Astra 2E: Western Europe Reports

[Huevos]

upgrade [...] is out of he question at the moment

Have you focused the dish?

 

[Captain Jack]

I don't think he appreciated being patronised....

 

[Huevos]

Well his work has proved that trying endless LNBs is no cure for an undersize dish.

 

[Captain Jack]

Which is stating the obvious. But like others say, not everyone has a possibility of getting a larger dish... Clearly, that's not so obvious.

 

[Huevos]

not everyone has a possibility of getting a larger dish.

This reminds me of a time when I was working in a garage. A guy came in and said he was going on a long journey and his car was too slow, and could I drill a hole in the floor under the accelerator pedal so he could push it down further. Anyway the point is this is a hopeless futile quest that is not going to produce any useful result. And if going by my or your experience with that 1.5m dish, giving it a twist or pull here and there is far more likely to get the desired result than changing LNBs again.

 

[joddle]

The biggest problem with trying to squeeze every last drop of signal from an underperforming dish to me it seems that from the moment you appear to achieve your goal (ie yippee - I've got a signal!!!) things start to change. The sat is always moving a tiny little bit in its fig of 8, the wind is always blowing, cloud cover and atmospherics are always changing, metal expands and contracts, and whilst none of these things really matter much on a dish which is performing well, when you are on the extreme edge of locking a signal they can all have an effect - and at that level the tiniest change can stop reception. When in this situation in the 2D days, I would often be up on my roof adjusting and tweeking and recovering a signal - only to find a few days later Iwould be repeating the whole provcess again. I did that for nearly two years swapping LNBs, fine tweeking skew and focus - what a waste of time!!! The solution was to get a better dish - note not larger - but definitly much more expensive.

So - three things learned:
1) If you are having to make adjustment regularly then you need a better (not necessarily larger) dish.
2) Once you have a good dish set up you can leave it alone - mine has not been adjusted for 5 years or more now
3) You gets what you pays for! - In this environment there is no substitute for good quality so just go for it.

 

[PaulR]

Anybody have rough idea of spotbeam dish size in Marseilles ?

I may have to go down there in a few days.

Did the trip ever take place?

 

[Huevos]

The solution was to get a better dish - note not larger - but definitly much more expensive.

So - three things learned:
1) If you are having to make adjustment regularly then you need a better (not necessarily larger) dish.
2) Once you have a good dish set up you can leave it alone - mine has not been adjusted for 5 years or more now.

Yes, but switching from a 2.4m Fortec Star to a proper dish is not Steve's situation. He already has a proper dish, it's just too small.

 

[joddle]

Yes, but switching from a 2.4m Fortec Star to a proper dish is not Steve's situation. He already has a proper dish, it's just too small.

Did not mean to infer this was the solution for Steve but more a comment in general regarding a lesson learned for me. I think its clear from all the posts here that Steve already has a decent enough dish but his only option really is going up a size but for him that seems not a possible solution. So don't know where he can go from there! There's not much else to change.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Did the trip ever take place?

Moved back to - hopefully - early to mid July

 

[Channel Hopper]

And I was being somewhat kind.
The installer has fitted a 60cm dish (and run the satellite cable through the existing terrestrial stuff in the building with two diplexers), so absolutely no chance of any improvement unless I get to see the local wholesaler tomorrow.

So it looks like barbecues and beers for the weekend

 

[Channel Hopper]

Quick questi0n. Which beam(s) is Bloomberg (and the 'Adult channels') on ?

Having removed the diplxer from both ends of the system , the 'auntie'watch channels come in clear as a bell, but Bloomberg is still patchy, but just about watchable.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Anyone ?

 

[Lazarus]

Bloomberg UK is on Eutelsat 28A Fixed (aka Super) Beam

11426 V 27500

 

[PaulR]

In which case might this be a manifestation of the slight difference in skew between Astra and Eutelsat?

 

[Channel Hopper]

Thanks

And could you confirm the same for the 'adult' channels ?

 

[solly]

ses change footpring of centeran Europe beam
focus to uj and hanf of france
update ses web side
https://sat.ses.com/webservice/images/12494356

 

[Lazarus]

No doubt they've reviewed all the real-life observations and monitoring since she became Operational and have updated the Theoretical Footprint to reflect the Actualite

 

[timo_w2s]

This now reflects what was shown on the SES iOS app from the start.

 

[timo_w2s]

I've attached the iOS versions of the Europe footprints for 2E, 2F and 2G. It's interesting that they have shown the "45cm" limit from launch, including 2F and 2G which are still not on the SES website.

I'm also a little concerned about 2G's Europe footprint as it would suggest only England and Wales are covered by the 45cm area which would mean zone 2 dishes will still be needed in Ireland and Scotland for optimum service after 2A and 28A are shut down and goes against the idea that SES are trying to even the power across the UK and Ireland so everyone can use a zone 1 dish (as shown by 2F and 2E). So either 2G Europe will only be used as backup or the footprints are wrong or will be tweaked to favour the UK (in which case, why publish this one?).

Knowing my luck, as 2G Europe is the only beam that covers southern Finland with a semi decent signal, this is the one that won't be used....

Edit: Having just looked at the SES website, it seems they have updated the data for 2G to include the following text:

"Total transponders Ku-band: 10*
Ka-band: Europe:4
(250 & 500 & 600 MHz), *incremental capacity. Not an indication of technical capability."

It's a bit unclear what this means, as the satellite covers West Africa, UK and Europe, but if they are only planning to use 10 transponders then it sounds like it will be mainly backup and filling in a few gaps as I feared.