NOTE: The lease for the satellite system will expire June 30, 2006. IHETS will not support the system after that time and is offering a new service, IHETS Interactive, to replace it. What follows is trouble shooting procedures that will be utilized until June 30.

The purpose of this guide is to explain how you can help yourself, and how IHETS Help Desk staff can help you when technical difficulties arise in a classroom.

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Precautions

The best way to handle a problem is to start before the problem exists. You should be familiar with the way your classroom is set up. If you don’t know how it is configured when it’s working properly, it’s impossible to try and resolve a problem when it happens. If you haven’t already done so, start labeling and identifying the cables in each of your receive rooms. You can use a fancy cable label, or self-adhesive mailing labels work just as well. The important part is to identify your cables properly and clearly. For example, if you mark a cable “To TV set,” it may help if there is a problem. But it will be even more helpful to mark it “To antenna input on TV set.”

Typing up instructions and leaving them on the TV set is an excellent idea. Make sure that the instructions are complete. You know what needs to be done because you do it every day. But if a student comes in at 8 p.m. and she can’t get a program because she doesn’t know that the second wall switch from the left needs to be on, she’ll call you and you’ll need to respond. Make sure the instructions include everything, including the things you know and do without thinking: all the equipment that needs to be turned on, the way the room needs to be cabled, and especially the channels that are used to receive a program. If you’re using a VCR, write down what the VCR should be tuned to, and write what the TV set should be tuned to.

Problems with reception: TV/VCR, distribution in the building, satellite receive package

When you are setting up a room for a student and something appears to be wrong, the first thing to do is attempt to isolate the problem. Your system includes a TV set, possibly a VCR, distribution within your building, and a satellite receive package. The first step is to figure out what piece has failed.

Begin by turning on the TV. If your set shows a frozen picture or a picture full of colored squares, which we call “tiling,” the first thing to do is go outside. If it’s raining, or if the area just had six inches of snow or two inches of ice, your problem could be atmospherically caused. In other words, heavy rain, or ice and snow buildup on your receive dish will cause that problem.

If weather isn’t the problem, go to the next step; if you have two channels, try the second channel. If that one is working, you have a local problem with the first channel. Call the control room; the engineer on duty will work with you to solve the problem.

Let us say you only have one channel, or you have two or more channels and they’re all bad. You definitely have a satellite receive problem. If you call the control room and tell them what’s happening, within the first 30 or 45 seconds of that conversation, the engineer on duty will say, “Would you please take a TV set back to the IHETS equipment rack and call me from there?” If there are signs of a satellite receive problem, don’t wait until you’re already on the phone with the control room and have to make a second call. Instead, take a TV set with you to the IHETS equipment rack and call the control room from there. Control room staff can run through some tests with you, having you use a TV set to tell them what you see. After those tests, the staff will be able to give you some idea of what the problem is.

If you turn on the TV set and see either a black screen or snow, it usually indicates a problem with the TV set itself or with the VCR. If your setup includes a VCR, a simple check is to put a tape in the VCR and push play. If you see the tape coming out on the TV set, then you know that the VCR and the TV set are connected properly, so you can eliminate that as a problem. If you don’t see the tape, then you’ve got a problem either in the TV set or in the connection between the VCR and the TV set.

At this point, there are a couple of options. For one, you can try changing out equipment: for instance, connect a different TV set and see if you still have the problem. Another option, if you have more than one room in which IHETS reception is possible, is to go to another room and see if you’re getting the same results in that room. If you aren’t, then obviously the first room has a local cabling problem; you can resolve that later. If you are getting the same problem in the second room, then you must have a significant distribution problem of some kind. Take a TV set, go back to the IHETS equipment rack, and call the control room. The engineer on duty will work with you to try to resolve it. Even if there is a distribution problem within your building, using the TV set next to the IHETS equipment rack, control room staff can probably still get a program to your TV set, as long as that equipment is working all right. Then you can use a VCR and tape the program. This is, obviously, not as good as getting the program in the classroom, but sometimes it is the best short-term solution.

Another condition that indicates a problem is when you turn the TV set on and see a plain blue screen. This usually means that you have no signal coming into your VCR. The easiest thing to do there, if you’ve got another room set up for IHETS reception, is to try that second room. If you’ve got the same problem in the second room, again, it indicates a significant distribution problem. Take the TV set, go to the IHETS equipment rack, and call the control room. The engineer on duty will help you.

In general, approach the various problems that may occur with distribution or with satellite reception by following steps to isolate what the problem is. If you can, change out equipment. If you can’t, check another room, if there is one available. Once you’ve established that you apparently have a distribution or reception problem, move a TV set to the IHETS equipment rack. Then when you call to report a problem, the control room engineer will have more information to work with and should be able to resolve the problem for you more quickly.

Problems with Digital TeleResponse

So far these guidelines have focused on audio and video distribution problems. Another part of the system required for IHETS programming is Digital TeleResponse(DTR), the component that allows students to ask questions and participate in discussion. There are three parts to the DTR system at your site: the briefcase containing the handset, the control module or ACM, and a telephone line. While the control module must stay in the room where the programming is received, the briefcase can go anywhere. If you suspect you’re having a problem and you can’t get through on DTR, take the briefcase and go to another room equipped to receive programming. Try the briefcase from that room. If you do get through, then the first room has a problem. If you don’t get through in the second room, then it might be a briefcase problem. If you have multiple briefcases, try swapping briefcases as well as rooms to try to isolate what piece of equipment is giving you a problem.

If you establish Digital TeleResponse rather than audio and video reception as the problem, you don’t have to go to the IHETS equipment rack before calling the control room; you can call from wherever you have the briefcase connected. While the two systems, audio and video delivery and Digital TeleResponse, work together, they also are completely independent of each other. If your DTR isn’t working, you can still receive a program. You can call regarding problems with Digital TeleResponse at any time, whether or not you are receiving a program. You don’t even have to have the TV set on to test the (DTR). Anytime you want to test DTR, connect the briefcase as you normally have it connected for IHETS reception, pick up the handle, and press the Help button. You’ll be connected to the control room and we’ll work with you.

The third element of the Digital TeleResponse system, the telephone line, is a little bit harder to check. In most of the IHETS control modules that you’ve seen today, the telephone line is actually connected inside. It’s behind the plate. If it’s in a wall, then it’s inside the wall. Network control staff does not recommend that you personally test that telephone line. If you suspect a problem with the telephone line, call your local telephone services supplier and have them come out and test the line. At some receive sites, however, the control modules are mounted on the surface of the wall, and from some of these comes a telephone cord which is plugged into a standard telephone wall jack. If you have this particular setup at your site, you can check that type of line. Get a standard telephone, go over to the wall jack, and plug the telephone in. If you can make a call, the line is good. If you can’t, the line is bad. However it is set up, the telephone line is your responsibility. IHETS produces the briefcases and the ACMs and will work with you to ensure their functionality, but if the line has failed, you’ll need to call your local telephone services.

Let’s say you’re not sure what it is; is the phone line bad, or not? To find out, you will need to have a record of the telephone number for that phone line. The IHETS briefcase uses a standard telephone line to make its call out, and you or someone at your site had to order that phone line and were given the telephone number. If there is a serious problem with Digital TeleResponse, control room staff will need that number to do any work with your system. Ideally you know or can easily find out that number; but at sites where personnel have changed, it can sometimes have gotten lost in the shuffle. In some cases, a contact person at your receive site has told IHETS control room staff what that phone number is, and it appears in control room records. If you don’t know what your phone number is, call the control room. The control room staff can check to see if it is in their records. If neither you nor IHETS has a record of the number, then you will need to find out what it is from the company that provides your telephone services.

When should you suspect a phone problem? Every time you have major modifications to your telephone switching system, test the Digital TeleResponse system. Anytime the telephone companies are in and rewiring your building, test the DTR system. Anytime you have major telephone work done, test your DTR. That DTR line is not part of your regular lines in your building. It’s like an added-on special line, in a lot of cases, and the records on it may get lost. Phone services personnel who aren’t familiar with the setup sometimes decide that the DTR line isn’t being used and proceed to disconnect it. So test your system whenever someone advises you of major telephone rewiring in your building.

Conclusion

To recap, troubleshooting the IHETS classroom involves just a few basic procedures:

• Know how your system works before you have a problem.
• When a problem occurs, try to isolate and identify the pieces of equipment that have failed.
• Once you have as much information about the problem as you can get, call the IHETS Help Desk. An engineer is on duty who will to try to help you resolve your problems and restore your service as rapidly as possible.