Satellite tests nearing end

Press, 11 January 1986, Page 2

Satellite tests nearing end

The new satellite Earth station at Rangiora is nearing the latter part of its testing. From Monday afternoon the Post Office will spend a week bouncing test signals off a satellite over the equator. Mr Brent Hills, the station’s project manager, said the tests were designed to show whether the station’s signal beam met the specifications of Intelsat, which owns and operates the satellite. Intelsat is a conglomerate organisation of which New Zealand is a member. The Rangiora station, which is in the Ashley For-

est Hills, should be completed by March, although work would still need to be done on the station’s links within New Zealand, said Mr Hills.

The station, together with one being built near Wellington, is designed to complement and increase the services already provided by the two-dish antennae at Warkworth, north of Auckland. Once the two new stations are completed, the Post Office will have three satellite routes for both internal and international telecommunications and television.