Ajmandon

I have been following the progress of the mission extension vehicle (MEV-1) that launched last year. Designed to latch onto the even older Intelsat 901 satellite and move it into position so that it could "replace" the almost equally aged and due to be "retired" (any time now) Intelsat 907. I read this morning that a press release from Northrup Grumman has confirmed that the mission has been a success and services were transferred from i907 to i901 on April 2nd. (I for one didn't notice any significant change/interruption).

The last thing we all needed at this time was to loose this service which hopefully we can continue to use for at least another five years !

BillBullock

I noticed no difference either. This link confirms that 901 is transmitting now: https://www.lyngsat.com/Intelsat-901.html

barlaventoexpert

Thanks for this info.

I read about the repair job. Northrop Grumman have done a great job.

Living near Torres Vedras & years since playing with sat dishes.

Can anyone advise what is the dish size & box spec for receiving transmissions in this area??

Many thanks!!

riv

For that matter can anyone advise total beginners what this means in terms of :

if one installs a satelite dish and receiver [ which one for preference / availability ] what channels can be received and at what level of quality image / sound in the Algarve ?

1711JohnB

Hi

Trevourtronix in Tavira set mine up 4 years ago. New smaller dish pointing west and a receiver. ITV, BBC channels plus about 30 odd others.

JohnB

BillBullock

The full channel list is in the link I posted this morning. HD reception for BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV 1 CHANNELS 4 and 5.

1711JohnB

Hi Again

Just to expand on my previous post, I had the large dish pointing to the old sky satellite which Trevor joined with the new one and I now also get a feed from both giving me extra channels.

Hope this helps.

John

Ajmandon

There are a number of threads relating to this service, equipment used and experiences on this forum and others ..... worth a search/read.

In the Algarve an 80cm dish, correctly aligned with a decent LNB works well. I rarely have problems, even in heavy rain and thunderstorms. The signal gets stronger as you get further North. There are websites that show the footprint and signal strength to see if you might get away with a 60cm dish.

As noted, the channels available (at the moment) can be found on various websites. Some channels are HD some are SD .... as well as radio . The quality of picture/sound is no different than that you would receive in the UK on freeview.

Again, various threads describe suitable receivers, not all are capable of being set up to receive the signal. Those that are, all would need to be "patched" or have their firmware setup correctly. Some are a lot easier than others to do, with "how to" guides available. Unfortunately, several of the easier to do models (Icecrypt 1600 and technomate 1503) are no longer available new but can be found second hand ...there may be equivalent easy "new" brands but I don't personally know of any...

There are businesses here that would sell and setup the whole package for you, if that is what you want .

If you really want a challenge any "Enigma2" satellite receiver should work. These are generally extremely capable receivers but are not for the computer/programming technophobe!

Sounds like a good "lockdown" project for some perhaps?

riv

Grateful if you could clarify when you last had dealings with TrevorTronix ?
I.e. do you know if he is up to speed on the latest developments and the issues mentioned elsewhere re the receiver box complications ?

And would it be as well to go for a 1 metre dish ( in the Algarve ) just to allow a margin for best reception?

Do you know if the subtitles are broadcast from this satellite ? On all BBC channels and Channel 4 / Film 4 especially ?

Thanks in advance.

1711JohnB

Hi

Trevor is the best person to answer your technical questions. He is very competent and an ex S?? engineer.

Re subtitles the answer is no, along with no EPG.

JohnB

barlaventoexpert

Hi All,

Thanks for the comments & information.

BillBullock

As you do not live in the Algarve, are there any satellite companies advertising their services in your area? The Portugal News has some but I suspect they are all local to the Algarve. I bought my Isocrypt (now not available for sale) receivers on Ebay and my little local electrician aligned my existing 1.4m to Intelsat 907 many years' ago. I downloaded tuning in/setting up information from the internet and have been happy ever since. I seem to remember getting help from https://www.satandpcguy.com/ in the beginning. Try a search on Google.

riv

No subtitles is a big blow. Quite sure ? When I last used a satellite for UK tv in the S of France ( about six years ago ? ) subtitles did work. Might it be a reception issue ? So bigger dish might solve ??

Meanwhile ~are you confident TrevorTronix is still on the job ? Last entry on his website is 2016.

Have messaged him thru the site tho'.

barlaventoexpert

Thanks for that.

I mucked around with Satellite dishes years ago.

I know quite a few electronic shops in the Greater Lisbon area so will be talking to them about boxes.

Would like to try the mounting & installation myself.

We'll see!

The Guy

Satback at 28.5west has the 8 BBC channels (One, Two, Four, News, Parliament, CBBC, Cbbeebies, Red Button, with in additional three country variations of BBC1, and with BBC1, BBC2 and CBBC in HD
ITV1 London in HD
C4 London i HD
Channel 5 HD
and TBNUK
And 11 BBC Radio channels.
No subtitles...or programme guide (although some receivers you can hook to the internet to dump the programme guide from )
Only 5 channels in HD, all the others are in SD. So quality is as per either via the official UK TV Astra 2 satellites, or via Freeview inthe UK for what these feeds are used for in an emergancy at transmitter sites.
So certainly not "plus about 30 odd others."
YOu will need, an 80cm dish should be fine for most of southern Europe, but obviously the larger the better if you experience a lot of "rain fade".
a receiver, that is both capable of scanning for the unusual symbol rate of 44100, and of being able to input / accept the BISS code that allow you to hack into this encrypted commercial not for public use system.
Although Icecrypt are no more, Technomate are,and their TM 5402 model should work with this system once you "patch" the receiver with the custom firmware required.
And the codes, that have not changed for a few years now....but who knows....

Note that I901 is only a short term solution, and the MEV is there for only a few years...so the guessing game will start again as to what happens then...

Most general users will not have seen any change from I907 to I901, apart from a brief outage whilst they transferred the channels on the 2nd April. And those using a decent satellite meter will have seen the slight change in db....

Always happy to try and help!