AFN satellite dishes need realignment soon

  • Published
  • By George A. Smith
  • Armed Forces Network-Europe Public Affairs
MANNHEIM, Germany --  Forty-thousand people have viewed American Forces Network-Europe's on-line manuals, videos and hints to realign their satellite dish and reconfigure their decoder.

Another 1,500 have called AFN's help desk, but if you receive AFN TV via a direct-to-home house-hold satellite dish and decoder and still haven't switched, you need to now.

"We know this change will inconvenience folks," said Bill Bigelow AFN-Europe commander, "but people need to lock in the new satellite now to July 31 to continue getting AFN TV."

The biggest reported blip has been for viewers in Germany and Italy who want to receive both AFN and host nation TV shows.

The AFN help desk has been advising viewers in Germany who want to view both AFN and German TV to use a 100-120 centimeter dish with a special adapter for two individual Low-Noise-Blocks.

One LNB should point at the Eurobird 9a satellite and the second should point at the Astra satellite.

An LNB is the amplifier in front of the reflecting part of the dish, which is usually held in place by metal bars or braces.

A second recommended solution is to have two separate dishes with one pointed at Eurobird and the second at Astra. The bigger the dish, the less often you will lose signal during heavy rain or snow.

For people in Italy who want to continue to receive AFN TV and SKY, a possible solution is to use a commercially available clip-on satellite device. These do not require you to physically move your dish, however, you still need to access the dish and clip a device on it, then reconfigure your decoder.

Some other viewers throughout Europe have reported problems locking in a signal from a new satellite with an older model LNB. In some cases the LNB needs to be replaced with a newer model; readily available at many exchanges and host nation electronic stores.

Direct-to-home viewers in Europe must reconfigure their home decoder and lock in a signal from Eurobird 9A at nine degrees east, instead of from the current AFN satellite, Hotbird 6/9 at 13 degrees east.

Since setting up a dish and adjusting a decoder varies according to decoder model and other variables, use the manuals and how-to-videos in English, German and Italian at www.afneurope.net or contact the AFN help desk if you still have unresolved issues.

The AFN Help Desk is manned Tuesday-Friday from 1-9 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. (Central European Time). Viewers from Germany, Italy, Belgium, the UK and most other European countries can call in via a toll free-number, 00800-2362683662 (00800-afnantenna).