Costa Blanca, 2E/2F, seasonal signal fluctuation.

[Huevos]

Joddle, Im closer to the edge of the beam here. Maybe the change in your area is not as pronounced.

 

[BCW]

For comparison I've added the graphs of the last month or so of 2E and 2F observations, as observed in the Tarn in Southern France.
I added 11720H as a reference.Normally this curve is relatively flat, but dips occur due to weather, which are replicated in the 2E and 2F curves.
There are substantial day-to-day differences in signal level, so I did not try to create a daily pattern.
In addition there are level differences between the various transponders in each satellite, but the shape is overall very similar.
There a a few gaps in the observations.

 

[cazhh]

@BCW, that is really useful data. Would you mind giving me the raw data so i can play with it ? I'd want figure out if i can somehow correlate them with the measurements i have recorded here and in south germany.

 

[BCW]

Hi Caz,
Of course. It's stored in a binary file so I have to make an export utility. Is a text file OK?

 

[cazhh]

Hi Caz,
Of course. It's stored in a binary file so I have to make an export utility. Is a text file OK?

Sure. Everything i can digest with awk or perl is fine.

 

[PaulR]

Hi Caz,
Of course. It's stored in a binary file so I have to make an export utility. Is a text file OK?

If you are comfortable with releasing the data to a wider audience we would welcome you uploading the file here.

 

[BCW]

I've uploaded data to
http://www.agr.nl/SatTV/Satmonitor/logApril.txt
http://www.agr.nl/SatTV/Satmonitor/logMay.txt
http://www.agr.nl/SatTV/Satmonitor/logJune.txt
Each sample is placed on a single line containing timestamp, transponder id and CNR in dB, separated by tabs.
The first measurement is on April 20.

 

[cazhh]

Thanks a lot bcw. I was able to convert the data and put them into my system.
Unfortunately the pattern doesn't even remotely look like mine with one really remarkable exception.
You can see the "megawobbels" as well. Two examples:



Here around 6:15 and 16:00



Here a massive one around 13:30

If you see one of those in reality while sitting in front of your receiver you will see that the SNR quickly goes from normal to 0 and from 0 to some very high value within fractions of a minute. This continues for some time until it disappears and the SNR usually returns to a normal value.
I've assumed that this effect could be contributed to either a thruster fireing or to a momentum unload manouver.
I'm not quite sure now what to think about that ....

 

[BCW]

Strange, indeed. Of the 6 transponders I monitored it occurred each time only on the 2F satellite. It appears to last for about 10 minutes.
The other thing, which may very well be coincidental, is that the events you spotted occured on the 29th day of the month.
A cosmic cough, perhaps?

 

[cazhh]

i see them on the 2E as well, but at different times. If it would be an external force i'd assume to see them on all satellites at the same time. I can find some on 2e later. But first i have to work

 

[BCW]

Yes. One just appeared this morning on 2E at 7 am.

 

[cazhh]

yes.


You can see it here on the 2E spot and PE Beam at 5am UTC

 

[terryashbyash]

On a totally non technical level astra 2E levels seem much better today in cloudy Gandia 10818V, my old favourite, is back at 65-67% SNR (quality) and no pixellation and most others 2E TPs also better.

 

[lovelyperson]

On a totally non technical level astra 2E levels seem much better today in cloudy Gandia 10818V, my old favourite, is back at 65-67% SNR (quality) and no pixellation and most others 2E TPs also better.

Old favourite here too, today at 14.00hrs whilst in Torrevieja, 10818 V 22000 showed a pixelating picture with 1.4m dish....first time for some time !!

 

[Huevos]

@LP there is something wrong with that install. I've done several 1.4m installs in Torrevieja over the last week and they work fine on all transponders. 10773H is about the worst. Did an alignment in San Javier too and that also worked (just) on all transponders. Has the dish been properly assembled with the rubber spacers between the dish face and the backmount? What make is the dish?

 

[Archive4]

@LP there is something wrong with that install. I've done several 1.4m installs in Torrevieja over the last week and they work fine on all transponders. 10773H is about the worst. Did an alignment in San Javier too and that also worked (just) on all transponders. Has the dish been properly assembled with the rubber spacers between the dish face and the backmount? What make is the dish?

Hi All

Installed a 1.4 Fam today in Quesada, sig was a little lower than normal at about 12:30, but all locked and ok, inc bbc HD and ITV HD, albeit the HD Mini stated 2% quality, but watchable with no pix

Went on to replace a Smart Titanium quad with a GI Twin (Russians have sold out of quads) and got an extra 1.5 dB across most txps, making picture watchable whereas before it was like a jigsaw puzzel (approx 15:30)

The 1.4 in Torrevieja either has a bad LNB or is bent or has a shadow!

 

[lovelyperson]

@LP there is something wrong with that install. I've done several 1.4m installs in Torrevieja over the last week and they work fine on all transponders. 10773H is about the worst. Did an alignment in San Javier too and that also worked (just) on all transponders. Has the dish been properly assembled with the rubber spacers between the dish face and the backmount? What make is the dish?

Thanks for the comments. In that case I will advise him of your concern. He is a good guy and has just lost his wife due to illness.

Anyway H, he goes back to the UK around the 17th June so after I will happily have you look at it if you will ( location is close to the Mercadona behind Policia Local /Torreta Florida) and hopefully sort it out for him. No probs with the money, I will look after that.
¿Make of dish?....I will ask him to find the factura for you.

Feel more confident that you advise of this weeks installations.....just seemed coincidental that terryashbyash comments re:Gandia improvements.

Again, thanks and enjoy your weekend.

 

[joddle]

Something very odd going on today - At 13:40 local time I started to lose the Freesat BBC1 HD picture (during Bargin Hunt) - It started with a ittle pixelation and sound breakup then got worse and worse over a few minutes and soon became unwatchable. I tried the BBC1 SD channels and most were the same although BBC1 South East was OK and did not break up at all.

The odd thing was when I checked the SS and SQ - even when breaking up badly, I was getting 73% SS and 100% quality on my little Manhatten freesat box on all BBC1 SD channels and 75% SS and 100% SQ on the HD one - which are the normal everyday readings for most channels; and even when the SS goes down to below 70 in heavy rain I still get a decent stable picture.

At one point I got a little message about the "initial bouquet missing" (may have misquoted that as I only saw it for a few seconds) - never seen that before Now 20 minutes later everything has returned to normal again but no diference in the SS and SQ readings.

At first I though of an sun outage but on looking at the dish, the LNB shadow is nowhere near the centre and anyway its not that time of year. The skies are almost clear - no obstructions and no zeppelins or large birds flying about either - so a complete mystery.

 

[Captain Jack]

There's some rough weather around the UK at the moment, so some uplink stations could be affected by this.

 

[timo_w2s]

There's some rough weather around the UK at the moment, so some uplink stations could be affected by this.

It looks quite bad over Manchester way, would the BBC uplink from there now?