AMC-15 Satellite Delivered For September Proton Launch

[SatelliteGuys Reporter]

AMC-15 Satellite Delivered For September Proton Launch After the launch SES Americom will complete the testing of all spacecraft systems and ready the satellite for service from 105 degrees West by EchoStar's Dish Network. The satellite will cover CONUS plus Hawaii and Alaska. Princeton NJ SPX Aug 19 2004 The Americom-15 AMC-15 satellite of SES Americom an SES Global Company has been delivered to the Baikonur Cosmodrome to be prepared for its scheduled September 24 launch aboard a Proton launch vehicle.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/launchers-04z.html

 

[riski]

According to a techie at E*, this satellite will not be "doin its thing" until sometime late Q1 or early Q2. Also speculation abounds as to what this bird will be used for. I've heard from some folks that locals currently on 105 could be moved to 110 and the HD content will be moved to the new 105. That would be good news for those of us who have locals now on the 105. RF issues should be minimized. But once again, this is all speculation and this could and probably will change in the upcoming months.

 

[mike123abc]

According to a techie at E*, this satellite will not be "doin its thing" until sometime late Q1 or early Q2. Also speculation abounds as to what this bird will be used for. I've heard from some folks that locals currently on 105 could be moved to 110 and the HD content will be moved to the new 105. That would be good news for those of us who have locals now on the 105. RF issues should be minimized. But once again, this is all speculation and this could and probably will change in the upcoming months.

There is no way to move the LIL from 105 to 110 at this time. The 110 satellite is full, and even if you take the HD off of it, there will not be enough transponders. Maybe next year when E10 is launched (new spot beam satellite going to 110) they will be able to take off most of the LIL from the SuperDish (105/121) and put it on the new spot beams.

It will be possible to put HD on 105 right away though since it will have space when AMC-15 goes up. Of course the whole issue of needed 2 superdishes in the 121 markets has not been addressed.

 

[bcshields]

The DP44 takes care of it. Dish is well prepared to install 2 superdishes if it needs to.

 

[HokieEngineer]

What "normal" DBS sub would want TWO superdishes on their house??

 

[SimpleSimon]

Yeah - and the expense to E* or the user for a 2nd SuperDish is bad news.

 

[mike123abc]

There is no technical problem at this time for dish to put HD on 105 since the introduction of the DPP44 and support for 5 satellites with DP21/DPP44.

The issue is that not every house is like mine with an area to hide all the dishes. Customers will at least need a 105 SuperDish. SuperDish is not *that* huge. But, it will not win a home decorating award. While the % of homes that would need 121 SD is fairly small (small market LIL and international) they will have to face the wife acceptance factor of 2 Superdishes (or a SD and 30"er). There are even a very few customers that would probably need 3 dishes.