Not to stomp all over this interesting little tete a tete, but teenage girls of America are in a panic! BIG NEWS!!! This is like serious crisis time, you know
(Swiped from a free news service for personal and private use...)
Satellite Failure Causes Massive Pager Blackout
Wed, 20 May 1998 5:29:48 PDT
Story from NB / TYO
Copyright 1998 by Newsbytes News Network (via ClariNet)
GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1998 MAY 20 (NB) -- By Martyn Williams,
Newsbytes. As many as 90 percent of America's pager users were left without service Tuesday evening after a major failure onboard the Galaxy 4 satellite of PanAmSat Corporation [NASDAQ:SPOT]. The satellite is also home to several network and cable TV stations and a key part of the CBS television network distribution system.
"At approximately 6:00 p.m. Eastern time on May 19, the Galaxy IV satellite experienced an anomaly within its on-board spacecraft control processor," announced Robert Bednarek, senior vice president and chief technology officer at PanAmSat, in a statement issued just after midnight EDT.
The spacecraft control processor is the unit that controls the satellite's attitude - keeping the broadcast beam pointing towards earth. With the system failed, and the subsequent failure of a back up system, the satellite began to slowly rotate.
The operator has not lost contact with the satellite and it still remains at the 99 degrees West position in the sky, but its rotation means the beam is not continuously pointing at the earth. "While PanAmSat is able to receive telemetry from and send commands to the satellite, full operation of the satellite's attitude control system has not been achieved at this time," said Bednarek.
"PanAmSat has deactivated the communications payload at this time to conserve power. The satellite is in a stable, safe mode, and engineers at Hughes Space and Communications Co., which built the spacecraft, are examining all pertinent data to determine the causes of and potential solutions to the anomalies."
According to PageNet, the failure has affected between 80 percent and 90 percent of pager users in the United States, causing a total loss of service. The Galaxy 4 satellite is home to its service and, said the company, the majority of paging networks across the United States.
"This is the first time in 35 years that pagers have gone silent," said John D. Beletic, chairman and chief executive officer for PageMart Wireless, Inc. "Virtually all paging companies have been affected. We are working as quickly as humanly possible to restore service to our customers."
PageMart, like many of its competitors, lost service at 6:18p.m. EDT.
"We can restore service to some cities by midnight tonight, but the majority of our system, like those of the other major carriers, is dependent on satellite links," Beletic said. "We do not expect to know until Wednesday morning what the timetable will be for restoring service to the balance of our customers."
In his statement early Wednesday morning, PanAmSat's Bednarek said, "PanAmSat has advised its Galaxy IV customers that the satellite will remain out of service until Wednesday morning at the earliest. We are helping customers with short-term restoration plans for their satellite transmission requirements."
The problems are just as bad for the CBS television network and its affiliate stations. The satellite usually carries five major network feed channels, used to send programming to affiliates, the majority of CBS News programming and carry both live and taped reports between stations and CBS News on as many as 15 channels.
CBS quickly began switching to backup capacity on alternate satellites, according to satellite sources contacted by Newsbytes. They said CBS Newspath had switched to Galaxy 7 and the network was using backup on this craft until further notice.
Other programmers on the satellite included the WB Network, UPN Network, Buena Vista, Warner Bros Domestic Television, CNN Airport Network, Chinese Television Network, China's CCTV-4, Hong Kong's TVB Jade, Telemundo, and international television programmer SCOLA.
...END OF COPYRIGHT CR&P
Hmmmm 90% of all beeper services are down...Hey! I can beep myself !?
(no wisecracks - Fred, Jeff or Alex). So I called my service company.
and they said, "Not to worry your service is fine, unless you go up to Tahoe or Reno, then it won't work." You mean, if I go to Tahoe this weekend and things haven't changed, it won't work ? "Yes." Yippee!
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