scope:

The scope of this European Telecommunication Standard (ETS) is to provide minimum specifications for the standardisation of the characteristics of Transportable Earth Stations (TESs) used for Satellite News Gathering (SNG) which can be either an unforeseen or pre-planned activity. The TES can be either vehicle mounted or packed for transportation. The TES can be capable of transmitting either video or audio or both simultaneously. The TESs considered in this ETS are those designed to operate whilst stationary as defined in subclause 3.2.

This earth station should include a capability to receive signals from the satellite for antenna pointing purposes and to monitor its own transmission where the satellite transmission beam permits. The receive equipment could also be used in the process of two-way communication to control and co-ordinate operation.

SNG earth stations have the following characteristics:

- operating in the Ku-band allocated to the Fixed Satellite Services (FSS), 12,75 - 13,25 GHz (Earth- Space), 13,75 - 14,50 GHz (Earth-Space), 10,70 - 11,70 GHz (Space-Earth) and 12,50 - 12,75 GHz (Space-Earth). Frequencies could be selected from throughout the entire frequency range or be restricted to a range completely enclosed within those bands. These bands are partly shared between FSS and Fixed Service (FS);

- in these frequency bands linear polarization is normally used and the system operates through satellites with 3 degree spacing;

- designed for attended operation;

- antenna diameter not exceeding 5,0 m or equivalent corresponding aperture.

NOTE: At present the Radio Regulations restrict the use of the 13,75 - 14,00 GHz band to earth stations having an antenna diameter of 4,5 m or greater and having a transmitting eirp between 68 dBW and 85 dBW.

The equipment considered in this ETS comprises both the antenna sub-system and the associated transmit and receive sub-systems.

This ETS does not contain any requirement, recommendation or information about the method of modulation. Such modulation could result in the transmission being either analogue or digital, or both simultaneously.

This ETS does not contain any requirement, recommendation or information about the baseband signals used in the modulation process. Such baseband signals could be pure analogue, digital or a mixture of analogue and digital.

This ETS does not contain any requirement, recommendation or information about the operation of the equipment.

This ETS deals with two types of specification:

- specifications defined in order to protect other users of the frequency spectrum, both satellite and terrestrial, from unacceptable interference. In addition these specifications are specified for the purposes of electrical safety, structural safety, Radio Frequency (RF) radiation safety and solar radiation protection as well as protection from harmful interference.

- specifications related to characteristics which depend on operational conditions and which contribute mainly to the quality of reception of the two-way communication and monitoring paths by providing the SNG TES with minimum interference protection from other radio systems.