floyd@ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) (02/28/91)
Sometime back there was a discussion of satellite communications in
Saudi Arabia relating to the free fax transmissions to the troops. I
promised the Moderator that when the time was right I would post more
information about communications satellite use in the Gulf War. It
appears to be all but over, so the time is right.
Within hours of the decision to send troops to the Persian Gulf there
were plans made for temporary and mobile satellite communications
centers. Within days the first of several transportable earth
stations owned and operated by Alascom, Inc. was on its way, complete
with a crew, to the Gulf. The crew for the first unit was actually
headed up by the VP for operations.
The first unit was leased by AT&T, and was the system that provided
facilities for the AT&T fax transmissions. Later units were, as I
understand it, leased directly to the US government. AT&T manages the
network, and Alascom manages the deployment and operation of stations.
Two other companies each supplied two earth stations. MCI was one,
and I do not know the name of the other. My understanding is that
there are a total of eleven, the rest all coming from Alascom.
Alascom is also manning all the the stations, though the other two
companies also have technicians at their stations.
There may be other companies, stations or networks also operating, but
I have not heard anything to indicate so.
The transportable earth stations are basically two types, both have a
van for electronics, but different antennas are used. Some units have
a trailer mounted five meter dish that is folded for transport. This
particular unit can be moved rather easily, with a typical deployment
time of less than one hour. It is equipped with its own generator for
AC power. I am not familiar with the transport used for the other
type, the setup time, or the power equipment. I understand the other
type all have seven meter dishes.
A relatively good indication of how the systems look and the service
provided is in the current issue of {Newsweek Magazine}. The picture
of military personnel lined up for moral calls shows one of the units.
The electronics van is located to the left of the dish, and is mostly
obscured in the picture. Inside the tent there are probably about 40
phones that tie directly to the US network. From what I've heard the
picture shows a normal situation (a *very* long line).
At least one station is used purely for military communications. That
particular one is filled with crypto gear, etc. Others have as many
as 500 trunks using IAC (Integrated Access Communications) compressed
packet (5:1) T carrier equipment from AT&T. (Normal configuration,
pre-Persian Gulf war, was either 24 or 48 channels of SCPC analog
carrier.)
The stations are located strategically in Saudi Arabia. One of the
tech's was telling us weeks ago that he could see Iraqi installations
from his location. As far as I know only one station was that close.
Tomorrow they may all be in Kuwait.
A few interesting things have happened during the operation of these
stations. One bit of strange behavior took our technicians by
surprise: sun outages in Alaska are a twice annual occurrence for
several days in a row at about mid-day. Sun outages for Saudi Arabia
were calculated and started shortly after the first stations were in
place. But no one expected the outages to also happen just after
midnight, exactly twelve hours later too! Here in Alaska we only
worry about the sun pointing at the dish, in Saudi Arabia it can hit
the antenna on the bird.
One anomaly that I can't explain was a technician who called the
Fairbanks testboard several times, over a week's time, asking us to
patch him to various places, all back into Saudia Arabia. After this
happened a few times, I asked him why he was doing it. The answer: he
got better connections calling through Fairbanks than any other way.
I have no explanation for why. (Maybe he was getting too much sun...)
We also did have at least one soldier who had trouble dialing his
parents home phone. This young man is from Alaska, and as a matter of
fact he grew up literally next door to ME. When he heard there were a
bunch of Alaskans in his compound, he and some friends went to visit,
and of course the supervisor handed them a phone and said "Call home."
The rest of them did with no problem, but the Alaskan soldier couldn't
get his call to go through. He was dialing it in exactly the same way
the others were, but that didn't work for an Alaska number. The
supervisor told him to just think of it as a phone on a street corner
in Anchorage (in effect it was) and dial accordingly. He did, and
then it worked. (That is how it was described to me, by the
supervisor. He didn't say why it didn't work, but I assume our PBX
trunks in Anchorage don't like area code 907).
It may also interest people to know that the first unit shipped is
commonly called "The Batmobile" and has seen previous duty during the
hurricane in Puerto Rico, during the invasion of Panama, and on an
island near Bligh Reef during the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. I
think they repainted it (camouflage?), but normally it looks like a TV
news van with company slogans all over it. The other units are on
permanent lease to the military in Alaska, and hence are of course
painted white (camouflage!).
Floyd L. Davidson | floyd@ims.alaska.edu | Alascom, Inc. pays me
Salcha, AK 99714 | Univ. of Alaska | but not for opinions.