Installing Dishes In Spain for 2E Chit-Chat

[PaulR]

Just checked (very roughly) and it appears to be early October for you.

 

[Huevos]

Solar outage is in October. Lasts just a few minutes and happens about 11am.

Eclipse is from about Sept 1 until Oct 14. Every night it starts about 11pm and last up to 90 minutes.

 

[Archive4]

I would have thought it's a bit early for solar outage but plug your details into this calculator to be sure.

Sun Outage / Sun Interference Prediction for Geostationary Orbit Satellites - Jens T. Sætre - http://www.satellite-calculations.com

Tried this Paul, but makes no sense to me

Must be doing something wrong because it is telling me I had an outage 9/10/2015 and can expect the next 10/10/2015 and I only have a problem twice a year

I thought the solar outage and equinox were related, equinox is def 23/09/2015, so guess I was wrong and still have much to learn.

Guess I´ll be the first 110 year old apprentice!

 

[PaulR]

I thought the solar outage and equinox were related...

They are interrelated. The difference arises because a satellite is closer to the earth than the sun. As a result, the further from the equator you move, the more the angular difference becomes. This means that the more you move away from the equator, the later the autumn solar outage is.

 

[PaulR]

Tried this Paul, but makes no sense to me

Must be doing something wrong because it is telling me I had an outage 9/10/2015 and can expect the next 10/10/2015 and I only have a problem twice a year.

I put 03179 Spain in and 28E Astra G as the satellite. I left the dish size at 60cm, a larger dish will suffer for fewer days.

The first day will be 4th October and last day 12th October before 10:00am UTC. 8th October will have the maximum outage.

 

[Archive4]

Thanks Paul, I need to go and look at the site again. It was asking me for the temperature in Kelvin etc

I got this

Satellite name: ASTRA 2G Satellite Position: 28.15 °E
Location: Calle Benejúzar, 32, 03179 Formentera del Segura, Alicante, Spain
Coordinates: 0.724 °W 38.1075 °N
Altitude: 4.9889 [m] 16.368 [feet]
Antenna Size=1.2 [m] Frequency=11.95 [GHz]
NB! Local time is based on computer local time zone and daylight savings settings
Start Interference
UTC
mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss End Interference
UTC
mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss Peak Interference
UTC
mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss Start Interference
Local Time
mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss End Interference
Local Time
mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss Peak Interference
Local Time
mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss Duration
Time
hh:mm Min.
Separation
Degrees Peak
CN
Degradation
[dB]
10/06/2015 09:38:37 10/06/2015 09:43:12 10/06/2015 09:40:54 10/06/2015 11:38:37 UTC+2 10/06/2015 11:43:12 UTC+2 10/06/2015 11:40:54 UTC+2 04m35s 0.840 5.4
10/07/2015 09:36:59 10/07/2015 09:44:15 10/07/2015 09:40:37 10/07/2015 11:36:59 UTC+2 10/07/2015 11:44:15 UTC+2 10/07/2015 11:40:37 UTC+2 07m16s 0.457 7.6
10/08/2015 09:36:16 10/08/2015 09:44:23 10/08/2015 09:40:19 10/08/2015 11:36:16 UTC+2 10/08/2015 11:44:23 UTC+2 10/08/2015 11:40:19 UTC+2 08m06s 0.075 8.6
10/09/2015 09:36:10 10/09/2015 09:43:55 10/09/2015 09:40:03 10/09/2015 11:36:10 UTC+2 10/09/2015 11:43:55 UTC+2 10/09/2015 11:40:03 UTC+2 07m45s -0.31 8.2
10/10/2015 09:36:46 10/10/2015 09:42:47 10/10/2015 09:39:46 10/10/2015 11:36:46 UTC+2 10/10/2015 11:42:47 UTC+2 10/10/2015 11:39:46 UTC+2 06m00s -0.69 6.4

NB! Local time is based on computer local time zone and daylight savings settings


That did not copy and paste as intended, but perhaps you can decode it!

or the screen shot may help



or am I looking in the wrong place?

Lucky shot from the map, zoomed into my area and hit myself on the head!

 

[Huevos]

Quite a few more problem days than that shows. You need at least 6.5dB SNR for FEC 5/6. On a 1.4m dish down there on a good transponder you have about 9dB SNR. That means the worst degradation you can put up with is 2.5dB. Not the 6+dB for the days shown on that site.

 

[Archive4]

Quite a few more problem days than that shows. You need at least 6.5dB SNR for FEC 5/6. On a 1.4m dish down there on a good transponder you have about 9dB SNR. That means the worst degradation you can put up with is 2.5dB. Not the 6+dB for the days shown on that site.

I hate the American date format! Now I feel really stupid

 

[PaulR]

I hate the American date format!

So do I. It's completely illogical. My personally preferred format is yyyy/mm/dd and then hh:mm:ss but even the non-American dd/mm/yyy is vastly superior.

With the date format in mind does the table make any more sense when it's going to happen? You don't need to understand the signal levels to just see the dates and times.

 

[Archive4]

So do I. It's completely illogical. My personally preferred format is yyyy/mm/dd and then hh:mm:ss but even the non-American dd/mm/yyy is vastly superior.

With the date format in mind does the table make any more sense when it's going to happen? You don't need to understand the signal levels to just see the dates and times.

Unfortunately it all makes sense now! I think H is right that we are going to get more problem days than it suggests

 

[PaulR]

But that now brings us back to your original problem with the signal level going. Have you found out what it might be? Or are you going to put it down to "just one of those things"!

 

[Archive4]

Sorry for the delayed response, work is getting in the way of education and fun!

I don´t like " just one of those things ", spent most of my time as a special faults investigator, so don´t believe in that. CH4 is well below all others by about 1.4dB, currently 4+1 is higher than BBC on 10818V. Makes me think interference or weak frequency on lnb.
Overall signal loss from yesterday did not happen today, so for now, I have to put that down to atmospherics, until it happens again when I have time to hunt the cause!
Had fun today sorting a new install for a client which I will post later!

 

[Archive4]

Have spent most of the evening / night on the roof. Set up the fixed 1.2 with a Best twin lnb. On the fixed dish do not have the same problem with ch4 being 1.2 dB lower than ch4 +1, both recorded 9.2 - 9.3 dB. So thought, maybe a problem with the GI twin on the motor causing the 1.2 dB difference. So, swapped the GI for the Best twin onto the motor. Difference now is only 0.6 dB but am now in eclipse, so signals are dropping off and cannot do like for like check.
Lost ITV HD while swapping lnb´s, but not sure if lnb or eclipse causing problem.
Before eclipse was recording over 9.2 dB on all 2E txps with ITV2 recording a massive 9.6 dB on the fixed dish which is better than any of the Fam 1.4 dishes I´ve checked recently, so suspect the Laminas 1.2 is performing better than the Fam ( effectively 1.3 when measured in the same way )

Will play some more when have time!

 

[Archive4]

Just noticed that eclipse is not effecting BBC HD Scotland as bad as BBC One HD

 

[Archive4]

For some reason the eclipse does not appear to be effecting 2G signal strength. Can someone else check, or am I going mad!

 

[PaulR]

Brian, what do you mean by eclipse? The word has a fairly precise meaning and I can't think what you're getting at.

 

[Archive4]

Brian, what do you mean by eclipse? The word has a fairly precise meaning and I can't think what you're getting at.

The satellites are going into the shadow of the earth and using battery back up to run. The result is a significant loss of c/n in our area of up to 1.5 dB.
I can only assume 2G is being effected less as it has less active transponders, so doesn´t suffer as much as 2E, but that´s my guess.
H´s earlier post advised from approx 23:00 local time and lasting up to 90 mins

 

[PaulR]

Missed the earlier post, understand now.

Your theory sounds as good as any.

 

[Archive4]

Have done various tests and have found the loss on ch4 is being caused by the motor itself, it effects the Best twin less than the GI twin for some reason, but when the motor is bypassed the ch4 signal jumps to 9.2 dB using either lnb. ( lnb of fixed dish, cabled via the motor to find the problem.
With the Best twin on the fixed dish ( cabled via the motor ) I am recording the following.

BBC HD 9.1 dB
BBC Sc HD 8.8 dB
BBC South 9.1 dB
ch4 8.6 dB ( 9.2 dB with motor bypassed )
ch4 +1 9.3 dB
ch4 HD 9.0 dB
ch5 8.8 dB
ITV HD 8.6 dB ( 11052 H )
ITV HD 8.7 dB ( 11097 V )
ITV2 9.6 dB

Looks pretty good to me for a 1.2 dish round here

Will post results for motorised when I have it all switched back over and lined up ( on problems with motor set up thread )

 

[lovelyperson]

Have done various tests and have found the loss on ch4 is being caused by the motor itself, it effects the Best twin less than the GI twin for some reason, but when the motor is bypassed the ch4 signal jumps to 9.2 dB using either lnb. ( lnb of fixed dish, cabled via the motor to find the problem.
With the Best twin on the fixed dish ( cabled via the motor ) I am recording the following.

BBC HD

Any probs at the mo Brian......several of my lower frequencies are playing up as we speak!

Thanks.