Sacramento Spot Beam Question

[Bronx]

I'm in Los Angeles and have a receiver that is authorized for the Sacramento locals. After looking through the charts and maps that I found online, it looks like the spot beam for the Sacramento HD locals is ceneterd in Reno and won't reach this far South. The SD locals are centered in San Francisco and I'd expect signal level on a small dish to be marginal at best.

However, I connected the receiver to my antenna today and am receiving all Sacramento channels, both SD and HD. I'm curious what has changed that's allowing me to see these channels here, and is this just temporary, a permanent thing or some sort of fluke.

 

[nelson61]

I'm in Los Angeles and have a receiver that is authorized for the Sacramento locals. After looking through the charts and maps that I found online, it looks like the spot beam for the Sacramento HD locals is ceneterd in Reno and won't reach this far South. The SD locals are centered in San Francisco and I'd expect signal level on a small dish to be marginal at best.

However, I connected the receiver to my antenna today and am receiving all Sacramento channels, both SD and HD. I'm curious what has changed that's allowing me to see these channels here, and is this just temporary, a permanent thing or some sort of fluke.

Sacramento HD locals are unique in that they are one of the rare locals that are transmitted on a Conus beam on 119w. So anywhere, you can receive 119w, Sacramento HD is available.

Sent from my SM-G955U1 using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[raoul5788]

Sacramento HD locals are unique in that they are one of the rare locals that are transmitted on a Conus beam on 119w. So anywhere, you can receive 119w, Sacramento HD is available.

Sent from my SM-G955U1 using the SatelliteGuys app!

According to the transponder map on the iamanedgecutter website they are on 99s.

 

[Jimbo]

According to the transponder map on the iamanedgecutter website they are on 99s.

I would guess that the HD are on the 99, like you mentioned ... and the SD are on the 119

How does one determine if the locals are Conus ?
I was under the impression that only NY and LA were Conus ...

 

[dishrich]

ALL the (SD) locals on 119 will be a moot point before the end of the year, since all of them are already duplicated on Ka (either in HD or SD, depending on the channel) & will all be shut down

 

[raoul5788]

I would guess that the HD are on the 99, like you mentioned ... and the SD are on the 119

How does one determine if the locals are Conus ?
I was under the impression that only NY and LA were Conus ...

Nope, sd is on 101. CONUS beams have a CB designation in the chart for the LA and NY locals instead of the S designation.

 

[slice1900]

The footprint maps show a 10 db beam contour, but there's a bit more margin than that in clear weather with a well aimed dish. Must be just enough for them to be received in LA. Go to the signal readings and let us know what you are getting on 99s transponders 15 & 23, and 101 transponder 4. I'll bet the numbers are pretty low - and it won't take much of anything (probably just heavy clouds) to lose signal.

The Ku transponders on 101 will lose signal when the "signal strength" reading reaches the low 40s (i.e. then it will just go to 0) and the Ka transponders on 99/103 will lose signal at around 20 (that number will be higher for certain spot beams that use different modulation to get more bandwidth)