Signal issues with 3740 TP on AMC 1

[pwrsurge]

I have been getting reports and have confirmed that since last week, signal quality on the AMC 1 3740 transponder has suddenly fallen down by at least 15 points which now makes it unreceivable on 1.8 meter (6 ft) dishes. This is affecting the following services:

Deutsche Welle TV USA (German)
La Cadena del Milagro (Spanish)
Ant 1 Satellite (Greek)
Jus Punjabi (Punjabi)

Although quality was not the strongest before, a 1.8 meter dish here in Southern Ontario managed to pull in approximately 60% so there was no issues as C-band is relatively immune to rain fade. However, the quality is now approximately 45% and due to the high FEC rate of 7/8 used on this transponder, most receivers will have a hard time locking on this frequency when using a smaller C-band dish.

For people who were receiving Deutsche Welle TV, a good alternate satellite to receive this channel is Intelsat 9 @ 58W. However, the DW channel over there is the South American feed so instead of being German and English, programming will be German and Spanish. Unfortunately, the other 3 services mentioned above don't have any alternate locations so getting a larger dish is about the only immediate fix to get these services at this time.

Hopefully this is resolved soon as I know that AMC 1 is set to be replaced with a new satellite in early 2012. If you don't mind, please feel free to post your quality levels on this transponder, the size of dish you are using and your location.


Regards,

pwrsurge

 

[carlospr43]

I' m receiving them in the Carribean in a different TP 3734 V 29269 with a 12 footer and Openbox S9, I also received them in the 3740 V 29270 TP with similar numbers. THIS, ME 1 and 2 are also in this TP
Signal 86%
Quality 72%

 

[Mr Tony]

I've had issues with 103W here in Minnesota with the 6 footer too

Havent tried that TP recently

 

[carlospr43]

Forgot to mentioned that last night something happens that I lost everything suddenly for about an hour. After that everything came back as ussual

 

[colbec]

Yes, problems here too. I noticed something changed about 5 days ago, suddenly that TP was very hard to tweak on my 6 footer with a Coolsat 6000 Premium even though signal level at 67-68% which is normally lots of signal. Setting up on spare 10 footer.

 

[Mr Tony]

colbec
The issue with the transponder is that its a 7/8 FEC which requires more signal for it to be stable (less room for errors)
While 67-68 is normally good enough (I have a 5000) you will need probably 73-74 for it to be stable

With FEC the higher the number the more signal you need. 1/2 is the lowest and has plenty of room for error. 9/10 is the highest and takes a TON of signal to be stable

 

[beavs2112]

at my location 68% quality. 10 foot mesh dish. London Ontario Canada. All channels good picture.

 

[Mr Tony]

The thing with a Coolsat is threshold (minimum) is 63%. The meter is wacky
Most feeds will show 70-73 on them

 

[colbec]

Moved to 10 footer, Coolsat is now reporting 72% with good reception.

Edit: so any recommendations for using a now freed-up 6 footer?

 

[wonder]

For all of you guys like myself with issues on AMC1 tp 3740V ,
Call to NOC they are the ones feeding and adjusting the signal.
I already called them to report the loss of signal and the guy I talked to said that it seems fine from their end but they will look at it if more people complain.

 

[Pixl]

For all of you guys like myself with issues on AMC1 tp 3740V ,
Call to NOC they are the ones feeding and adjusting the signal.
I already called them to report the loss of signal and the guy I talked to said that it seems fine from their end but they will look at it if more people complain.
The number is***-****

Wonder,

I see you are new here, welcome to the club. But...
I have strong advice NOT to EVER call, E-mail, write letters to an up linker, program provider, network, or the like.
This calls un-necessary attention to people watching signals that are not necessarily for the public at large.
Just lay low, watch tv, enjoy.

We also never post anybodys phone number in here.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Never call the NOC, those numbers are for TV Stations only, if Hobiests start calling in they may start scrambling their signals.

 

[emuman100]

I was going to start a thread on this very topic! Last Friday night the signal just went to crap. I thought it was my dish, but nothing whatsoever changed. DW-TV has no interest in scrambling, and I was thinking about contacting their customer service and letting them know. I have a commercial IRD that has been permanently tuned to 3740V for over two years outputting DW-TV to an analog and digital modulator. The BER of the signal has been logged and monitored by a program called cacti, which pools the IRD via SNMP and creates a beautiful graph of the data.

As you can see, the signal was at a level of BER that prodiced a perfectly stable picture with maybe a transport stream error here and there. Friday night the BER increased to a rate where the analog video output won't produce any picture (blocking causes the video output of the IRD to mute) and there are too many errors in the transport stream to produce video at all at my QAM tuners, just lots of blocking and an audio blip here and there. This is all on a Fortec 6 footer with Norsat LNB. I love how I can monitor the BER of my IRDs because I can precicely pinpoint when an issue happened.

 

[skysurfer]

colbec
The issue with the transponder is that its a 7/8 FEC which requires more signal for it to be stable (less room for errors)

or co-satellite interference on undersized/underperforming dishes now that NASA TV has lit up next door on AMC-18.

 

[carlospr43]

Just be patient and hold on until the new sat is in place!!! Hopefully all the problems go away with the new sat

 

[emuman100]

I e-mailed Deutsche Welle about it and am awaiting a reply. If it's NASA then they would have had to start up Friday, December 2nd.

 

[wonder]

Pixl
I hope you keep this whole message untouched this time as it contains no phone numbers or other contact details of anyone. Just wanted to comment back to you. As I see you are senior member , right ?
Well I have talked to them at NOC at a number of occasions in the past with similar to this problem and thankfully they corrected it. These people are not stupid they know this frequency and the channels carried by it are free to air. This is how they want them to be according to their interests.
By reporting a problem to NOC on one of their frequencies you only help them to recognize and correct the problem.
They welcome such reports and they are prompt to recognize and correct the problem before their customer in Germany tells them. At same time you help all those who watch these channels. Isn't this what you want too ? Unless someone wants to push or direct viewers into the understanding that the only immediate solution would be to purchase a 10' dish so he makes business out of such problem. I hope this is not what you want.
The phone number I gave in my previous message and was deleted, is not a private personal number but it's the number of technical support of NOC a public company available freely to anyone, which was given to me by SES Americom to call them and report the problem.
So JUST do not try to silence anyone from expressing his opinion as to what might bring a solution or you will damage the reputation of this good forum of Satelliteguys.
By the way I am a new member here and a senior member in the Satellite industry in N. America and Europe, dealing , installing and programming Satellite dishes and other equipment. As a final note, I did not mean any offense to you or to anyone else.
Regards

 

[SatelliteAV]

Wonder, welcome to SatelliteGuys!

On this forum we support the concept that loose lips sink ships. Generally, it is very unwise for a DTH viewer to ever contact an uplinker regarding signal issues. A broadcaster may be contacted by the viewer only if the channel has made it publicly known that they are unencrypted to make the service available to the DTH market.

I have worked with uplink centers and on production trucks for years and have been in the truck during live backhaul feeds when the U/L phone was called by a home viewer with signal issues. I will simply share with you that these calls are unwanted and I have overheard engineers and producers to say "if that #%*$&@ phone rings one more time we are throwing the switch". A home viewer telling an uplink engineer that they have a problem is usually not well received. Uplink engineers typically are notified of issues by the engineer or playout operator on duty at the authorized downlink centers.

Pixel was not trying to disrepect you, but trying to explain that we do not suggest contacting uplinkers or broadcasters. We ask that you respect this concept and we look forward to your participation on the forum!

 

[emuman100]

I agree with loose lips sink ships. Never contact an uplink NOC. In a case like this, Deutsche Welle wants DW-TV to be open, and they want you to contact them with any reception issues. I'm a regular watcher of DW-TV and was a regular listener of Deutsche Welle Radio before it was discontinued. Most reception issues these NOCs get contacted about are issues out of their control, such as the incompetency of the downlink operatror.

 

[wonder]

SatelliteAV, thank you for the welcome.
I understand you guys this is your forum and have all the right to imply your own rules and everyone participating should respect them. Thank you for your explanations.
Meanwhile I edited my last comment, so please take a moment to re-read it, as I offer more explanation to this particular case. I agree with what you said but this should not be taken as a general rule as each case has it's own different characteristics and also depends how and what you say when you are making an error report. No-one ever refuses to listen to someone who is reporting to help in a gentle manner. Also this should not be done by the same person repeatedly but rather by different ones so as they told me they want to see the larger scale of people facing this issue. These are the exact words they told me.
Case closed from my end.
Regards