Astra 2E: Western Europe Reports

[timo_w2s]

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...

 

[Captain Jack]

That's all assuming it gets up there in a form other than a puff of smoke, courtesy of dated Russian tech.

 

[timo_w2s]

That's all assuming it gets up there in a form other than a puff of smoke, courtesy of dated Russian tech.

Don't complicate things, I'm only just slowly getting my head around what might happen if things go to plan... If 2G goes up in a puff of Russian smoke I suspect 2C will be used more in the short term.

 

[mickwig]

Channel 4 HD has been off on 11123 since about 20:30 CET here. Does anybody else have the same problem. Other vertical TP's are working.

 

[Clown man]

Channel 4 HD is on 11126 ,V ,22000,5/6.....but no probs here.....Infact the highest signals from 2F and 2E i can remember........
Maybe your Panasonic freesat Bluray....is being oveloded. with too much signal.......

On My DMR -BS 750. I always have two attenuators attached.to each input......as the box is close to the dish and don't like high signal strength ....that results sometimes with no signal...!........

.......maybe try a signal Attenuator..to lower the signal strength and maybe improve your signal quality........

 

[mickwig]

It came back this morning but with a very bad signal, lower than all the others. Since about 9:00 CET back to normal.

 

[Clown man]

Maybe a bad coax connection with dampness getting in the LNB connector........or a LNB fault........Ch4HD /4/7 fine here......Just a stronger signal than usual......maybe 2F wobble...?......hope this helps........

 

[mickwig]

Nope, all the other VL's were normal.

 

[geoffrey]

Hi Stephen, last year during the summer I too lost everything on Astra2F so knew that once Astra2E came alive this year it was only a matter of time. My previous dish was fine when the Astra2E/F signal was at its strongest which is every couple of weeks. Today signal strength is still very low so I think you will have to wait until the signal rises again before you get reception. What many friends here are doing that cannot install a larger dish is trying Filmon via the internet or Chromecast to cover the days they don't have reception.

FilmOn now works really well on a fast internet connection and on a LG Smart TV you can get to it from the browser. However the audio quality from FilmOn even with a HD subscription is poor. According to FilmOn support I am the only person who has complained ! A spectrum analyser on the audio output of all the FilmOn channels I have tried so far (the UK ones) shows that there is a vicious treble cut at about 7 Khz which is why the audio sounds like an old AM radio. If you agree with me that there is a problem with the audio please tell FilmOn at the FilmOn.com Help Desk because there is probably a simple fix such as not setting a treble cut switch to on.

 

[Tatra Man]

Can we still put reception reports in this thread!?

66800 Saillagouse - Gibertini 125; Inverto Black Ultra Quad; Panasonic TH50-PZ81B & DMR-BS750EBK + Pace $ky box:

Came down in early January (for the ski season) and even got HD! Since then it's been variable. Tried putting the LNB on a carefully assembled cheap 180 petal dish and got very similar results and realised that the F/d ratio was all wrong so back to square one.

Channel 4 HD is on 11126 ,V ,22000,5/6.....but no probs here.....Infact the highest signals from 2F and 2E i can remember........
Maybe your Panasonic freesat Bluray....is being overloaded. with too much signal.......

On My DMR -BS 750. I always have two attenuators attached.to each input......as the box is close to the dish and don't like high signal strength ....that results sometimes with no signal...!........

.......maybe try a signal Attenuator..to lower the signal strength and maybe improve your signal quality........

Interesting! If I align by using the $ky box I get break-up on the Blu-Ray recorder! Looks like you've answered my question as to why:- Inverto = high output level . . . . Panasonic = high input sensitivity . . . . Cable run = 10m . . . . Result = incompatibility!

Anyway - you can add to your map that a 125 in Saillagouse is borderline for 2E and 2F.

 

[Alistair_]

Has anyone noticed any sort of signal deterioration? These days I regularly lose most of the HDs at night and sometimes even some SDs so I have to revert to regional BBCs to lock signal again, jsut about.
Has this been happening only to me (meaning problems on my set-up) or is it a generalised post-equinox issue?

 

[semen]

Now the satellite Astra 2E is at 28.5557 ° E. I'm at the receiver Openbox-SH6 put Astra 2E at 28.5e and the signal became higher. A Astra 2F is now at 28.2253 ° E in the receiver set 28,3e.
Scan these satellites separately in the receiver

 

[timo_w2s]

Now the satellite Astra 2E is at 28.5557 ° E. I'm at the receiver Openbox-SH6 put Astra 2E at 28.5e and the signal became higher. A Astra 2F is now at 28.2253 ° E in the receiver set 28,3e.
Scan these satellites separately in the receiver

According to SES's Center of Box info 2E is still at 28.35E

http://www.ses.com/4405429/tool/centerofbox

 

[Alistair_]

Now the satellite Astra 2E is at 28.5557 ° E. I'm at the receiver Openbox-SH6 put Astra 2E at 28.5e and the signal became higher. A Astra 2F is now at 28.2253 ° E in the receiver set 28,3e.
Scan these satellites separately in the receiver

Sorry but I'm not clear about this, so the satellite has moved, should I have my dish realigned, or better, re-crosschannelled? Is this a temporary thing?

 

[Lazarus]

Now the satellite Astra 2E is at 28.5557 ° E. I'm at the receiver Openbox-SH6 put Astra 2E at 28.5e and the signal became higher. A Astra 2F is now at 28.2253 ° E in the receiver set 28,3e.
Scan these satellites separately in the receiver

Can you tell us the source for these seemingly anomalous figures?

 

[mickwig]

The signal always deteriorates after the spring equinox and will slowly come back.

 

[timo_w2s]

The signal always deteriorates after the spring equinox and will slowly come back.

Or in my case, it improves during the spring equinox and fades out again... :mad:

 

[semen]

timo_w2s
According to SES's Center of Box info 2E is still at 28.35E
=========================================
for 6 hours Astra 2E satellite currently at 28.5917 ° E I use informatsiiey from this site
http://www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/satellitelist.php

 

[mickwig]

Or in my case, it improves during the spring equinox and fades out again... :mad:

And then the sand doesn't help.

 

[Alistair_]

The signal always deteriorates after the spring equinox and will slowly come back.

That's reassuring and it's just what I thought, I just notice it's a lot crappier than last year, 2E in particular.
Luckily this signal deterioration doesn't happen before winter but after spring when the weather improves otherwise I'd have no signal all winter.
Hope it improves soon as I lost all HDs and lots of SDs too, luckily I can still lock signal on regional ones.