Tachyon Training:
Five members of the ADEC/NSF Engineering Team participated in Tachyon portable
CPE training on January 28, 2002. The training was conducted at Tachyon headquarters
in San Diego, California. Tony Graziano, Tachyon Field Engineer (tonyg@tachyon.net),
was the lead trainer. The training included classroom and field exercises.
Tony proved to be an excellent trainer. The training class included individuals with a wide range of technical experience all of whom indicated that the program was well designed, enjoyable and relatively easy to comprehend.
Program participants included:
Gary Atkins, Colorado State University and ADEC Chief Engineer
Bob Dixon, Ohio State University and OARNet
Freddie Richardson, Prairie View A&M University
Jim Shelden, Washington State University
Jeff Poley, ADEC Technical Advisor
It became apparent during the session that successful operation of a portable Tachyon platform was not overly complicated. ADEC members who are planning to deploy a portable platform should consider investing in the Tachyon training session prior to finalizing plans for the unit. Significant cost savings may result from a clear understanding of how the technology works. Contact Jeff Poley at jpoley2@unl.edu for details about the Tachyon training.
Portable Platform Fabricators:
ADEC has investigated a number of organizations that have the capability to
integrate the Tachyon CPE technology in a portable system.
OBS, Inc.
<http://www.obsinc.net>
The company is located in Canton, Ohio. Paul Trenta is the contact at OBS, Inc., who is familiar with the Tachyon techology. He can be reached at (800) 362-9592 ext. 313. OBS built a portable Tachyon platform in a van for the Illinois Library Alliance. This solution employs a satellite antenna on a cart that is manually aimed. During the interview with Trenta, he indicated that he is very familiar with self-actuating antenna systems such as those used for satellite news gathering (SNG) operations. A self-actuating system was not used in the Alliance project due to the high cost. Most of OBS's clients are public entities.
TurtleTOP
<http://www.turtletop.com>
This company is located in New Paris, Indiana. The contact telephone number is (219) 831-4340. They are building the portable Tachyon platform for Prairie View A&M University on a school bus frame. The solution provided by TurtleTOP will be similar to that provided by OBS, Inc. ADEC engineering staff will be on site when the company installs the Tachyon equipment and will participate in testing the system.
Knier Productions (Web on Wheels):
<http://www.webonwheels.com>
The company is located in Montara, California. The contact is Jim Knier at (650) 728-1090. Their most recent Tachyon platform, completed in March, 2001, was built for Wells Fargo Bank. That system employs a self-actuating antenna on a transcontinental bus frame and body.
ADEC will be investigating other solutions within the coming weeks
Two companies have been identified which may be of interest to those considering the integration of a self-actuating satellite antenna system into the Tachyon platform.
AdvancedTech Communications, Inc., located in San Diego, California, builds a 1.2 meter VSAT antenna system (http://www.advancedtek.com) which may be equipped with a fully automatic controller. The antenna folds for storage.
AvL Technologies located in Ashville, North Carolina, (<http://www.avltech.com>) also offers a 1.2 meter VSAT system which they identify as a "Fly and Drive." The company advertises that "...A roof mounting kit quickly converts any station wagon, SUV or mini-van into an SNG vehicle in 30 minutes…" The system can be manually operated or equipped with a fully automatic controller.
ADEC strongly suggests that Tachyon engineers be consulted prior to the purchase of any satellite antenna to insure that the antenna complies with Tachyon and FCC specifications for the uses contemplated.
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"This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation
under Grant No. 0073240. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the National Science Foundation."