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Aboard the USS ConstellationBroadcasting on the Big Connie By Matthew Beresford Connie's broadcasting structure consists of a control room that receives inputs from three different satellite systems, a two-camera production studio, and flight deck cameras. These inputs enter the six main racks of the TV Station which can be configured underway to provide up to 20 different channels, and over 70 channels in port. At the head-end of our distribution system are eight Blonder Tongue CATV amps pushing those channels through an immense trunk line system of mostly Heliax and RG-11 feeding the over 800 Zenith 20-inch televisions on board. There are over 200 staterooms (mini hotel rooms) aboard for all of Connies officers and distiguished visitors which all have a Zenith TV, most of the other TVs are in workspaces and offices and also all enlisted berthings have a TV lounge and the bigger berthings are even lucky enough to have 50 Mitsubishi big screens! Satellite Systems and digital world.Our biggest dish is a classic 3-meter 1980s platform by SeaTel, It is quite capable still but slowly becoming a dinosaur as more things go digital. It is configurable for both C & KU bands in both NTSC & PAL (a must for western deployments) It contains an older analog tracking control unit (TCU) by SeaTel which receives a heading input from our ships gyros to keep a rough-to-semi-stable track. The IRDs are Drake 1240 VideoCipher 2s for local birds and 1240E for our favorite foreign birds that we mostly use for CNN International feeds. In early 1996 the Connie made a digital step forward by installing a 1-meter enclosed DirecTV system dish and platform also by SeaTel. Its TCU is a more digital and reliable TAC-92 which also receives a heading input and uses it and manual latitude and longitude updates to keep a very stable track on the 101 birds. We've expanded the system from its original install of 4 Sony SAT-A1 receivers many times to a current 11 receivers set-up that can rival a local sports bar during football season! One unfortunate drawback to this high quality video and audio satellite source is its coastal footprint only goes out about 250 nautical miles because we aren't the real customer group that DirecTV aims to please.
Last year AFRTS also made a very large and expensive change towards digital and offered this system to be tested aboard all the Navy carriers first! It provides us 2 channels of live and taped news, sports, sitcoms, and movies along with some radio station feeds in the audio sidebands. This system is uplinked from the AFRTS Broadcast Center at March AFB near LA to Intelsat 701 at 180° E for wide pacific coverage, the Atlantic coverage is on Intelsat 803 @ 338° E, and our favorite operating waters around the Indian Ocean is covered by Intelsat 804 @ 64°E. These locations are supposed to cover all deployed areas but due to transiting between oceans and blockage issues due to dish location we probably only had 65% reception during our last 6-month cruise, it was a dramatic crews morale lifter to be able to see your favorite teams or NASCAR driver live, if even at 3 AM! One nice system feature is its computer-run tracking system which is very accurate with many options due to the fact the that the dome contains a portable GPS unit and IMU/SDU unit so not only is it constantly updating a very accurate latitude and longitude but is also compensating pitch & roll. Normally there isn't much for a carrier, but it can be quite useful in the northern Pacific or southern Indian Ocean where we enjoy heavier seas! The channels are locked in by Scientific-Atlanta PowerVU digital receivers and the system has UPS backup power for those unannounced switchboard changes. KCON Radio and Wannabe DJsWe do have a ships radio station booth connected to our control room, but the audio is transported only by CATV modulation around the ship, with usually a CG scroller video source. This may not be a bad thing as our many squid DJs don't understand the meaning of Dead Air! The room has thousands of CDs, 3 new ones arrive weekly from TM-Century to keep the ship connected with the American music charts while deployed. There are many radio shows throughout the day all with different formats from sports & country to Shock Jock Rock. And when we dont have DJs ready we always can resort to our 60CD jukebox for an autopilot. KCON TelevisionIn the spring of 1997 the ship was looking at deploying for a 6-month cruise with a skeleton system from the early 80s that had been stripped and patched many times until it had barely a functioning Beta VTR, a small 10x1 A/V switcher, and 1 functioning studio cam and CCU. I was tired of pulling my hair out chasing mis-labeled cables and repairing antique equipment but heard through the grapevine that although our long awaited $500,000 replacement system had arrived in a warehouse in San Diego, it wasn't going to get installed aboard because of different contracting logistics and low-priority attitudes of the job in some leaders' eyes. Well, drastic times call for drastic engineering decisions and so on a night about 6 weeks before our scheduled departing date, a fellow tech and I grabbed our cable dikes, secured power, and started hacking through the systems cableways leaving only a path of rats nests cables. By morning we grinned while giving a tour of the space to our chiefs. Then we bore the onslaught of negativity and disparity with our coffee until noon when an emergency meeting was held with all the contracting supervisors.
A plan was devised to refurbish the space and rebuild the new station; one we could use to produce shows we could be proud of, using reliable and current commercial quality equipment. Although challenging at times the system did make the install deadline and taught all involved much about design strategies and matching equipment and technologies. We use mostly 8mm format and have six Sony 9500s for playing AFRTS taped programming and NMPS (Navy Motion Picture Service) movies which are always running 24 hrs a day on two of the 12-channel capable system. Every morning underway we produce Connie Currents. It's a morning show with regular and guest talent that let the day's schedule of events and happenings be known along with some humor about the scheduled meals and news and sports updates. The neighboring studio uses two Sony Hyper HAD DXC-327 cameras with Tele-prompters. Back in the control room we also have a decent editing suite with a Sony 9700 editing tank with digital input routing options and production effects supplied from Grass Valley Group. Often taped training and entering port brief productions are created with this suite mixing PowerPoint programs and studio sources to create some highly informational productions. Of course all is kept at its proper levels with the use of a Tektronix 1740A Waveform/ Vectorscope combo monitor. We also use their 492/6 Spectrum Analyzer and Sencores SL750 Field strength meters among other pieces of test equipment in our repair shop and around the ship for those fun hard to figure faults. Combat Systems TV Repair ShopOur shop is manned by the Navy rating of IC (Interior Communications) This is mainly a phone and alarm system rating of the Navy who are trained in basic AC & DC and such equipment. The Broadcasting IC or SITE IC men (Ships Information Training Entertainment) are a tiny group in the Navy that have excelled themselves above those simpler electronics schools and who applied and were accepted to additional broadcasting and television repair secondary schools taught in northern Chicago and the East Coast, ranging from 6 to 18 months. These are all schools that technicians in the TV repair shop have graduated from. I arrived on board in late September of 1995 from the TV schools and ready for my first ship and some adventures on the big blue seas. The shop is rated for six techs of varying broadcasting schools. It had a full crew during our '97 deployment but just me in '98 for 9 months after our return to San Diego. We are responsible for maintaining, installing, and repairing all the above equipment down to component level. Anytime in a day I could be repairing a Zenith television, (I have about 300 or so repairs of those under my belt) to replacing a simple BNC connector on the system to troubleshooting an interfering frequency with one of our satellites thanks to the many ships radar, to aligning one of the studio cameras. Some of us like me with secret clearances also maintain and repair an intense SCCTV system used for briefing the airwings and pilots on their upcoming missions. It is bigger then the television station and much more digital which also because of its content makes it much more classified. Enough--maybe too much--said. About MeI'm originally from lower Michigan (Ann Arbor area) and entered the Navy upon graduating in 1994 because I really didnt want to get a bunch of student loans to finance my further education. I was tired of sitting behind a desk and wanted to start learning and working in an area that interested me. After Boot Camp and my original six-month IC rating school at the old NTC Point Loma base, I graduated 2nd in my class of 30 and was offered the opportunity to attend some advanced television and broadcasting schools and delay going to a ship. I jumped at the chance of new cities and schools and traveled back to Chicago for another 6 months of civilian-taught intense studies on everything that is TV. I got hooked and knew I was working where I belonged in this Navy. Upon settling aboard the Connie I learned that faults in equipment aren't always as obvious as textbook and lab faults and that they forgot to teach us a whole bunch! I taught myself for the rest of my time on board and took the FCC General Class test in early 1998 along with ten other broadcasting types from all 4 services. After a few hours, I walked out with a sweaty uniform but proud that I was the only of the 10 to pass. Maybe all those passed up nights in the Gaslamp were worth it! Soon after, I was sent back to school in Virginia Beach for a few months for my last Navy technical school on the SCCTV mission briefing system listed above. It was a refreshing break after 3 years on board, especially when on the beach during the early summer! Upon returning, I felt recharged and motivated to complete these last 2 years and looming 1999 deployment as best I could and prepare for the civilian broadcasting market. That time is fast approaching--my end of active duty service date is August 21, 2000. My terrific girlfriend April has been supportive in my quest to find the right job, whether as a station engineer, for a satellite programming provider, or even with a broadcasting equipment manufacturer. We are open to staying local as she finishes her last year of her Registered Nurse degree, or relocating, preferably somewhere with little or no snow! As long as I have the opportunity to learn and in the future lead with my team player attitude then I'm interested. I'm very excited to finally be able to join and be and active member in the SBE and hopefully get that CSTE certification someday before the gray hair hits me! You may contact Matthew Beresford at beresfom@constellation.navy.mil. |
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