KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

INTERNSHIP REPORT

SAGARMATHA SATELLITE EARTH STATION

BALAMBU, KATHMANDU

A final year internship report submitted in partial fulfilment

of the requirements for the degree of
Bachelor of Engineering

by:
Sujeet Kumar Jha
Roll no.: - 41009
Regd no. :- 015818-13

October 2017
CERTIFICATION
 ABSTRACT

The industrial internship is completed in the field of satellite communication at the Sagarmatha
Earth Station, Balambu, Kathmandu, Nepal on September 4- 21, 2017. During the internship
the study and work is focused toward getting experienced with the essential skill required in
the professional and industrial atmosphere. The industry is related to the communication
engineering i.e. Satellite Communication along with basic of communication between ground
station (Earth Station) and Satellite.
In this internship program, the deep observation and handling of essential equipment needed
for earth to satellite communication including latest technology in antenna propagation used
by Nepal Telecom for wireless communication. Advantages due to utilization of latest
equipment’s.
Internships helps reveals the important technology in terms of software and hardware of Earth
Station in the field of Satellite Communication. Not only with in technical aspect but it also
teaches to cope with the colleague and seniors at the professional workplace.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I heartily thank Nepal Telecom, Kathmandu, Nepal for providing me an opportunity to
complete my 'Internship at the Sagarmatha Earth Station, Balambu, Kathmandu, Nepal. I am
grateful to Mr. Dinesh Chandra Yadav (Plant In charge) for helping me to complete my
internship.

I’m equally thankful to Mr. Dhaka Ram Pouydal (Senior Engineer) for giving me opportunity
to study each and every instruments involved in ground to satellite communication. I would
like to thank Mr. Lok Raj Paneru (Senior Engineer) for his technical guidance. I’m equally
thankful to all the staffs of Station for giving me chance to learn the software control of station.
I would like to thank Nepal Telecom and Nepal Telecom Training Centre for giving me
opportunity of internship.

I sincerely thank to Mr. Brajesh Mishra, Internship coordinator for his help and guidance during
internship.

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 OVERVIEW OF THE ORGANIZATION

1. History
Nepal Telecom (then Nepal Telecommunication Corporation) established Sagarmatha
Satellite Earth Station in 1982, as a section of International System Manager ’s Office
(now International Services Department), starting its service with only six SCPC channels
for international communication. Later in 1985, TV receive facilities were added for providing
newsfeed to Nepal Television. Using this video reception facility,World Cup football to was
broadcasted by Nepal Television for the first time. Since then this station is in operation and
has already completed its 25 years of successful operation.
This technology has become an attractive means for providing quality communication service
to most remote and difficult locations. Noting these facts, Sagarmatha station was opened for
domestic applications in 1996 for first time.
Some of the milestones of this station are:
 Oct 1982– Standard B Earth Station (STH-01B) Operational via INTELSAT 60°E
Satellite.Services started with 6 SCPC Circuits.
 1985 – TV Reception Service for Nepal TV.
 1987- Upgradation of Earth Station facilities with installation of:
 IDR System.
 TV Equipment for Occasional Use TV Transmission/ Reception.
 Digital Microwave Link between Earth Station and International Telecom
Building (ITB)
 1989- Nepal Became 116th Member of INTELSAT.
 1996 – Commissioning of Standard A Earth Station (STH-02A).
 2000 – Implementation of Regional Satellite Trunk (RSAT) System (STH-03B
Antenna)
 2002 - Implementation of new VSAT System.
 2004 – Introduction of TCM/IDR Services.
 2008- Implementation of DSAT, augmentation of Frequency converter system and
introduction of Turbo Code IDR modems.
 2010 – Completed installation of 83 NTSAT terminals in remote VDC’s of Nepal.

2. Vision & Objectives

It is the subsidiary of Nepal telecom so the vision and objective is resembles with the Nepal
telecom so, the vision of Sagarmatha Satellite Earth station is “ To assists Nepal Telecom to
remain dominant player in telecommunication sector in the country while also extending
reliable and cost effective services to all.”
The main objective of the Sagarmatha Satellite Earth Station is “To provide effective
communication services to every nook and corner of country. ”

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3. Organizational Structure and Hierarchy

Station Manager

Non-Technical Technical Regional

Department Department Department

Administrative
Department Planning
All the
terminal
Finance & Operation and station at the
Account. Maintenance the Remote
District of
Nepal.
Office
Assistant Training

APPENDICES
Logistic
management

Power and
Switching
Maintenance

Figure 1: Organizational Structure of Sagarmatha Satellite Earth Station.

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 4. Products and Services
Earth Station provides the communication pathway between the Geo-Stationary Satellite and
local networks. Signals from the all the local networks are send to the Satellite for long distant
communication and signal received from the Satellite are send to desired location within a
network is done by the Earth Station. International Calls, International Direct Dialing,
Occasional TV Broadcasting, Internet Access, Weather Forecasting, VSAT (Very Small
Aperture Terminal) Communication are prominent benefits of an Earth Station.

Intelsat-1 to Intelsat-4, ThaiCom, ChinaSat Arabsat, TelStar, Early Bird, KoreaSat are some
satellites send by many countries to guide wireless long distant communication. A signal also
termed as baseband signal or message signal is send via antenna to the Satellite by the unique
uplink frequency and signal are received from the satellite by the downlink frequency

Figure 2: Block schematic arrangement of a generalized Earth station

The sagarmatha satellite earth station is Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) Earth Stations which is
the backbone of the telecommunication communication where all the other medium of
communication like wireline, optical fiber, Terrestrial microwave etc. The field of service of
satellite communica- tion is subjected under two sub headings.

 International services
Once in while during the era of 2000 the whole international communication is depending
upon the sagarmatha satellite earthsation. There were 37 carriers for 18 countries with 21
operators. With the advancement of the the optical fiber connection with India and submarine
cables across the globe. Now, it is decrease to 6 carriers to for 3 countries. It is still now in
operation. The band is used for the international satellite communication is KU- band i.e.
Ku-Band Uplink Frequencies: 14 GHz – 14.5 GHz
Ku-Band Downlink Frequencies: 11.7 GHz – 12.2 GHz

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The satellite used for the international circuit is Intelsat -4 which is communicating using the
standard ‘A’ Cassegrain antenna which diameter is 16.4m and largest in Nepal. The main
reason for moving away from satellite communication for international circuit is the high
cost.

 Domestic Services
Sagarmatha Earth Station has served the people of remote district like Humla, Jumla, Mugu,
Kalikot etc where wired communication can never be thought of, as we have entered into the
modern era of high speed communication i.e. Optical Fiber communication still, it is not
utilized efficiently due to unfavorable geography of Nepal. So, satellite communication is
only alternative. The following are the services falls under the domestic services.
i. RSAT System
R-SAT terminals for satellite Backhaul link for PSTN switch, GSM BTS, CDMA BTS
with 9 carriers and 4 stations. This system was conceived in order to provide satellite
connectivity to major cities so that connection from these cities to capital city
Kathmandu could still be maintained even in case of failure of main links such as
microwave or optical fiber. The main city connected is Biratnagar, Bhairrahawa,
Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi. It is not currently in used and phased out but in case of
emergency like natural disasters, it can be activated. The details of RSAT links is
attached in appendix:

ii. VSAT system

Nepal telecom is using DAMA technology in its VSAT system so as to achieve
economy in space segment charges. This system comprises of 2 channel and 8 channel
terminals for direct distribution of telephone lines. Currently VSAT telephone service
has been provided to more than 300 remote locations of the country. Accordingly, this
VSAT system also consists of equipment that could be used to provide E1 connectivity
to remote exchanges. As of today, five remote exchanges with 150-line capacity have
been provided connectivity via VSAT

Figure 3:A typical VSAT network

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The detail about the station with frequency is attached in the appendix.

iii. DSAT
DSAT is terminals for satellite Backhaul link for PSTN switch, GSM BTS, CDMA BTS. This
system is intended for providing satellite connectivity to various district headquarters and
remote locations for extension of GSM and CDMA mobile services. This service e is in Ku-
Band, first of its kind in Nepal Telecom in Satcom applications, and carry via ChinaSat
satellite. It is also known by the NTSAT.

5. Equipment
The critical equipment consists of the Hardware and software on which the working of the
earth station is dependent to provide the service is.

i. ARMA C400 SSPA

ii. NEC UP/DOWN CONVERTER
iii. ANTENNAS
In Sagarmatha Earth Station we have two type of antenna one is Standard ‘B’ antennas (11m
and 9m) and another is Standard ‘B’ antenna, two microwave antennas (not in operation) and
demos antennas for training and testing purpose. Both standard antennas are linked with four
IntelSat Satellites out of 24. These all are either Cassegrain Antenna or Gregorian antenna.

Standard ‘A’: Main purpose is International Calls, Internet Connection for NTC, and
Occasional TV for NTV. Its diameter is 16.4m and largest in Nepal.

Standard ‘B’: There are two standard antennas. Used mainly for VSAT network. Their
diameters are 11m and 9m. Placed for 66º E satellite.

iv. MODEM
 CDM- 600/600L System:
The CDM-600/600L Open Network Satellite Modem is intended for both Intelsat and
closed network applications. Apart from the IF frequency band, the two modems are
essentially identical: The CDM-600L (Figure 1-1) operates on the L-Band frequency,
while the CDM-600 is the 70/140 MHz IF version of the same modem.

Figure 4:CDM-600/600L Open Network Satellite Modem

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 v. DTX-360 Ethernet HUB for VSAT
Can be called as the heart of the VSAT network. Signal coming from any VSAT station from
remote place is received by this HUB station and transmitted to desired place for efficient
communication. Internet access, Local and International telephone calls are sent from remote
village via VSAT antenna to main earth station and here HUB receives the signal and transmits
to the satellite for communication. Efficient communication is possible in Sagarmatha Earth
Station by utilizing DAMA technology and dedicated technology in this HUB. Due to use
VSAT technology internet access in Base camp of Mount Everest has been made possible.

vi. ANTENNA STEP TRACK CONTROLLER

Used to operate in different modes of antenna. It is fully automated system and software
oriented control system. Controller works according to values of Look Angles I.e. Azimuth
and Elevation. Azimuth is measured eastward (clockwise) from geographic north to the
projection of satellite path on a (locally) horizontal plane at the earth station. Elevation is the
angle measured upward from the local horizontal plane at the earth station to the satellite path.
Operated by 7200 Antenna Control Unit, which is fully software oriented control
system.

vii. COMPUTER SYSTEM

The earth station has specialized computer system having dedicated software in order to
operate and monitor the the various communication process and the situation. Some of the
main system with software detail are.
 Network Management software on Windows XP.
The dedicated system and software for the monitoring all of the station communicat-
ing in VSAT. It shows overall health, bandwidth, traffic, the load of the dedicated
customer.

 Windows 98 interface for installing and configuring Satellite Modem.

The system is for the installing, upgrading, flashing, uploading FTP procedure for the
satellite modem. Since this model of the satellite modem is compatible with windows
98 system.

 Microsoft Server 2003.

The system to look over the health of the network communication of main exchange of
NTC with earth station.

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 6. HR Management
Since it is the subsidiary of the Nepal Telecom so the all the HR management work is managed
by the HR unit of the Nepal telecom. The Recruitment Secretariat previously looked after the
recruitment process now, it comes under the public Service commission. The Human
Resources Department looks for personal record like Recruitment, promotion, transfer etc. It
also maintains Leave and training records and the salary and their payment and tax calculation
are made through this system.
The company has its own training center of Directorate level. The training center is equipped
with computer lab and other labs regarding switching, power and transmission networks. The
internship related work is look after by the TTC office of the Nepal telecom Bhadrakali plaza.

7. Unique Observation
This is the one of the subsidiary of Nepal telecom which is for the service purpose not for
economic benefit. The communication through satellite is expensive means of communicate-
ion. But in order to provide the communication facility to the last people of the corner of the
country the huge amount of money and resource is invested. The Nepal telecom won the
contract for the remote VSAT by filling lowest bid amount of contract ‘zero’ with the sense
of responsibility of nation building.
Also the earth station is facing the lack of manpower working in it. During the period of
internship there is lack of manpower is observed. The workload of available individual is
increased. Since it is essential service so there is work is carried on public holiday also.

8. Collaborators and Competitors