AFN Setup

One of the perks of being a Civil Servant OCONUS (Outside the Continental United States) is that you get free access to the Armed Forces Network (AFN). It is a collection of about 10 channels of programming spanning family programming, sports, movies, and news and a couple radio channels including NPR. The commercials are more military public announcements than anything else. In Japan, they deliver the signal via satellite to individual satellite dishes at your residence.

"Free" never seams to be so. Even though they provide the set-top box, satellite dish and a subscription, you need to provide the mounting for the dish, cable, and installation. They provide a list of installers that charge about $300 to install the system, but we've had varying reports of quality from these companies. Though, we'd also heard many stories of failed DIY attempts at installation. This just challenged us to try, so we set off to install ours and we were eventually successful. Here are some of the details on how to install an AFN dish in Japan.

1) Obtain the Dish and Decoder: You request the AFN system along with all your government provided appliances when you sign your lease for off-base housing. They drop it off at the same time they drop off your fridge, washer, dryer, microwave/convection oven, smoke and CO detectors, and anything else you signed up for. Although they install all the other stuff, they do not install the AFN system.

2) Mount the Dish: Since we are leasing our house in Japan, we were not allowed to drill any holes in the siding or otherwise permanently mount anything to the house. So how do you install a satellite dish? Well, Japanese houses will generally have Japanese solutions to these types of problems. In this case, you can go to a hardware or electronics store and buy several different styles of temporary mounts for satellite dishes. In our case, we got a clamp mount that you clamp over a balcony rail. The clamp cost around $60 and a couple bucks for wood blocks to use as shims and we had a mount for the dish. You need to mount it so it has a clear view of the sky in a southwesterly direction (Azimuth 246.4 to be exact).

3) Setup the Decoder: To aim the dish you need to have the decoder set-up to listen for the satellite and then be able to see what the signal level is like as you tweak on the dish. I had an outlet pretty close to where I was setting up the dish, so I just plugged in the decoder box right close to the dish and then routed the audio and video feed from the box to a portable DVD player so I could see the signal as I had my hands on the dish. After it is up and running, pick menu and then go to item #2 "Preset/LNB" and put the information in as follows:

• Active = 3
• Preset = 3
• Down Link = 12.647
• Symbol Rate = 28.0
• FEC = 3/4
• Polar = V or V-fixed
• NetID = 4
• LNB Power = 13
• Lo1 = 9.75
• Lo2 = 10.6
• Cross Over 11.7
• Lo Select = Xover

4) Aim the Dish: Tip: (I strongly suggest having a video display of the signal level and sound of the tones in sight as you aim the dish. I used a portable DVD player hooked into the decoder right next to me as a aimed the dish. It's tempting to just have your spouse yell up the signal levels, but it is very precise tweaking required to line up the dish that can only be accomplished with quick feedback on the results). Go back to menu and select #3 "Dish Setup" It'll show a bar code for signal strength, a "Lock" indicator, and signal quality. With the dish pointed any old direction, the signal strength will be about 45 to 50. If it is 0, then your satellite cable is not hooked up to the dish LNB (sensor that cable hooks up to on the dish). Aim the dish to start with using a compass to point it at an Azimuth of 246.4 and an elevation of 28.1. From there, I moved the dish slowly back and forth and up and down until I found a strong signal. My Azimuth was off by about 10 degrees and the elevation off by a degree or two. The bar graph and tones tend to be a bit delayed, but with patience and a thorough search pattern, you can find the signal. If the dish is pointed nearly perfectly, the signal may lock and quality bar may start increasing. First tweak the azimuth until the signal is the strongest, then tweak the elevation to do the same. Once you have it pointed in the right direction, tighten down the dish.
Then, loosen the LNB mount and rotate it in 10 degree increments up to a total of 90 degrees in either direction. Find the spot with the highest signal strength and quality and then tighten it down. If you don't get a lock or strong signal, you may need to widen your search, or look to see if there is something in the way. Satellite dishes need a clear line of sight to the satellite to work, so if there is a building, tree, or power pole in the way, it won't work. You'll need to find a different place to mount the dish.

5) Route the Cable Into the House: Once again, we can't drill any holes in the house, but solutions are available. In our case, we bought a ribbon cable ($40) which has a coax connection on each end with a very thin ribbon cable in between. You can route the ribbon cable through a window or sliding glass door and then you can still close and lock the window or door. another option is to route the cable through the holes that the Japanese split air conditioning units route their hoses.

6) Once we had our dish pointed correctly, we got a message that said something along the lines of "Channel Not Authorized". I called the HELP DESK at (951) 413-2339 (manned 24 hours and they really are helpful) and they asked for the UA number off the bottom of the decoder box and within a minute he sent a signal via the satellite that unlocked the box and we were watching TV. Awesome!

During the first attempt at aiming, my set-top box seized up and stopped providing a video and audio signal. I unplugged it for a while before plugging it back in, but it still didn't work. I called the help desk and they said that with that particular model, they didn't have a reboot option, so I had to take it into base to Self Help and trade it in for another.

Update 8/10/09: It seems that the free systems were a temporary promotion and they now charge for AFN, though, I don't think it is too expensive.

Update 1/2/10: Added some emphasis to set up a display you can personally see as you are aiming the dish. Although it was mentioned before, I've had friends try to set up by having the spouse call up the signal levels and suffered much frustration. He just asked that I "Bold" those words...