Telephone Support

Technical assistance is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for stations whose earth terminals are in an "off-the-air" condition. "Off-the-air" signifies the failure of an earth terminal equipment module that is the only one of its kind in a station, rendering the station incapable of utilizing any services from the satellite as a result.

Stations with less pressing needs should call during business hours, which are 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., ET, Monday–Friday. During non-business hours, the Depot phone is forwarded to the STC, which will contact the on-call Depot technician if necessary.

Depot Phone: 202.513.2650

Procedures

1. A station representative requiring assistance or a replacement module should call the Depot.

2. The Depot technician will verify the station's eligibility for Depot services and will then work with station personnel to confirm or resolve the problem and ensure fault isolation to the lowest level site-replaceable item. If necessary, the Depot technician will obtain any further technical assistance the station may require, such as Satellite Facilities Engineering support, equipment manufacturer assistance, etc.

3. When a specific module is identified as defective, the Depot technician will assign a Trouble Ticket number that will be used for tracking all shipments and follow-up correspondence.

4. When the replacement item has been installed, station personnel must fill out the repair tag, attach the repair tag to the defective item, and ship it pre-paid to the destination specified by the Depot, using the container in which the replacement item was received. To ensure that a workable pool of spares is available to supply other stations' needs, the defective item must be shipped to the Depot within three business days of receipt of the replacement module.