Can E6 cover every E3 TP, plus a few from R1/E12, given power problems on that sat, too? I didn't think E6 was in perfect health, either.
Can E6 cover every E3 TP, plus a few from R1/E12, given power problems on that sat, too? I didn't think E6 was in perfect health, either.
Limping to say the least
Can E6 cover every E3 TP, plus a few from R1/E12, given power problems on that sat, too? I didn't think E6 was in perfect health, either.
I believe it can. Last failure report had E-6 being able to provide 25 TPs in standard power mode or 12 TPs in high power mode. As far as I know E-6 failures are on solar array strings and not on amplifiers (TWTAs) like E-3 so there are not specific TPs that E-6 can not provide signal. E-12 was designed for only 13 TPs and all but one (TP 24) can be used in spotbeam mode. If E-6 were to take over all the CONUS coverage from E-12 then E-6 would be provding signal on 20 TPs and E-12 only 12. Another factor that could come into play is if Dish gets use of more than 16 TPs at 72.7 W. If this were to happen than the priority of Dish recovering use of the 4 TPs at 61.5 W that E-3 can not provide signal from would be less and perhaps E-6 goes to another slot such as 77 W.
With E*12 having problems, I would expect E*3, E*6 and E*12 at 61.5 until the new satellite arrives there....
The problem is that E-3 and E-6 can't provide that much help for E-12 since Dish wants to maximize use of the E-12 spotbeams. That means using TPs 1 - 23 odd for spotbeams, that's a total of 12. Unless E-6 has had more failures, it should easily be able to provide the other 20 TPs. Dish also needs a satellite as a license holder at 148 W because I can't believe that E-5 will last that long there. It wouldn't matter where the E-3 downlink signal at 148 W is directed at unless it causes interference.
With all it's power issues, can E12 power all 12 TPs in spotbeam mode? As it is, TP17 is off now. TP23 has some temp channels on, but I don't know it it is on, either.
Looks like Echostar 5 has basically made it to 148, 147.73
LIVE REAL TIME SATELLITE TRACKING: ECHOSTAR 5
Aren't they going to have to put this thing is a graveyard orbit pretty soon?
It will be interesting to see how much life is left. I speculate they will let it wobble a lot more at 148, that will save fuel. Also, the amount of fuel is not really clear until the end of the tank. The closer to empty the tanks are the better the readings of the amount left in the tank. Reading the narratives on satellite launches they mention that the accuracy improves as the tank empties. It could have more life in it than was reported.