ANIK F2 - Thy End Is Near

[bayguy]

Some body posted info from Shaw on another forum:

https://www.shawbroadcast.com/Documents/2023/feb/21/Anik%20F2%20and%20HEVC%20Bulletin%20Update%20Feb%2021%202023.pdf

it says some areas will be good until 2025 but of course they don't talk about "southern" Canada so that will be sooner. Also i don't understand why ppl with bigger dishes are having problems already Shaw actually tells them to get a smaller dish!

 

[Keith Brannen]

The bigger the dish, the more precise the pointing area, so when the satellite moves due to the inclined orbit, the greater the chance of loss of signal. In normal situations the larger the dish the better to avoid interference/bleed-over from adjacent satellites. In this case you want it to be less precise (sees more of the area the satellite is located in) so it retains the signal.

In your case, you need the bigger dish (75e instead of 60e) to maintain/have the greater amount of the signal necessary, so a different scenario, and, as the report says, should maintain the signal as it goes through its inclined orbit (for a while, at least).

 

[nelson61]

The north/south drift has increased from 0.05 degrees to ~0.30 degrees as of today.

 

[navychop]

<TAPS>

 

[LOSat]

See the most recent update here

Shaw Broadcast Services - Bulletins

Stay up to date with the latest Canadian news and information at Shaw Broadcast.

www.shawbroadcast.com

Direct link to Feb 21, 2023 pdf here

https://www.shawbroadcast.com/Documents/2023/feb/21/Anik%20F2%20and%20HEVC%20Bulletin%20Update%20Feb%2021%202023.pdf

 

[bayguy]

Direct link to Feb 21, 2023 pdf here

https://www.shawbroadcast.com/Documents/2023/feb/21/Anik%20F2%20and%20HEVC%20Bulletin%20Update%20Feb%2021%202023.pdf

That looks like the same one from last week I posted???

 

[-Jim-]

I'm looking to the bright side now. Going to one Bird will help us & our neighbor at our Cabin in the interion of BC. We run 4 buried cables in conduit about 300 feet from the dish to a multiswitch at the Cabin (with 4 cables going onto the neighbors' from there about 250 feet away.

When renovations were being done on a house a couple of lots back towards the dish my neighbor (who lives there all year round) forgot to tell him about the cables which are only buried 1=>1.5 feet near the road. (About 8 feet off his property line.) And you guessed it, he was modifying his driveway for better drainage and cut the cables. This was in 2018 (we installed the cables originally in 2011 with no splices and it was rock solid.) and now a couple of those joints fail every couple years due to corrosion from water ingress. Some of that is inadequate splicing connectors and insulating materials to keep the water out. Last spring (the failures always occur with the spring melt when ground water is high.) a couple feeds from the dish went dead, but we couldn't get to repair them (the neighbor who cut them was not cooperative) until October 27, 2022. I was able to do a solid repair on the damaged cables and seal all of them off much better, but one of the cables still was shorted. I think water has migrated up the cable and corroded it at another point. We were running out of time (and were working through a Fall Storm which wasn't fun) so we decided to live with 3 functional cables for the winter. We talked about replacing all of them sometime in 2023.

We juggled the cables at the multiswitch to lessen the impact for my neighbor. We use the Cabin - on Paul Lake - seasonally and we aren't there in the winter the last decade or so. It's been working just fine according to the neighbor.

Anyway, with all channels migrating to G1, we should only need 2 cables into the multiswitch. My back is already feeling better...

 

[harshness]

Anyway, with all channels migrating to G1, we should only need 2 cables into the multiswitch. My back is already feeling better...

Whether you have two or twenty, the conduit burial process is substantially the same.

 

[-Jim-]

Whether you have two or twenty, the conduit burial process is substantially the same.

Yes, but my hope is we won't have any ingress this spring on the remaining cables, as we really sealed them up well (fingers crossed!) and replacement won't have to occur.

I already have a 900 foot box of Quad Shield RG6 at the Cabin - just in case.

 

[nelson61]

KU footprint from the Telsat web site.
As the EIRP number gets larger, the signal strength increases.
A change of 3 units is equivalent to either double or half the power level.
From their details in the Shaw link, it appears they are predicting areas with power levels of 44 EIRP and lower (northern Quebec example) to fade away by early summer 2023.

 

[navychop]

Thank You.

 

[stonemountain]

There was a mention earlier in this thread about problems with Shaw's Bluecurve. On a PC, I can log in, see a schedule grid, but when I try to stream video I get the error message "TVAPP-00281." This appears to be VPN-related, but aside from a mention in another thread here, I'm not sure. On a phone, I can't log in, even using the app.

Does anyone have any further Bluecurve observations? I'd be willing to continue paying Shaw for satellite signals I canot receive if this would permit me to view through Bluecurve.

 

[westcoastsatviewer]

Shaw blocks VPN addresses on Blue Curve. However, if you go to the individual provider sites (e.g., CTV, Global), you can use your Shaw login there and VPNs work (as long as other things, such as GPS, don't geofence you out)

 

[rikvan58]

Hi Gents, any predictions when Shaw Direct will have to move off this Bird? They have been closed lips on it so far.

The process is underway starting March 2023 and will be completed by the summer of 2025. The F2 will be out of service by the end of 2025. Starting March 2023 Shaw Direct is changing it's compression signal from MPEG4 to HEVC. This will allow more room on the G1 Bird and then channels will start moving from the F2 bird to the G1. This will take approximately 2 years to complete. Shaw Direct has already warned me to upgrade my receivers. So far I haven't lost any channels off the F2, but it's still early in the process.

 

[-Jim-]

The process is underway starting March 2023 and will be completed by the summer of 2025. The F2 will be out of service by the end of 2025. Starting March 2023 Shaw Direct is changing it's compression signal from MPEG4 to HEVC. This will allow more room on the G1 Bird and then channels will start moving from the F2 bird to the G1. This will take approximately 2 years to complete. Shaw Direct has already warned me to upgrade my receivers. So far I haven't lost any channels off the F2, but it's still early in the process.

Since I posted above, I've gotten similar info. The move to the HEVC Codec forces all Customers to Shaw's current (but old!) 800 or 830 receivers. The 6xx receivers cannot do HEVC, and all channels will be HEVC on G1 when the migration to that single Bird is complete. We've moved to all 8xx receivers early, just so we don't get caught if things speed up or there is a shortage of 8xx boxes. Of course compounding this is Shaw just got bought by Rogers. More fun to come!

 

[harshness]

The F2 will be out of service by the end of 2025.

It seems likely that Anik F2 will be out of the Clarke Belt long before then. Long-term plans don't add to the propellant reserve by divine right.

 

[nelson61]

The N/S offset drift has reached +/-0.35 degrees while the E/W is ~0.03 degrees.
It appears they are predicting northern Canada/Artic losses when the N/S approaches something like +/-0.5 degrees - this summer.
The outages will occur twice a day with the outage time increasing as the N/S drift increases.

 

[stonemountain]

I am the owner of a 600-series receiver that can only get F2. I note more and more channels are showing up as "you need a new receiver" on my unit's program guide.

For example, this is the case with SuperEcran 3 and 4. According to a February Shaw Broadcast Services bulletin update, these two channels were supposed to begin dual illumination (moving from F2 to G1 and converting to HEVC/AAC) during the first half of July. Therefore, it appears that Shaw is making the channels unavailable even before the transition of those channels takes place.

According to the Feb. notice, more channels will move this fall and the rest next spring. For the moment, there are enough channels remaining for me to continue my subscription, but as the title of this thread indicates -- the "end is near."

 

[modefan63]

I am the owner of a 600-series receiver that can only get F2. I note more and more channels are showing up as "you need a new receiver" on my unit's program guide.

For example, this is the case with SuperEcran 3 and 4. According to a February Shaw Broadcast Services bulletin update, these two channels were supposed to begin dual illumination (moving from F2 to G1 and converting to HEVC/AAC) during the first half of July. Therefore, it appears that Shaw is making the channels unavailable even before the transition of those channels takes place.

According to the Feb. notice, more channels will move this fall and the rest next spring. For the moment, there are enough channels remaining for me to continue my subscription, but as the title of this thread indicates -- the "end is near."

i checked my guide yesterday and saw the same result i think the end is sooner Evan Hale Los Angeles

 

[nelson61]

N/S drift has increased to +/- 0.45 degrees and the Arctic is now in their predicted loss of signal zone.