Bulgarian channels 23.5E or 39E in Bahrain

[dzmei]

Good evening,

After spending few long hours on the roof I think this time I managed to get some positive results thanks to my new toy - FS1. Got it two days ago.

I have used the only two active transponders on the Middle East beam to align the 2.4m dish properly. On both frequencies I got 18 dB. Then I started playing with the LNB and got the first signs of life from the Europe Wide beam on the 3B. I was trying to use frequenccies which are unique to Astra 3B, cause Arabsat on 26e melts down the dishes here with it's strength. Please give me an advise as I am planning to buy a Channel Master antenna and since the 2.4m is four times more expensive I want to make sure whether the 1.8 does the job or not.

My concern is the picture with the lock. The FS 1 is not supposed to lock DVB-S2 frequencies and Arabsat has similar tp DVB-S. Is it possible, after getting 18 dB on the ME beam with no lock due to the DVB-S2, and after having 2-4 dB on the others, some of which are not similar to any Arabsat frequency, that I'm getting nothing, but some 26e "remains".

Any help and comments are more than welcome.

 

[Analoguesat]

Remember the bleed over frequency doesnt need to be an exact match - the published frequencies are just the centre frequencies of a 30-40MHz swath of spectrum.

11836 on picture 2 could easily be 11843H on Badr 6, and is very likely to be as 11836 is a DVB-S2 transmission on 23.5E - which you say your meter shouldnt register.......

 

[dzmei]

It can register the frequency, gives you strength and quality, but can not lock it. Same with the ME ones - no lock on 18 dB. I need to move the antenna well enough to the left to get Badr. But still this lock on 12051 worries me.

 

[Analoguesat]

Stick a receiver on it & scan it. See what turns up

 

[dzmei]

Analoguesat, could you please tell me how many dBs are good enough for viewing or it varies with the receiver. I'll try to get a receiver up there...

 

[Analoguesat]

It varies by receiver, although even if the signal is too weak to give a picture it will often scan the channel names in.

 

[BlindFaith]

My concern is the picture with the lock. The FS 1 is not supposed to lock DVB-S2 frequencies

All 3 pictures show a lock. Otherwise there would be no BER reading. Though on 11778V the quality is rather poor. But as @Analoguesat already suggested it should be sufficient to perform channel scan with a normal receiver.

 

[dzmei]

All 3 pictures show a lock. Otherwise there would be no BER reading. Though on 11778V the quality is rather poor. But as @Analoguesat already suggested it should be sufficient to perform channel scan with a normal receiver.

I manage to get up to 3.5 db on this particular frequency.This meter says LOCK at 4.8 db or above on a DVB-S frequencies only. DVB-S2 transponder would only show strength and quality. I'll try to scan today and will report further.

 

[dzmei]

The first picture shows the transponder which I use to align the antenna. The second one shows a frequency from the Europe wide beam after some minor LNB adjustment. After scan it turns to be Badr 4- 11919 H. Please tell me what am I doing wrong. This position of the antenna gives me the best reception of the first freq. which is 100% 23.5e.

 

[Analoguesat]

11475V 30000 is a dvb-s2 data service on the Astra 3B middle eastern beam, so that checks out.

Your not doing anything wrong.

11914H on 23.5E is the Dutch local channels transponder but the European beam on 23.5E is just so weak in Bahrain its being overpowered by the ultra high power signals from 26E next door.

To be honest theres not much you can do about.




(26E puts out a huge signal - I can get Badr 4 absolutely no problem here in Scotland on an offset lnb on a 1m dish aligned onto 21.5E).

 

[dzmei]

Thanks. Do you think if I go for Channel Master 2.4m it will do the job or I will only have much better reception on Badr with the dish aligned to 23.5e :-)

 

[Analoguesat]

Hard to say. Bigger dish = narrower acceptance angle which will help, but it all depends how much signal from 23.5E is actually getting to you. You may well find a very big dish indeed would be needed.

The only way to find out is to try it.

 

[dzmei]

Maybe not for this thread, but does any one think there is hope here? The signal on 12524 H /V is unstable and does not allow me to scan on the receiver. The channels on 11503 H are the correct ones from 39e. Question is if Channel Master 1.8 would be enough? All this is on my prime focus 2.4m petals.

 

[Analoguesat]

Same situation applies - you are trying for extreme fringe reception. The 7/8 fec is killing you on the Dolce 39E stuff. If it was the miore usual 3/4 you would stand a much better chance.

And if its not working on a 2.4 dish its definitely not going to work dropping down to a 1.8m.

 

[dzmei]

The 2.4 dish I have is cheap petalised type, which performs just a bit better than my 1.60 offset.

 

[Analoguesat]

In that case the only way to find out if a 1.8m will work is to try it.

 

[dzmei]

Well... the only way to try is to purchase one from the US :-) ... and pay the shipping... But then again - no pain - no gain.

 

[Captain Jack]

If I was to go into the trouble of importing a huge dish, I would get a 2.4m one. With those levels on a crappy dish, you are likely to get a decent signal from a good one. Don't quote me on this though

 

[dzmei]

Yeah, I agree. Thanks for the input Captain Jack.

P.S.
After some work with the LNB yesterday (pushed it towards the antenna as much as I could) I got 5.3dB on 12524V, but couldn't get "locked" on the meter. I have noticed the BER was fluctuating from 0.3E-02 to 1.0E-05. Do you think the high BER was the reason? 12524 H went up to 3.7dB and in fact I care only about the H transponders where Bulsatcom is. In Europe 12524H seems to be the strongest, but obviously not in the fringe zone.

And another question. As A/S noted the 7/8 FEC is the main challenge here. There is DVB-S2 transponder at 3/4 but I can't get more than 2.7 dB on it. Does my memory serve well when it tells me that for DVB-S2 reception I need higher signal levels than DVB-S?

 

[Analoguesat]

Yes typically you need stronger signals for successful lock of DVB-S2