The StreamScope MT-40 is a monitor and complete analyzer for digital television (DTV) transport streams. The MT-40 is a powerful and user-friendly instrument that verifies DTV streams carried by service providers such as broadcasters, cable, telcos, satellite, MobileTV and IPTV operators. In a single, affordable instrument with an easy-to-use graphical interface, the MT-40 can monitor, alarm, troubleshoot, record and measure DTV transport streams in order to ensure their integrity, reliability and compliance with standards (ATSC, ATSC A/78, SCTE). In the face of emerging digital data broadcast and enhanced high-definition DTV applications along with complex and evolving standards, the StreamScope product family plays an increasingly vital role ensuring the integrity and reliability of the transport streams on which service providers’ reputations and diverse new revenue opportunities depend.

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• STSC-OPT-GLCP Non Real Time Analysis – without PCR Analysis
• ESSP-STSC StreamScope Enhanced System Support Plan for MT40

What is an Earth Station?

An earth station, ground station, or earth terminal is a terrestrial terminal station designed for extra-planetary telecommunication with spacecraft, and/or reception of radio waves from an astronomical radio source. Earth stations are located either on the surface of the Earth, or within Earth’s atmosphere. Earth stations communicate with spacecraft by transmitting and receiving radio waves in the super high frequency or extremely high frequency bands (microwaves). When an earth station successfully transmits or receives radio waves with a spacecraft it establishes a telecommunications link. Earth stations may occupy either a fixed or itinerant position. Article 1 and III of the ITU Radio Regulations describes various types of earth stations, stationary and mobile, and their interrelationships. Specialized satellite earth stations are used to tele-communicate with satellites—chiefly communications satellites. Other earth stations communicate with manned space stations or unmanned space probes. An earth station that primarily receives telemetry data, or that follows a satellite not in geostationary orbit, is called a tracking station. When a satellite is within an earth station’s line of sight, the earth station is said to have a view of the satellite. It is possible for a satellite to communicate with more than one earth station at a time. A pair of earth stations are said to have a satellite in mutual view when the stations share simultaneous, unobstructed, line-of-sight contact with the satellite.

What is a Telecommunications Port?

A telecommunications port or more commonly known as a teleport is a satellite earth station with multiple antennas (i.e., an antenna farm) that functions as a hub connecting a satellite or geocentric orbital network with a terrestrial telecommunications network. Teleports may provide various broadcasting services among other telecommunications functions, such as uploading computer programs or issuing commands over an uplink to a satellite.

What are Earth terminal Complexes?

In Federal Standard 1037C, the United States General Services Administration defined an earth terminal complex as the assemblage of equipment and facilities necessary to integrate an earth terminal (earth station) into a telecommunications network. FS-1037C has since been subsumed by the ATIS Telecom Glossary, which is maintained by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, an international, business-oriented, non-governmental organization. Although the ATIS as well as the Telecommunications Industry Association acknowledge this definition,[8] the occurrence of the word complex in the name of a radio observatory or other major earth station doesn’t necessarily connote all of the nuances of the FS-1037C definition—especially outside of the United States.

What are Satellite Communications Standards?

The ITU Radio Communication Sector (ITU-R), a division of the International Telecommunication Union, codifies international standards agreed-upon through multinational discourse. From 1927–1932, standards and regulations now governed by the ITU-R were administered by the Comité consultatif international pour la radio (International Consultancy Committee for Radio). In addition to the body of standards defined by the ITU-R, each major satellite operator provides technical requirements and standards that earth stations must meet in order to communicate with the operator’s satellites. For example, Intelsat publishes the Intelsat Earth Station Standards (IESS) which, among other things, classifies earth stations by the capabilities of their parabolic antennas, and pre-approves certain antenna models. Eutelsat publishes similar standards and requirements, such as the Eutelsat EarthStation Standards (EESS).

Earth Stations and Earth Terminal Complexes

Bukit Timah Satellite Earth Station

The Bukit Timah Satellite Earth Station (Chinese: 武吉知马卫星地面站; Malay: Stesen Satelit Bumi Bukit Timah) is the second satellite earth station in Singapore after Sentosa Satellite Earth Station in Sentosa Island. The station is located in Bukit Timah near Chantek flyover between Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) and Pan Island Expressway (PIE). This station is managed and owned by SingTel with the building starting construction in 1983 and started operations in 1986. As it is located next to the BKE, motorists coming into Singapore via the causeway see this as their first landmark other than Woodlands.

Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex

The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) is a ground station that is located in Australia at Tidbinbilla in the Paddys River (a tributory of the Cotter River) valley, about half an hour’s drive out of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory. The complex is part of the Deep Space Network run by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It is commonly referred to as the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Tracking Station and was officially opened on March 19, 1965 by the then Prime Minister of Australia Sir Robert
Menzies.

Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex

The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC) — commonly called the Goldstone Observatory is located in California’s Mojave Desert (USA). Operated by ITT Corporation for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, its main purpose is to track and communicate with space missions. It includes the Pioneer Deep Space Station, which is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. The current observatory is part of NASA’s Deep Space Network. The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex is one of just three in the world, the others being the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex.

Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station

Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station is a large telecommunications site located on Goonhilly Downs near Helston on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, UK. Owned by BT Group plc, it was at one time the largest satellite earth station in the world, with more than 25 communications dishes in use and over 60 in total. The site also links into undersea cable lines. It ceased all satellite operations in 2008.

Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station

Honeysuckle Creek was a NASA tracking station near Canberra, Australia, which played an important role in supporting Project Apollo. The station was opened in 1967 and closed in 1981. Its most noted achievement was providing the world with the first pictures of the Apollo 11 Moonwalk on Monday, July 21, 1969. Apart from the television pictures they provided, Honeysuckle Creek and Tidbinbilla had voice and telemetry contact with the lunar and command modules. Much of this was dramatized in the 2000 Australian film The Dish. After the conclusion of the Apollo Moon missions in 1972, Honeysuckle Creek began supporting regular Skylab passes, the Apollo scientific stations left on the Moon by astronauts, and assisting the Deep Space Network with interplanetary tracking commitments. In 1974 at the conclusion of the Skylab program, Honeysuckle Creek joined the Deep Space Network as Deep Space Station 44. Honeysuckle Creek closed in December 1981, its 26 m antenna being relocated to the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex at nearby Tidbinbilla, and renamed Deep Space station 46, where it remained in use until late 2009. Today the original site has been leveled, and only the concrete foundations remain.

Kaena Point Satellite Tracking Station

The Kaena Point Satellite Tracking Station is a United States Air Force military installation in Kaena Point on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. It is a remote tracking station of the Air Force Satellite Control Network responsible for tracking satellites in orbit, many of which belong to the United States Department of Defense, receiving and processing data and in turn, controlling satellites by sending commands. The station originally opened in 1959 to support an early satellite program.

Madley Communications Centre

Madley Communications Centre is British Telecom’s earth satellite tracking station, between Madley and Kingstone, Herefordshire, England. It claims to be the largest earth station in the world.

Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex

The Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC) is a ground station located in Robledo de Chavela, Spain, and operated by Ingenieria y Servicios Aeroespaciales, S.A. (INSA) for Instituto Nacional de Técnica
Aeroespacial.

]]> http://blog.testequipmentconnection.com/terrestrial-terminal-stations/feed 0 http://blog.testequipmentconnection.com/raytheon-recently-celebrated-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-laser http://blog.testequipmentconnection.com/raytheon-recently-celebrated-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-laser#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 16:33:17 +0000 http://blog.testequipmentconnection.com/?p=797 Read More →]]> On May 16, 2010, Raytheon celebrated 50 years since Theodore Maiman of Hughes Research Labs developed the world’s first working laser. From that early development, Raytheon employees have been central to driving the company’s laser innovation – fostering developments that become cornerstones of laser technology.

Raytheon embraces the power of lasers to deliver innovative solutions that help support customer missions. We focus on driving innovation in laser technology and in constantly seeking new ways to apply lasers within customer solutions.

With dozens of laser firsts to their credit, Raytheon has fielded thousands of laser designators and delivered tens of thousands of laser systems. Raytheon’s laser innovation enables capabilities across sensing, designation, communication and more.

Examples include:

• Adaptive Photonic Phase-Locked Elements – a DARPA development program at Raytheon: APPLE’s goal is to develop a directed energy weapon that achieves high powers through beam combining. This high-power laser may be realized by combining multiple low power beams into one single high power beam. Raytheon’s APPLE program focuses on enabling laser-based weapons applications to be integrated into unmanned aerial vehicles.
• Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared: Laser technology enables Raytheon ATFLIR to locate and designate targets at all times of day and at ranges exceeding 40 nautical miles. These capabilities allow aviators to perform missions in even the harshest conditions.
• Beam Technology Steering Demonstration: The goal of the BTSD project is to develop optical communications for satellite that enable high-bandwidth communication to support war-fighters, such as real-time sensor video. A specific objective is to provide gigabit communication to remote units, as opposed to the megabit communication that is currently possible.
• Directed Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM): Raytheon uses laser technology to protect war-fighters as part of a comprehensive aircraft protection system.
• Experimental Free Electron Laser: In June 2009, the Office of Naval Research awarded Raytheon a 12-month contract to develop the preliminary design of a 100 kilowatt experimental Free Electron Laser for the U.S. Navy that will also demonstrate parameters necessary to scale to an MW-class laser system.
• Laser Area Defense System: Part of a directed energy program, Raytheon LADS uses lasers to improve the precision and accuracy of the Phalanx system.
• Laser Guided Maverick Missile and Paveway Laser Guided Bomb: Raytheon’s munitions with integrated laser technology improve the accuracy and precision of these systems in combat.
• Quantum Sensors: Raytheon BBN is participating in the DARPA-STO Quantum Sensors Program, which is exploring concepts for using quantum states in remote sensing applications. Successful development of such concepts would allow radar, LADAR (laser radar) and other remote sensing systems to exceed the performance limits of today’s technology. (source www.raytheon.com)