Likvid said:
Actually i beleive it's Amazonas at 61.0W you received, it's a new satellite and it got a beam covering Europe with about 50dBW peak at your location.
Probably it was some tests going on as the satellite doesn't ahve any active channels transmitting yet.
Lancelot said:
That makes a lot of sense Likvid. 50dBW is a huge signal for a 2.4mtr dish though.
I should be able to get that here with my 1.2 Gibbi.
I'm going to have to sit here and scan it all day now
Likvid said:
Yes, but the fortecstar 2.4M petalized dish isn't performing like a real 2.4M dish if you get me, it's maybe more like a 1.6-1.8M dish.
Amazonas received 06.10.2005 in Zagreb, Croatia.
Now hold on a minute, guys! The info we have so far certainly does NOT indicate he's receiving Amazonas at 61.0°W!
First of all, he said he was getting signal off three transponders: 12,326 MHz, 12,442 MHz and 12,473 MHz, the two last ones being mentioned in
another thread in another forum. None of the transponders on
Amazonas carry those frequencies. (If you aren't convinced, just go their
website, click on Documentos and then on
[PDF] Ficha técnica ....)
Also he said (in his very first post) he was receiving a
Dish Network test screen.
Even if he were receiving the European beam of Amazonas, this would have an EIRP of 46 dBW in Ireland, meaning an
80 cm dish would be enough to pick up the signal, meaning his 2.4 m dish (despite the feed mismatch and all) would be SERIOUSLY UNDERPERFORMING (and that's putting it mildly)!
Furthermore, he said he was using an Echostar 3000 (Dish Network receiver from the States) to search for a signal, which means it's unlikely he would have been able to pick up any European broadcasts on it, since
US broadcasts (at least an overwhelming number of them) use a different symbol rate than in Europe (some even use a completely different transmission type altogether) and satellite receivers originating from satellite TV providers (such as Dish Network) tend to be tightly specified (some won't allow you to set certain parameters, such as the symbol rate, which is fixed! In the UK users face similar restrictions on their Sky DigiBoxes, they're only allowed to choose between two fixed symbol rates when tuning in channels manually.).
So, at least as far as I'm concerned, he was indeed receiving signals off 61.5°W. The only thing I want to know more of, was he using the correct type of feed, or is there still room for improvement on his dish?
If you are reading this — stevienire — please post back and tell us if the dealer you bought your dish from, knew that you were going to try and catch American satellites like the one at 61.5°W and if he made any modifications to or provided you with a feedhorn that would receive circularly polarized signals as well.