26East Strongest transponder in Dublin

zg3409

Hi,

I am looking to align a dish to 26 East in Dublin. I wonder could someone check the strongest transponder in the 10 to 12ghz band and suggest which transponder to use for alignment?

Its a long story, but a new satellite was launched last week going to 26 east, and I would like to be ready for when it gets in position and is powered on. Its called Es'hail sat 2, and in addition to having normal TV signals it will also rebroadcast amateur radio and amateur television signals. I would like to receive these and in time uplink myself direct to the satellite my own amateur television signals as I am licensed to do so.

So can you suggest a transponder that is currently active and strong?

I have a 90cm automatic tracking dish from a camper van that might track and lock a strong transponder a setup which can be used for public demos and home use.

More info here:
https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/geosynchronous/eshail-2/

Based on satbeams website:
https://www.satbeams.com/footprints?beam=7787

I thought Badr 4 beam b4ss (bss) might be strongest in Dublin so something like:
https://www.lyngsat.com/Badr-4.html

11919 Horizontal might be a start. Ideally I would like a lower frequency transponder as the amateur frequency portion of the band is below the normal lowest TV frequencies and I might need to modify or detune the lnb to down convert lower bands, but still align using strong fixed commercial TV transponders.

And for you foreign TV addicts, possibly by end of January 2019 this new system will be active. With a little fiddling you could also watch amateur TV signals from people uplinking. The most basic bodge would be to detune the lnb oscillator slightly lower, meaning your satellite receiver would now be able to receive signals in the 10.4 to 10.7ghz range. I have done this in the past and it may just need a tweak of a screwdriver on the right part. Happy hunting and please ask questions

dxhound2005

11996 H is the strongest in Dundalk on my 1.1 m dish. 10 dB signal on Dr HD receiver on a scale which goes up to 20 dB. Anything over 5 dB is OK for SD channels.

I can get 15 tp's in total,138 TV channels. Lowest frequency is 11938 V, 6.2 dB. 11919 has been empty for a couple of years.

dxhound2005

Es'hail-2 is featured on the cover of the January 2019 Radcom, and there is an article inside. It also recommends 11996 H as the best tp for the UK. But it offers an alternative method to find the satellite using an SDR. BADR7 does not have a footprint for TV channels in Europe, but it looks like its beacon has.

Aligning the dish using an SDR

Every geostationary satellite runs a narrowband telemetry beacon that can be used to align a dish using just a simple SDR such as FUNcube or RTLdongle. The beacons are on different frequencies so can be used to easily identify which satellite you are receiving – unfortunately the BADR4 beacon is in the higher frequency band above 12 GHz and requires the LNB to be fed with a 22 kHz tone to switch in the higher local oscillator (not easy to do using a standard SDR).

However the BADR7 satellite is in the same orbital slot and has a telemetry beacon on 11.2005 GHz, receivable throughout Europe and which gives an IF signal on 1450.5 MHz on your SDR waterfall – you will see a high level of wideband noise from other satellite signals such as Astra at 28° East, but should clearly see the beacon carrier when aligned to BADR7 at 26° East.

Note that the BADR7 beacon is horizontally polarised so you will either need to feed the LNB with 18 volts, or physically rotate it by 90°, if you have only 12V available. And don’t forget that Es’hail-2 narrowband is vertically polarised, so when alignment is complete on BADR7 you will need to switch back to vertical polarisation.

https://rsgb.org/main/publications-archives/radcom/