timo_w2s
Retired Mod
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I'm in danger of going more off topic here (and talking to myself ;) ) but I've been looking at the current transponder loads of the current satellites and have come to the conclusion that there are about 30 transponders in use by 2E and about 17 transponder in use by 2F at the moment. The SES website says that 2E will have a maximum of 42 transponders for UK & Europe and 2F will take 40 transponders. That means we've got about 35 spare transponders at the moment plus 2G may eventually provide up to 10 more transponders giving a total of about 45 transponders free which should nicely cover the transponders being used by the old satellites 2A and 28A at the moment.
I suspect 2G will take over a few UK spot transponders from either 2E and/or 2F, which in turn will free up some more 2E/2F transponders to operate on Europe footprints (which have better UK coverage than 2G) when taking over from 2A and 28A. 2G may even transmit some new UK spots in the current bands allocated to 28A while some of those old 28A channels are moved to other frequencies.
According to some old SES PDFs 2E has most 33MHz transponders (as favoured by the Europe beam and is probably why 2E is being used for this at the moment) and 2F & 2G have more 26MHz transponders (mainly used for UK spots and a few Europe beam on upper band of 2F). I suspect we'll see a few 33MHz Europe beam transponders switched on 2F at some point after 2A goes (so far none have been used by 2F at 28E for TV channels).
Overall it looks like 2G will be used sparingly at 28E for KU band in Europe and mainly used for backup (not forgetting it's also got KA band transponders for France and KU band for West Africa). 2E and 2F will most likely have a bit of a transponder shuffle and will have to start operating at full load once 2A and 28A are moved away.
I guess we'll find out sometime next year what actually happens...
I suspect 2G will take over a few UK spot transponders from either 2E and/or 2F, which in turn will free up some more 2E/2F transponders to operate on Europe footprints (which have better UK coverage than 2G) when taking over from 2A and 28A. 2G may even transmit some new UK spots in the current bands allocated to 28A while some of those old 28A channels are moved to other frequencies.
According to some old SES PDFs 2E has most 33MHz transponders (as favoured by the Europe beam and is probably why 2E is being used for this at the moment) and 2F & 2G have more 26MHz transponders (mainly used for UK spots and a few Europe beam on upper band of 2F). I suspect we'll see a few 33MHz Europe beam transponders switched on 2F at some point after 2A goes (so far none have been used by 2F at 28E for TV channels).
Overall it looks like 2G will be used sparingly at 28E for KU band in Europe and mainly used for backup (not forgetting it's also got KA band transponders for France and KU band for West Africa). 2E and 2F will most likely have a bit of a transponder shuffle and will have to start operating at full load once 2A and 28A are moved away.
I guess we'll find out sometime next year what actually happens...