AMC 21

[mikekohl]

No joy in sunny Baja California for potential PBS viewers. AMC-21 drops off very rapidly south of the border, and when attempting to find it on a 2.4 meter offset in Cabo San Lucas last week at a friend's house, it could not be done. A check of a footprint map available a day or two after I got there confirmed that the southern top of Baja California Sur might be lucky to see a +30 dBw signal.
Strong signals on other Ku-band satellites, with useable MPEG-2 carriers found on a 1 meter Primestar dish on 129, 127, 123, 121, 116.8, 113, 111.1, 107.3, 105, 101, 97, 95 and 89 West. C-band is much more useful, especially if you appreciate Spanish language coverage from across the Americas. A more detailed report will be found in our NEWS & VIEWS section in a few days at the Global Communications website.

 

[skysurfer]

there is nothing FTA on 127

An occasional news or sports feed, but nothing full time FTA anymore since HBN moved a couple of months ago unless you consider a IPTV stream as a "FTA" service.

 

[hollyb]

I have a PCI card with no blind scan so I was wondering what transponders others are receiving.
This is what I am getting
12140V 30.00 2 PBS HD channels
12180V 30.00 9 PBS channels.

I wonder what I'm doing wrong?
I'm getting 12140V 30.000 strong on AMC3 but not at all (nor anything else) at 125W with the same receiver.
I'm located at 122.5W 37.5N (near San Francisco).
Is the LNB setting the same (Universal 1 9750/10600)?
Or am I just being slow?

thanks,
Holly

 

[Sadie]

Looking at this map of satellite EIRP
SatBeams - Satellite Coverage Maps - Sat Footprints
You should if I'm reading it right get a signal of 47dB and they recommend a 35inch dish
I'm in a 49dB area (just) they recommend a 27inch dish, I'm using a 40inch and seriously doubt I could get a signal with the recommended dish.
Its strong but its not in danger of melting my LNB. weaker than G10

 

[ttalex]

This map is taken from the official SES website and the dish size corresponds with declared EIRP levels. It is projected (theoretical) map and the real situation may differ. If the reception is not possible with the recommended dish size I would suggest to leave the marker on the map stating 0 signal level and that will hint others in your neighborhood to try a bigger dish.

Best regards,

Alexander
satbeams admin

Looking at this map of satellite EIRP
I'm in a 49dB area (just) they recommend a 27inch dish, I'm using a 40inch and seriously doubt I could get a signal with the recommended dish.

 

[Sadie]

ttalex That is a great site with lots of useful information on it. With my equipment it is impossible to say with any accuracy if the EIRP levels are correct, there are too many local factors at play, but they are a useful guide.
I haven't tried my 33" dish but I would say from experience it would work here since it would occasionally work on AMC 3 which was some 4db lower, a 27" dish may even work if you are well into the 49db area, I am just on the edge of it.
What I find interesting looking at the footprints for my area and large parts of America for AMC3 (when it was new I assume), and AMC21 is that AMC21 has a 2-3dB stronger signal in most areas which seems to be born out in practice, but there are some areas, parts of California for example where the signal is the same or weaker than the old bird AMC3, although for most areas that are affected the reduction in strength is very slight 1-2db, all in theory of course!

 

[gillham]

I wonder what I'm doing wrong?
I'm getting 12140V 30.000 strong on AMC3 but not at all (nor anything else) at 125W with the same receiver.
I'm located at 122.5W 37.5N (near San Francisco).
Is the LNB setting the same (Universal 1 9750/10600)?

I'm near South San Jose and on 12104 I'm getting Q of 52%+ on a Coolsat 7000 with an Invacom Quad and a Fortec 90CM. 12179 gets about 85%+ for me.

You should be able to use the same LNB settings as AMC3. I guess the thing to verify is your dish is actually moving to the right spot. People were saying 125 is fairly weak Q with interference from 123. My receiver wth USALS wouldn't let me specify the position with the user satellite entries, so it wouldn't move my dish. I just reconfigured the C-band 125 entry and it is working decent for me.

 

[Anole]

This map is taken from the official SES website and the dish size corresponds with declared EIRP levels.
It is projected (theoretical) map and the real situation may differ.

Alexander
satbeams admin

The maps and contours are absolutely beautiful.
However, they are also useless to me.
At least on my LCD laptop, there is little to define which shade of red/orange/pink color is which.
AND, the fact that each is translucent which shows the white continent and blue water behind it, further confuses the issue.

Please do something to make the maps more useful:
- put contour eirp, dbW levels, or other markers on each outline
- change the color used for inner and outer power bands (all bands would be better), and show them in the margins
- how about a number with an arrow point into the various regions of color?

Any one of the above would increase usefulness 100% :up

edit: well, I'll be $%^&'d !
Mouse-over the color tags to the right, and the matching contour lights up on the map!
That works for me - :up

 

[skysurfer]

I wonder what I'm doing wrong?
I'm getting 12140V 30.000 strong on AMC3 but not at all (nor anything else) at 125W with the same receiver.
I'm located at 122.5W 37.5N (near San Francisco).
Is the LNB setting the same (Universal 1 9750/10600)?
Or am I just being slow?

thanks,
Holly

what size dish do you have, how do you move it, and is tracking an issue.

My gut tells me your dish may not be tracking the arc accurately (favoring the east compared to the west end) or your dish mover isn't getting 125W aimed properly (a few clicks off, so to speak).

You may also be getting co-sat interference, keeping your receiver from locking the signals. My 90cm Ku on a HH120 sees a little bit of G18 when I"m on AMC-21, but using my spectrum analyzer, I'm able to minimize the G18 signals to lock the AMC-21 ones with good results.

 

[ttalex]

Anole,

Your feedback is right! The colors do not match well just because the polygons become more transparent the more you zoom in and the legend colors suppose to change too. But unfortunately it does not work the same in all browsers.

The good thing is that new version of the website is currently under heavy development and the legend will be implemented much better...

So stay tuned!!!

Best regards,

Alexander
satbeams admin

The maps and contours are absolutely beautiful.
However, they are also useless to me.
...
edit: well, I'll be $%^&'d !
Mouse-over the color tags to the right, and the matching contour lights up on the map!
That works for me - :up

 

[guapoharry]

Hey ttalex, That satbeams website is excellent. It was pretty slow for me. But, I will be sure to refer to it from time to time and click on some more banner ads.

I was surprised to read in the about page that satbeams started just over one year ago as a hobbyist initiative. It looks professional and the data is well presented.

Having said that, switching from one sat to another or from C-band to Ku-band took about 2-3 minutes for the screen to refresh. This was at 15 Oct, 20:00 GMT-7.

My internet connection is relatively fast, but my web browsing PC is old and somewhat slow 1Ghz, 512MB RAM Windows XP. Maybe the server location relative to me (appears to be the Netherlands) had something to do with it.

FWIW

 

[treetopflyer]

Excuse me for sounding dumb here but I know these feeds have AC3 audio, problem is I do have the AC3 upgrade, but I am not able to tune in any audio (all video comes in fine)on any of the channels. I have a Traxis3500. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[ttalex]

Hey ttalex, That satbeams website is excellent. It was pretty slow for me. But, I will be sure to refer to it from time to time and click on some more banner ads.

I was surprised to read in the about page that satbeams started just over one year ago as a hobbyist initiative. It looks professional and the data is well presented.
...

Guapoharry,

Thanks for the good words about satbeams. I have a lot of plans and just need to have enough fuel to get the things rolling!

My internet connection is relatively fast, but my web browsing PC is old and somewhat slow 1Ghz, 512MB RAM Windows XP.

The site is very graphics and javascript intensive so it runs slo-o-ow on less powerful PCs. On top of this IE6 and below slows things down too. You may try Safari browser - it seems to work better with javascript and works around 30% faster than IE on the maps pages. Chrome is OK too as well as IE7 and Firefox. If you try no-map pages they should load pretty fast!:up

Maybe the server location relative to me (appears to be the Netherlands) had something to do with it.

FWIW

The Network connection is not really a problem. Despite the fact that the server is located in Netherlands (as you have observed absolutely correctly! ) the network speed from all the continents is pretty good. As site targets global audience I have done quite thorough research and testing before choosing the hosting provider. So I have decided to host the site in Europe not just because of personal reasons...

 

[Mr Tony]

Excuse me for sounding dumb here but I know these feeds have AC3 audio, problem is I do have the AC3 upgrade, but I am not able to tune in any audio (all video comes in fine)on any of the channels. I have a Traxis3500. Any help would be appreciated.

you need a separate audio receiver that can decode Dolby digital. The traxis wont decode AC-3 as si

 

[hollyb]

My gut tells me your dish may not be tracking the arc accurately (favoring the east compared to the west end) or your dish mover isn't getting 125W aimed properly (a few clicks off, so to speak).
You may also be getting co-sat interference, keeping your receiver from locking the signals. My 90cm Ku on a HH120 sees a little bit of G18 when I"m on AMC-21, but using my spectrum analyzer, I'm able to minimize the G18 signals to lock the AMC-21 ones with good results.

You are probably right about the tracking favoring the East. I can see my son is going to make an expedition up onto the roof when he is here next weekend.

Meanwhile, can someone tell me if there is a particularly strong transponder on AMC21 to help in locating it.

Mind you I also need to buy a new receiver, one that gives more information about dish position and allows easy nudging rather than one that has helpful automation of setup that just makes things hard. USALS is great when it works, but it is a lot worse than useless when it does not.

Thank you all and please excuse my being inexpert in all this, you have a great forum here, a nice mix of techie stuff and of helping to get neophytes pointed in the right direction.

 

[Bluztrvler]

I've run into another issue with AMC 21. Over the weekend, it looks like Montana PBS has stopped transmitting on 12145 H, and is using 12104 V instead. I am using a converted Direct PC dish, and was getting a respectable 60% Q on 12145 with my Pansat 3500 sd, but I cannot see 12104 at all. 0% Q and of course no lock. If I slide the dish slightly to the east, the satellite at 123 W delivers Q's near 100 % on some of the transponders.

I live in SC, and have a clear line of sight to 125W.

Has anyone else seen this, or possibly have a solution?

Thanks

 

[brentb636]

I think you're having a hard time because of your location in the Southeast. From your place, the two birds almost merge into one, compared to someone in Texas who would have a very distinct separation. A size large dish is all that I can suggest , to improve the focus.

 

[Bluztrvler]

Thanks, that is probably the way to go. I have been planning to get a larger dish anyway. I had this one, so I decided to see if it would work. I also have a 10.5' Raydex (BUD) that I have used since the '80's, Maybe I can make that work for me.

 

[Mr Tony]

thats good to know that 12145 H is done. I'll have to check it out tonight and see what I can get on 12104 V

 

[Bluztrvler]

Cool, I'd be interested in hearing what you find out. BTY, this is a great forum.