Naive Question

[Graham_Wright]

Naive question I wish to watch channels available on Astra 28 and eventually realised that if I point the dish at the sun at 1008 GMT that gives me the required angle. I cannot at the moment alter the elevation which was correct for Hotbird so now should be incorrect for Astra. I also have an overgrown tree in the line of sight.

My question is;- How can I confirm I am receiving Astra 28? My learned neightbour doubts what I see, not recognising the programmes I am receiving.

As an engineer, I assumed that each satellite would transmit its identity (maybe within the engineering data packets). I accept that satellites share frequencies relying on separation for distinguishing. But I am sure that very much more data is up and down-loaded for condition and position monitoring for instance.

My learned neighbour tells me that is not the case.

Which one of us is right?

 

[Analoguesat]

The easiest way to confirm is to work out what channels you are watchingh!



Give us half a dozen channels and we can soon tell you what you have found.

 

[Mickha]

What size dish are you using?
Check if you can get some of the FTA channels from Astra 2, 28.2E, and Eurobird 1:

http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html

 

[Lazarus]

Well name some of the Channels you are receiving and we can tell you immediately which Satellite you are aligned to.

 

[Graham_Wright]

Thanks Guys,

I'm back in the UK now so can't list the stations.

However, I tried to ask the question at an engineering level. Does the satellite transmit its identity?

 

[Analoguesat]

Well there is a sort of satellite identification.
If you go to the engineering menu on a sky box you get the identifcation 002

Others I know are

001 - 19E
003 - 23.5E
013 - 13E

 

[reiras]

On Astra 28 you will receive for instance, all BBC and ITV channels FTA.

 

[phazblade]

You would have thought so wouldn`t, all that fancy technology up there, and fancy Set Top Boxes down here, but as you can see from the replies, it does, but not easily accessable.

What most folk on here do is point the dish at a Satellite looking for a specific frequecy known to be transmitted from that Satellite, when you find a Satellite transmitting that frequency, it always best to check for a another known frequency transmitted from that bird, then scan and check the channels.

Plenty on here including me have scanned the wrong Satellite at some time, the lyngsat site is invaluable.

 

[Robbo]

Having a half decent meter handy, would help. Then you would be able to read the NIT. My meter tells me what satellite I'm on from that.


Already having a receiver programmed with channels from all satellites helps quick identification too. As you can just flick through all the sats until you get a picture.

 

[rolfw]

As Robbo says, most satellites will transmit identifiers in the multiplex data streams, some will have the satellite ID, some may only have the provider ID, some may even carry the id of the final or first hop if they are feeds (can be very confusing) and some multiplexes will carry little of use for identification. Most receivers are not equipped to extract the satellite ID, but many meters/analysers are.