Saorsat

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Analoguesat

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Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
Ok you are wondering "what the hell is Saorsat"

Its the forthcoming "Irish Freesat" Details are a little sketchy at the moment, but we do know the approximate channel line up:

RTÉ One, RTÉ Two, TG4 and RTÉ News Now. There are also several radio channels, and TV3 is expected to join when it has overcome some issues. RET One +1 is also a possibility as it will be a DTT channel.

Launch for the service is expected to be Q2 2011, but as far as we know at this time it wont be using the UK/Irish 28E slot. Instead Saorsat will use the forthcoming Eutelsat Ka-sat which will slot at 9E in early 2011.

Now before everyone gets very excited about reception in the UK we should point out that Ka-Sat will be using ultra tight spot-beams and reception away from the western coastal areas adjacent to Ireland is unlikely.

Ka-sat's official spec is for over 80 spot-beams, with frequency reuse between many of them, so you can imagine how restricted the coverage is likely to be.

Theres no point asking will I be able to receive this in Cardiff / Ipswich / London / Edinburgh / Liverpool or anywhere else because this is new ground for Europe - we just dont know what the reception characteristics of Ka band transmissions are likely to be.

We will just have to wait and see what reception is like when Ka-sat is put into service.
 
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