Hotbird 2 redeployed to 9E & renamed Eurobird 9

[Analoguesat]

Eutelsat Communications has announced that its Hot Bird™ 2 satellite has been redeployed to 9 degrees East. Rebranded Eurobird™ 9, the satellite’s entry into service marks the opening of a new video neighbourhood, which is adjacent to Eutelsat’s premium Hot Bird™ position. Reception of channels from both locations is possible with off-the-shelf dual-feed domestic dishes.

The repositioning of Eurobird™ 9 follows the successful launches in 2006 of Eutelsat’s Hot Bird™ 7A and 8 satellites. Together with Hot Bird™ 6, these large satellites today broadcast more than 1,000 channels, of which over 50 per cent are free-to-air from the Group’s 13 degrees East position. Their entry into service has enabled Eutelsat to pursue the development of its in-orbit resources by redeploying high-performance Hot Bird™ satellites to other locations with strong growth potential: 7 degrees West for Atlantic Bird™ 4 (formerly Hot Bird ™ 4); 4 degrees East for Eurobird™ 4 (formerly Hot Bird™ 3).

Optimised for DTH (Direct-to-Home) broadcasting, Eurobird™ 9 delivers 20 fully operational Ku-band transponders supplying coverage across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. In order to support the market for multi-satellite reception, which is afforded by the proximity of its orbital positions, Eutelsat is developing new low-cost consumer solutions to enable existing Hot Bird™ installations to be easily upgraded to receive channels from 9 degrees East via a second LNB fitted beside the LNB directed to the Hot Bird™ neighbourhood.

Eutelsat has already concluded a first contract for capacity on Eurobird™ 9 with the Portuguese cable operator TVTEL, which has announced it will shortly launch a new pay-TV platform for the Portuguese market. Using two transponders on the satellite to address principally almost two million television homes in Portugal only receiving analogue terrestrial channels, TVTEL’s platform will begin with 20 digital channels. Encrypted with Conax, they will include Portugal’s four national channels and a package of 16 thematic channels broadcasting content ranging from movies, documentaries, music, serials, news and sports. TVTEL will also market dual-feed antennas in Portugal so that homes can have access to the broad range of international channels available free-to-air from the Hot Bird™ neighbourhood.

Commenting on the entry into service of Eurobird™ 9, Giuliano Berretta, CEO of Eutelsat Communications said: “The deployment of Eurobird™ 9 at 9 degrees East, underpins our objective to optimise our video neighbourhoods in order to meet continued demand for capacity for Standard Digital and HDTV channels. It is our conviction that with the availability of low-cost dual-feed antennas for enriching channel reception from more than one orbital location, Europe is poised to move into an era of multi-satellite reception which is already commonplace in strong satellite markets around the world, notably North America.”

(Eutelsat press release)

[$ly]

Looking forward to this one as it's a pretty dead bit of the arc for commercial stuff.
Hope it fills up farily soon, and not with the usual 'sexyfone' nonsense.

We'll see.

(currently at 9.5e moving @ 0.2w per day)



L.

[Analoguesat]

Yes indeed - I'll have to get another lnb offset on the 13E dish Maybe doing some world class bodging in the near future!

Or should I go the other way and offset off the big 16E dish??

Either way Im going to have to work out the multi lnb switching on the 8 port switch Ive installed!

[$ly]

I'ts only 4degs.

3deg monoblock, with an 80 ought to do it.
Just set the diish up 30 arcminutes out on both sides, sure it'll be fine.


L.

[Analoguesat]

A monobloc will get hellish complicated with my switching arrangements - Im already making plans to rip out all the wires one weekend & redo everything from scratch due to too many long cableruns....

Ive got to fix the sagging 16E dish (the Orbit 1m) first though, Ive got some decent brackets and a sturdy length of 1.5 inch steel pipe stashed in the shed ready to go the next dry weekend.

[$ly]

When my ship comes in, I'm sending a 1.5mtr Gibbi, motor, and all the ironwork up there. Like it or not

[BGonaSTICK]

:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

[Analoguesat]

Ive got a motor, but 1W is right behind a bloody tree here. Most inconvenient of it - do you think Telenor would move it around the arc a bit so I could line up on it

I'll have to wait for a not too chilly winters weekend to put it up..........

[Yorks]

This is a question and not a suggestion ops: (I've never installed a motorised system) , but is it possible using a Usals system and motor to set everything @ 0 degrees and then drive the dish to 13e for example (using Usals), slacken motor from polar mount and peak signal on 13e to find the arc?

[$ly]

It is BUT, you are more likley to get it slightly out than setting it on your due south satellite. Having said that if you are careful and are willing to further tweak it after the rough setup then it should work OK.


Rgds


L.