The 'dish' that saves lives.

• Author: Endrst, Elsa B.
• Position: United Nations' satellite earth station

The impressive, three-story-tall white structure stands tilted towards the sky in an inner courtyard of the UN Secretariat building, facing the East River. For a decade, hundreds of UN employees have passed by it every day on their way to the cafeteria, without realizing its crucial daily functions.

The Star Trek-like contraption is the Un's major satellite earth station--the linchpin of the Organization's worldwide telecommunications system.

"The dish"--as it is called--is a way for us to "communicate with our overseas offices to support humanitarian, peace-keeping and all of the business needs of the UN", says Neil Haley, Officer-in-Charge of the Un's Electronic Services Division.

It is part of a worldwide global communications network in place since 1983, with leased circuits from INTELSAT (International Telecommunications Satellite Organization). Operating 24 hours a day and used primarily by peace-keeping operations, the dish transmits telephone messages, facsimiles and other documents overseas and around the globe. Communications can thus be sent to and received from the most remote areas in which the UN works, places normally not served by sophisticated electronic equipment.

"We have been much better able to support operations such as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia, Mozambique and South Africa", Mr. Haley keeping, humanitarian and emergency relief missions have made a great deal of use of the satellite network, he said. "And we would like to see that kind of capability expanded so that there is always an easy and ready telecommunication." The system facilitates speedy decision-making, providing a way to obtain immediate authorization for urgently needed action.

The UN leases circuits, using both satellite, land-based and undersea lines. This overall system provides almost all administrative telecommunications services between Headquarters and the five regional commissions, where receiving stations are either in place or proposed. The UN satellite earth stations have varying capacities, with diameters ranging from 1.8 to 11 metres.

UN Engineer Thomas Baxter explains that UN satellite communications, whether in the form of text, voice or data messages, are beamed through an INTELSAT satellite in space. UN equipment first processes the signal into radio form and then sends signals to the satellite. But because of the tremendous distances involved, the signal weakens along the way and must be amplified before it can be retransmitted...