Satellite Update—Dec. 23, 2009

Globalstar Licensee LLC filed a request for a waiver to continue to operate its Big LEO (Low-Earth-Orbiting) satellite system in countries and regions served by five specified gateway earth stations located outside the United States, using frequencies between 1618.725 MHz and 1621.35 MHz. These frequencies were reassigned to Iridium Constellation LLC in an FCC Order of Modification released on Oct. 15, 2008. Globalstar requested special temporary authority to use these earth stations and frequencies for 180 days pending FCC action on the waiver request. From FCC Report SAT-00571.

Last week the FCC granted, with conditions, an application from Pegasus Development DBS Corporation to construct, launch and operate a 17/24 GHz broadcasting satellite service (BSS) space station at 115 degrees West Longitude (WL) using 17.3-17.8 GHz (space-to-Earth) and 24.75-25.25 (Earth-to-space). Operation in the 17.7-17.8 GHz band is limited to international service only. The FCC International Bureau’s Satellite Division determined ORBIMAGE License Corp has met the launch and operation milestone associated with its reservation of spectrum in the X-band for the GeoEye-1 satellite, formerly known as OrbView-5.These actions are listed in FCC Report SAT-00570.

Read more of Doug Lung's RF Reporthere.

Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.