Freddygaz:


Those are in the Russian beam...its a no go zone I Africa

Thanks a lot mate. I expected that Russian Beams were not receivable with reasonable dish sizes anywhere in Africa except of parts of Egypt or Libya. I asked here on purpose because there is a DXer in NW Italy (superdish66) with 4.2m DH (http://www.digital-forum.it/showthread.php?146560-Ricezione-Canali-Russi-36-Est/page8) receiving all African Beam frequencies and these two which do not lock. So if here nobody can get them this means for sure that they are from 36B or 36C Russian Beam.

Thanks once again.
Best regards from Stuttgart.

Hello everybody,

Would anybody be so kind to check if you can lock 12380V and 12418V from 36E ?
If this is the case please add the transmission data as well.
DVB-S or DVB-S2, QPSK or 8PSK, SR, FEC

Thank you very much in advance.
Best regards from Stuttgart/Germany

olushaggy: Pls House,
I was on Lyngsat just now and saw some channels @ http://www.lyngsat.com/Astra-1N.html
Is it possible we track them down here in 9ja? and how do we go by it? what dish size? e.t.c...

I cannot tell you for sure if 1N is receivable at your location but just to have an idea how sharp this beam is at its edges:
Southern Italy: 1.20-1.50m, NW Greece: 1.80m, Crete/ S. Greece: Some peaks can be seen even on 3m Channel Master but even on a professional quality 6.20m Cassegrain there is no chance to lock any frequency of the UK Beam. Might be that there are sidelobes towards your location. It is for sure that further West the UK Beam reaches further South covering even the Canary Islands on 3m+ but how far this goes i have no information.

D.lee:
Anambra State.

Thanks.

Is it for sure that also 12603V has been activated on Astra 2F ?

http://www.lyngsat.com/Astra-2F.html says yes. Can you confirm this ? If so, then please would somebody inform lyngsat and flysat which does not has it listed at all the complete transmission parameters ?
frequency, SR, DVB-S or DVB-S2, QPSK or 8PSK, FEC

Thank you very much. Have a nice weekend everybody.

Kungu:
Also noted a couple of active transponder from frequency 12500 and above on both Vertical & Horizontal polarities.

Active Internet tps on Astra 2F Western Africa footprint
12598 H 12000
12602 H 3095
12618 V 8000 (AOL)
12726 V 21500

Kungu, would you be please so kind to inform lyngsat and flysat ? They don't list them up both.
Thanks.

D.lee:
@ deepbluesky, MultiTv have left Astra 2B and have migrated to Astra 2F. There is really an increase on their signal strength here at my end though a lot of people here might not notice it because they are getting full signal strength before the migration. At my office, I was having 81% on MultiTv due to some percentage I gave up so that I could get all the trasponders on my third lnbf (pointing on 16 and 17 degrees east) on my single 90cm dish. I was surprise to see MultiTv at 91%.

Thank you very much indeed for confirming D.lee.
May i ask where you are located ?

Best regards from sunny but freezing Stuttgart.

Hello everybody once again,

We here in Europe are awaiting the move of many frequencies to the new Astra 2F UK or PE Beam. But there has also been announced that 2B West Africa frequencies will move to 2F Africa Beam. One of them is Multi TV which will change its frequency: http://www.multitvworld.com/upgrade/

What are your observations ? Is it still on 2B or has it been activated on 2F ?

And can you see any difference in signal quality at 12543H and 12603V compared to yesterday do that we can be say for sure that they have also left 2B ?

Thanks a lot and greetings from Stuttgart/Germany.

blexxonmak:
@obnelly.Astra 1KR/1L/1M/2C at 19.2°E loud and clear here in Enugu with 7m pan dish.

Hello from Germany,

Can we get more information about that please ? I would like to see some photo if possible and which frequencies can be received at which signal quality levels, preferrably in dB C/N. Suppose some frequencies can be received just in a certain time slot, right ?

Thank you very much in advance.
Best regards.

You're welcome once again. How is fta faring in stuttgart? Are you guys able to
watch kabelkiosk on AB2 (8.0W) using the patches or is it just not available?

George_D, actually the german TV market is based on FTA. Of course there is also the local Premiere package which most people get because of the Bundesliga (german soccer league) since many important matches are not beeing shown FTA. The poorest (in number of channels and picture quality) reception way you've got is over DVB-T (digital terrestrial) which is in our region not the most attractive since most receive either over Cable or Satellite. Latter offers of course most and is the cheapest. Cable is beeing preferred only by people that don't want to install dishes and have cables all around. It costs a lot for what you get. Further on many FTA over Satellite channels are encrypted so you've got to pay expensive subscriptions which work on NDS Videoguard so even newer TVs with integrated DVB-C tuners cannot show them. So you won't find many non-Germans that are keen on Cable. Besides that popular channels like the BBCs on Astra 2D will never get a licence in beeing distributed over german Cable. In Switzerland it's no problem at all by the way. Cable networks in Germany have built up local monopolies and this is a political relict of the past when in the beginning of the 80s Cable TV was been planned and financed by tax money. Here in our region i'd say, the only benefits you have is TF1/SF1/SF2 FTA (encrypted over Satellite), and the easy accessability to the Kabel Digital Home package that officially can only be subscribed by Cable customers although some get it over 23.5E bypassing the encryption. There are plenty others packages preferred by people in watching over Satellite. The reception rarely is the problem here but the legal access. Either resellers drive the costs far too high or you don't find a card at all. The best case is to have friends/relatives in the coutry where the package is beeing offered. Since many have not they are watching out for cs solutions or bypassing the encryption using the classical ways of programming cards, using Emus on Linux-Receivers and so on.

On the one hand here we're very lucky because of the strong signal most satellites beam to us, on the other hand only few can install whatever and whereever they like. Often the view to the wished satellites is blocked and you cannot install the dish anywhere else or you better not install a dish at all because you'll get only angry neighbours or landlord. Of course moving elsewhere is always an option but regarding the high rents of flats here you might think over and thus it's not always that practical especially if the flat offers some other comfort.

In my case, i've just got Cable here, cannot receive any position East of 7E at all and my balcony is not that big that a small dish would cut the view as well. 3 years ago i had installed a Gibertini 65cm motorised by a Moteck SG2100A and a Skystar 2 PCI card just for testing in the summertime. I had access to the 58W-7E window of the max. here possible 61W-85E. The dish was of course too small for some positions but i was surprised that it let me receive part time even some weaker ones that are known to need about 1m.

Most dishes here are rather small 30-90cm. More and more multifeed systems are beeing installed on those or on T90. In Stuttgart you must search very long to find really big dishes on private houses. And big means here starting on 1.20m since space is not much for the majority of people. Really huge dishes either have DXers living on the countryside, mostly in houses of their own, or people with migration background that are interested in receiving their home programming. Some examples: 7W/26E/36E/40E/42E in Ku and many C-Band positions that can require even 3.70m to get them well. Since these are very few and widespread, i don't know anybody of them personally but just having contact over sat boards that allow to exchange data on how a particular frequency is beeing received there and there just like here.

Some photos of installations in Europe:
http://www.satlex.us/en/gallery.html
http://www.satzentrale.de/galerie/fotogalerie.shtml

These 2 might require registration but it's really worth it:
http://www.satellites.co.uk/satellite/picture-members-setups-general-satellite-installations/
http://www.satclub-thueringen.de/wbb2/board.php?boardid=34



Kabelkiosk (KK) is as far as i know not working anymore but i might be wrong since i'm rarely dealing with encryption bypassing topics. I'd recommend in searching this board: http://www.sat-television.com/
You must know that KK is supposed to have moved to 9E til July 15th, so 8W will be empty of this package.


Greetings from Stuttgart

LagosSky, would be great to see some spectra also of 13E. I really wonder which frequencies are present there. By the way, which model is it ?

@George_D

Relax, I was only asking after you.

Yes you can quote older posts. Just copy any part of the post
you want to quote, paste it in the message box, highlight it and
look for the quote icon on top of the page. Click on the icon and
you're done. You can quote posts as far back as last two years
or more, no problem.

Ah excellent, i was desperately looking for a quoting button. I'm not used to this kind of board software.  Thanks a lot George.
All ok over here, just a bit too cool. Have just been a bit busy and it's hard to follow all the interesting posts made here and in my home boards.

Greetings from Stuttgart.

Hello everybody.

George_D, what did you mean by your post on May 24, 2009, 08:55 PM ?


By the way, is there any chance in quoting elderly posts ?


Best regards from Stuttgart.

Gangsta101:

Deepbluesky
even in this age of highspeed internet access, it is can still be difficult to get the info u want with respect to off-footprints sats, i can only wonder about the difficulties u faced then.

You're right. Sometimes one doesn't get any answer at all but more and more people deal with satellite reception, have internet access (which also gets better with the years) and do speak English. Often you just need to be lucky in finding by chance a certain report. The good thing these days is that there is interaction/discussion possible. In the early 90s there was just phone and written mail but most of it i've had read in print magazines like german Tele Satellit, Infosat and greek Digital TV Sat.


Best regards from Stuttgart

@init4dmoni:
Thanks a lot for your screenshots and all the other information. I wasn't aware that there is no terrestrial broadband infrastructure at all in Lagos accessable to private households. The upstream indeed is a bit restricted as i see and also there is a bit of lag but much better than 2way satellite. The 3GB monthly limit which you've mentioned, is this only an issue on MTN connections or do also other providers like Starcomm's izap implement it ? What happens if you're getting above this limit ? Do they lower extremely the speed of your connection like on many satellite providers or what ?


@tunde300us:
I know how upset you guys must be with the situation of internet access there since my brother in rural Greece (island) has similar problems for many years now. It was not my intention to compare my connection (there are far worse and far better inside of Germany) with yours. That would be rather unfair since here in Germany and other surrounding countries there have been made regular plannings and huge investments in terrestrial infrastructure the last 20 years. The screenshots made by me just should show up that these measurements differ from reality a bit.

By the way what is VNO ?


Best regards from Stuttgart

@George_D May 13, 2009, 04:57 PM
@toxnaija May 13, 2009, 06:28 PM

Finally i've found the time to pass through every single post made in part2 concerning 13E reception. Indeed there is some information but it would help me and surely other people a lot if somebody could sum up which frequencies (including those transmitting encrypted content) can be gotten stable on 1.80m, 2.40m or 3m in Lagos.


@F_Marshal May 13, 2009, 09:47 PM

Thanks very much for your welcome. Well it's rather uncommon that somebody is interested in out of footprint reception in areas far away of one's home. I'm just fascinated of how often theoretical footprints differ from the real situation which can be rather chaotic. Back in 1993 i was just curious to know what dish size is needed to receive the german language analogue transmissions of Astra 1A-D in Greece which was quite out of footprint. This made me looking for Sat DX print magazines, books in libraries dealing with sat communication and of course watching out for every single dish in the surrounding to where it's looking at. As the years passed, the internet opened the windows to the world so in 1996 by chance i had found lyngsat and later on followed dozens of websites and sat boards preferrably dealing with DX. My emphasis is on german, greek and english speaking boards but since DX does not have any borders i came along to many other boards and sites like this one and i have to point out that it's just great to see Africa very active in the DX scene.

Summing up and answering your initial question on how i do apply all the information, i have to say that there is no kind of database where i'm adding these, just the interaction of people from all the boards approximizes more and more to the real coverage of a certain beam. Spectrum analyzer screenshots for example are very useful (one of my favourite is http://www.dxsatcs.com/) but there are also people that can measure C/N or S/N or BER values. The mass of DXers has no machines that can offer such reliable data, so the by this non professional way it helps a lot for people using the same receivers since the owner knows where the limit for stable reception roughly is depending on the transmission data.

If there is any interest in some european sat boards i could post some here if allowed at all.


Best regards from Germany.

init4dmoni:

dis i wit mtn(dose'nt mean u'll eva see dis speed even in ur dreams)

So are most affordable connections in Lagos worse than the screenshot you've posted ?

The downstream looks very fine but the upstream and pings are just terrible if we speak of a ADSL connection. Not to be misunderstood, i really appreciate your effort in showing me this test but in the past i had done some comparisons with that and measurements over ftp regarding the up-/downstream as well the response times over the command shell of XP. Often i had seen big differences. Just an example:

My private connection here has been measured as:





These values just show the current situation of the server we're downloading from or uploading to and depends a lot from how busy it is.

But real downstream on my ADSL2+ Annex B is always roughly 10Mbps and real upstream roughly 1Mbps which is by far not the quickest but very stable offering constant speeds and pings. For the moment i am happy with it and don't need any quicker.
ping www.google.com gives me 40ms.

Best regards from Stuttgart.

Thanks very much to both of you. I'll let my friend know as soon as he will be in Lagos.

Best regards.

@George_D:
Thanks very much for your quick reply George.
I will retake a look and return with any further questions if needed.

Hello everybody,

A friend of mine soon will move to Lagos and i want to help him in finding a suitable internet connection. I must admit that i've read quite some posts in this board section but i'm getting a bit confused so i'd really appreciate it a lot if anybody could help me.

What are the requirements ?

1) stable connection
2) reliable Skype (out) or SIP calls to and from Europe
3) tolerable response times (pings) so that web surfing and live streams of at least 512kbps will work
4) real flatrate and not limited/charged by volume

Up to now i've found this comparison:
http://www.jidaw.com/nigeria/nigeria_internet_service_providers_rating.html
But is this really representative ? And further on this does not answer any of my questions above.


Would anybody be so kind to help ?
Thanks very much in advance for spending time.

Best regards from Stuttgart.

Hello everybody,

It's the first time i'm writing here. Have passed all the posts made about satellite reception in your region and must admit that i'm quite impressed so many people having this hobby. One of my hobbies is doing research about extreme fringe and out of footprint reception conditions all over the world and this is how i found by chance this board. You can find me in several european sat boards as well.


I want to start with 2 questions if you don't mind:

1) Is there anybody receiving 13E in Lagos ? I suppose that even a 5m solid dish of high quality wouldn't do the job, right ?
In times before Hotbird 6 i had read about partial reception as South as Bamako on 4.5m but the newer Hotbirds look to be extremely sharp edged. At least this is what people in Pakistan and India tell and i fear that the same might be the case even in Africa.

2) Does anybody get 76.5E C-Band in Lagos ? I am aware of the quite low elevation of 8.2° and the theoretical coverage of 32dbW, so a 4.5m dish might do the job, but can this guarantee 24/7 reception ? In particular the following frequencies are of interest: 3680H/3760H/3780V


Best regards from Stuttgart and thanks for your time and hospitality.