Dear ol' Satmex 5

[northgeorgia]

Well, I know some of you can't get a good signal on Satmex 5, and even down here in the footprint, the signal is spotty. I heard Satmex 8 is set to launch on Dec. 8 and will replace this satellite, whose xenon-electric propulsion system failed in late January 2010. In the meantime, I saw on the satellite tracking website that its position is 116.74 W. After playing around with my USALS, I found that the best position to program in for this satellite is actually 116.3W ! Everything seems to be on the arc perfectly after I adjusted my mount today. I even got RASD on 45W (probably my eastern most satellite until winter knocks the leaves off).

I was just curious if anyone else had a similar experience with your motor needing to be adjusted a bit more to the east to pick up this satellite by using diseqc 1.2 or "lying" about the position in the satellite list for USALS?

(By the way, I'm just speaking of Ku signals. I'm using a 90 cm dish which I know is also the bare minimum for Satmex 5).

 

[wbarrett]

I find USALS works well for me from 125w to 43w. But to get 37.5 and 30w I have to use DiSEQC and bump my 1.2m dish west almost a degree. I can get all the way down to 15w but also have to manually find it with DiSEQC. Not a lot on that bird worth watching and having my dish flopped way over makes it hard for my DG380 motor to move it back.... especially if I forget and am moving to a vertical channel rather than a horizontal channel.

===
Bill

 

[Mr Tony]

with the footprint so bad here in MN I kinda gave up on that satellite (plus I no speaky spanish so kinda not needed there)

what is interesting is the vertical side is usually really strong but horizontal is non-existant

 

[gms49ers]

What really stinks is that satmex-5 is the true south satellite for us here in Idaho. Makes it kinda difficult to aim a motorized KU dish.

 

[Mr Tony]

the vertical side is really strong....the data transponders I get at 72/73 on the Micro
The H side...barely a blip

 

[skysurfer]

In the meantime, I saw on the satellite tracking website that its position is 116.74 W. After playing around with my USALS, I found that the best position to program in for this satellite is actually 116.3W !

If you were balls-on with the USALS before and now have to fake the longitude to precisely aim to the sat, you may be having a shifting post that your dish is connected to.

That's what I found on the initial install of my 1.2m ku-band dish - after a few months, I had to start faking the longitude to get the USALS working to go dead-on to a desired satellite and the fake longitudes i had to use got worse with time. I found my pole had started to sag so I redid the mount more solidly and never had the issue come up again.

EDIT: Sats are allowed to drift a little bit in their longitude slot, so it's not a surprise satmex 5 was at 116.74 deg W and probably allowable to the Mexican regulator's rules. Most of our dishes are small enough we wouldn't notice that in our reception of the satellite whether it's drifted to 116.7, 116.8 licensed, or 116.9, etc.

 

[DJ Rob]

I get the video channels at 116.3 as well. And all of my other sats from 72-125w are dead on. GeoSatPro 90cm dish.

 

[northgeorgia]

Yeah, I was wondering about that. I adjusted my pole and mount last weekend and after everything was spot on, I decided to see what I could do with Satmex 5. I played around with Tijuana and ExpandeTV signals, which are usually the weakest for me on that one, and after a lot of experimenting I got the 116.3 location as the best spot. I'm using a 90 cm dish as well.