Astra 2G: Pre-Testing Phase

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@ Solly, position probably quite much at the East end of the European arc, if it must cover Asia-Pacific as well.

https://twitter.com/pbdes : "SES/Lux govt had Italian Defense Ministry help w/ Dec reg deadline to begin brdcasting GovSat frequencies at 21.1degE, using old Sicral 1."

Sicral 1 is an Italian military satellite with X and military Ka-band, launched 2001, now inclined at about 22°E.
And now also Astra 2G is nearby, with the same bands. If a slot is occupied already, what deadline can there be? Anyone understands, who is helping who?
 
21.1 - 21.4 east would seem a good bet after the licence is issued for this slot re post #18
 
It could just be a different frequency band of course?
 
Yes Eutelsat Ku band & SES X-Band & Ka band.
 
I've lost the 18800VR beacon on 2G now, but I now have a strong test carrier on 20246 HL/VR, presumably at the lower end of the Ka C band, using my Hughes LNB. It may be 20250, but my Hughes LO wanders a bit.

May be doable with an Inverto Ka LNB?


Astra 2G test carrier.webp
 
I very much doubt there will be in Ku transmissions of 2G at 21.5E
 
Analoguesat said:
I very much doubt there will be in Ku transmissions of 2G at 21.5E
Click to expand...
Yes, there seems to be a lot of overspill of transponders from 19.2E and 21.6E, at least from my location. Not exactly a quiet spot to do any TP tests.

Regarding Ka activity, the carrier on 20250 has disappeared now; in fact I see no sign of any beacons/tests now in the Ka bands I have checked.
 
hvdh said:
@ Solly, position probably quite much at the East end of the European arc, if it must cover Asia-Pacific as well.

https://twitter.com/pbdes : "SES/Lux govt had Italian Defense Ministry help w/ Dec reg deadline to begin brdcasting GovSat frequencies at 21.1degE, using old Sicral 1."

Sicral 1 is an Italian military satellite with X and military Ka-band, launched 2001, now inclined at about 22°E.
And now also Astra 2G is nearby, with the same bands. If a slot is occupied already, what deadline can there be? Anyone understands, who is helping who?
Click to expand...
Are we therefore to assume by this that X band transmissions actually started by the December deadline and now 2G has actually taken over? If there's no Ku testing at 21.5E I wonder if they'll move 2G all the way to 43.5E and back again? Seems like a long way to move her just to enable testing but then again it's a required part of the commissioning/operational readiness phase.
 
Test carrier back on again, same place. Don't see a beacon across any Ka bands, unless it's higher up on band C, which I can't stretch to.
 

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If they can get Ka band testing done here while running the X band operations, surely that would shorten the time a little needed for while Ku testing is done elsewhere.

If I was doing the tests I'd be so tempted to just flick on a few Ku transponders and check them out now, perhaps late at night when fewer would notice if there was a bit of interference to nearby satellites... ;)

Do we need to rename or start a new thread soon if Ka has actually begun testing? This satellite's extra millitary misson is messing up our Astra 2x forum structure. :mad:
 
I've just scanned a big mux in at 21.6 KU band, by the time the scan finished nothing was active 12070 H 27500 ?
 
SES ‘borrows’ Italian military bird to hold slot.

Earlier this week satellite builder Airbus Defence and Space said that it had handed over Astra 2G to its client SES of Luxembourg following its launch on December 27th.
But Astra 2G was also destined to initially go to a ‘secret’ location for 3 months in order to “bring into use” some of the satellite’s specialist frequencies at the unspecified location. The position will subsequently be used by a new SES-Luxembourg government satellite announced last week (GovSat) and which will use military X-band frequencies.
However, SES faced a huge dilemma in that Astra 2G was late to launch. A number of problems with launch rockets delayed plans to occupy the ‘secret’ location by mid-December and thus meet the all-important International Telecommunications Union (ITU) deadline for an older filing that was due to expire on December 18th.
Consequently, and according to trade mag Space News, SES struck an agreement with Italy’s Defence Ministry to borrow an old satellite, Sicral-1, and to ‘bring into use’ the satellite’s frequencies at the 21.5 degree East position, the no-longer secret location.
According to an ITU regulatory filing the Italian military satellite was in position and working on December 15th, just days ahead of the deadline. Astra 2G is also now at the 21.5 deg East location, and will likely stay in that position until mid-March when it will be moved to its planned orbital position at 28.2/28.5 degrees East.

advanced-television.com
 
martin-f said:
Ok its coming from 23E, the wind is moving the dish a little and it managed to lock the transponder.
Click to expand...


Self-grip Wench on standby ............ :-whipb
 
So when 2G gets to 28.x E will she be using the X-Band TPs from that location? I can't check UHF Satcom at the mo to see what (if anything) is at 28E as I'm on the way out but it seems a bit odd to add X-Band if all they're going to get out of it is 3 months or so at a temp location
 
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