Astra 2F Testing Reception Reports

[Llew]

Yes, I have that at about the same spot. It doesn't seem to have moved overnight though.

 

[hvdh]

Here it had moved West over half a degree, about an hour ago. Will check it again around noon, to get a rough estimate of the motion in 12 hours.

 

[Llew]

There's no similar active frequency on any bird between 42E and 30.5E, so It could remain fired up until it gets to 28.5E - there's a working TP on that frequency on 28.2E

 

[gonzobaby]

i can confirm that the bird is moving

i can also receive the 12188H frequency near 41°E

 

[Lazarus]

So, for those like me who have been following events only at a superficial level, whilst admiring the` skill and dedication of you chaps with all the right gear:

a. It launched ok

b. It tested ok

c. It's either started its transition to its final position or is certainly on the point of doing so.


Transition is presumably an exercise requiring a high degree of precision in navigational terms and will take a good few days, so would a decent guesstimate be around 25 Nov (give or take) for it to be in place and ready to take over from 1N?


Edit: Thankyou, gonzobaby! Scrub " ... on the point of doing so"!

 

[Analoguesat]

Transmitting whilst moving is almost unheard of. Deliberately anyway - its happened with runaways that I can think of

 

[hvdh]

So where where you chaps last night, while I was desparate for some confirmation, sleeping or what?

Tivu that 25 Nov sounds realistic for the arrival time at 28.2 East, but as said I'll try another pin-point in 2 hours.

 

[BlindFaith]

I might be going insane, but can this be true?
The 12188 H peak is still there... but at around 40.8 East.
Could it be this low power (probably, as reported back here) transponder is simply kept on during transition to 28.2 East?

I can see this small peak as well at around 40.7E. If it would be the same carrier that you've observed at 43.6E and 40.8E, 2F must has come to a halt again ;)

 

[solly]

i think before 23 nov satellite to arrive 28.2e to testing signal color bar or same channel test uk beam or europe beam direfent freuqncy like astra 1n was 11160 sr-1000 fec 3/4 sky news uk beam

 

[hvdh]

Now 12 hours after last night's direction of 40.8° East, I find the 12188 H peak strongest at 40.2° East.
That makes 1.2° per day, 12° in 10 days, so 40.2 - 12 = 28,2° East.

Arrival on 21 November, place your bets!

 

[easydigital]

ASTRA 2F
LONGITUDE: 43.51








_http://www.n2yo.com/?s=38778


Mod Note: Apologies - in disabling your live link (not permitted) to n2yo I appear to have lost some other text.

 

[Analoguesat]

Some of those figures look a bit iffy - for starters its a bit higher than 43.51km!

And if it was doing 22235.26 [km/s] she would be on her way out of the galaxy

 

[hvdh]

"Realtime tracking site" watchers deserve their own Astra 2F thread, IMHO...

 

[skomedal]

LOCAL TIME: 13:24:29
UTC: 12:24:29
LATITUDE: 0.04
LONGITUDE: 43.51
ALTITUDE [km]: 35784.18
ALTITUDE [mi]: 22235.26
SPEED [km/s]:
0
SPEED [mi/s]: 0

Think it should read

 

[Analoguesat]

Lets note an important thing - that the n2yo site is not a realtime tracker - its only as up to date as the last set of orbital elements uploaded. Where a broadcasting satellite is being moved the elements can be a week or more out of date.

The site is perfect for satellites like the space station, or Envisat where orbital course corrections are infrequent - in these cases the orbits can be predicted months in advance. Its also fine for most of the geostationary broadcast birds. Again whist they are on one orbital slot and not moving to a new home the orbital predictions are perfectly acceptable.

The system totally falls down where a satellite is actively being manoeuvred - like 2F seems to be at the moment, or when the American military spy birds are moving to new locations.

I remember reading with much amusement over on the DS forum where folk were watching 1N move towards 28E. There was MUCH discussion when she appeared to overshoot 28E and head off around the arc. A few days later of course the tle's were updated and 1N "jumped" back to 28.2E

 

[BlindFaith]

Now 12 hours after last night's direction of 40.8° East, I find the 12188 H peak strongest at 40.2° East.
That makes 1.2° per day, 12° in 10 days, so 40.2 - 12 = 28,2° East.

..no movement here

 

[hvdh]

Sorry BlindFaith, can't help it, have reported what I saw! Were you there in the middle of the night as well?

FYI, I put crazyscan in loop mode, then manipulate the USALS position with the Dr.HD F16 in 0.2° steps and watch the crazyscan dB scale. (TBS 6925 is on the F16's loopthrough).

When I found what I thought was highest spot, confirm this is in the middle by going offcenter 0.4° both sides, to see the dB value decrease the same amount.

 

[BlindFaith]

USALS? Do you see your dish moving?
I have a "normal" ;) 36V positioner and stepped around your reported position with crazyscan in loop mode. The max hasn't moved since this morning but I will continue ...

 

[smoggy07]

Strange question/Statement

Mods/Admin please feel free to merge with other thread if it`s not relevant here

All birds up their have a beacon, correct?

How would one "listen" to 2F`s beacon, using a radio receiver/scanner pretty much in the same way as decoding a weather fax or AMSAT TX, with a satellite receiver or a sat finder/meter?

I`m just thinking out loud here but if members had the capability to listen to the beacon then we could know for sure that it is indeed 2F that is being received and would also give a better/more uptodate indication of the birds location

i.e. if we hear/see the beacon at 43.5E and one day its gone, we could in theory move the receiving antenna/dish round the arc until we found the beacon again, I think we could also use this method to plot the birds speed and estimate arrival at 28.2E faster than these so called tracking sites

(satellite tracking sites to me are a bit like UTC time, they can only tell you where the bird is / what time it was 2 weeks ago/last time the data was updated)

 

[hvdh]

USALS? Do you see your dish moving?
I have a "normal" ;) 36V positioner and stepped around your reported position with crazyscan in loop mode. The max hasn't moved since this morning but I will continue ...

Why you must be so cynical all the time?
As a matter of fact I see AND hear my dish moving, it's right outside my living room's window.
All satellites in the arc it covers from 30 to 72 East, are pointed correctly with USALS within 0.2°.
It can't get better than this.
Thank you.