Astra 2F Discussion Here Please!

[Jako]

The new bird is flying:

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Luxembourg – November 21, 2012 – SES S.A. (Euronext Paris and

Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced today that the ASTRA 2F

satellite has successfully completed its in-orbit testing and is now

fully operational and in commercial service at the orbital neighborhood

of 28.2/28.5 degrees East. The 52nd SES satellite was successfully

launched board an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, on

September 28, 2012.

ASTRA 2F was built by Astrium in Toulouse using a Eurostar E3000

platform. The multi-mission satellite carries Ku-band and Ka-band

payloads for the delivery of high-performance Direct-to-Home (DTH) and

next generation broadband services in Europe and Africa. Of the

spacecraft's payload, 48 Ku-band transponders cover Europe and 12

Ku-band transponders are dedicated to sub-Saharan Africa, while 3

Ka-band transponders will allow SES Broadband Services to support

download speeds of up to 20 Mbps.

ASTRA 2F is part of a larger fleet replacement and expansion

programme at the 28.2/28.5 degrees East neighborhood, consisting of

ASTRA 2E, 2F and 2G, that provides replacement and growth capacity for

the UK and Ireland as well as for other services in and outside of

Europe. ASTRA 2E and ASTRA 2G, also under construction with Astrium, are

scheduled for launch in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

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But nobody will know for sure any transponders is operational on 2F until they tell us.[8-)]

[sid]

Just out of curiosity, where is this new satellite situated geographically, ie where is it directly overhead?

I can see from how our dish points south-east-ish and the angle of elevation is not very high, so it could be somewhere over N Africa perhaps, or maybe a lot further south than that?

[Danny]

Further south according to this site which tracks satellites

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

Danny

[Jako]

N2YO does not know yet that the satellite hit the brakes at 28.2. [:)]

All geostationary satellites are located at about 36.000 km's above the equator.  28.2 East is not a relative position, but the absolute position above east Congo.

You can do the math: how high does an object have to fly in order to rotate round the earth in 24 hours given the planets gravity of 9.8 m/s2.[:P]

[Quillan]

I take it then that this is the reason why the projected reception map shows a bigger distance between the 45cm and 60cm dish as you go north, bit sort of egg shape if you get my drift. I suspect then that if I am correct the further south you go the closer the distance between one size dish and the next becomes?

[Jako]

As you go north the curb of the planet has this effect. That is why a still strong signal reaches Iceland, but the satellite is just a few degrees above the horizon there. Moving south this effect diminishes, but it will not reverse. Seen from the satellite that part of the planet looks flat.

However, the design of the satellite's dish can completely alter the way the beam is projected and how sharp the signal falloff outside the beam will be. 

They have multiple ways of doing this, the signal is reflected two times before it reaches the dish that sends the signal down to us. Minute changes in the shape of each reflector will make a big difference for us. Maybe they even have the ability to do this remote with this satellite. I do not know.

[Martin963]

A report (just one at present,  from Italy) suggests that switch-over to 2F is now underway.  

So I suspect we're going to know very soon what we're up against.....

It would be good if people could report here - better/worse/just the same.

[Danny]

I have been checking all the 1N frequencies for two days.

There have been minor variations probably due to weather. But generally over all frequencies.

Until just now. I have noticed a considerable drop in the new BBC HD transponder 11024H 23000

I am measuring on my Aston Simba Fransat decoder and that frequency has dropped from 66-68% (normal reading over the last few days) to 52% since this morning.

All the other frequencies have remained constant.

Danny

PS I am in the Lot

[Martin963]

Very useful Danny because that's the frequency that is bringing in reports,  with reception collapsing in Italy and Eastern Germany. 

I've forgotten how big your dish is (and I ought to know,  having glimpsed it briefly!)

Presumably it's still working OK for you,  my Simba will work with a signal quality as low as 15% (which is what I've had on the Irish Ka band channels but still had them functioning).

[Jako]

Preliminary reports seem to indicate that the signal is better to the south than to the east of the official beam.

[g8vkv]

Location 60km north of St Tropez.

Equipment : Humax Foxsat HD + 90cm (oval) dish

Transponder at 11024H showing no discernible signal strength.

It will find a channel on scanning, but picture very broken up.

[Danny]

[quote user="Martin963"]I've forgotten how big your dish is (and I ought to know,  having glimpsed it briefly!)

Presumably it's still working OK for you,  my Simba will work with a signal quality as low as 15% (which is what I've had on the Irish Ka band channels but still had them functioning).

[/quote]Still working OK -  I think it's an 85cm (or 90 maybe) dish

[Danny]

[quote user="g8vkv"]Location 60km north of St Tropez.

Equipment : Humax Foxsat HD + 90cm (oval) dish

Transponder at 11024H showing no discernible signal strength.

It will find a channel on scanning, but picture very broken up.[/quote]

Here in the Lot, on a Foxsat HDR,

11023 H 23000 8PSK 2/3 DVB-S2 today gives

strength 85%

quality 90%

finds 8901 and 8911 channels (soon to be BBC HD national variants)

picture is good

I will keep testing reception.

Danny

[g8vkv]

I should add that it's overcast here, with a heavy cloud layer.

[Quillan]

My dish is either 80 or 90cm, not sure which but flicking through the channels both TV and Radio all is OK. I am using a standard Sky box (not a plus or HD) with a FTA card so don't know if that makes a difference.

[Daft Doctor]

Danny, Martin, Jako, Is there an easy way of doing a temporary retune on my Sky HD box to check out the signal strength from this 11.023H transponder?

[Martin963]

I don't know if it will let you.  On the old SD boxes you could check signal strength on individual frequencies by setting them up (temporarily otherwise it could muck up the EPG eventually I believe) as the "default transponder".

I don't have a Sky box to hand (and only have original Pace boxes when I'm near them) so can't help directly,  but I suspect Jako would know....?

[Jazzer]

Here in Surgeres (Charente Maritime) I have standard size dish, quad LNB,operating Technisat and Humax HD boxes- both showing excellent reception.

[g8vkv]

I may be being dim - but isn't the only transponder functioning at the moment on 2F the one at 11023H?

All the rest are still on 1N?

[Jako]

All 'normal' channels are still on 1N. As far as I know it is (nearly-) impossible to force a skybox to scan one frequency. Only 'normal'[:)] receivers can do that. All others will have to wait a little,  Saturday morning is presumed...

[crabtree]

BBC1 HD testing on channels numbered 8901 and 8911 received on my system (80cm dish, postcode 24260) picks them up with Strength 100% and Quality 90%.

To test for yourself you will have to manually tune using the following settings:

11.023 Horizontal

23,000 SR

FEC 2/3

DVBS2

8PSK

It is expected that many BBC, ITV, C4 & C5 channels will move to

this bird over the next week or so, so it might be worth testing your

system to ensure you can get the currently testing channels.

Maybe some of you will post your results for comparison.

[Martin963]

A report recently in suggests that reception is no problem outside Grenoble so it is to be hoped dd that you will be OK.

[Daft Doctor]

Hi Martin, yes overall its looking ok as we are a good bit North of Grenoble.  I think I might be able to manually tune to the 11.023H frequency using the 'Add Channels' feature, so we'll see.  If I get any news I'll post.

[Quillan]

Does this link help?

http://www.astra2d.com/astra2f.html

 

[Quillan]

I have been having a fiddle but nothing because I don't have HD. Can somebody let me know when there is a SD channel moved over.