Directv T15 moving to provide KU at 100.85W

[slice1900]

Directv actually filed some patents related to the design of a dish that received their current bands as well as Ka from 101. It used a selectively reflective metamaterial at the LNB (i.e. it reflected Ka but Ku passed through) and there was a Ka pickup halfway down the LNB arm.

Obviously someone was thinking about the possibility of using that Ka license at 101 someday, at least long enough to design a dish to receive it, but I think it is pretty clear they abandoned that idea long ago. What could they possibly use that bandwidth for? They already have as much as they'll ever need for HD channels, and enough for over 50 4K channels - which is likely far more than there will ever be of those. And that's without even including Ku @ 101 (i.e. if 101 continues to be SD versions of everything for boats/RVs)

 

[nelson61]

LOA fining for T15 at 101W.

"temporary need for more KU capacity."

Notify going to License

 

[slice1900]

LOA fining for T15 at 101W.

"temporary need for more KU capacity."

Notify going to License

It is still a bit unclear exactly what they're doing. They talk about transitioning the traffic from T8 to T15, while leaving T8 in place, and later make it sound like it will be taking over for all 32 Ku transponders. That makes sense for D9S, since it has spot beams and can't do CONUS from those transponders. If they want to be able to use all 32 transponders at 101 for CONUS prior to the launch of T16, T15 is the only way to do that.

The only reason I can think of to take over for T8 is because T15 has the ability to broadcast to Puerto Rico and Hawaii along with the lower 48. Currently Puerto Rico gets its guide etc. from D5 at 110, but that satellite is pretty old and probably needs to retire soon. If they can't get T16 launched before D5 needs to retire, Puerto Rico loses their Directv.

If all they needed was "more capacity" at 101, i.e. all 32 transponders used for CONUS (presumably as part of a plan to retire 119 first) there would be no reason for T15 to take over for T8, it would only need to take over for T9S/T4S. So I think this must have to do with Puerto Rico.

Since Puerto Rico will be looking to 101 forevermore after the 110 location is retired, T15 can't go back home to 103 until a satellite with its capabilities can replace it. Since they talk about that happening in 2019, T16's launch must be planned for next year.

 

[HoTat2]

It is still a bit unclear exactly what they're doing. They talk about transitioning the traffic from T8 to T15, while leaving T8 in place, and later make it sound like it will be taking over for all 32 Ku transponders. That makes sense for D9S, since it has spot beams and can't do CONUS from those transponders. If they want to be able to use all 32 transponders at 101 for CONUS prior to the launch of T16, T15 is the only way to do that.

The only reason I can think of to take over for T8 is because T15 has the ability to broadcast to Puerto Rico and Hawaii along with the lower 48. Currently Puerto Rico gets its guide etc. from D5 at 110, but that satellite is pretty old and probably needs to retire soon. If they can't get T16 launched before D5 needs to retire, Puerto Rico loses their Directv.

If all they needed was "more capacity" at 101, i.e. all 32 transponders used for CONUS (presumably as part of a plan to retire 119 first) there would be no reason for T15 to take over for T8, it would only need to take over for T9S/T4S. So I think this must have to do with Puerto Rico.

Since Puerto Rico will be looking to 101 forevermore after the 110 location is retired, T15 can't go back home to 103 until a satellite with its capabilities can replace it. Since they talk about that happening in 2019, T16's launch must be planned for next year.

Yeah, but an additional strange thing is that in requests for temporary STAs like this, there is usually some mention in the narrative of the future replacement satellite (if one is indeed coming) to eventually relieve T15 to return to 103W in this case.

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[slice1900]

A replacement satellite has to be coming. Where else could T16 possibly go, and if there was no replacement what would people in Puerto Rico do? Directv's only possible option to serve PR would be moving D9S to 110 and tilting it like D5 is - thus making it useless for CONUS. That would leave Directv with only 16 CONUS transponders at 101.

I mean, that outcome would be workable once they drop MPEG2 SD but it would beg the question of why bother moving T15 at all? Why not just shut down MPEG2 and send D9S to 110. For that matter, if all they really needed was a few Ku transponders at 110 pointing to PR, surely there's an aging Ku satellite somewhere in the world Directv could lease for that role.

 

[nelson61]

I like the temporary guide for PR thought.

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[goaliebob99]

This move is for Puerto Rico not Hawaii. My theory (speculation) is that this is a contingency for the 110 slot should T-5 fail, they can offload traffic over to the 101 to maintain service to Puerto Rico. Remember IRD's in Puerto Rico needs 110 in order to take a software download. They cant get it from any other slot as of right now. This would give them the ability to do that from the 101 as well should T5 fail and keep the activation's rolling. Many things that can happen with these birds and I would have to imagine there isn't that much fuel left in some of the older birds like T4S (101) and T5 (110) as they have been in service for over 15 years now and are past their service life.

Should anything happen, they want to have something in place sooner than later. You never know what can happen in space. With Puerto Rico so spread out, most likely they want to migrate everything over to 99,101 and 103 to simplify everything for Puerto Rico into their core slots. T16 is coming to the 101 so this also could be testing for that and if you could shift traffic over to 101 and remove it from D4S & D5, you get rid of the two oldest birds in the fleet in one shot and not to mention some of the older sat's at 101 can now retire or move as an in orbit spares. I haven't seen a launch date on it yet, but it cant be too far out considering expected launch date was last month. (Early 19?) Space Assigned Numbers Authority (SANA) I suspect the delay may be in waiting for a companion sat to launch with T16, if it's launching on an Arian 5 considering both T15 and SKY Mexico 1 both launched on that rocket last launch.

SD international's may make an appearance to 99 Reverse Band at some point in the future. G3C is currently leased space so they may want to offload that and save some cash as been speculated for a while now. They still have space on Reverse band 103 & 99 for 4K as that continues to pick up steam, and if they chose to do a SD shut down on 101, then they can reclaim more space for HD on 101.

 

[slice1900]

Don't believe that "expected launch date" for T16 that was shown at SANA. They didn't have a source for it, and was probably just a placeholder until they had more data. I doubt anything gets scheduled until T16 arrives at a launch facility - which may have already happened for all we know. If you have a link to something that provides more information, please share

Unlike with past launches, Directv isn't putting out any publicity about T16. Probably because unlike with every satellite in the past, it isn't adding some sort of new capacity so they can't point to "more HD" or "HD locals in more markets" or "4K" or whatever. So we probably won't know anything until it gets scheduled, and someone sees that and posts it somewhere that someone who reads satelliteguys or dbstalk sees. I think some of the reticence to talk about it might also be because they don't want to answer questions from Wall Street analysts about why they're launching a new satellite, when the CEO is trying to give them the impression that satellite is on its way out and only wants to talk about new IP/streaming products.

There's no way they'll put the internationals from 95 onto reverse band at this point, they would have had to upgrade everyone with an international dish to a reverse band LNB first. Since the legacy reverse band LNB hasn't been out that long, most likely over 99% of international customers are either an international dish only (which also receives 101) or an international dish + legacy SL3/SL5 + SWM8/SWM16.

The only way putting the international channels on reverse band would have made sense was if they did it a couple years ago, as a mirror of the channels on G3C. That would have allowed them to save money on new international installs by avoiding the second dish and SWM switch, and using a reverse band SWM LNB instead. Too late now, they will simply move those channels to wherever their final location will be, which I'm 100% certain will be either 101 or 99/103 Ka, not reverse band. With MPEG4 compression they only need about 3 transponders worth of bandwidth for everything on G3C.

 

[HoTat2]

This move is for Puerto Rico not Hawaii. My theory (speculation) is that this is a contingency for the 110 slot should T-5 fail, they can offload traffic over to the 101 to maintain service to Puerto Rico. Remember IRD's in Puerto Rico needs 110 in order to take a software download. They cant get it from any other slot as of right now. This would give them the ability to do that from the 101 as well should T5 fail and keep the activation's rolling. Many things that can happen with these birds and I would have to imagine there isn't that much fuel left in some of the older birds like T4S (101) and T5 (110) as they have been in service for over 15 years now and are past their service life.

Should anything happen, they want to have something in place sooner than later. You never know what can happen in space. With Puerto Rico so spread out, most likely they want to migrate everything over to 99,101 and 103 to simplify everything for Puerto Rico into their core slots. T16 is coming to the 101 so this also could be testing for that and if you could shift traffic over to 101 and remove it from D4S & D5, you get rid of the two oldest birds in the fleet in one shot and not to mention some of the older sat's at 101 can now retire or move as an in orbit spares. I haven't seen a launch date on it yet, but it cant be too far out considering expected launch date was last month. (Early 19?) Space Assigned Numbers Authority (SANA) I suspect the delay may be in waiting for a companion sat to launch with T16, if it's launching on an Arian 5 considering both T15 and SKY Mexico 1 both launched on that rocket last launch.

SD international's may make an appearance to 99 Reverse Band at some point in the future. G3C is currently leased space so they may want to offload that and save some cash as been speculated for a while now. They still have space on Reverse band 103 & 99 for 4K as that continues to pick up steam, and if they chose to do a SD shut down on 101, then they can reclaim more space for HD on 101.

Hey GB ...

Nice to hear from you on this issue ...

Any info. (that you can share of course) happen to filter out to you folks working at the SWUF and SWDF to make any of this more than pure speculation?

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[goaliebob99]

Hey GB ...

Nice to hear from you on this issue ...

Any info. (that you can share of course) happen to filter out to you folks working at the SWUF and SWDF to make any of this more than pure speculation?

Sent from my LG-H932 using Tapatalk

Let me make this very clear! My thoughts and views on this forum are mine and do not reflect the thoughts and views of my current employer and are by no means official communication! With that said, we will see if the crystal ball is fuzzy or not.

 

[goaliebob99]

Don't believe that "expected launch date" for T16 that was shown at SANA. They didn't have a source for it, and was probably just a placeholder until they had more data. I doubt anything gets scheduled until T16 arrives at a launch facility - which may have already happened for all we know. If you have a link to something that provides more information, please share

Unlike with past launches, Directv isn't putting out any publicity about T16. Probably because unlike with every satellite in the past, it isn't adding some sort of new capacity so they can't point to "more HD" or "HD locals in more markets" or "4K" or whatever. So we probably won't know anything until it gets scheduled, and someone sees that and posts it somewhere that someone who reads satelliteguys or dbstalk sees. I think some of the reticence to talk about it might also be because they don't want to answer questions from Wall Street analysts about why they're launching a new satellite, when the CEO is trying to give them the impression that satellite is on its way out and only wants to talk about new IP/streaming products.

There's no way they'll put the internationals from 95 onto reverse band at this point, they would have had to upgrade everyone with an international dish to a reverse band LNB first. Since the legacy reverse band LNB hasn't been out that long, most likely over 99% of international customers are either an international dish only (which also receives 101) or an international dish + legacy SL3/SL5 + SWM8/SWM16.

The only way putting the international channels on reverse band would have made sense was if they did it a couple years ago, as a mirror of the channels on G3C. That would have allowed them to save money on new international installs by avoiding the second dish and SWM switch, and using a reverse band SWM LNB instead. Too late now, they will simply move those channels to wherever their final location will be, which I'm 100% certain will be either 101 or 99/103 Ka, not reverse band. With MPEG4 compression they only need about 3 transponders worth of bandwidth for everything on G3C.

Most likely they will put new subs on RB, and move everyone over a time span of a few years. There probably isnt too many international subs for them to move, so it may be do able.

 

[nelson61]

Directv 15 began it's move sometime in the last day.

Epoch snapshot had it 13 km below geostationary and moving around .13 degree/day

 

[HoTat2]

Directv 15 began it's move sometime in the last day.

Epoch snapshot had it 13 km *below* geostationary and moving around .13 degree/day

Below geostationary?

Shouldn't it actually be "above" GSO altitude to produce an eastward drift from 103°W to 101°W?



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[nelson61]

Below geostationary?

Shouldn't it actually be "above" GSO altitude to produce an eastward drift from 103°W to 101°W?

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Nope:

General data here: Satellite position list based on two line elements 07-09-2018 15:52:15 UTC

And, detailed data here: copy the 3 line D15 (ID 40663) from celstrak or add the sat name to the two line tle from space-track-org , paste, and then load (pick your location for time details) Satellite tracker based on two line elements - programmed by Jens T. Sætre

 

[HoTat2]

Nope:

General data here: Satellite position list based on two line elements 07-09-2018 15:52:15 UTC

And, detailed data here: copy the 3 line D15 (ID 40663) from celstrak or add the sat name to the two line tle from space-track-org , paste, and then load (pick your location for time details) Satellite tracker based on two line elements - programmed by Jens T. Sætre

No, I agree ... sorry for my (very) bad error ...

Had an incredibly large, but brief brainlock earlier where I actually forgot the earth rotates to the east! (not west) ... duh ...

Therefore, the satellite has to travel faster in a prograde orbit around the earth's equator to cause an eastward drift.

Again ... duh ...

Just quickly had run out on an errand and couldn't post until now ...

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[nelson61]

No, I agree ... sorry for my (very) bad error ...

Had an incredibly large, but brief brainlock earlier where I actually forgot the earth rotates to the east! (not west) ... duh ...

Therefore, the satellite has to travel faster in a prograde orbit around the earth's equator to cause an eastward drift.

Again ... duh ...

Just quickly had run out on an errand and couldn't post until now ...

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I call my events - brain farts

 

[CSM]

With the new satellites would they have more spot beams so they could add the classic TV sub-channels? Or maybe free up the 101 so that could add the classic TV sub-channels?

 

[nelson61]

25 km below geo and moving 0.32 degrees/day. should be at new longitude in ~ 2 days

 

[HoTat2]

With the new satellites would they have more spot beams so they could add the classic TV sub-channels? Or maybe free up the 101 so that could add the classic TV sub-channels?

Nah ...

T15 has no LiL spotbeam capability.

But only spot mirrors to feed programming on CONUS wide tps.to Puerto Rico and Hawaii.

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[slice1900]

With the new satellites would they have more spot beams so they could add the classic TV sub-channels? Or maybe free up the 101 so that could add the classic TV sub-channels?

The fix for getting the classic TV sub-channels is coming in the form of the new local channel connector, at least for those who can pick them up OTA. I see your address is in Chesterfield, I'm familiar with it, I would assume you can pick up all the St. Louis TV stations from your house. Just have a wait a few months for it to be officially released, and Directv to complete the "database fix" they started a couple months ago to fill in the missing subchannels in the OTA database.