Installation of Intelsat 8 Downlink Palau – Radio Australia

In May 2010 Av Comm completed the installation of a Intelsat 8 downlink in Palau on behalf of Radio Australia. The project was in Palau, a small island paradise in the middle of the Pacific. Av Comm was to provide a satellite downlink facility for the reception of the C Band Radio Australia feed on Intelsat 8, the feed would then be transmitted locally on the FM radio band. A link budget was calculated for the project and it was decided that the downlink facility would consist of a Prodelin 1374 Series 3.7m Dish with a C Band linear feed assembly, Norsat 5 kHz PLL LNB and Scopus IRD satellite receiver.

The remote location of Palau meant that we needed to speed a lot of time carefully planning the logistics of how we would get the downlink equipment and ourselves to Palau, after several discussions with the project stakeholders it was decided that we would use a combination of air and sea freight. The equipment would be air freighted to Japan and then carried by sea freight to Palau. Equally as difficult was how our technicians would get to Palau, most airlines flying to Palau originated from Asia so it was necessary to fly to South Korea first and then to Palau.

The installation team would be away for eight days spending three of those days in-transit, four days was allocated for the installation. The installation was completed utilising a local crane and several helpers over the period of three days. On the fourth day the Radio Australia FM service was switched on and we were able to listen to the broadcasts via our car radio across the island.