Astra 1N tests - latest chat

[Huevos]

if I remember rightly the Polish spot required a dish size of 60cms in the middle of Poland

Not much good for supplying signals to a 43cm zone one minidish then. Looking at the spec 1KR is 50dBW; a zone one dish requires 54dBW.

 

[welshman234]

Here it is 70 cm min dish size in the middle according to this map

 

[timo_w2s]

Not much good for supplying signals to a 43cm zone one minidish then. Looking at the spec 1KR is 50dBW; a zone one dish requires 54dBW.

True, but when the Polish spot was working I was picking it up on an old Sky zone 1 mini dish pointing at 19.2E in Helsinki with stronger signals than the European beams.

Anyway, I don't believe it'll move to 28.2E either, but I suppose it's not impossible, just very unlikely.

I think the official line that 2C is taking some of the load off 1KR is much more likely.

 

[M60]

Not much good for supplying signals to a 43cm zone one minidish then. Looking at the spec 1KR is 50dBW; a zone one dish requires 54dBW.

Yep, agree there. We'd end up with something not too much better than what EB1 provides as it's rainfade margin is just about workable on a Zone one minidish (when it's raining heavily).

It's easy to read these forums and being in the UK think everyone abroad can easily receive these spotbeams although we have to remember that not everyone pays or wants a 2.4 -3.5mtr dish in their back gardens so only the hardcore few and/or enthusiasts who have access to UK channels far east or south.

 

[Analoguesat]

Dunno about C5 +1, at the moment 7720 is C5 +10 seconds!

Maybe its the latest idea in incremental timeshift channels

 

[BLUEPLATINUM]

Thats getting folks hopes up under false pretences - spend hundreds of €'s and lose their access next year or the year after when 1N is turned off..

Hang on. Can I just point out I am not a satellite installer or in the business. Even if I was I would not sell anyone anything that I knew was about to become obsolete under false pretences. I am just saying it may be a possibility whilst we have 1N.

 

[Railway]

Dunno about C5 +1, at the moment 7720 is C5 +10 seconds!

Maybe its the latest idea in incremental timeshift channels

Not that at all, it's C5 and it's 10 seconds late because 1N is a bit further east and therefore has further to come and it's a bit congested up there!

 

[C0re]

Just out of curiosity. Does anyone know if or when the channels Film GB, Sofa Screen and Sofa Stars will start? Or has it been postponed?

 

[Analoguesat]

No news about Electric Sofa anytime recently. I very much doubt it will get off the ground in the current economic climate.

 

[Railway]

Does anyone have any idea how much fuel it takes as to say a years normal use to move it to another location?

As I understand it you "only" have to move it up or down to start it moving then back to it's geo stationary height when the new location is reached so number of degrees doesn't matter too much.

Thanks

 

[yan75]

Thats getting folks hopes up under false pretences - spend hundreds of €'s and lose their access next year or the year after when 1N is turned off..

Well I certainly won't be buying anymore dishes for the foreseeable future even if I lose channels. It was a huge expense to put up the 4.2m dish and won't be something I'm willing to repeat unless I know for sure what I can and can't receive in Cyprus. After 2e, f and g have been launched and I know the outcome then I'll decide accordingly how to proceed. For now its a slingbox HD for me, it's not perfect but I get full access to every channel and full use of all interactive services. For £2-300 odd pounds that for me is the interim solution. Satellite dish is not perfect either, many channels cannot be received full stop, other break up and during bad weather some channels come and go, not to mention a lot of interactive services are not accessible!

That's just how I see it and everyone's own situation depends on their circumstances, but I think most people will err on the side of caution and use alternative solutions like slingboxes and iptv etc until we all know where we stand!

 

[Huevos]

when the Polish spot was working I was picking it up on an old Sky zone 1 mini dish pointing at 19.2E in Helsinki

I remember reports of it being unreceivable in Berlin on a 1.2 m dish. Yet it could easily be received North and South of the beam center.[...] these newer spotbeams restrict viewing East and perhaps West rather than North and South.

It could be a completely circular beam but the angles involved cause the north/south elongation. Here's what I mean: taking Warsaw (52.25N, 21.00E) as the beam centre, Helsinki (60.20N, 25.00E) is 918km away but only 0.6º off axis, whereas Berlin (52.50N, 13.50E) is much closer, only 510km from Warsaw, but is 0.8º off axis.

Move that satellite to 28E and point it at the UK and that elongation is going to cross the country diagonally and leave minidishes in NE Scotland and SW England not properly illuminated.

 

[M60]

Dunno about C5 +1, at the moment 7720 is C5 +10 seconds!

Maybe its the latest idea in incremental timeshift channels

I was round at a friends house on Friday and had a look at C5+1 on her Sky STB, yep, it's definitely C5+10sec at the moment! I also noticed that C5 are delaying output by a second or so per region so as help the stat-muxing between simultaneous programme content, not sure they were previously doing this? ITV have delayed their regions for quite a while which has helped them sort their stat-muxing out too.

Analoguesat: what is the difference in Rx level between 1KR Txp's and those on, say 1M, 1L etc? It is surprising that 1KR's spot required a 60cm dish in Poland as you'd have thought, like that of 2D, with a more concentrated spotbeam over a smaller area then the field strength within it would also be higher. Maybe SES had to keep EiRP down on that 1KR spot to prevent German overspill, obviously Britain is an island which helps somewhat but could see it being more of an issue on the continent. That footprint if shifted North West would most likely cover the UK nicely with a bit of overspill in to the Netherlands, France and Belgium and maybe if only half it's transponders were utilised (i.e. the 'C' band ones) then they could afford to raise the EiRP by a 1dB per Txp to help C/N and rain fade issues?

 

[Analoguesat]

Not much difference here - 2C is the strongest - by about 4% on the AGC.

The others are all pretty much the same, 1H & 1M might be a gnats whisker stronger than the others but theres only maybe a couple of % in it.

DB 7020 (80 cm dish).

 

[Huevos]

what is the difference in Rx level between 1KR Txp's and those on, say 1M, 1L etc?

Astra 1KR = 50dBW
Astra 1M = 53dBW

 

[welshman234]

It could be a completely circular beam but the angles involved cause the north/south elongation. Here's what I mean: taking Warsaw (52.25N, 21.00E) as the beam centre, Helsinki (60.20N, 25.00E) is 918km away but only 0.6º off axis, whereas Berlin (52.50N, 13.50E) is much closer, only 510km from Warsaw, but is 0.8º off axis.

Move that satellite to 28E and point it at the UK and that elongation is going to cross the country diagonally and leave minidishes in NE Scotland and SW England not properly illuminated.

You move this beam to the UK and people will need a 60 cm dish in central UK and about 80cm in rainy NE Scotland. This beam is impractical for the UK. I think 70 cm in Poland was needed because it snows a lot there too....

 

[welshman234]

My PC skills are rubbish but could anyone here transpose the Polish spotbeam onto the UK so we could have an idea how it might look? ???

 

[timo_w2s]

My PC skills are rubbish but could anyone here transpose the Polish spotbeam onto the UK so we could have an idea how it might look? ???

Something like this?



It's actually a bit scary how well it fits...

 

[dragonx]

Someone over on DS has made comments about some Spanish forum claiming 1KR is moving to 28.2E and 1N moving to 19.2E during February. I can't see why SES would move 1N with 1KR when it's on an interim mission 28.2-wise and only has 32 TP's and therefore not in a position to totally back up capacity at 28.2E as SES have obviously long wanted.

Here is the source:

"http://nowsat.info/?p=1828"

 

[welshman234]

Something like this?

View attachment 39076

It's actually a bit scary how well it fits...

Well done thats a very good job albeit a bit scary.