Puzzled by satellite abbreviations

[tonydix]

I am still trying to work out what programming might be available to me. On the NPS site I see references to satellites such as G1 G3 G5 G8 C3 G0 W5 etc

I cannot seem to find out which satellites these actually are and therefore their position in the arc

I have googled W5 and think it may be AMC18 but is there a master list somewhere ?

Thanks for any help

Tony

 

[Anole]

Yea, it's B/S.
And there's a reason for the confusion.
But, this should help you sort 'em out:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/71402-what-satellite-where.html

 

[Lone Cloud]

Since close to the beginning of my entry into this hobby, I have been an advocate for referring to the satellite by its orbital position. They change the names as they sell them or as another company buys out the original company.

Galaxy 16 should be called Galaxy @99w Amc 15 should be AMC@ 105w. It's a silly waste of time having to go to Google to find a prior name of the satellite, or to Lyngsat because you just haven't memorized the current one. .

 

[gabshere]

i use this chart

 

[B.J.]

I am still trying to work out what programming might be available to me. On the NPS site I see references to satellites such as G1 G3 G5 G8 C3 G0 W5 etc

I cannot seem to find out which satellites these actually are and therefore their position in the arc

I have googled W5 and think it may be AMC18 but is there a master list somewhere ?

Thanks for any help

Tony

The abbreviations you mention have their roots from back in the 1990s, and analog receivers. The analog receivers were generally pre-programmed with satellite names which existed back then, they couldn't be changed, and they were pretty much limited to 2 digit names, mainly because of the need to be able to call for a sat with 2 keystrokes on a remote. Each of the several analog receivers I owned had some obsolete sat designations in within a few months of when I bought it. My current receiver has several dozen sats programmed, none of which remotely correspond to the actual sat they are looking at.
In the past, hobbiests kept track of the actual names of the sats they were tuned to, and didn't confuse others by referring to obsolete terminology that was on each of their receivers, but that all ended with the 4DTV. The 4DTV people thought that they could retain the old names, plus they assigned completely meaningless names to most KU sats, so you'll see all sorts of obsolete and meaningless terminology coming from the 4DTV crowd.

Anyway, the following chart might help understand things a bit.

TVRO SAT HISTORY

I haven't updated it in a couple years mainly because I'm out of space with respect to it fitting on one page, but I think it will at least show you what longitude sats like G5, G1, etc, etc were at back in the 90s.

EDIT: Updated the above URL to a more permanent place. Made additions and corrections: http://www.eskerridge.com/bj/tvrosat2.html

 

[tonydix]

Thanks very much Gabshare and BJ I am a little clearer now
Tony