Recent content by gambit

Hi Mark A Smart DNS will have less impact on your broadband speed than a VPN and is easier to set up. Before you go down that route I recommend that you use the Filmon app or add-on. Not necessary to hide IP. Get that working first on your Android or other suitable set top box. You can add a...

Is this the first time that there's been an official date announcement about the start of operations, even before any official statement from Astrium that the testing of the satellite has been completed? Interesting, also, that the SES statement focused solely on the UK beam - supporting the...

TLE updated - still no movement. That turkey's stuffed for Christmas. Could some of 1N Freesat be switched to 2F?

Some old photos of geostationary satellites: http://www.eclipsetours.com/paul-maley/artificial-satellite-observations/geostationary-satellites/

Why has the 2E not moved? It could just be that SES-Astrium are not ready to move it yet. Maybe they are just busy, or just happy to wait until the New Year or some of their key staff have seasonal flu. They had a launch on Friday (22nd) "Astrium's Swarm satellite trio successfully launched...

However, it appears that Celestrak is updating the two-line element sets for the 2E. Why should one question the reliability of that data for the 2E. Or has Celestrak stopped providing updates for the 2E? If the Celestrak data is normally reliable, for this and other satellites, and given that...

According to the most recent TLE data, it is not budging. That, for the moment, is all we have to go on.

Surely any so called tracking software, that depends on TLE, is only going to predict the current position based on the data received from the last TLE update (Monday?). The satellite was still in position at 43.5 then, so the tracking programs are telling us that it is still in position. This...

The speed has fluctuated over the whole of the testing period and n2yo has reported speeds within a range of about +-10m/s. I believe, at the moment, that speed is the wrong way, to the East. Essentially, what n2yo is saying, is that the 2E is approximately stationary at about 43.5 east...

Or maybe it'll park up over Indonesia - and point north west to India. The sub-continent is one of the world's biggest populations of English speakers ;)

Yes - and for almost the last 24hours the only frequency reported is the 12610v. And now it appears that has gone quiet.

With no tests reported since 7:12 AM it is beginning to look like testing is over.

Yes, I know. Calculating a diffraction pattern that includes spurious reflections is complex. That's why it is so surprising that the highly simplified model of a single, smooth, parabolic reflector seems to predict the shape of the 1st null from SW Spain all the way to NE Germany. Of course...

The beam shaping on 2E/2F uses antenna surface shaping to manipulate the footprint shape. Comparing the contours of the null points derived from the model of a simpler, non-shaped, 2.6m dish with the null points on the actual 2F UK spot footprint, the effect of the shaping produces a tighter...

The 2nd map, "the 2E UK Spot Shifted 15 degrees East", is simply the predicted 2F UK spot footprint but shifted 15 degrees east. You cannot use that map to predict reception in southern Spain once the satellite moves to 28.2 east. To receive a transmission you have to be well away from a...