Astra 1M on air. Any distant reports?

[BombedOne]

Here we have very clear sky and nice weather. If had a good telescope, I think I visually can check satellites

 

[mehdisa]

They are very weak - I can only get them when receiver is directly connected to LNB, now I'm at home, cable runs long way, and also passes trough diseqc, so no signal here.

what do u thin?
are they in wide beam or european beam?

 

[BombedOne]

Tests will be continued till the end of the february as I know. Shape and power of beams will be adjusted, so no need now to worry about such things. Time will show us everything.

 

[mehdisa]

Tests will be continued till the end of the february as I know. Shape and power of beams will be adjusted, so no need now to worry about such things. Time will show us everything.

Are you sure to shape and power of beams will be adjusted?
M8 do u have any reference?

 

[BombedOne]

Yes I have, but they are not public. One of my close friends works at uplink, which sends signal to Astra. This is his conclusion, based on previous experience and satellites.

 

[mehdisa]

Yes I have, but they are not public. One of my close friends works at uplink, which sends signal to Astra. This is his conclusion, based on previous experience and satellites.

I hope so.

 

[BombedOne]

It's not a good idea of believeing signal to cover that countries, which aren't paying royalty fees to broadcasters Of course, if PREMIERE ever will decide to go Iran market, then there MAY BE some hope of coverage zone increase, but I think, they will do like Canalsat france - which leased separate transponder at BADR, to serve arabic countries from there

 

[deepbluesky]

Strange,looking at foot print of 1M european beam looks wider than 1H but signal received is weaker. Maybe bad weather over Europe affecting it?

We do have bad weather indeed and stormy as well but this should also have affected others here which doesn't.

If the problems are on the 1M European Beam frequencies then it's why the Beam edge is very sharp. This show the first reports from Turkey at _http://www.turkeyforum.com/satforum/showthread.php?t=492087 and even the 4m dish scan from Tel Aviv in the thread of dxtv.de i posted before. In Southern Egypt they have lost reception on 2.60m.

If it affects frequencies that are still on 1G/H then it's because harmonics of stronger 1M disturb the much weaker ones. This is a problem that in Eastern Crete somebody realized on 11739V. Another DXer from Thessaloniki reports that since the activation of 1KR/L/M several 1G/H frequencies arrive with BER (before it was 0). Not always bigger dishes do solve this problem even with optimizing skew and using high XPD LNBs as there is also an Austrian person on Naxos using 1.50m and is not able to lock 12692H (1H) because 12699V (1L) disturbs a lot.

So all these people are waiting for 1N to have similar level on all frequencies.

 

[BombedOne]

In such case, no need for bigger dish or better LNB, you just need adjustable band-pass (rejecting) filter, to filter out unneeded frequencies.

 

[BombedOne]

Went to roof, very fine tuned LNB skew and feedhorn depth.

Result - got All currently active transponders from Astra 1M!

European beam Q is 39-42%, which is very close to pixelization margin (35%) of my StarTrack SR55X.

But problem is, I can only receive these weak TP's while on the roof, cable (about 20 m long) and Diseqc kill the strength of the signal. Now I'll try to install inline amplifier for that LNB, maybe it'll help.

 

[BombedOne]

Inline amplifier gived a bit of improvement - Now I can scan frequencies at home and find a channels (before it was "no channels found") but signal strength is still very low. I think I may install separate cable directly, without connecting to Diseqc.

 

[mehdisa]

mate plz do me a favor and inform me all freq which you are receving in both beam with quality percent.

 

[BombedOne]

This will only have sense, if using same type receiver with same firmware. Regardless, here it is:

All widebeam TP, except 11720 -75%, 11720 gives 80-85%.
All European TP, 39-42% when directly connected to LNB, when connected trough diseqc and cable- 21-22%

 

[mehdisa]

it was helpfully.

 

[deepbluesky]

In such case, no need for bigger dish or better LNB, you just need adjustable band-pass (rejecting) filter, to filter out unneeded frequencies.

Congratulations mate

Since i have no experience with band-pass filters i wonder how to conntect these. Is it right to belive that

1. Insert the filter after the LNB output
2. Install another very small dish for these disturbing stronger ones filtered on the bigger dish
3. join them into a Diseqc 2/1 or 0/12V switch just like one would receive 2 different satellites

and that's it ?

Further on i would be interested in if these filters have to be built particular for the frequencies wished to be knocked out or if they are programmable but how should latter work ?

And final question:
Which manufacturer builts high quality bandpass filters ?

 

[BombedOne]

Unfortunately, all band pass filter I have seen, require very professional, square-flange LNB and waveguides, so I don't think you'll be able to get everything together for any amount of reasonable cost

There's two kinds of band pass filters used in satellite industry:

1. Directly mounted on, or are part of LNB ones, these ones are quite rough, and for Ku band they require micrometer adjustment accuracy, which is very very hard.

2. Ones that operate on intermediate RF frequency, which goes from LNB. These are considerable cheaper and accessible.

While your ideas for setting up 2nd dish and subtract it's signal from another is logically correct, technologically it's impossible in given frequency range (both LNB oscillators should be frequency coupled, operate in same phase, length of cables to be same up to 0.1mm and so on).

For some bandpass filters, check this as reference:

_ttp://www.microwavefilter.com/ku-band_receive_bandpass.htm

There are a lot of small screws on it, they all have to be adjusted in particular way to reject certain frequencies.

 

[BombedOne]

I'm checking various language forums to define the end of widebeam signal reception. So far, most far point is 58°47'0.15"N 56°25'21.64"E - 0.9m dish receives widebeam signals OK. This is just amazing, and prooves theory, that these transponders are set to maximum available power, to fully test power supply capacity of actual satellite. When tests finished, power will be decreased.

Just two things make me curious:

1. Why shape of widebeam was just corrected after placing the satellite in position? and why european beam was introduced at all? I think, alignment mechanism of some TP's transmit dish failed, and get stuck in a position, which forms current "wide" beam

2. What was these frequencies I was able to receive (10916 & 10948), and what they going to replace? They are not match of any existing TP's not on astra,not on nearby satellites. The most close (10921) is UPC direct TP from 1KR... During blind scan, my receiver can make some errors, but they generally are in 1-2mhz range (say 12120 instead of 12121) so I don't think this was a fault of my hardware.

 

[mehdisa]

In turkish forum,they gossip that ses astra will transfer just 8 TP on widebeam and rest of TP will transfer on Europe beam.
Would it be true?

 

[BombedOne]

Even if it's true, that's OK for me, if current strength of both beams will be contained. I'll upgrade to 2 meter dish, and watch my favorite channels easy

 

[Thomas63]

Hi all,
unfortunately I can get no ...... signal from this satelite Astra 1 M at all.
Neither european beam nor widebeam. #
Eventhough I recieved Astra 1 G, 1 H in the past.
thomas