Intelsat Dish Farm Napa

[marco916]

Has anybody seen this Dish Farm in Napa, one of the biggest farms I've seen. I've always drove bye it on my way to Sonoma in the wine country, but never knew who it belonged to until now. If you check out the Intelsat web page, they have some nice interactive Flash pages about the major birds with pretty good technical data. Intelsat Global Telecommunications Satellite Network I guess this company is one of the major players in the Satellite business. Next time I drive by that area, i'll stop and snap some photos. I'm sure security is pretty tight at this facility.

http://www.intelsat.com/network/satellite/

 

[DefCon4]

I drive by it a couple times a week. Many of its dishes are aimed under the highway overpass toward the horizon, yet many others are aimed in curious directions. The location does not seem ideal, but it's better than the Richmond, CA teleport with freight trains passing in front of the dishes. I've always wanted a tour of the facility, but don't have any connections. Thanks for the link.

 

[photoman76]

Here are a couple of photos that I snapped as I was driving by there the last time.
Those dishes are pretty impressive.

 

[Pepper]

I'll go out on a limb and observe that several of those appear to be inactive. Especially the ones pointing straight up, and one or two suspicious ones that point in what appears to be a northerly direction (assuming the majority are pointed at the Clarke belt).

 

[photoman76]

The dishes looking to the right are looking East, most likely Intelsat 9 and 805. The dishes looking to the left are looking West, most likely Intelsat 5 and 8. I have no clue about the ones looking straight up, but they do seem to be designed that way.

 

[tvropro]

You sure thats not Ice's back yard

 

[Mr Tony]

nope. I cant put dishes in the yard

 

[marco916]

Defcon, where in N Cali do you live, I've seen the Richmond Sat Farm while riding Amtrack to Oakland a few times. Who owns that farm??

I drive by it a couple times a week. Many of its dishes are aimed under the highway overpass toward the horizon, yet many others are aimed in curious directions. The location does not seem ideal, but it's better than the Richmond, CA teleport with freight trains passing in front of the dishes. I've always wanted a tour of the facility, but don't have any connections. Thanks for the link.

 

[DefCon4]

I live in Sonoma County just a few miles from the famous wineries. I drive through the rolling Carneros grapefields on the way to I80. You're lucky to be so close Reno and Tahoe with some great trout fisheries. Just the other day on the way to Sacramento I detoured off I80 at Cordelia to avoid the traffic and went through Green Valley. I think I've spotted my first Birdview and am anxious to check it out.

Here's the link to the Richmond teleport: Welcome to San Francisco International Gateway | SFIG | Teleport Service | IPTV | DTH Platform

 

[marco916]

On the way to Bodega Bay last weekend Defcon along Hwy 12, I noticed some big dishes tucked away on some of the homes along that route. I love your area more then Sacramento area.

 

[N5XZS]

I went there and boy these are pretty big useful dish farm, yes I was passing by on my way to wine tasting fair in Santa Rosa!!

I am wondering this dish is pointing up into sky is for deep space work for JPL or NASA?

Thanks for the cool picture!!:

 

[Krapola]

I drive by it a couple times a week. Many of its dishes are aimed under the highway overpass toward the horizon, yet many others are aimed in curious directions. The location does not seem ideal, but it's better than the Richmond, CA teleport with freight trains passing in front of the dishes. I've always wanted a tour of the facility, but don't have any connections. Thanks for the link.

None of our Antennae are pointed "under" the bridge...200+feet above...funny though...

 

[jluros]

I've actually been on a tour of the place with the director. The dishes pointing straight up do have a purpose. The dishes pointing to the east provide television and data services to Asia.

 

[guapoharry]

... The dishes pointing straight up do have a purpose. ...

What purpose would that be?

 

[belawrence]

I have a customer inside their facility in Nuevo CA. I'm in there at least once a week.

 

[guapoharry]

That wasn't too hard to find... Found what looks like an aerial view of that Intelsat Site. Don't see any dishes pointing straight up. But, IMO, Google aerial photos are notoriously out of date.

Oh, there are street view shots with the antennas looking for SETI.

 

[Krapola]

I've actually been on a tour of the place with the director. The dishes pointing straight up do have a purpose. The dishes pointing to the east provide television and data services to Asia.

When did you visit us? The Antenna pointing up are still not in use, but yes all of them have a purpose...

 

[sherrel]

Hi All,

I was doing a Google search for the phone number for the Napa teleport so that I could contact an old friend, and I came across this old thread. If this thread is still active, I'll give some answers.

The Napa satellite earth station teleport is owned by Intelsat. It was originally built by PanAmSat in order to service their satellites in the Pacific Ocean Region (POR). PanAmSat was sold and then merged and merged again until today the teleport is owned by Intelsat.

In the photos shown previously in this thread, the antennas looking straight up (zenith position), are in that configuration for maintenance, and are out of service. The teleport can view satellites in the POR, the U.S. domestic arc and a couple of satellites in the AOR (Atlantic Ocean Region). This teleport services many satellites, including Intelsat 8, which is located at 166°E (on the other side of the International Dateline), with a look angle of 5.7° above the horizon.

The Richmond satellite earth station teleport is owned by ABS-CBN International. ABS-CBNi is a U.S. corporation that is a wholly owned subsidiary of ABS-CBN Broadcasting of the Philippines. ABS-CBN Broadcasting is the largest television network and media conglomerate in the Philippines. The TV network is on par with ABC, CBS & NBC in size and production capability.

The Richmond teleport was originally constructed with one 11 meter antenna by Argo Communications in 1984. In 1989 the teleport's assets were sold to Spectrum Satellite, Inc., a small independent startup company. Spectrum Satellite over the years expanded the teleport property and number of antennas until being sold in 1998 to Loral Skynet, who at that time was the owner of the Telstar fleet of satellites. Not much happened over the next 8 years until Loral declared bankruptcy and sold most of the Telstar fleet to Intelsat. In March of 2006 Loral sold the Richmond teleport to its then largest customer, ABS-CBNi.

At the Richmond facility, the trains don't bother the services on the antennas. Even though it doesn't look like it, the antennas with the lowest look angles are set back from the railroad tracks so as to be able to shoot over the trains.

Those of you in Northern California who might be interested in touring the Richmond facility, I might be able to arrange it, as I still have close contacts there.

 

[phlatwound]

Thanks sherrel, very interesting. Not likely to be any time soon but if I ever get out that way I would really enjoy touring that facility.

 

[marco916]

Hi Sherrel, I'm actually the one who started this thread awhile back. I never realized how big the ABS-CBN network was until now. I've actually seen the ABS-CBN, TFC "The Filipino Channel" studios in Manila many times when visiting relatives. They have some huge Satellite Dishes as well at the ABS-CBN headquarters in Manila. I'll have to snap up some pictures next time I’m out there for everybody to check out. By the way, now I know why The Filipino Channel cable subscriptions are so popular in the US market for the Filipino subscribers, because ABS-CBN has a strong foot hold over here.