Astra 2E at 28.2E: General Discussion Part 2

[solly]

Pietclock
the signal out of footprint it very down
need much large dish

 

[Pietclock]

so it is north beam...

 

[timo_w2s]

so it is north beam...

No way is it north. It's about as strong as a 2A South beam or 2E Europe beam for me. As far as I know 2A can't switch South and North beams either and this transponder has always been a 2A/2B South in the past.

 

[Pietclock]

ok, I thought solly can get 2A south.... I cannot see a difference between north/south here, they have same strength. But 2E is weaker. So I know it isnt 2E.

 

[timo_w2s]

ok, I thought solly can get 2A south.... I cannot see a difference between north/south here, they have same strength. But 2E is weaker. So I know it isnt 2E.

Funnily enough I can't see much difference between 2A South and 2E Europe here in Helsinki, but 2A North can go off the scale. I suspect it's 2A South then if you are sure it's not 2E.

 

[timo_w2s]

How about the data on 12.441V. To me it looks like either 2A South or 2E Europe again going by signal levels.

 

[Pietclock]

it's 2A-south.

 

[Analoguesat]

Hmm the map is looking very similar to the original 2F map so far.

Portugal is badly affected and theres a null around Barcelona.

The drop off therough central Germany and northern Italy looks just as sharp.

Half an hours break for dinner and a beer first though, then I'll get started on the Scandanavian reports

 

[M60]

it is on 2A, but I dont know whether north or south, solly or someone who can distinguish those could have a look.

Cheers, so looks like it's on 2A south. Didn't know 12442H was active too with data. Is this on 2A too? If so, 2A is still pretty full, surely they must be planning to offload a few more existing 2A TP's to 2E?

 

[Pietclock]

2A certainly seems to be a well made and maintained satellite... still fully active after 15 years and they seem to be very confident it will stay that way for a while. 2G will not arrive before the summer.

 

[Lazarus]

Quite. Let's hope that confidence is justified: "There can't be much wrong with it - it was fine yesterday"!

 

[Analoguesat]

Thats it for the map tonight - my eyes are gritty from staring at the monitors all night.

Canaries & Africa will be started tomorrow.

If you spot a mistake (wrong icon etc) please let me know - pm is prob best so I dont miss it on a busy thread

 

[Pride Of Cucamonga]

If you missed the map link here it is

http://goo.gl/maps/Ha4xf

still some areas missing - about to start on the Spain / Portugal reports.

Up to date on the western Europe & central/east Europe sections.

Great work, thanks. Just a thought... how about three pin styles?: one for stable reception, one for intermittent and one for nothing

cheers

 

[Analoguesat]

Ive thought aboy that - the main problem is Im limited by the amount of pins available. Ive only got 3 types of coloured pin available

blob with dot (used for stable reception)
blob with no dot
push pin (used for no or unstable reception)

I dont want to use the blob with no dot - its too close to the other one.

And at the end of the day unstable reception is almost as bad as no reception.... (especially when peak time viewing disappears)

 

[Analoguesat]

Im knocking off for tonight - theres a bottle of whisky in the kitchen calling me

 

[M60]

2A certainly seems to be a well made and maintained satellite... still fully active after 15 years and they seem to be very confident it will stay that way for a while. 2G will not arrive before the summer.

Yep, guess 2B is similar, which co-incidentally is nearly at 31.5E now.

What's 2A's TP capacity, something like 22 TP's at this stage of her life?

 

[kevjs]

Hmm the 2E UK spot is showing surprisingly low strengths here (East Midlands). The BBC services on 1N were in the high 60's.

2E European - (don't have any channels on this beam)

2E UK Spot - 58% strength (BBC ONE Oxford)
2A North - 63% strength (Kiss)
2F Euro - 65% strength (Motors TV)
2A South - 70% strength
2F UK Spot - 70% strength (5USA+1)
Eurobird - 71% strength

(I think our dish must be aimed slightly more towards 28.5 than 28.2 as Eurobird has always been the strongest).

 

[kevjs]

What's 2A's TP capacity, something like 22 TP's at this stage of her life?

28 at end of life (about a year ago).

 

[Lazarus]

@kevjs

Your dish is badly misaligned!

Eurobird is quite flaky compared to the Astra craft, so the fact that your Eurobird performance exceeds Astra proves beyond doubt your own hypothesis.

You really should have as near 100% S/Q as your receiver's metering and AGC permit, as the Astra field strength over UK is no less than massive.

Since Eutelsat 28B has already left 28E and 28A is due to end service soon, now is the time to shove your dish a couple of tenths Westwards.

 

[cazhh]

In case no one mentioned it, ephemeris and cob data for 2E are available on the ses website.