Quetzat 1 at 77W
- Thread starter nelson61
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This is indeed a rare event that has not been seen before. Dish and Echostar are in the process of locating/relocating their 3 newest satellites (E15, E16, and Quetzsat 1) with a value of a billion dollars or so, all within a two month period.
It's going to be interesting to see what they do. 77W hosts both Dish (USA) and Dish Mexico. The existing Dish (USA) beam does not cover all of Mexico and the existing Dish Mexico beam does not cover all the 48 lower states. Dish (USA) is used for Spanish language programming in the US and local into local for some markets in the eastern US. Dish Mexico is Spanish language programming provided by Echostar's Mexican partner.
Both Quetzsat 1 beams (east and west) are similar in shape and both beams cover an area from the Canadian border through Panama (both service providers transmissions essentially cover North America (excluding Alaska and Canada)).
Dish (USA) presently has 24 transponders under lease at 77W and Dish Mexico has 8 transponders. When Quetzsat 1 activates, Dish (USA) will be returning 5 transponders to Echostar. So, Dish (USA) will have 19 transponders and Echostar 13 (the extra 5 probably for Mexico service).
I'd guess that there will be relatively few subscribers that will need a 3 satellite eastern arc dish when it is all done with perhaps some of the Dish transponders held in reserve for spare capacity in the event there is problems with a spot beam satellite.
There probably will be fewer (if any) local markets on 77W after Echostar 16 goes into service but it is anybody's guess as to what will happen (stay tuned in for mid January start up of Echostar 16 and Quetzsat 1.)
Sounds like it is time to put on the brakes. It will be interesting to see what stays on 77 after E16 is up to full capacity at 61.5.
Actually in either direction they would apply thrust... I was implying matching geosync speed vs appearing to move relative.
I am seeing lower signal strength and picture drop out on my 61.5 channels. Signal dropped from the 50's to low 20's. Is this due to all the sat movements?
Right, but in opposite directions, depending upon where they are now. Since (unless I'm losing my memory) they are below GEO, they would have to thrust in their present direction of motion to go up to GEO and "halt". "Putting on the brakes" would result in the sat going downward. Orbital dynamics is a tad counterintuitive.
So I think what you are saying is that Quetzat 1 is indeed above GEO in order to go West. Apologies to mike123abc. He was right to begin with, as usual.
I use satellite-calculations.com for my updates. The very first script on the site generates the current location and all kinds of info for each and all satellites in GEO orbit, all in one table that updates as new epoch data comes in. No need to look at the master data tables generated by space track.org.
Quetzsat 1 was at 76.7W this morning and will be at 77W tonight. Probably will be on station and "in the box" by tomorrow night. So, might see things happening there in the coming days.
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