[afnog] Ku-band that is good for west African - Nigeria

[Sunday Folayan]

Hello Paul,

Your question is like asking .... "Which car is the best".

If what you want is acceleration ....  car manufacturers will tell you .... 
my car does  0 to 100km in X seconds.
If what you want is fuel economy ... car manufacturers will tell you .... 
my car does Xkm per litre.
If what you want in space ... car manufacturers will tell you .... my car 
has X Cubic meters of space.

etc etc etc. The car that will accelerate very fast, may obviously guzzle 
more fuel. Best is thus subjective.

Back to satellite Communication:

Ku Suffers from Rain Fade. Now it so happens that it rains sooooo much in 
Port Harcourt, but does not rain that much in Kaduna. Both are in Nigeria. 
I will thus not advise that Ku equipment be used in Port-Harcourt, but of 
course, you can get away with it in Kaduna. Again, subjectivity.

Footprint? The Measurement is EIRP. It is measured in dbm. The figures are 
read from contours, from maps for each satellite on each of the providers 
websites. It so happens that the EIRP again depends on where you are, and 
its not a single value for a whole country. Study the contour for the 
satellite you want to connect to,  for where you are, to see which 
satellite has the highest.

You can boost the final EIRP recieved, by stepping up the size of the 
Antenna. For example, a 3.8M Antenna receives stronger beams than 2.4M 
antennas. I will not touch a 1.8M dish, for C band ... Your link budget 
margin at that dish size is a bit low. You thus can get a better 
performance, by using a bigger antenna.

Which Solution? Again ... you need to look at the specs.

For example, I use Skyvision, which has a 40M/Symbols DVB beam.  The 
pentamedia works only up to 30M/Symbols. It so happens that it is very very 
affordable, but I can no longer use it with my provider, who now have a 
huge 40M/Symbols. ... so pentamedia is not the best for that provider.

All in all, the best is pretty subjective. Please study the specification 
sheets, and then call your own shots. If it is too tough, spend some money 
... pay someone to do it ;-).

Regards ...

Sunday.


At 12:36 AM 1/18/2005, Paul wrote:
>Good say all.
>Pls I need your advice on the best ku-band vsat satellite system dat is 
>good for west african - especially nigeria.
>Again which footprint is the best among intelsat , shiron, panamsat and 
>gilat?.
>thirdly, which solution is the best between IPsat, shiron gateway and 
>pentamedia?.
>thanks
>AJ
>-------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday A Folayan
General Data Engineering Services [SKANNET]
18b Oshin Road, Kongi Bodija
PO Box 29460 Secretariat PO
Ibadan - Nigeria
Phone: +234 - 2- 8105156
Fax:    +234 - 2 - 8105156 x 122
Email: sfolayan at skannet.com.ng

.....In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.