Astra 2F: European Beam Transfers Starting?

[Captain Jack]

Just as a matter of interest, is it signal strength or elevation that's the main issue? Or just a question of C-band ?

Where do I start!

36E Russian beam - equivalent to 28E spot for UK - main stuff comes from this satellite. Sadly, Russian beam doesn't extend much beyond eastern Germany. Would need around 4-5m dish here to get it.
56E - similar to 36E but destined for Siberian market. Almost impossible to receive in UK but people in Poland get the new satellite on a 3m dish.
60E - Low-ish elevation and the footprint stops in Germany somewhere again. But seems available in north Scotland!
66E - Very low elevation. I receive this unreliably but there isn't much anyway
75E - Another hot spot. Footprint very generous but below horizon where I am. You can receive this in south east England on a moderately sized dish

49E - C band - needs a large dish. 1.5m minimum I would say, maybe more. Out of reach on my Fibo due to trees/houses.
40E - C band - was very powerful (was receivable on a 1m dish in UK) until a meteor whacked it! Took a lot of fuel to stabilise it and is no longer in use after operating in inclined orbit.

The only half decent satellite carrying non-castrated versions of Russian channels is 53E. I am not mentioning 13E/5E/4W as they tend to carry international versions of channels - which are crap.

Carry on.....

 

[hairybadger]

Where do I start!
<snip comprehensive list>
Carry on.....

OK - thanks. That explains it all A casual look at the footprints makes it look as though it *should* be possible to get something, which is why I asked. I knew it wouldn't be as simple as that as otherwise you'd be getting everything you want already, so thanks for the detailed explanation!

 

[Captain Jack]

Mind you, there are far more choices in form of IPTV for me and it's generally reliable. Something that UK ex-pats don't get...

 

[iandoh]

Mind you, there are far more choices in form of IPTV for me and it's generally reliable. Something that UK ex-pats don't get...

Could do you some sort of deal considering I can get every one of those sats with no problem what so ever ;)

 

[strs65]

The snr of the frequencies that were transferred is down from 4 to 6 dB here, and 12012V is totally gone. On the other hand I'm receiving six transponders (12070V, 12090H, 12148H, 12168V, 12226H και 12324V) that never had them before.

 

[timo_w2s]

Not where I was going, the piracy of football is high in Eastern Europe. Now Albania aren't allowed to buy it they possibly want to make it harder to pick up from other sources. I just find it strange that it's nearly all sports channels.

These satellites have been in the planning and building stages for quite some time so the footprints are not something recently decided. I think the lack of eastern reception is more down to SES wanting to use 28E as their new Mid East hotspot and so want to keep the European beams skewed further west in case they want to reuse frequencies. But that's just my theory.

I have no idea why they are going out of their way to avoid the Nordic areas quite so much though when in the past 2A/2B North and all 2C beams could be picked up on a 45cm dish even in the north of Lapland. I suppose they feel they don't need backup for this area or the are other satellites planned that could be used for Nordic areas if needed.

 

[hairybadger]

Mind you, there are far more choices in form of IPTV for me and it's generally reliable. Something that UK ex-pats don't get...

well, no. Grumble grumble cricket grumble. IPTV isn't practical for me anyway, being some distance from the exchange and so limited to 1Mb/s I could get internet via satellite, but that's very expensive if you don't want to be limited to 20GB/month or whatever. Seeing as a test match takes 5 days, each day being 7 hours of play (or something like that), I'd get through my quota pretty quickly

 

[iandoh]

These satellites have been in the planning and building stages for quite some time so the footprints are not something recently decided. I think the lack of eastern reception is more down to SES wanting to use 28E as their new Mid East hotspot and so want to keep the European beams skewed further west in case they want to reuse frequencies. But that's just my theory.

I have no idea why they are going out of their way to avoid the Nordic areas quite so much though when in the past 2A/2B North and all 2C beams could be picked up on a 45cm dish even in the north of Lapland. I suppose they feel they don't need backup for this area or the are other satellites planned that could be used for Nordic areas if needed.

I know the new sats aren't recently designed. You could be right but I don't see how it going further over would cause problems in the middle east? 4w seems to do OK

 

[timo_w2s]

I know the new sats aren't recently designed. You could be right but I don't see how it going further over would cause problems in the middle east? 4w seems to do OK

True, but the mid east beam will cover large parts of Turkey and all of Cyprus.

 

[geoffrey]

In Israel I have lost 12207V (Sky NewsSD etc) and 12266H (Channel 5 HD) transponders. Sky News HD remains variable depending on time of day. Sky2 can be added from the 11508H transponder.

And today 12012V (Sky Premier HD etc), 12110H (comedy central etc) and 12246V (history UK etc) have gone. 12480V (Irish Channel 4) is now at threshold. Comedy Central +1 is still OK and History on 522 is also OK.

 

[daztfs]

Hi It seems that this is a Temp move to 1N PE beam and then all the channels will be again moved in the Summer to 2E (Both UK/PE beams)
So this is only a temporary move.

 

[solly]

pe beam 1n look very low power
let see band 11700- to 12100 will be much better
in next week

 

[timo_w2s]

Hi It seems that this is a Temp move to 1N PE beam and then all the channels will be again moved in the Summer to 2E (Both UK/PE beams)
So this is only a temporary move.

We're not sure when 2E will be launched now with the Proton rocket delays so perhaps SES don't want to wait any longer and are going ahead with their plans to shift 2B elsewhere. Maybe we'll see 2F PE transponders come online later on once they've got 2B cleared.

 

[iandoh]

It seems strange that 2B though, 2A is the oldest and pretty soon to die sattelite. I'd have expected them to move 2A to the 1N beam.

 

[timo_w2s]

It is odd, but maybe 2B was becoming unstable or 2B has something that is needed elsewhere (eg the old African spot beam).

 

[Bengt]

Hi

Does this mean that 2F will only take over the C band (16 tps), whereas 2E will take over the D, and A/B bands (56 tps)?

Regards,
Bengt

 

[AHMET_YILDIRIM]

It seems strange that 2B though, 2A is the oldest and pretty soon to die sattelite. I'd have expected them to move 2A to the 1N beam.

Are you sure that all the mentioned TP s moved to 1N or 1F?

 

[strs65]

I wonder too, how can someone tell if it is 1N or 2F...

 

[denis1501]

12012, V has gone to 2A.

 

[strs65]

2A North beam? That should be right and consistent with what I see here, since I've lost this frequency completely (it doesn't appear even at the spectrum).