You could help a lot of newbs like myself out a lot by giving up the cutesy Spaceman Spiff names that were given these locations we are trying to lock onto. My receiver doesn't use these. Why should I? My box uses a number and a letter that tells it & me that the satellite should be in one hemisphere or the other.
I know some will come back and say, "but they don't stay in the same place, they move, then what do we call them?"
Uhhh...maybe whatever the new frigging location is relative to scanning it that day.
If it's currently moving and you have a setup that can track it still, sure...go ahead...call it by it's spaceship name
I have tried not to respond to this thread, mainly because this original post seems to clearly be a troll type post intended to start an argument. But since that has already occurred, I thought I'd add a couple thoughts.
This IS a topic that has been popping up in internet TVRO groups as long as those groups have been around, and I must admit to making a similar, but somewhat more diplomatic post about 18 years ago, when the names of some sats that I had been using for years changed, and my receiver no longer had the capability of naming them properly. But the bottom line is that any time anyone suggested some method of referring to satellites other than using their actual names, it was usually based on what would be most easy for HIM, based on the particular equipment he was using, and therefore ended up being a somewhat selfish suggestion.
So, while it may be easier for YOU to refer to things by their longitudes, that doesn't mean that it's easier for everyone. There is absolutely no way some of my receivers could ever use the longitude of a satellite, and the satellite names available to me are generally abbreviations of sats that aren't up there anymore, however it's generally easier for me to relate those old abbreviations to the actual satellites than it is to try to relate them to longitude. On my receiver, I have sat names such as F3, G1, E2, B6, S3, T4, M5, etc, etc, all of which are quite logical to me, and are the easiest way for me to remember what sat I'm referring to. I don't come on groups like this and expect people to follow MY naming convention. Instead, I have learned, what the REAL names of these sats are, and refer to them by their REAL names. If a sat has recently moved, such as T5, I mean Galaxy 25, then I usually accompany the name with a longitude, but if it's been at a location for quite a while, I see no need to do this.
BTW, I am equally amazed that people who own 4DTVs insist on referring to the somewhat illogical group of abbreviations used by that receiver. After all, 98% of us use Lyngsat for finding out where sats are, and what's on them. I see no reason under the sun that people can't figure out the real name of a sat when they're seeing it pop up every time they look up the channels in Lyngsat. We have dozens of different receivers with different capabilities of naming sats and different capabilities with respect to using longitudes, so different people are going to find different ways of naming the satellites on their own receivers. When referring to those sats on a group like this though, the most unambiguous way of referring to them will always be to use their real name, not some abbrebiation unrelated to the sat's name, and not some longitude.
If all you were using is a Ku dish with a DVB receiver capable of USALS, then yeah, a longitude might be simple way to make YOUR life easier, but not everyone here is using a USALS receiver with a DVB receiver. Many longitude slots have multiple sats on different bands, and sometimes sats that are inclined, and some that have spot beams. If you just use a longitude, you aren't distinguishing between sats on C-band, FSS-Ku, DBS-Ku, Ka band or other bands, and it isn't distinguishing between geostationary and geosynchronous-inclined sats. It's not distinguishing between sats with spot beams to one area vs beams aimed at other areas. So while using the longitude of a sat conveys a lot of info, it is not complete in and of itself. For the same reason, just giving the sats name isn't always complete in and of itself either, but the thing is, we aren't always talking in terms that can be expressed just by a longitude. We often discuss how footprints or power of sats, or frequency plans have changed for sats at a particular location, and if for the sake of simplifying your life you have chosen to remain uninformed about the actual names of the sats, you won't be able to communicate very well. A large part of ANY hobby is the history of the hobby, and if you can't communicate in terms of actual sat names, it is completely impossible to communicate about the history of the TVRO hobby. I mean, you might talk about having listened to telephone communications on 125, but then 125 was replaced by 125, so 125 moved to 123 along with 123 on Ku, but then 123 died, and was replaced by 123, but 123 was still going strong, but later 123 moved to 127 and 123 was replaced by 123, but then 127 died, and was replaced by 127, however in the meantime, 125 also died, and it was replaced by 125, but 125 only lasted a couple years, and got replaced by 125, and was finally joined by 125 on Ku, and about the same time 123 replaced an aging 123. Maybe you're right, things might be more clear if we just used longitudes.
Anyway, the use of the actual satellite name is a common point that people with different equipment, different interests and different capabilities can all relate. Since we all have lyngsat as the dictionary to translate what we're talking about, it is the only nomenclature that allows us to communicate without ambiguity. Anything less reminds me of the old Prisoner series where people were referred to as number 6, number 7, etc.... who is number one anyway?
If you want to simplify things, just subscribe to DTV or Dishnet, and you won't have to worry about the name of the sats, or even the frequency of the transponder or SR or anything. If you want to participate in a hobby and understand what you are doing, then I really think that the goal should be to learn the vocabulary of that hobby, and try to learn the history of the hobby.
Just my opinion.