the policy, and keep waiting to hear an adjustment needs to be made and the operator is 500 feet away. Sat controll called me a couple times when I was a truck op because the time was double-booked. Fortunately, I was in the truck (pure truck op) and made the adjustments.

[Dave Putnam]

Anyone who has ever worked on an SNG vehicle should know that you should be present at the control point and monitoring your signal whenever you are uplinking. This is your responsibility. In today's world of digital uplinking it is an even more pressing requirement. You never know when more or less power is needed in order to prevent your signal knocking signals from other uplinks off due to power imbalance on the transponder. If you are standing outside the truck how in the world are you going to watch your signal on the spectrum analyizer?

[Shaky & Blue]

Originally posted by Dave Putnam:
If you are standing outside the truck how in the world are you going to watch your signal on the spectrum analyizer? To which the manager replies: "The what? You mean we spent a half a million dollars on a truck that won't do that automatically? Bullsh*t! You're just lazy and just want to sit in the truck without doing any real work!"

:D

[Sentinel94]

I am expected to one-man-band liveshots also....because of all the saftey rules and regs, I put the camera about 5 feet from the truck. I really don't give a !@#!@ about generator noise. "You don't want generator noise?? Send a photog or truck op!" :D