What is the latest on Nimiq 4?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bent But
  • Start date Start date
Hi,

I'm in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg. I've got a 9200 HD receiver, with the standard ExpressVu dish that came w/ the receiver (24"?). like many here, I noticed that I was loosing some of my HD signals a couple of weeks ago. I examined my dish and thought that I just had some loose wires. After re-cabling everything with some new coax, the problems persisted, and then I found this thread. The good news is that I seem to have gotten my HD signals back over the past couple of days. I don't claim to understand all of this, but my signal strength per TP on 82:

01 - 0
02 - 76
03 - 100
04 - 48
05 - 0
06 - 53
07 - 60
08 - 52
09 - 47
10 - 53
11 - 60
12 - 52
13 - 48
14 - 53
15 - 59
16 - 52
17 - 48
18 - 52
19 - 58
20 - 52
21 - 47
22 - 51
23 - 57
24 - 50
25 - 48
26 - 50
27 - 57
28 - 52
29 - 50
30 - 53
31 - 57
32 - 55

I know that I had not been getting a signal on 8 or 20 up until about 2 days ago, but they seem to be solid now, if you call something around 52 solid.

Thanks to all for the helpful information in this thread!
 
With Nimiq 4, they should be able to manage higher signal strength, which means they could go to 8PSK (phase-shift keying) to encode the bits. That fits more bits in the stream without compression; they haven't been able to do this so far because the signal-to-noise won't allow it. Most HD receivers out there already support 8PSK - only the 6000 won't, IIRC. I've heard that this is the plan. I don't think I remember how much this will help, and of course they can either improve quality or add channels or split the difference somehow. I'd bet on more HD, myself.
 
Well yes and no...if you are only hooking you will need at a minimum a new dish and another LNB to go into a SW44.

Alt
 
Looks like it is at 83.6 with an altitude of 35700 kms according to real time sat tracking. Seems to be moving right along.......perhaps a new Xmas promotion for BellTv.
 
Yes it will. Business reason: reduce rainfade on west coast. I expect footprint to be similar to ku footprint on old Anik E2 - focus on west coast & north - no service below upper third of US
 
Yes and no because if Bell sticks Nimiq 4 at 82 and Nimiq 5 at 73 (which most people think is the main plan) then the customer still needs to upgrade their hardware. My suggestion would just be to go ahead with a hardware upgrade sooner than later. If they wait too long (i.e. if Nimiq 5 is delayed past 2009) then the cable companies will have gotten rid of analogue (tentatively by 2011), freed up massive amounts of bandwidth, and be on level playing field with Bell in terms of number of HD channels offered (while Bell is still scrambling with coaxing people into Nimiq 5 upgrade kits).

If Bell can get people locked into contracts during or even before our digital transition here in Canada, they'll come out ahead in the long run. I know people on the west coast wouldn't mind stronger signals but that's what 24 and 30 in dishes are for. When has Bell ever sacrificed quantity over quality? Never! However, quality should be improved slightly because they won't have to jam so many HD channels into a single transponder. I mean they offer 60 HD channels right now, albeit compressed significantly, but I don't think I can name 100 HD channels that could be legally broadcast in Canada besides having every local network having their own HD channel (which would be a huge waste of bandwidth). I'm all for Nimiq 4 at 73.
 
3rd and 4th burns complete. Final burn is about 3:00AM Eastern, followed about 20 minutes later by Nimiq separation.
 
Ahhhh...... so true.

Just not in HD>>>>sigh

I sure hope that the situation changes !
 
Launch Date: September 19, 03:47 Baikonur Time
September 18, 17:47 EDT, 21:47 GMT

-Mike
 
Very cool Lindsay649. I assume you were looking here?
Nimiq 4 Tracking. Note: Can take several seconds to load page.

According to my rough calculations, it should be in the 82 vacinity around Tuesday at 6 to 8 am EDT. judging by how long it took to move 1/100th of a degree. (I see Nimiq 2 is at 82.01). Anyway I have no idea what tweaking they will have to do for final positioning and how long that takes.

This is from a prior post of mine, but would anyone know if the 8 ka band channels are for spot beaming?
 
According to sat tracking, Nimiq 4 is at 82.04 deg, pretty much on top of Nimiq 2 now. Looks to be a good sign.
 
I don't mind if we get half and eventually convert to MPEG4, but I hope there will at least be another satelite launch were bell can have some space, soon after the launch of N5
 
I know, but if the Nimiq 4 launch is a failure, the next one after Nimiq 5 is a long way off!

-Mike
 
8PSK is not supported by 6000s and there are still a few of those in use. I suspect that EV will go straight to MPEG4 + 8PSK when they decide to switch formats. I can see this happening in stages. People who sub to seasonal sports packages may see MPEG4 first. Then possibly people with other other premium services such as TMN, SC and MC. HD on N5 will most likely be MPEG4 from the start. The 'Nets' could stay in MPEG2 for some time if EV wants to avoid the cost of receiver upgrades.
 
Good news Scrooloose, when do you think this bird will be functional after it is launched?
Is it a same day event or something that will take weeks before it is up and running?
Is this the bird that will hopefully allow bell to start transmitting their broadcasts as they receive it ? ie 1080i from NBC, CBS, HDnet etc and send it to us (the customers) untouched as a 1080i AND NOTAS A 720P SIGNAL?

Thanks

Paul
 
Looks like all transponders have now been converted to the new satellite. I am getting 88-98% on all of them (odd and even). I have always had so many problems with rain and cloud fade that I am now looking forward to this winter. CBS was always particularly bad for us. Just a very thick cloud would mean loss of signal. My signals were in the low 70's to high 60's on the old satellite on clear days. Looks like the west coast is going to benefit the most from this. Now I hope that this new satellite doesn't malfunction like one did in the past.
 
Here is my current list for 82 as seen in Nashville, TN

(Last week I could see nothing apart from 2 and 3 which are not on Nimiq 4)

01 0%
02 77%
03 93%
04 42%
05 0%
06 0%
07 0%
08 46%
09 42%
10 0%
11 0%
12 45%
13 41%
14 0%
15 0%
16 46%
17 42%
18 0%
19 0%
20 44%
21 41%
22 0%
23 0%
24 45%
25 41%
26 0%
27 0%
28 46%
29 42%
30 0%
31 0%
32 46%

The dish is the standard Bell Dual LNB which I believe is 20 or 22 inches.
 
For what it's worth:

All but two transponders on 82 are now at 100. Those two are now in the
90s. These numbers are MUCH higher than anything in the past. Can't say I notice any change in picture quality however (should I?).
 
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