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Assuring Quality of Iridium
Service
Iridium is committed to providing subscribers around the world consist-
ent, reliable, quality voice and data access all day every day. The Iridium
satellite system is monitored for call performance from numerous loca-
tions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to achieve this.
There are conditions that can compromise the quality of the service you
may receive. These include:
◊ Obstructions
◊ Cabling
◊ RF Interference
Obstructions
The antenna must be able to “see” the entire sky from approximately 8
degrees above the horizon. Nearby tall buildings or similar structures,
heavily leafed trees and mountains can all degrade performance as they
block the signal between the antenna and the satellites. Having a com-
pletely open view of the sky plays a very important role in maximising
performance, as the Iridium satellites cross the sky from North horizon
to South horizon during a connected call.
All surrounding obstructions must be lower than the top of a fist extend-
ed at arms length and the bottom of the fist placed on the horizon. Irid-
ium performance is immune from natural environments such as clouds,
fog, rain, snow, wind and smoke.
Cabling
Using an externally mounted antenna provides an ideal solution for
many applications. If you have or plan to install an external antenna, it
is very important that the cables used meet the Iridium guidelines estab-
lished for proper performance.
For optimal performance, we recommend using the shortest length of
cable and the fewest number of connectors possible.
