Es'hail 2 Commercial TV Transponder question...

G8HJT · May 19th 2020

Hi everybody !!

Does anybody know which transponder on the Es'hail 2 TV/Radio transponders (commercial transponders) the EPG data stream lives on? Thanks !!

Regards

David G8HJT

G8HJT · May 20th 2020

Ok... My question and the reason for asking it was based upon fatally flawed thinking!

I am setting up a 1.2metre dish for QO-100.... I have an Green Octogon Quad LNB

I chose the Quad LNB because I want to feed & run my Air-Spy SDR independently of the amateur radio download/upload side...

Ok, so I thought a good strategy would be attach my little Edision Progressiv HD Sat Tuner

(https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pr…tle_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

and to initially line the dish up onto the Sky Satellites @ 28.2E

That all worked well... So the next step was to pick a FTA DVB-S transponder on the commercial Es'hail satellite and tune the dish up on that as a precursor to accessing the QO-100 Amateur Transponder...

That failed to work and it took a while for the penny to drop as to WHY? But, Hey! this is all a learning curve... But it was so obvious that I should have realised it in the first place !!

So what was the flaw?

DG8KD · May 20th 2020

Hi David,

But what has this to do with the EPG data? I did not get it...

For the first alignment BBC Arabic is a good starting point, not on Es´hail-2 but close enough on Badr4.

For fine tuning later on the beacon can be used.

Cheers

Rainer

G0MJW · May 20th 2020

Best find another receiver. I think it can be re-programmed. You also need to chose the right FTA signal that's actually receivable in the UK. Better way, align on 28.2 then attach your airspy, if necessary via a suitable downconverter, and look for the transponder while moving the dish a tad to the south.

HB9SKA · May 21st 2020

Try '25.9 ES' on https://www.dishpointer.com/. This is how I found QO-100 on the first try.

G8HJT · May 21st 2020

Thanks for all the replies...

The Sat Rx is fine and is programmable for many different satellites...

I have had no problem lining up on Sky @ 28.2

Being able to decode the Es'hail EPG data was just a bonus for me, to prove I had learned to set up the Sat Rx

Thank you for the suggestion to use Badr 4 BBC Arabic (on TP 15)

Looking at the TP Footprint @ http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/footprints/Badr-4-BSS.html I can see THE UK IS COVERED !!

AND THAT IS THE FLAW! Doooh!!

The Es'hail TP footprints @ http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/footprints/Eshail-2-MENA.html does not cover the UK, not even France....

So I was attempting "mission impossible"...

So now I will go and try a lineup using Badr 4

Regards

David G8HJT !!!!

G8HJT · May 21st 2020

Yes, success... My Sat Rx was very easy to set-up.... It has a "Blind Scan" facility and so scans all the standard EPG channels and soon builds up a "TP Table" and a channel list for that satellite !!

Just a quick nudge to the right on the dish and "Hey Presto!" there it was.... RESULT !!

Regards

David

DG8KD · May 21st 2020

Congrats David !

And for the absolute fine tuning now use your SDR and tune for the maximum of the beacon on the Ham transponder.

G0MJW · May 22nd 2020

A good way to line up is the beacon MER on wideband, with no others using the transponder it should be 11-12 dB. For DATV this is what you want optimised and once it is, narrow band will be more than good enough. On Narrow band you need to maximise the beacon amplitude, not the SNR because that dish will see the transponder noise floor well above the background noise and it's hard to tell improvements.

Es'hail 2 Commercial TV Transponder question...

DB2OS May 19th 2020

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