Ciel 2 Tracking

[jacmyoung]

Who is to say they cannot park it at 129 and do some test there, as long as it does not interfere with other satellites' business?

Or Charlie can say he is willing to take the risk for not doing any thorough test, if he can get the bird turned on soon. Not that it will be the first time he takes any risk

 

[mdonnelly]

Who is to say they cannot park it at 129 and do some test there, as long as it does not interfere with other satellites' business?

Or Charlie can say he is willing to take the risk for not doing any thorough test, if he can get the bird turned on soon. Not that it will be the first time he takes any risk

Kinda hard to test the transponders on your bird, when all the transponder freqs for that location are already being used for active programming.

 

[andyb2]

It allways goes past the stopping spot on that site.It's not real time really.Give it a day and the site will show it back at 138 once it gets the data from nasa or whatever agency gives out the data

 

[jacmyoung]

Kinda hard to test the transponders on your bird, when all the transponder freqs for that location are already being used for active programming.

Flipping back and forth after midnight happens all the time, let's just call it Charlie's version of expedited stealth tests.

 

[Fitzie]

Real testing can begin at midnight tonight.

 

[nelson61]

If I remember correctly, E11 took more time than projected for testing at 138W but had a fast startup when it arrived at 110W.

 

[Bradtothebone]

I wonder why E* is saying that Ciel 2 won't be online until February (Retailer Chat)? Seems like they could do way better than that. Smokescreen?

Brad

 

[nelson61]

I wonder why E* is saying that Ciel 2 won't be online until February (Retailer Chat)? Seems like they could do way better than that. Smokescreen?

Brad

Probably will see a seamless switch of the existing 129 service much earlier and a rash of new spot beams and or other service in Feb.

 

[HDRoberts]

I wonder why E* is saying that Ciel 2 won't be online until February (Retailer Chat)? Seems like they could do way better than that. Smokescreen?

Brad

From what Scott said it sounded like they would transfer programming a lot sooner (maybe the end of THIS month), but not take advantage of the capacity until Feb.

 

[digiblur]

Probably will see a seamless switch of the existing 129 service much earlier and a rash of new spot beams and or other service in Feb.

My thoughts exactly... lots of new encoders and uplinks to be brought online including the fiber feeds for the HD locals.

 

[kstuart]

I wonder why E* is saying that Ciel 2 won't be online until February (Retailer Chat)? Seems like they could do way better than that. Smokescreen?

#2 case for the Satellite Guys Remedial Reading Course.

Scott said that Charlie said that Ciel 2:

- is testing right now.
- will be online and used for existing 129 programming in January
- will be used by new channels in February

This makes sense, because they want to stop using EchoStar 5 as soon as possible to improve signal on HD channels to everyone.

 

[jacmyoung]

And let's not forget, the price increase! If they add all the new HD channels now, it will be hard to increase the price later, but if the price increase happens the same time as new HD additions, hey everybody is happy.

 

[ENDelt260]

Real testing can begin at midnight tonight.

What is magical about midnight tonight?

 

[Fitzie]

If Ciel-2 testing is already underway, nothing except that it's the date of the first post regular football season "bowl." I was under the impression the FCC had granted permission for testing to begin on the 20th. Wrong, huh?

 

[nelson61]

If Ciel-2 testing is already underway, nothing except that it's the date of the first post regular football season "bowl." I was under the impression the FCC had granted permission for testing to begin on the 20th. Wrong, huh?

different earth sites

 

[Smith P.]

Real testing can begin at midnight tonight.

Midnight of what ? GMT ?

I just did sweep a few times between 129W and 148W using my 1m dish - no single spike in between !

 

[Fitzie]

Midnight of what ? GMT ?

I just did sweep a few times between 129W and 148W using my 1m dish - no single spike in between !

Now, that's a good question! I wavered in my thinking between 12:00 a.m. EST and PST. Now I'm thinking 12:00 a.m. Mountain Time (2:00 a.m. EST). I hope you have something by 7:00 or 8:00 EST in the morning.

Regards,
Fitzie

 

[Smith P.]

Nothing this morning.
Or they did finish all tests during dog shift ?

 

[Bradtothebone]

#2 case for the Satellite Guys Remedial Reading Course.

Scott said that Charlie said that Ciel 2:

- is testing right now.
- will be online and used for existing 129 programming in January
- will be used by new channels in February

This makes sense, because they want to stop using EchoStar 5 as soon as possible to improve signal on HD channels to everyone.

Actually, I think I can read just fine:

From Scott's chat summary (emphasis is mine):

"They then jump into talking about the Ciel II launch last week. Jim says that they have already started doing tests on the bird and all is going smoothly.

They mention that the[sic] hope the new satellite is put into use in the mid February time frame.

Jim then mentions that the satellite will be in place at the end of January and they will start transferring the load over to the new satellite then, however new programming will not be added to the satellite until Mid February."

All I was trying to say is that this sounds like a very conservative schedule, and I bet they can beat it. Whether they will or not is the question, but it seems to me that it would be in their best interest to get it online ASAP.

Brad

 

[kstuart]

Yes, there would be no reason to ask the FCC to move EchoStar 5 on January 15th, if they could not get Ciel-2 online by then. Since that FCC application, no delay has occurred.

I'm sure that the public statement of February is allowing time for unexpected delays.

Also, in the recent Charlie Chat, the emphasis was on the New HD Locals provided by Ciel-2's spotbeams, and that will take several weeks longer than just turning on a few CONUS transponders.