Eutelsat 8 West B

[industry_state]

Is it possible to aim a satellite dish to Eutelsat 8 West B from Northeastern U.S.? If yes, is there a specific dish size and LNB that need to be used?

Thanks

 

[primestar31]

I doubt it, unless you are in Maine or something sticking out into the Atlantic, and you have no trees. Or, up on a mountain. It's at 8 degrees West, which would pretty much put it just slightly above the ground level.

 

[Magic Static]

You would be in the C-Band footprint but no Ku. So A 10' C-Band dish and a Standard C-Band LNBF with a polarity slab inserted for circular signals.

 

[Brct203]

It's supposed to have some African channels in C-Band. While in theory I should be able to receive it, it's low on the horizon and my neighbor happens to have a house in the way... There is a Ku-band beam that covers a bit of the US Northeast but is weak and I don't think it carries any video service. Even the C-Band is a bit weak as the beams are centered on Africa and Brazil. So, the limited power and the low elevation would be a serious challenge. You would probably need at least a 10-foot if not a 12-foot dish

If your goal is to receive the North-African/Middle-Eastern or European services, those cannot be received from North America as those beams are focused on the regions they serve.

 

[spongella]

Still would be fun to try.

 

[Brct203]

Still would be fun to try.

yes it would. That one and 5W. Also 11W. But i can hardly get a whiff of a few transponders on 22W in the winter when the trees are bare, and not at all during the summer. That's when I wish I had a 12- or 16-foot dish on top of a hill with no trees

 

[spongella]

Wondering if knowing the TP downlink frequency, then hooking up a spectrum analyzer and looking at the TP downlink frequency minus the LNB's LO frequency through the STB's loopout would be helpful?

Now if I could only figure out what I just said.....

 

[Brct203]

Wondering if knowing the TP downlink frequency, then hooking up a spectrum analyzer and looking at the TP downlink frequency minus the LNB's LO frequency through the STB's loopout would be helpful?

Now if I could only figure out what I just said.....

I've done that to some extent with a SDR dongle hooked to the loopout of my old Fortec Mercury II receiver. It's a nice way of seeing the beacons. I did that in the winter, so while there were no leaves on the trees, and i was able to see the beacons as far East as 14W. Seeing transponders is a bit more difficult unless they are less than 2 Mhz wide. Anything wider is wider than the spectrum display in SDR#, so it's not so easy to detect especially if very weak. Trying beyond 14W would have required re-configuring the actuator, so I did not try.

My goal was to assess if it would be easy to positively identify satellites by the frequencies of their beacons. But one problems was that the 4 old Intelsats at 24.5W, 27.5W, 29.5W and 31.5W are all Intelsat 90x-series and have the exact same beacon frequencies... But still that was a fun project.

 

[cyberham]

Reviving this thread to wake anybody interested in extreme eastern sats. I know brct203 exists. I received 8W 5+ years ago but footprint may have changed since then. Working now on getting my 1-meter dish looking east again.

Sent from my SM-G950W using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[Brct203]

i adjusted the actuator on my dish so that I could go further east. I was able to see a weak beacon on 8W and a very weak, barely detectable beacon on 5W. I could not see anything beyond that. Also the furthest East i'm seeing anything on the spectrum analyzer is 14W (the beacons are too narrow for showing up on the analyzer)

 

[cyberham]

Well that's depressing! And according to the footprints, I would never receive 14W. The furthest west landmass covered is Iceland. You are de-motivating me to get a dish looking east. Any chance of any Ku that you know of east of 61W that might be receivable? Even 30W here is unlikely since its footprint shows as 35dBW with a minimum 270 cm Ku-dish required for the Americas beam. I received it in Toronto, but it seems impossible here.

 

[Brct203]

Well that's depressing! And according to the footprints, I would never receive 14W. The furthest west landmass covered is Iceland. You are de-motivating me to get a dish looking east. Any chance of any Ku that you know of east of 61W that might be receivable? Even 30W here is unlikely since its footprint shows as 35dBW with a minimum 270 cm Ku-dish required for the Americas beam. I received it in Toronto, but it seems impossible here.

Hmm, I certainly don't mean to discourage you from trying But you are definitely in a challenging location.

Also, I'm not sure that we're looking at the same 14W or the same set of footprint maps, but on SatBeams.com it shows its Americas Ku foot print with a solid 48dBW here in Connecticut, and a still somewhat doable 40dBW in Halifax, NS. I'm suspecting maybe you were referring to the Europe beam of 8W - yeah that's way outside of our areas.

Based on the maps at satbeams, there are quite a few beams that cover NS, but not many with video content. Maybe your best bet would be ABS3A @3W Europe beam, at 46dBW, with supposedly a few Italian channels (this requires a universal LNBF as it's close to 12.7 GHz).

Also, try 22W. Most of the time you'll only detect a few data transponders but with decent power level. Occasionaly though, it's used for CNN video feeds from Europe. I've seen it used after tragic events like terrorist attacks in London, or during the Notre-Dame fire in Paris. Also used when Your Majesty had a new great-grandchild . Great video quality in HD

Other satellites might be receivable, but most don't carry video.
Amazonas @61W has occasional test cards, and once saw a feed.
SES14, Intelsat 32e, SES6, have strong Ku signals, but I have not detected any video

I've been wondering how St Pierre et Miquelon islands get their French TV from France. I'm not aware of any transmission of France Television on any bird that covers Newfoundland. Those channels are on 34.5W but NF is way out of the footprint.

 

[cyberham]

For 14W, I was using lyngsat which only shows the Europe and African footprints. Yes, satbeams shows as you say so I am more positive. But my backyard is right on the edge of its footprint. Certainly 3W looks strong on satbeams. The issue is whether these footprints are actually in use or just registered for the satellite. We are having a bad wind and heavy rain storm now so no work is possible. And daylight is only about 9 1/2 hours these days. Even normally strong signals on 87W and 91W are weaker tonight.

Not sure about St. Pierre & Miquelon television. I irregularly go to Newfoundland and always meant to stop in SPM to operate amateur radio but never quite made the trip.

Added: I always use a universal LNB when looking east. I have three and one is PLL so it's my favourite.

 

[martin-f]

Hi this link might be useful.

PORTAL BSD - SATÉLITES

 

[cyberham]

I've bookmarked it.

 

[Brct203]

Hi this link might be useful.

PORTAL BSD - SATÉLITES

Good site! Quite similar to PortalEDS.

Those 2 are great for those satellites that are receivable from here but are mainly aimed at the Latin American countries (a majority of the Atlantic satellites, really). Usually more up to date and more accurate than Lyngsat and other usual sites we use in North America.

It's worth noting that it does show a TV channel on Eutelsat 8WB on the Americas beam in Ku. But I scanned with SDRScanner and can barely see the beacon.
Weak signal (40dBW) plus low elevation plus very poor line-of-sight= not much

 

[cyberham]

"Laboratory" was set up today with an inverted 1.2-metre dish on a second-storey balcony about 12 feet above ground with a universal PLL LNB. Now I am ready to hunt tomorrow in the daylight. I can see down to the eastern horizon (about 3 degrees elevation @ 63 degrees W longitude) so any eastern satellites with a footprint here should be detectable. Tonight I will enter transponders into my receiver in preparation for tomorrow.

 

[martin-f]

"Laboratory" was set up today with an inverted 1.2-metre dish on a second-storey balcony about 12 feet above ground with a universal PLL LNB. Now I am ready to hunt tomorrow in the daylight. I can see down to the eastern horizon (about 3 degrees elevation @ 63 degrees W longitude) so any eastern satellites with a footprint here should be detectable. Tonight I will enter transponders into my receiver in preparation for tomorrow.

View attachment 141903 View attachment 141904

Good luck happy hunting, I also like messing with fringe reception ive built a fold down wind up tower the wind up part to try and get me more arc.



,

 

[cyberham]

Interesting. You're in the UK. How far west can you receive anything? I don't have much confidence I will see anything tomorrow. Using manual method without USALS it is very difficult to find signals when there is no reference signal in the region of the sky you are searching.

 

[ReggieA]

(pokes head in)
How close to the horizon is it reasonable to receive a (video) signal, anyway? Assuming nothing's in the way, but air.
I'd love to get something with the BBC on it, besides BBCA on DirecTV.