How far East can we reach from the US?

[K'bick]

I'm really trying to find a way to get some channels from Telstar 12 (15W) and Atlantic Bird 1 (12.5W) but I notice that most of our satellite lists seem to end at 58W at the Easternmost point.

Is that because we have no line of sight to those sats from the US?

Is 58W the farthest East anyone has been able to reach from the US?

To make matters worse I'm not exactly on the East coast (-88W)

 

[DirectDishNet]

I'm not too far from you, The furthest east sat I was able to lock on to was 30.0°W Hispasat 1C & Hispasat 1D elevation was around 13°. The signal was relatively strong on 11884 V tp 79 @ 58%

From my location Telstar 12 is at Elevation 2.0° so aiming at the horizon if so much as a blade of grass gets in the way, I'm outta luck.
I think the same lineup on Telstar 12 can also be found on 97W Galaxy 19.

 

[jmc98]

I have gotten to 45w with a 90cm motorized dish from 97w before LOS issues

 

[K'bick]

Ah, thanks guys.. so it looks like I'd be aiming my dish at my neighbor's house before getting anything further than about 20W.

 

[pedrogarcia]

Mikelib's the man on this

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/194203-satellite-dxing.html

 

[AcWxRadar]

I'm really trying to find a way to get some channels from Telstar 12 (15W) and Atlantic Bird 1 (12.5W) but I notice that most of our satellite lists seem to end at 58W at the Easternmost point.

Is that because we have no line of sight to those sats from the US?

Is 58W the farthest East anyone has been able to reach from the US?

To make matters worse I'm not exactly on the East coast (-88W)

K'Bick,

I can easily pick up 30.0W from near Omaha, NE. It comes in really strong and is one of the hottest birds (signal strength-wise) for me, even with a 76 cm dish. This seems strangely odd when you see the angle that my dish is aimed.

The major problem is not so much the LOS as it is the signal itself. Theoretically, in my location, I should be able to pick up all the satellites as far east as 20.0W (viewing from 96.4 W longitude).

The main problems from my vantage point is that they are either C-Band or low band Ku signals (which I don't currently have an LNB setup for) or the signals are encrypted or they are not beamed in my direction to begin with.

So, even if the sat is in my LOS, it doesn't really help if the signal isn't aimed or beamed in my direction or if it is not a signal that I can use with the equipment I have set up.

This is why I think most of the lists stop early when going east.

Via an angle calculator, I should theoretically be able to detect satellites in a total window of ~152 degrees (+/- 76 degrees maximum from my location's longitude).

Also, if you are using a motor to drive your dish, keep in mind that USALS doesn't allow you to drive your motor further than ~59 degrees east or west of your site's longitude. If you need to drive the dish further with a motor, you must switch the motor control over to DiSEqC 1.2 positioning and step the motor manually to the desired satellite. This will allow you to drive to the full mechanical limits of the motor (whatever that is specified to be).

RADAR

 

[Raysat67]

Here in Easton PA I can hit 15W on my motorized 90cm dish, but that's as far as east as I have been able to reach.

 

[Mr Tony]

The midwest can see to maybe 15W if you have a great line of site

Also the farther south you are the higher the dishes can be so that helps too

 

[mikelib]

K'bick,
Here in New Jersey I can get up to 15W on a motorized 90 cm dish. (15W to125W) I go down by the Bay to try and get any sat east of 15W. I have locked in two stations on Atlantic Bird 2 at 8W both Arabic, with a 18X20 dish this spring. Recently I got a strong Skylogic transponder off of Atlantic Bird 1 at 12.5W, and locked in a couple of radio stations with no audio. BTW the stations on 15W are also on 97W mostly Iranian and Spanish.

I don't know if you ever used the goggle earth app in dishpointer.com, it is real interesting to see were those far east satellites are located. A matter of fact it is really interesting to see were all the American sats are located over the equator.

 

[K'bick]

Bummer!

Thanks a lot for all the replies. I will most likely have a LOS issue and probably won't be able to reach as far East as some of you guys. My yard is quite tree-locked and so I had to go up on a mast on the roof to be able to get an uninterrupted section of the arc. I imagine the further East I go I'll run into the trees all around before getting down to the necessary elevation.

I saw some Lyngsat maps for C band sats that I might be able to get more easily but I live in one of those neighborhoods where they make a big sink about how many dishes you have and their sizes blah blah blah.. So at this point the biggest upgrade I can get for the sat system is a change in address.

 

[K'bick]

K'bick,
Here in New Jersey I can get up to 15W on a motorized 90 cm dish. (15W to125W) I go down by the Bay to try and get any sat east of 15W. I have locked in two stations on Atlantic Bird 2 at 8W both Arabic, with a 18X20 dish this spring. Recently I got a strong Skylogic transponder off of Atlantic Bird 1 at 12.5W, and locked in a couple of radio stations with no audio. BTW the stations on 15W are also on 97W mostly Iranian and Spanish.

I don't know if you ever used the goggle earth app in dishpointer.com, it is real interesting to see were those far east satellites are located. A matter of fact it is really interesting to see were all the American sats are located over the equator.

Yes, Dishpointer is very cool to mess around with.

Did you see the PDF file that Iceberg posted? Its a satellite map from Boeing of all the sats in orbit - very very interesting. Let me see if I can find that thread again.

 

[K'bick]

Here it is:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/71402-what-satellite-where.html#post614094

This is Iceberg's sticky about what sat is where.. follow the link at the bottom of Sat list in big bold letters.

 

[mikelib]

Here it is:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/71402-what-satellite-where.html#post614094

This is Iceberg's sticky about what sat is where.. follow the link at the bottom of Sat list in big bold letters.

I have the PDF tacked to the garage wall, I used that and lyngsat to try and identify and get all of the Satellites with a Americian beam.

 

[K'bick]

Sorry for bombing the thread with so many replies

BTW, I am trying to get Brazilian channels in Portuguese... A great lot of them are C band, many are only beamed to South America, and other Ku channels are 'crypted so that leaves a few left on Lyngsat that look like they are in the clear if I can only get to the sats:

Record Internacional Europa (Atlantic Bird 1)
Record News (Atlantic Bird 1)
Rede Internacional de TV (Atlantic Bird 1)
TV Cancao Nova Internacional (Galaxy 19) - The only channel I get now.
TV Pampa Santa Maria (Telstar 12)
TV Sul Bahia (Atlantic Bird 1)

I'm still looking but so far have not been able to find these on other, closer sats.

 

[whatchel1]

Yrs ago

Back when I had 12 ft dish (analog) C/KU I was able to pick up sats as low as 4 degrees above horizon. Had to have major accurate tracking of Clark belt. I was able to pick up BBC, Spanish, & Italian TV. I would say that most of what it will have to do w/ signal strength from the beams being sent to North America.

 

[Bill_KY]

I always wondered what far eastern satellites someone from Nova Scotia or Newfoundland would be able to pick up . I would imagine that someone from Iceland would be able to get satellites from Europe. And would Europe be possible from Bermuda?

Until reading these threads, I never really thought about satellite DXing in this sense. So another question to throw in the mix, is there any advantage to taking a dish up a 5,000 foot mountain and see what far east or west satellites might be receivable?

 

[Lone Cloud]

I am about 30 degrees west of you and have pulled in 55.5 w C band with my Birdview.

I think you should be able to get pretty far down if you have a good line of sight to the eastern horizon. Granted, my dish is s a Birdview, but if you are aimed well with the right settings on your dish and motor, 30 west could be doable.

Taking it up a mountain might be an interesting experiment. Just on theory, other than maybe getting a good look at both horizons, I don't think it will make that much difference. Going far east or west, you still have to angle through a thick section of the atmosphere. Maybe the satellites near your longitude you'd get a benefit.

 

[mikelib]

Sorry for bombing the thread with so many replies

BTW, I am trying to get Brazilian channels in Portuguese... A great lot of them are C band, many are only beamed to South America, and other Ku channels are 'crypted so that leaves a few left on Lyngsat that look like they are in the clear if I can only get to the sats:

Record Internacional Europa (Atlantic Bird 1)
Record News (Atlantic Bird 1)
Rede Internacional de TV (Atlantic Bird 1)
TV Cancao Nova Internacional (Galaxy 19) - The only channel I get now.
TV Pampa Santa Maria (Telstar 12)
TV Sul Bahia (Atlantic Bird 1)

I'm still looking but so far have not been able to find these on other, closer sats.

Here are pics from my receiver of Telstar 12, at the time I scanned in the channels TV Pampa was on two transponders.

 

[mikelib]

I always wondered what far eastern satellites someone from Nova Scotia or Newfoundland would be able to pick up . I would imagine that someone from Iceland would be able to get satellites from Europe. And would Europe be possible from Bermuda?

Until reading these threads, I never really thought about satellite DXing in this sense. So another question to throw in the mix, is there any advantage to taking a dish up a 5,000 foot mountain and see what far east or west satellites might be receivable?

Hey why not go for it. I find DXing satellites with small dishes intriguing. Atlantic Bird 2 at 8 W is on the equator off of the coast of West Africa so pulling in two TV stations on the American transponders with a 18x20" dish is quite an accomplishment

I also listen to short-wave in the winter time and I have a scanner that I take in the car to listen to Public Safety broadcast.


So many signals so little time.
Mike Lib

 

[Bill_KY]

Hey why not go for it. I find DXing satellites with small dishes intriguing. Atlantic Bird 2 at 8 W is on the equator off of the coast of West Africa so pulling in two TV stations on the American transponders with a 18x20" dish is quite an accomplishment

I also listen to short-wave in the winter time and I have a scanner that I take in the car to listen to Public Safety broadcast.


So many signals so little time.
Mike Lib

Great to see that FTA can be had on 18" dishes. And that it is possible to DX distant satellites with a 20" dish. This is kind of familiar territory to me as I have done some FM and TV Dxing on and off through the years.

(I never lost the thrill of DXing... like this past summer on 7/28/2009 I was hearing Houston and other TX FM stations over ride and take out a lot of the Cincinnati and KY area FM locals in one big FM skip opening for a few hours. But that is a whole different subject and don't want to hijack the thread...lol).