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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Saint Paul Island Gets New Satellite Antenna

The long running project to replace both the Radio SIP and ARCS satellite dishes in Saint Paul with a single shared use dish has come to completion. As of September 15th the new dish began serving both roles, providing KUHB Radio with feeds for APRN and other SCPC satellite channels, as well as providing the community with their ARCS television feed.

Planning for the project began two years ago when it became obvious to APBI and KUHB managers that both dishes were experiencing dropout and increasing rates of failure due to extreme corrosion brought about by the severe environment in which the dishes exist. Since both dishes look at the same satellite, and both ARCS and KUHB radio are located in the same building in Saint Paul, a partnership was proposed that would split the cost of replacement and share the use of the dish. Further savings were realized when the decision was made to use the existing ARCS dish gabion mount, which appeared to be in good condition.

ARCS used Denali Commission funding to purchase and transport the dish to Saint Paul Island. KUHB used a combination of Rasmusson Foundation Grant funds and its own sweat equity to finance and oversee the construction of the new dish which included bringing a contractor to the island to perform the installation work.

As a result, the community received a valuable communications tool that serves both the local public radio mission as well as the community’s ARCS television service, both of which also include Emergency Alert System notifications which run across both APRN and ARCS networks.
The old dishes can be seen in their final days when they were completely failing as satellite receive antennas.
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ARCS, Digital Television, and The Future


You have probably heard a lot about Digital Television and the upcoming February deadline when “all TV must be digital”. Well, not exactly. Even after February 2009, ARCS will still be “Analog” and your current TV will work just the same way it does now. You won’t need to make any changes to keep watching because ARCS is a “low-power” television system that is not required by the FCC to convert to digital at this time.

The FCC has required some 1,700 full-power stations nationwide to meet this conversion deadline. However there are nearly 7,000 low-power transmitters across the USA, just like ARCS, which are not yet required to convert. Most of these transmitters serve viewers in rural communities.

ARCS probably will convert to digital in the next three to five years, so eventually you will need to do something. One thing you can do right now is check out the TV Converter Box Coupon Program. Created by Congress, this program allows households to get up to two coupons, each worth $40, for use in obtaining a box that will convert over-the-air digital television signals for viewing on an analog television set. Even though you won’t need a converter to watch ARCS in the near term, you can still get your coupons, use them to purchase converters at the reduced cost, and then keep them for future use. You can find out more at http://www.dtv2009.gov/ or by calling toll free, 888-388-2009.

Meanwhile we continue to work with volunteers across the state, in more than 230 communities, to repair and maintain the ARCS system.

Would you like to help keep ARCS going in your community? Send an email to arcstv@gmail.com.