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SAT Observations 97.06.06
WELCOME TO SAT-MIDEAST !
A news release from Cairo, Egypt, located at 30.3 North - 31.15 East,
sponsored by TELE-SATELLIT INTERNATIONAL, SATCO-DX and TBS Internet.
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WHAT YOU'LL FIND HERE:
- Satellite and Transponder Observations in C- and Ku-Band,
- Commented from the Middle Eastern perspective.
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THE HEADLINES IN THIS 97.06.06 REPORT:
- Launch News
- Thaicom 3
- Panamsat 4
- 1stNet from Arabsat
- Amos ME-TV
- SAT-MidEast Intern
INSAT LAUNCH, http://www.satcodx.com/launches.shtml
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The latest Indian satellite Insat 2D was successfully launched with
Ariane V97 on 4 June, at 01:20 CAT, accompanied by the martime
communications satellite Inmarsat III-f4.
The Insat 2D has a payload of 3 Ku-Band, 18 C-Band, and 1 S-Band
transponder and is scheduled to be located at 74 East, India's last free
slot at present time.
The reception of this satellite is not secured in the Middle East. Beams
of the Insats tend to be directed strictly towards the Indian
subcontinent. C-Band reception tests could be made from the Emirates and
the KSA.
ARIANE LAUNCHES, http://www.satcodx.com/launches.shtml
---------------
Several reliable sources indicate that the pairing and flight order of
the following four satellites could (once again) be changed with new
launch dates.
V98 L469 July 29th 44L - Hot Bird 3 & (Meteosat 7)
V99 L470 Mid August 44L - (Sirius 2) & Indostar 1
This stems, in part, from the fact that Meteosat cannot be ready for
July 29th date. Teams working on Meteosat are working on a September
15th target.
There are also problems encountered during the integration of Sirius-2
whose payload has had to be reintegrated or at least retested, and which
itself would not be ready before October/November at earliest. Finally
there are the respective and sometimes conflicting wishes of the
customers.
Hotbird-3 is apparently ready to fly but with whom ? Pairing is not
easy, with mass and launcher version configurations.
Next scheduled Ariane launch:
V96 L468 June 25th 44P - Intelsat 802
(source Martin OA Ransom go_Ariane
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/2058/indexa.html)
ATLAS LAUNCHES: http://www.satcodx.com/launches.shtml
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The first Eutelsat W24 (f1) will launch with an Atlas IIA on 22 January
1998, and will be located on 10 East, providing 24 transponder on a
single widebeam covering the whole of Europe, North Africa & the Middle
East, up to the Persian Gulf, fed by powerfull 135 Watt TWTA's.
(Startdate kindly submitted by M.Holmes via SATCO-DX)
THAICOM 3, 78.5 East, http://www.satcodx.com/thai78east.html
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Recent received information makes it more and more clear that present
received transmissions from the Thaicom 3 are not coming in through the
global beam. There is even a slight possibility that they are not
transmitted from Thaicom 3 at all, still using an older Thaicom however
now with increased powers.
Thaicom 3 carries only nine transponder switchable to the global beam, 3
of them are redundant. All these transponder can use only horizontal
polarisation and are hardwired to following middle frequencies: 3.480
GHz, 3.520 GHz, 3.560 GHz, 3.600 GHz, 3.640 GHz, and 3.680 GHz using a
transponder bandwidth of 36 MHz. The estimated EIRP on the Global beam
for the Persian Gulf is 35 dbW, Rhyadh 34 dbW, Cairo 33 dbW.
(There are an additional 18 C-Band transponder active on the Indo-China
Beam)
Beside the point that present transmissions are not fitting the
submitted frequency schedule, seeing the poor reception results, even in
the Gulf region, led me to the initial mentioned conclusion, as also
mentioned in SME's first impression of the reception results.
(Info used from Bruce M. kindly received via Phillip Poole)
PANAMSAT 4, 68.5 East, http://www.satcodx.com/pas4.html
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ATN started in PAL yesterday on transponder 15L, 4.158 GHz, H, after
ceasing the previous one on 4.179 GHz, V. A stereo audio sound is
provided via subcarriers on 7.56 and 7.74 MHz.
MTV India using transponder 15U, 4.182 GHz, H, can now be easier
received without signal interference.
(Info used kindly submitted by Abdulla Nasheed, Maldives)
The Multichoice DStv Africa package has slightly changed. Receivable
from 3.716, 3.744, 4.086, 4.120 GHz, V, with an SR of 20600, FEC 3/4 are
now 25 TV channels, 20 DMX Channels, and 5 Radio Channels.
From the TV channels only CCTV-4 on channel 23 is presently Free-To-Air,
the rest is IRDETO coded and available after a paid subscription only:
http://www.allicat.mck.co.za/
The five radio stations are Free-To-Air and named: BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 3,
Voice of America (stereo), and World Radio Network, whereby BBC 1 and
BBC 2 have frequently identical transmissions.
Full updated details will be soon available on:
http://www.satcodx.com/dig/mcafrica.html
INTELSAT 704, 66 East, http://www.satcodx.com/i704.html
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CFI Pro 2 is available in the CFI package on 4.055 GHz, R, with SR
27500, FEC 3/4, VPID 014A and APID 01AE, Free-To-Air for the time being.
(Info kindly submitted by P.Merrett via SATCO-DX)
TURKSAT 1C, 42 East, http://www.satcodx.com/t1c.html
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Some corrections on earlier reported data:
Freq: 10.960 GHz, H, SR 3120, FEC 5/6, APID 0022, VIPD 0021.
Freq: 10.974 GHz, H, SR 5998, FEC 3/4, APID and VPID unknown (no
picture)
(Info kindly submitted by Ghassan Tabet)
ARABSAT 2A, 13 East, http://www.satcodx.com/a2a.html
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The MPEG-2 reception of the 1st-Net DStv package from transponder 3,
12.563 GHz, H, and transponder 9, 12.685 GHz, H, is now witout any
difficulties possible, even with the South African PACE 500 and PANASAT
520-D IRD's, featuring the crippled, restrictive, software.
Earlier the package could only be received by performing a, not
documented, partial reset of the system RAM, in order to loose the last
stored datastream information. Now the package, using SR 19638, FEC 7/8,
is recognized without difficulties and all CAM and smartcard information
accepted. (This instead of the various packages from 13 East where even
after signal recognition no visible and audible reception is possible,
due to a "(E42) Parental Lock" error).
The 12-Channel line-up is identical to that of the 1stNet package on
Panamsat-4, so that all viewers, without a subscription to the SHOWTIME
DStv Network, can leave their dish simply targetted to the 26 East
position, in order to get the best Arabic Entertainment, analogue as
well as digital.
The ART has still options for digital use of two more Ku-Band
transponder on the Arabsat 2A, transponder 5, 12.605 GHz, H, and
transponder 11, 12.720 GHz, H; the last one is presently used for the
ART demo channel, identical to 3.782 GHz, Lc, in the C-Band.
HOT BIRD 1, 13 East, http://www.satcodx.com/hb1.html
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French channel "La Cinquieme" has started on 11.304 GHz, H, MPEG-2, SR
27500, FEC 3/4, VPID 007E, APID 0088.
(Info kindly submitted by Richard Eckendorff via SATCO-DX)
INTELSAT 707, 1 West: http://www.satcodx.com/i707.html
------------
RTG of Gabon can be found recently on 3.800 GHz, L, in SECAM and CFI -
Canal France International is on 3.850 GHz, L, also in SECAM.
Both channels are using the South-East Zonebeam
An Israeli educational channel has feeds on 10.995 GHz, V, MPEG-2, SR
4400, FEC 3/4, VPID 1062, APID 1063.
(Info kindly submitted by Ghassan Tabet)
AMOS 1, 4 West, http://www.satcodx.com/amos1.html
------
The Amos testcard has changed from transponder 5L, 11.552 GHz, V, to
transponder 3U, 11.176 GHz, V, with occasional IBA feeds, using an audio
subcarrier on 6.60 MHz.
The reason for the move is the appearance of a new channel, displaying
on June 4th a test dia of ME-TV on 11.552 GHz, V, using an audio
subcarrier on 6.60 MHz. The test dia carried the ME-TV logo in the lower
left corner, it consisted of three dark green pyramids shapes,
overlaying each other, with in two lines "ME-TV". The audio accompanying
the dia was of a religious nature, packed in a British pop format: a
young lady sang in English about God and the world.
Yesterday, June 5th, the ME-TV channel started on Amos 1. It is a
Lebanese channel founded by a christianizing religious group, already
since 1982. Broadcasts until recent days have been transmitted
terrestrial from the Lebanese-Israeli border. For full details visit the
ME-TV www.site at:
http://mh004.infi.net/~metv/
All programming schedules can be obtained from the same address. Present
programming contains American soaps, CNNI Exerpts (not live), some
movies, shopping info, and religiuous contents. The broadcast is on a
24-hour schedule and has partly English, Arabic and Hebrew languaged
parts, whereby English is the main language used.
ME-TV shares presently transponder 5 with Israel's commercial Channel 2,
which uses 5U, 11.596 GHz, V.
(Info contains kindly submitted initial reports by M.El Nadi, Cairo)
Ofek is testing an open university channel on 11.094 GHz, V, MPEG-2, SR
4728, FEC 3/4, VPID 0014, APID 0030.
(Info kindly submitted by A.Ciortan via SATCO-DX)
SAT-MidEast Intern, http://www.sat-net.com/sat-mideast/
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For all who wondered where the regular SAT-MidEast messages had been
gone, here the answer: The coming period will see SME only released once
a week, on Friday evening. Recent important changes in my personal time
managament do force me to this really unfavoured step.
Those who get the weekly SATCO-DX updates or the the daily SATCO-DX
info's will still find the latest info reported there, as urgent
messages and news items always will be forwarded immidiately to
Christian Lyngemark's un-equaled service.
From early July there will be a break in service of three weeks anyway,
where I will go in a, really deserved, bi-annual vacation; this time not
to Kourou to attend an Ariane launch (maybe I get invited one day ?),
just plain to Europe to meet & greet the folks at home.
Last week I had another unfortunate experience with the Egyptian custom
authorities. My long awaited MPEG-2 DVB receiver from NOKIA arrived at
Cairo Airport, but was refused entrance. Only the two, poor performing,
PACE 500 and PANASAT 520-D seem to have an importation approval, all
other digital equipment or anything what carries the name "decoder" is
not to enter Egypt.
So I have to get the receiver send back, no reports on FTA digital
reception from my side, sorry ! But believe me, I'm very angry ! :-((
Best regards,
Henk C. Room / Sat-MidEast / Cairo - Egypt
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- archive of observations and messages released since the start
- of SAT-MidEast on November 5, 1996.
SAT-MidEast: http://www.sat-net.com/sat-mideast/
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