When this guideline is to be used?

Transcription

1 [HOW TO REACQUIRE THE SATELLITE] 1 This basic troubleshooting guideline will show steps you as the end-user can perform in order restore communications on a Sealink system if you suspect that the antenna(s) is/are not pointing towards the satellite. A problem we commonly refer to as off satellite. When this guideline is to be used? We recommend that you only follow this guideline when you have no LED in the RX LED on the idirect satellite modem onboard (as shown in the pictures below) and the antenna(s) is/are clear of any blind sectors (see section 1.1). Figure 1: idirect infiniti If the Receive traffic (RX traffic) LED is off (not green), the most likely problem is that the antenna is not pointing towards the satellite. The INFINITI 5000 has the RX LED in the front, for the Netmodem II+ the RX LED is located at the rear of the modem. A flashing amber network LED on the front of a Netmodem II+ indicates the RX LED is not green for the Netmodem II+. Alternatively the antenna might be trying to point in the direction of the satellite, but there is an obstruction either on the vessel or on shore which is blocking the signal (the antenna is in a blind sector). See section 1. for instructions on how to determine if the antenna is in a blind sector. 1. Determining if the antenna is in a blind sector. To determine if the antenna is in a blind sector you need to know in which direction the antenna is pointing relative to the ship, this is indicated by the relative azimuth (REL) value on the Antenna Control Unit (ACU). To find the REL value on the old type of TAC 92/DAC 97/03 ACU (see Figure 3), press the ANTENNA button one time. To find the REL value on the DAC 2200/2202 ACU (see Figure 4) press the NEXT button several times until the display shows: AZ, EL, REL & AGC. As mentioned, the REL value shows in which direction the antenna is pointing relative to the vessel as shown in Figure 2 below.

2 [HOW TO REACQUIRE THE SATELLITE] 2 Figure 2. How to interpret the REL value. As figure 2 shows: A REL value of 0 or 360 means that the antenna is pointing directly to the bow of the vessel. A REL value of 90 means that the antenna is pointing directly to the starboard side. A REL value of 180 means that the antenna is pointing directly to the aft of the vessel. A REL value of 270 means that the antenna is pointing directly to the portside. Once you know in which direction the antenna is pointing, it becomes easier to determine if the antenna is in a blind sector. Simply look in the direction of the REL value, if there is anything either on the vessel (such as a funnel or mast) or on shore (such as a crane or tall building) that s blocking the antennas view of the sky in that direction, there is high probability that this is what s causing problems. Of course you must also take into consideration the elevation (EL) of the antenna. With very low elevations the instance of blind sectors might be increased and with very high elevation the instance of blind sectors might be decreased. If you believe that the antenna is in a blind sector, the only option is most likely to change the heading of the vessel (if possible) to try to clear the blind sector. If you are fairly certain that the antenna is not in a blind sector, you may proceed to section 1.1. of this guideline.

3 1.1. Pointing the antenna back on satellite. [HOW TO REACQUIRE THE SATELLITE] 3 Assuming the Receive traffic (RX Traffic) LED is off and the antenna is clear of any possible obstructions/blind sectors, the first thing you can try onboard is to drive the antenna back on satellite. This is done from the Antenna Control Unit (ACU) mounted in the rack along with the Modem(s) and other equipment. How to drive the antenna back on satellite depends on the type of ACU you have onboard. Figure 3. below shows the old type of TAC 92/DAC 97/03 ACU and Figure 4. shows the new DAC 2200/2202 ACU. Figure 3. TAC 92/DAC 97/03 ACU Figure 4. DAC 2200/2202 ACU If you have the TAC 92/DAC 97/03 type of ACU(s) onboard, please proceed to section 2.1. Pointing the antenna back on satellite using the TAC 92/DAC 97/03 ACU. If you have the DAC 2200/2202 type of ACU(s) onboard, please proceed to section 3.1. Pointing the antenna back on satellite using the DAC 2200/2202 ACU Pointing the antenna back on satellite using the TAC 92/DAC 97/03 ACU. Before you proceed we recommend that you get an initial reading of the following parameters on the ACU and note them down: AZ, EL, REL, AGC you get these parameters by pressing the ANTENNA button one time; THRS you get this parameter by pressing the SAT button one time; and HDG you get this parameter by pressing the SHIP button one time When pointing the antenna back on satellite, the first thing that you need to check is if the readings under the SHIP menu are correct. Press the SHIP button one time and check if the LAT, LON are (more or less) identical to the ships GPS. If the values differ, you can try to enter the correct values by pressing the SHIP button one more time to change the LAT, or two more times to change the LON. To enter the new position, you can use the numeric keys followed by the ENTER button. In addition you must make sure that both readings for the HDG are about the same and are matching the heading shown on the ships gyro compass. If the values differ press the SHIP button three times to get to the HDG and enter the correct HDG of the ship. Afterwards you can re-enter the satellite position (latitude) in the ACU to re-target the satellite. To do this press the SAT button two times, the display should then only display the preferred SAT [SAT xxx W] Where XXX is the latitude of the satellite in degrees (example: 329 E). To re-target the satellite simply re-enter the latitude and press the ENTER button one time. The ACU will now calculate the azimuth (AZ) and elevation (EL) from the ships position and heading, and then drive the antenna to the calculated values. For example if the longitude of the satellite is

4 [HOW TO REACQUIRE THE SATELLITE] degrees east simply press and then ENTER on the ACU (note that you can change from east (E) to west (W) by pressing the N/S E/W button, also note that a satellite position of 001W is identical to a position of 359E). The Searching LED should start flashing, followed by a constant green LED on Tracking (see figure 3). Once you have a stable/constant green LED on Tracking wait for approximately 60 seconds and should see the if RX LED on the IDirect Satellite modem becomes green. If the LED doesn t become green after 60 seconds, double-check if both the tracking frequency (see section 2.2.) and the threshold (THRS) (see section 2.3.) are correct. If both are correct proceed to section Verifying and re-entering the tracking frequency using the TAC 92/ DAC 97/03 ACU. The ACU is tracking the satellite by moving the dish of the antenna to the position where the highest signal level on the tracking frequency is found. The strength of the signal is represented by the AGC value in the ACU. The higher the signal level the higher the AGC in the ACU will be. As there are many satellites on the same orbit only separated by a few degrees, there might be instances where the ACU has started tracking the wrong satellite (if that satellite is transmitting a signal on the same frequency as the tracking frequency set in the ACU). The tracking frequency set in the ACU is always included on the containing settings we send out in preparation of satellite change. It is very important that this frequency has been noted and is available in case it needs to be checked against the frequency set in the ACU. If you are unsure about the correct value for the tracking frequency, please contact the WaveCall Help Desk at or support.wavecall@marlink.com. To verify (and re-enter) the tracking frequency do the following. Press the SAT button to display the SAT menu, on the second line of the display depending on the software version of the ACU, IF, FREQ or MHz will be displayed. If the tracking frequency for example is 151,288 MHz, follow the instructions below to re-enter the tracking frequency: If you have a version showing IF before the tracking frequency, press the SAT button three times, until the display only shows IF and AGC. Then press ENTER followed by ENTER (POINT TWO EIGHT EIGHT). The frequency must be entered in two steps as described above. The first step includes the whole number part and second step includes the decimal part. If you have a version showing FREQ before the tracking frequency, press the SAT button three times and then press ENTER. In this case you can only enter the whole number part. If you have a version showing MHZ before the tracking frequency, press the SAT button 3 times and then press ENTER followed by ENTER one more time (at this point some software versions requires that you press the N/S E/W button instead of ENTER), the khz part will now be displayed, press ENTER to enter the KHz part (note that 288 KHz is entered as 0288, entering for example 2880, would be the equivalent to 2,880 MHz which would be incorrect). Re-entering the tracking frequency in this way might help to reset the ACU s internal tuner to get the correct AGC value. 2.3 Setting the Threshold using the TAC 92/DAC 97/03 ACU.

5 [HOW TO REACQUIRE THE SATELLITE] 5 The threshold (THRS) is shown in the top right corner of the SAT menu (shown by pressing the SAT button once). The THRS defines at what AGC level the ACU will go from a searching- to a tracking mode. A very low THRS can cause the ACU to track on noise and a very high AGC can cause the antenna to go into a never ending search pattern. To calculate the optimal THRS value, you need to know what the AGC used to be when the antenna was on satellite (when the RX Traffic (Receive Traffic) LED on the modem was on) and also what the AGC was when the system was off satellite. The THRS can then be set to a value which is 30 to 50 percent below the AGC you have when you are on satellite. For example if the AGC on satellite is 2000 and the AGC off satellite is 1000, the optimal THRS would be a value between 1500 and Note: if you are unsure what the AGC used to be when you were on satellite, simply leave the THRS on its current value and proceed to section 2.4. You can change the THRS by pressing the SAT button until only the THRS is shown in the display. Then enter the desired value using the numeric keys and press the ENTER button one time. 2.4 Re-initialize the antenna using the TAC 92/DAC 97/03 ACU. If you are unable to restore the satellite link by re-entering the satellite position, there might be a mismatch between the AZ and EL shown in the ACU and AZ and EL that the antenna is actually pointing in. Then it might be necessary to re-initialize the antenna first, and after that re-enter the satellite position. To re-initialize the antenna, do the following on the ACU: 1. Press the AUX 1 button one time to turn off tracking. 2. Press the AUX 2 and C buttons simultaneously, the display will then show "SETUP, SAVE NEW PARAMETERS" 3. Press the MODE button two times, the display will then show something similar to "REMOTE COMMAND 0000" 4. Press. 9 4 followed by the ENTER button (that's POINT, NINE, FOUR, ENTER), the display will now show "REMOTE COMMAND ^0000" 5. Press 9 0 followed by the ENTER button (that's NINE, ZERO, ENTER). The Error LED should now become red and the searching LED might also start to flash. 6. Press the ANTENNA button one time, followed by the MODE button and finally the N/S E/W button. The display should now show "SEATEL INC REMOTE - INITIALIZING". The antenna is then initializing, wait one to two minutes for it to finish. 7. When the antenna is done initializing, the second line of the display should change to your antenna type. 8. Press the MODE button three times, the display should then show something similar to "SETUP, ERROR " 9. Press the UP ARROW button one time, the display should then show "SETUP, ERROR ", clearing the error (the error LED should go off as well). 10. Press the SHIP button one time and make sure the heading of the ship (HDG) is still correct; both HDG numbers should be about the same. If the HDG is incorrect, re-enter the correct value (you must first press the SHIP button several times until you only have the HDG shown twice in the display). 11. Press the SAT button two times, then re-enter the satellite position and press the ENTER button. The antenna should then find the satellite shortly If the antenna doesn t find the satellite and you don t get a green LED in Receive Traffic (RX Traffic) on the IDirect Satellite Modem within 1-2 minutes of performing the re-initializing procedure, something else might be wrong with the system. Please call the WaveCall Help Desk at or support.wavecall@marlink.com. When contacting the Help Desk, please have the values of the following parameters from in the ACU ready. 1. LAT, LON & HDG (You get this by pressing the SHIP button one time) 2. SAT, THRS & MHZ (You get this by pressing the SAT button one time) 3. AZ, EL, REL & AGC (You get this by pressing the ANTENNA button one time).

6 [HOW TO REACQUIRE THE SATELLITE] Pointing the antenna back on satellite using the DAC 2200/2202 ACU. Before you proceed we recommend that you get an initial reading of the following parameters on the ACU and note them down: AZ, EL, REL, AGC you get these parameters by pressing the NEXT button several times; THRS you get this parameter by pressing the NEXT button (up to several times); and HDG you get this parameter by pressing the NEXT button (up to several times). The first thing we will try in order to point the antenna back on satellite is to simply re-enter the satellite position (latitude) in the ACU to re-target the satellite. 1. To do this press the NEXT button several times until SAT THRS MHZ & NID are displayed. 2. Then press the ENTER button one time until only SAT is displayed. 3. Then press the LEFT ARROW button one time, the display should now display an under-bar space. 4. Then press the ENTER button one time to re-target the satellite. The Target LED should now LED up and then the Searching LED should start flashing for a short moment, after this the Tracking LED should start flashing followed by a constant green LED on Tracking. Once you have a stable/constant LED on Tracking, wait approximately 60 seconds and then see if the RX LED on the IDirect Satellite modem becomes green. If it does not become green after 60 seconds, double-check if both the tracking frequency (see section 3.2.) and the threshold (see section 3.3.) are correct. If both are correct please proceed to section Verifying and re-entering the tracking frequency using the DAC 2200/2202 ACU. The ACU is tracking the satellite by moving the dish of the antenna to the position where the highest signal level on the tracking frequency is found. The strength of the signal is represented by the AGC value in the ACU. The higher the signal level the higher the AGC in the ACU will be. As there are many satellites on the same orbit only separated by a few degrees, there might be instances where the ACU has started tracking the wrong satellite (if that satellite is transmitting a signal on the same frequency as the tracking frequency set in the ACU). The tracking frequency set in the ACU is always included on the containing settings we send out in preparation of satellite change. It is very important that this frequency has been noted and is available in case it needs to be checked against the frequency set in the ACU. If you are unsure about the correct value for the tracking frequency, please contact the WaveCall Help Desk at or support.wavecall@marlink.com. To verify (and re-enter) the tracking frequency do the following: Press the NEXT button until the SAT menu is shown in the display (The SAT menu is the menu where you will see the SAT, THRS, MHZ/FREQ and NID parameters displayed). The second line of the display will show FREQ or MHZ. If the tracking frequency for example is set to 1429 MHz, follow the instructions below to re-enter the tracking frequency: If the display is showing FREQ before the tracking frequency, only the whole number part of the tracking frequency can be entered. Press the ENTER button several times until only the FREQ and the AGC is shown in the display. Then press the LEFT ARROW button one time to get the cursor in the menu. You can now use the UP and DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT ARROW buttons to change the tracking frequency. Change the FREQ to any other value (which value doesn t matter as long as it s different than the original value, but remember to note down the original value). Press the ENTER button one time and then again press the LEFT

7 [HOW TO REACQUIRE THE SATELLITE] 7 ARROW button and change the tracking frequency back to the original value (using the UP and DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT ARROW button), 1200 in this example. If the display is showing MHZ before the tracking frequency, both the MHZ and the KHZ will need to be set. Press the ENTER button until only the MHZ and AGC is shown in the display. Then press the LEFT ARROW button to get the cursor in the menu. You can now use the UP and DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT ARROW buttons to change the tracking frequency, change the MHZ part of the tracking frequency to any other value (which value doesn t matter as long as its different from the original value, but remember to note down the original value). Press the ENTER button and then again press the LEFT ARROW button and change the tracking frequency back to the original value (using the UP and DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT ARROW buttons), MHz 1200 in this example and press the ENTER button. Then again press the ENTER button to get to the KHZ part. Press the LEFT ARROW button and change the KHZ part to the correct value, 0100 in this example and then press the ENTER button (note that 100 KHz is entered as 0100, entering for example 1000, would be the equivalent to 1,000 Mhz which would be incorrect). 3.3 Setting the Threshold using the DAC 2200/2202 ACU. The threshold (THRS) is shown in the top right corner of the SAT menu (shown by pressing the NEXT button several times). The THRS defines at what AGC level the ACU will go from a searchingto a tracking mode. A very low THRS can cause the ACU to track on noise and a very high AGC can cause the antenna to go into a never ending search pattern. To calculate the optimal THRS value, you need to know what the AGC used to be when the antenna was on satellite (when the RX Traffic (Receive Traffic) LED on the modem was on) and also what the AGC was when the system was off satellite. The THRS can then be set to a value which is 5 to 10 percent below the AGC you have when you are on satellite. For example if the AGC on satellite is 1600 and AGC off satellite is 1400, the optimal THRS would be a between 1440 and Note: if you are unsure what the AGC used to be when you were on satellite, simply leave the THRS on its current value and proceed to section You can change the THRS by pressing the NEXT button until the SAT menu is shown in the display (The SAT menu is the menu where you will see the SAT, THRS, MHZ/FREQ and NID parameters displayed). Then press the ENTER button two times, now the display should only show the THRS value. Press the LEFT ARROW button one time to get the cursor in the menu. You can now use the UP and DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT ARROW buttons to change the THRS. Set the desired value on the THRS and press the ENTER button one time. 3.4 Re-initialize the antenna using the DAC 2200/2202 ACU. If you are unable to restore the satellite link by re-entering the satellite position, there might be a mismatch between the AZ and EL shown in the ACU and the AZ and EL that the antenna is actually pointing in. It might then be necessary to re-initialize the antenna first and then re-enter the satellite position. To re-initialize the antenna, do the following on the ACU: 1. Press and hold both the LEFT and RIGHT ARROW buttons (SETUP keys) simultaneously for about 6 seconds until the display shows "SETUP EL TRIM". 2. Press and hold both the LEFT and RIGHT ARROW buttons (SETUP keys) simultaneously again for about 1 second until the display shows "SETUP SAVE NEW PARAMETERS". 3. Press the DOWN ARROW button two times, the display will now show "REMOTE COMMAND 0000". 4. If the SEARCHING or TRACKING LEDs are turned on, you need to press the TRACK button one time to turn them off. 5. Press the LEFT ARROW button to get a cursor under one of the zeros. Then use the ARROW keys (UP and DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT) to change the characters in the display

8 [HOW TO REACQUIRE THE SATELLITE] 8 to show "REMOTE COMMAND ^0090" (you will get the ^ character by pressing the UP arrow button until you have the letter Z, then press the UP arrow button four more times). After that press the ENTER button one time. The ERROR LED may come on now. 6. Press the NEXT button one time, the display should now show "SEATEL INC REMOTE - INITIALIZING". The antenna is now being reinitialized (re-started), this will take approximately 2 minutes. When this is completed the display should show the antenna type and software version, for example "SEATEL INC REMOTE 9707 V2.08". 7. Press the ENTER button three times, the display will then show something similar to "STATUS ERROR ", press the LEFT ARROW button followed by the ENTER button. The ERROR LED should now go off and the display should show "STATUS ERROR ". 8. Press the NEXT button two times, the display will then show LAT, LON and HDG. Make sure both HDG values are still correct. If not, re-enter the heading of the ship as shown on the ships gyro compass (to re-enter the HDG, press the ENTER button several times until the display only shows the HDG twice, then press the LEFT ARROW button and use the UP and DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT ARROW buttons to change the HDG value). 9. Press the NEXT button one or two times until the display shows SAT, THRS, MHZ and NID. Press the ENTER button one time so that the display only shows SAT. Then press the LEFT ARROW button one time to get a cursor under the value set as the SAT longitude (E or W). Then press the ENTER button one time to re-enter the satellite longitude The ACU will then calculate the AZ and EL given the ships LAT, LON and HDG. If the antenna doesn t find the satellite and you don t get a green LED in Receive Traffic (RX Traffic) on the IDirect Satellite Modem within 1-2 minutes of performing the reinitializing procedure, something else might be wrong with the system. Please call the WaveCall Help Desk at for further assistance. When contacting the Help Desk, please have the values of the following parameters in the ACU ready. 1. LAT, LON & HDG (You get this by pressing the NEXT button one or several times) 2. SAT, THRS & MHZ (You get this by pressing the NEXT button one or several times) 3. AZ, EL, REL & AGC (You get this by pressing the NEXT button one or several times).