SAT truck training references

[bokchoy]

I'm going to start my official training on my station's SAT truck, I've got some basics from one of the operators, even got a little reading material to boot. I was just wondering if there are any FREE online resources that y'all might know of? I scoured through an old b-roll posting, but the info was for ABC stations. I work for an NBC affil and haven't seen much so far.

Thanks either way, Mike.

 

[marstaton4]

Check out sngforum.com it's a little bit of a slower board but a great wealth of knowledge. They also have an excellent SNG manual you should look over. There are some of us on the board that would be happy to help with any questions that we may know the answer to so fire away! Good luck, and most importantly be safe!

 

[pixlmgr]

Welcome to the club, I'm a 20+ year photog who got trained on Sat Trucks about 3 years ago. One thing I have noticed is that each op has figured out a system that works for them, I trained with 3 different ops and each had their own system to find the bird, take bits and pieces from anyone you can, and make a system that is repeatable and efficient. Also I have found that the scope picture for each sat will change occasionally as new services move to different sats.

One resource I have found usefull is SNG Forum
Be sure to drop an introduction email to Leland_Kesler, he's the moderator who grants membership. There's also a very good SNG training Manual that Sam Sinke put together that can be referenced from the SNG Forum's opening page

I basically learned the 3-4 sats that we use as well as the 2 on each side of them and took pictures of the scope, imported them into the computer, and then went to refind each sat to add the captions, and unique identifiers. There are a few docs in the Sat Location and Identification section of SNG Forum that can help with that but how they look on your truck is what is important.

Lyngsat.com is a good reference for iding other sats.

Butch Henderson
KCPQ-TV, Seattle

 

[bokchoy]

Thanks!

Thanks for the tips, websites and welcomes. I'm looking to get a good base of knowledge before I start my official training and any little bit helps.

 

[pixlmgr]

Also check out Dishpointer.com, it isn't perfect, but it's not bad for finding obstructions to your your preferred sat. NBC has alot of space on AMC 1, AMC 6, Horizons 2, and Galaxy 17.

Hopefully one of the more experienced ops has a worksheet with elevations and magnetic headings of the sats from your area (the elevation will go up slightly as you move south, and the azimuth will change depending on what direction your truck is parked). Once you get a satellite ID'd that makes it alot easier todo the math and tilt up to the right elevation and pan across the sky till you recognize a satellite scope picture

A compas and inclinometer can be usefull tools too, even the inclinometer app on an iPhone is helpfull in determining where on your dish and feed horn line up to the correct elevation angle to see if you are clearing trees or buildings.

 

[stargazer]

Welcome to the world of SNG! I would also recommend SNGForum.com. It has a lot of good people who are willing to help out and answer questions. Sam Sinke has put together a very detailed manual for operators, which you can download from the site. I don't use this forum much anymore, but you can always look for me on the sngforum as bvantieg. I can try to help if you have a question you don't want to post. Feel free to PM me.

Since you are with an NBC station, call Newschannel satellite desk and ask them to e-mail you the latest parameters for their satellites. They have an excel spreadsheet which will be a helpful resource. Newschannel uses different parameters from the other networks, so if you do CNN stuff you will need to also learn their settings.

Good luck, and have fun with it.

Bob Van Tieghem
SNG Uplink EIC (Snowboy)
NBC News Field Operations

 

[Rad]

Can't say enough good things about SNGFORUM.com , great people, real pros that don't mind answering questions. These folks can help you out with basic "how to's" to complicated technical stuff.

And Dishpointer.com is a great tool as well. You can actually sight your uplink path before you leave the shop. It's a great tool especially if you have an older truck with a dish that doesn't rotate 360.