Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: clear@cavebbs.gen.nz
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Wondering About Gulf Crisis Coverage
Message-ID: <16220@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 21 Jan 91 00:41:21 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Organization: The Cave MegaBBS, Public Access Usenet, Wellington, NZ
Lines: 42
Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 51, Message 3 of 5


In article <16147@accuvax.nwu.edu> linc@tongue1.berkeley.edu writes:

>how wonderful CNN is).  Brokaw, in fact, asked CNN how they did it,
>and the reporter was quite secretive.
>So how did they do it?  My initial guess was some sort of multiplexed
>multiple phone lines, but it seems that all regular phone lines from
>Baghdad were disrupted.  Any ideas?

VSAT, or Very Small Aperture Terminal. Typically a 1.8m satellite
dish, with associated electronics will sit happily on a single-axle
trailer and be towed behind a car.

They are used worldwide, with the highest concentration in Alaska,
Yukon and North-West Territories. They are used by mining, timber, oil
and exploration teams for semi-portable comms links between the camps
and the outside world.

Basically, the VSAT system provides one or more digital voice channels
compressed and sent via FM to the satellite and back to any other
earth station within the satellite's shadow. A typical scenario has a
camp PABX, modem and fax all running into the VSAT terminal. Because
the system does not interface with the PSTN until it leaves the earth
station, miners in the Arctic can get local dialtone for Vancouver,
Calgary, Seattle and anywhere else there is a compatible receiving
system. Hence crystal clear voice communications when landlines are
either nonexistent or very unreliable.

I'd bet bucks that CNN used a VSAT to bypass the entire Iraqi PSTN and
was getting Saudi or Israeli dialtone - maybe even further afield.

One manufacturer / service provider is Infosat Telecommunications of
Burnaby, Vancouver, BC. They are a subsidiary of Nexus and have
supplied VSATs to a number of companies operating in the wilderness.

Disclaimer: only association with Infosat was meeting with their
people and looking over the factory as part of the Intercomm '90
conference. The technology impressed the hell out of me!


Charlie "The Bear" Lear | clear@cavebbs.gen.nz | Kawasaki Z750GT  DoD#0221
The Cave MegaBBS  +64 4 643429  V32 | PO Box 2009, Wellington, New Zealand