What is the latest on Nimiq 4?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bent But
  • Start date Start date
I think I know what md is talking about. Each TP uses a unique microwave frequency/wavelength that reacts differently when it passes through water in the atmosphere. Some frequencies/wavelengths get absorbed (by the water in the atmosphere) more than others, therefore lowering the signal strength.
 
This looks like a nimiq 2 repeat. The signal was smoking hot for the first couple month then it all went down....
 
just an idea.. couldnt bell park nimiq 2 at 72.7?? or are they not allowed to use that slot until a certain date?? they already got 2 old junkies for backup.. 3 seems excessive?!?!
or then again.. why not park nimiq 1 and 2 together at 91 and have those 2 split the load..
Nimiq 3 is parked at 82 which is a old Direct tv sat.. prob 12yr old now.. what happened to nimiq 4iR?? and is bell using Galaxy 17?? the european satellite which has 24KU bands.. not really helpfull is nimiq 1 were to completely fail..
 
I would guess 90% of the subs in the US don't even sub for the HD channels. They sub for the Canadian news and locals which are on 91 sat. Most won't even know or care that 82 is no longer reachable.
I would think that most of the HD viewers of Bell in the US aren't paying for it anyway if you know what I mean. ;) So no real loss in Bells wallet.
 
If bell were smart - (which they are) in a race to add as many HD channels as possible - the most logical thing to do would be to use Nimiq4 at the 73 degree location. Then they can add additional HD channels sooner rather than later with a decent bitrate. As far as I know Nimiq5 is of roughly the same design as Nimiq4. It would make sense when Nimiq5 is ready to move it to the 82 location in ~2009 to offload capacity from Nimiq2/4iR. Anyone else agree?
 
Have posted that theory on another satellite oriented website myself a week or so ago, so I am in the same boat as you.
 
I believe that N4 will add some capacity. Nimiq 2 lost power to some of its transponders shortly after its deployment. I don't have a setup including 82 at home but I know a few friends a while back were missing a few transponders on 82. Maybe that isn;t the case anymore with the junkyard sat from DTV helping out N2. Does anyone receive all 32 transponders on 82 or are a few still at 0%?
 
I am amazed that that they have already started transferring traffic over to N4. Two and a half weeks from launch to in-service is amazingly fast.

In a case like this where they need to do a traffic transfer they typical put the satellite in an unused parking orbit so that they can do in orbit testing (verify transpoder performance, beam patterns, various system level check etc.) before moving it into final position and starting the traffic transfer.

Looks like there's a lot of pressure from Telesat and/or Bell in order to get this one operational and generating revenue.
 
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