astra 2f become launch arianespace v209

[Analoguesat]

The coverage areas are interesting - the area covered by African beams on 2F & 2G has been extended north west to cover the Cape Verde area & south eastish to cover the African interior.

The Middle East spot on 2E is completely new.

However this does tie in with the already known desire of SES to cover more areas from each orbital location. Something Ive been predicting for years, but which is bad news for satellite enthusiasts as frequency reuse deprives us of any chance to see stuff on the other beam.

 

[timo_w2s]

Glad to see 2G has a more realistic pan-European beam that just about covers southern Finland. I think the 2F and 2E European beams are very much biased to western Europe - hardly pan-European.

 

[Analoguesat]

The north east drop off on the uk beams doesnt look good for you timo

 

[sonnetpete]

There doesn't seem to be any significant change to the UK spotbeam which will affect those in my area and to the west and east from me. A great percentage here use zone 1 mini dishes. I'll be interested to see how quickly it drops off once you get below the Nantes - Angers latitude. I can't see even a zone 2 cutting it down there, there'd be no margin for rain fade. Maybe a 1M will become the norm further south in France.

 

[solly]

timo
i check uk spot beam it look 1.5m or 1.8m can be receiver it in finland

 

[timo_w2s]

timo
i check uk spot beam it look 1.5m or 1.8m can be receiver it in finland

It would be nice if true but I suspect it'll be more like the 1N UK beam which needs over 3m in Finland for partial reception. Even Astra 2D needed a 2.4m for 24 hour reception of the stronger channels.

 

[PaulR]

I'll be interested to see how quickly it drops off once you get below the Nantes - Angers latitude. I can't see even a zone 2 cutting it down there, there'd be no margin for rain fade. Maybe a 1M will become the norm further south in France.

Not half as interested as me!

At present using the equivalent of a 75cm dish in the Vaucluse I have a 90cm waiting down here just in case. If pushed I have a 1m in the UK and if really pushed I have a 1.8m no-name glass-fibre P/F in the grenier which I was going to motorise at some point in the future.

 

[BLUEPLATINUM]

The 2E beams are up as well - and the Middle east beam is bad news for expats!

I'll have all the beams up on the footprint archive in a few minutes

Well of all the 2F and 2E beams published two look good for the big expat areas of Spain and the Canary Islands. It will be interesting to see if Sky choose one of these for their subscription package.

Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2

 

[M60]

Well of all the 2F and 2E beams published two look good for the big expat areas of Spain and the Canary Islands. It will be interesting to see if Sky choose one of these for their subscription package.

Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2

I noticed the spot over the Canaries, obviously it's big money for Sky so they will want to protect encrypted services for subscribers there. I guess the UK spotbeam will mean the end for the FTA stuff though? My relatives in Lanzarote keep asking me about it as they are currently getting 1N on a 1.35m dish which will be useless for the FTA stuff once 2F goes in to service.

 

[C0re]

Probably the spot over the Canaries is there so the satellite can be used at 19.2 as well.

 

[BLUEPLATINUM]

Probably the spot over the Canaries is there so the satellite can be used at 19.2 as well.

I don't think so. It would not be part of the published information for 28.2E if that was the case.

 

[solly]

when astra 1n back to 19.2e can use two beam
pan europe 1,2

 

[M60]

I don't think so. It would not be part of the published information for 28.8E if that was the case.

Yep, agree. 2E/F/G are all destined and designed for 28.2E, they'd only move one of them if there was an emergency DR situation elsewhere but it seems SES are investing in resilience and backup fleet capacity in all their major slots over the next few years. With 1N at 19.2E that will be well backed up, 23.5E is getting 2A and there's a new craft going to 31.5E too in 2014/15.

 

[DragonSat]

Its the hotspot over southern Italy that I like. Maybe once we loose BBC etc we can use smaller dishs for teh main subscription services. Currently were restricted by the 2A North beam that carries the main EPG, so need 95cm+ just to get the box to boot up and see the EPG.

I still live in hope of some sniff of the UK Spot though, if its the same chassis as 1N

Are these the latest maps for 2F??
_http://www.astra2.org/maps2f.html

 

[C0re]

Sorry I don't agree. SES makes satellites that can be used on more locations. That's what they were doing in the past, are doing now and why would they stop doing that? These satellites are perfect examples of this policy. Just like you said, the 2A is going to 23.5 and on the other hand the 1N is temporarily at 28.2 now. The beam of the Canaries is there for emergencies or just a follow-up mission at 19.2. I don't think it specifically designed for Sky. SES just published the footprint at 28.2. They did that before.

 

[M60]

Sorry I don't agree. SES makes satellites that can be used on more locations. That's what they were doing in the past, are doing now and why would they stop doing that? These satellites are perfect examples of this policy. Just like you said, the 2A is going to 23.5 and on the other hand the 1N is temporarily at 28.2 now. The beam of the Canaries is there for emergencies or just a follow-up mission at 19.2. I don't think it specifically designed for Sky. SES just published the footprint at 28.2. They did that before.

They may use them at other positions towards the end of their life but the majority of their mission will be at 28.2E. Surely too with the skew different at 19.2E the spot over the Canaries would shift (as is currently the situation with 1N which is beam-shaped for 19.2E.

Dragonsat: the latest footprints are on the SES website
_http://www.ses.com/fleet-coverage - satellite fleet
_https://sat.ses.com/webservice/images/12494520 - 2F UK spot

 

[timo_w2s]

Sorry I don't agree. SES makes satellites that can be used on more locations. That's what they were doing in the past, are doing now and why would they stop doing that? These satellites are perfect examples of this policy. Just like you said, the 2A is going to 23.5 and on the other hand the 1N is temporarily at 28.2 now. The beam of the Canaries is there for emergencies or just a follow-up mission at 19.2. I don't think it specifically designed for Sky. SES just published the footprint at 28.2. They did that before.

I agree with this. The way SES like to shift satellites around should prove that. If they made them very specific to each slot they would be stuck in the event of a major issue or would need even more backups floating about. Sky can just take advantage of the situation and quietly get a little extra subscription revenue from Europe but I don't think SES and Sky are specifically designing satellites to cater for ex-pats.

 

[welshman234]

Why does 2E say it will be relocated? What is that 75 hotspot on the 2E widebeam over Poland for?
Ta

 

[timo_w2s]

Just a little bit of fun. Time for a fantasy footprint...

I was trying to guess what reception of the Astra 2F European beam would be like in the Nordic area, anyone care to comment on this? What we don't know is how fast the signal drops off (newer satellites seem to have a sharper focus) verses how pessimistic SES is being (in the past SES have been rather cautious on the footprint maps).

Either way, my parent's 1.8m dish is looking a little undersized in Helsinki...

Hopefully in a few months time all will be revealed.

 

[PaulR]

Well I give it 24 hours before your fantasy footprint becomes accepted as fact.