Spotbeam Question

[thesmith7]

I need some help to figure out how spotbeams work. I am in Northern Montana. MY DMA is Spokane, WA. However I live closer to Great Falls than to Spokane.

When I look at my signal strength, my receiver shows I get a stronger signal on Spotbeam 18 which from what i can see is the spotbeam for Spokane than what I do on spotbeam 4 which is Great Falls.

Can anyone help to verify my info on spotbeams is correct? It makes no sense to me that a city farther away would get a stronger signal.

Could I 'Move' to Spokane and thus reduce my signal drops?

Thanks!

 

[Fitzie]

If you are receiving signal from Ciel 2, you should be getting a good signal from SB6 if you are close to Great Falls. (See satbeams.com, Ciel 2.)

As you undoubtedly know, the closer to the center of a spot beam you are the better your signal should be. If you are in the indeterminate (overlap) area between 2 spot beams, you may not get a really good signal from either. Because Ciel 2 is pretty far west, you might also want to remember the angle of the spot beams changes a bit as you go further east and the curvature of the earth may come into play.

With regard to the issue of "moving," I know some on this forum have done so. I haven't moved so I don't know what is involved. There are some threads on the forum where moving has been discussed, I believe. You could probably search "moving."

Regards,
Fitzie

 

[Laddyboy]

I need some help to figure out how spotbeams work. I am in Northern Montana. MY DMA is Spokane, WA. However I live closer to Great Falls than to Spokane.

When I look at my signal strength, my receiver shows I get a stronger signal on Spotbeam 18 which from what i can see is the spotbeam for Spokane than what I do on spotbeam 4 which is Great Falls.

Can anyone help to verify my info on spotbeams is correct? It makes no sense to me that a city farther away would get a stronger signal.

Could I 'Move' to Spokane and thus reduce my signal drops?

Thanks!

I assume you are referring to standard definition locals since the numbers you provided are the SD transponder numbers for those markets. The spotbeam numbers are different as you can see below. You said your DMA is Spokane. That is what you should have in the first place. You shouldn't have to "move". I assume you are in Lincoln Co. as that is the only Montana county in the Spokane DMA. The spotbeams are designed to cover DMAs as best as possible. The 110 spotbeams are oval shaped and are oriented north to south. See the spotbeam maps linked below. As you can see, Lincoln County is really not in the Great Falls spotbeam.

Spokane spotbeam map: http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist/index.php?search=dn110?=true&sort=&order=&beamMap=E10_SB40.jpg
Great Falls spotbeam map: http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist/index.php?search=dn110?=true&sort=&order=&beamMap=E10_SB36.jpg

 

[Arkapigdiesel]

Why is there a green and yellow circle? Which one more accurately depicts the spotbeam coverage?

 

[Laddyboy]

Why is there a green and yellow circle? Which one more accurately depicts the spotbeam coverage?

Different expected minimum signal strength levels, with green stronger than yellow. Anyplace within the yellow should receive sufficient signal strength for viewing with a standard E* antenna. Outside the yellow would require a larger antenna. The maps are approximations based on FCC filings and are the work of Nelson61, Digi, and maybe someone else whose name I don't recall at present.