what sd channels are left on 101?
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Directv isn't removing any channels from 101 (yet) but they are switching satellites around at 101. The new satellite which will soon take over all MPEG2 SD channels on 101 may have a tighter beam pattern without so much "spill" into Mexico. If they lose their reception nothing they can do about it. It was never intended that people should be able to receive Directv USA there, but radio waves don't obey national borders so all Directv (and Dish) can do is try to minimize the spillover, not eliminate it completely.
Yeah ...
And it's actually recent posts like this from subs. trying to receive service down in Mexico that make me think that the just retired T4S satellite must have been carrying at least some national channels on its CONUS beam tps. at 101W.
And was not providing only local spotbeams as long commonly thought. So when all T4S's CONUS beam traffic was transfered to T9S.
T9S's CONUS beam patterns are probably tighter with less signal spillover into Mexico.
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And it's actually recent posts like this from subs. trying to receive service down in Mexico that make me think that the just retired T4S satellite must have been carrying at least some national channels on its CONUS beam tps. at 101W.
And was not providing only local spotbeams as long commonly thought. So when all T4S's CONUS beam traffic was transfered to T9S.
T9S's CONUS beam patterns are probably tighter with less signal spillover into Mexico.
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According to the beam footprints on EdgeCutter that's true - T4S had a LOT more spillover into Mexico. T15/T16 look to have pretty similar footprint to T9S.
In short order, "T15" (AT&T officially renamed them) does not have local spotbeam capability like T9S, but has nationwide beam transponders only, with two additional spotbeams to also mirror the nationwide tps. to cover Puerto Rico and Hawaii.
T15 can also operate on the Ku (32 tps), Ka (38 tps.), and Reverse Bands (18 tps.), whereas T9S is only Ku (10 nat'l and 44 spot. tps), and a special Ka band payload (4 wideband tps.) for DIRECTV internal use like signal backhauling..
And T15 is much more powerful and has newer technology of course.
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Actually everything at 101W will eventually be on the newest (and likely the last) satellite to join fleet, "T16." Which recently arrived at 101W last Wed. on 9/4 after completing its testing at 134W.
And then T9S will join T8 as in-orbit spare backups.
T16 is essentially a duplicate of T15.
T15 is scheduled to transfer all its traffic over to T16. And then return to 103W where it was originally and light up tps. 1-8 on 103(ca) for what appear to be the Spanish and international channel duplicates of 119W that are temporarily placed on 99(cr).
This will then allow DIRECTV to begin shutting down the 7 nationwide tps. on T7S at 119W, since while many Spanish and int'l subs. don't have Reverse Band capable LNBs so have to rely on 119W for them. Most all do have Slimline dishes nowadays to receive those channels on 103(ca).
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Eh, I don't think they will be able to do that for a while, they have to upgrade every customer with the Spanish package who has an SD receiver first. If that's needed for the markets that pushed back the MPEG2 SD shutdown it might stick around for a couple more years - I'm guessing there are plenty of Spanish speaking workers on Gulf oil rigs. It is probably a much easier task to discontinue use of 95 than to discontinue use of 119.
I would hazard a guess the real issue for those oil rigs isn't SD/HD but footprint. They might not be able to reliably pick up Ka/RB from 99/103, at least not on the ones further offshore.
Possibly ....
As I could be assuming too much about the situation everywhere in the country based on what I see around my neighborhood here in LA. Where there is a large Latino population, but I see almost no P.III triple-sat. dishes any longer.
They seemingly all have been upgraded to Slimline-3s and -5s wherever I go now so prepared for the shutdown of the 119 nationals when their 99(cr) A3 duplicates move to 103(ca). ....
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Well like I've said before we have no real visibility into Directv's upgrade process - all we have to go on are a few people who have posted letters/emails they've received telling them when their locals will go away. They could have been sending similar stuff to WD/Spanish subscribers and we simply didn't see one of them posted here. Maybe they've all been upgraded and they'll be able to drop 95 and 119's CONUS very soon, and oil rigs won't be an issue.
But there's probably not much point to shutting down 119's CONUS until they are ready to shut down its spot beams so the whole satellite can be decommissioned. They are obviously months if not a year or two from being able to drop the spot beams, since they are only just starting on shutting those down due to the delayed schedule.
