Quetzsat 1 Successfully Launched!

[Scott Greczkowski]

Still not good for folks in Maine.

 

[nelson61]

I dont get anything from 77 here in Connecticut.

Quetzsat will have about double power in your area - something like 3 dbw more than Echostar 8.
But, they also talk about cross polar interference affecting reception in a small fringe area of the northeast .

 

[nelson61]

Satelliteguys Quetzsat 1 Satmaps

Quetzsat West

Quetzsat East

 

[simonhwsn]

The details for Quetzsat 1 have been filed.
No spot beams
24 transponders for Dish USA [...]
8 transponders for Dish Mexico

Does this means that Dish Mexico won't be able to increase its current available space, no new HD for us?

 

[Tampa8]

Satelliteguys Quetzsat 1 Satmaps

Quetzsat West

Quetzsat East

Thanks, as always very informative maps.

 

[ckinninger]

The details for Quetzsat 1
No spot beams
24 transponders for Dish USA with stronger signal on northern edge and larger Conus area coverage when compared to Echostar 8.
8 transponders for Dish Mexico

This looks to me like a straight swap for E*4 (8 Transponders for Dish Mexico), and E*8 (23 Transponders USA). Notice there are NO northern border locals on E*8 now and Quetzsat1 will not cover those areas.

Since Quetzsat1 won't cover northern border areas of USA it is useless for national programming. This might mean that any locals markets that are not going to be covered by Quetzsat1 could be setup with a 2 orbital dish (a la dish500) for only 61.5 and 72.7.

 

[simonhwsn]

Satelliteguys Quetzsat 1 Satmaps

Quetzsat West

Quetzsat East

One thing called my attention now, Am I misunderstanding these maps or the same beams cover both United States and Mexico? and if it does, why?

 

[nelson61]

The lack of spot beams on Quetzsat 1 makes one wonder whattheir long range plans are for the 77W slot. Why would they construct it with North American beams if they just were goingto use it for local into local service?

Some background facts:
Internationals moving off 61.5W freeing up bandwidth at 61.5W (announced).

Echostar 15 goes to spare status upon launch of Echostar 16(they noted in a filing that E16 would replace "the satellites" at 61.5W)
Echostar 16 will probably have ~50 spot beams and Conus,similar to their other newer spot beam/Conus satellites, providing three times the spot beam capacity of Echostar 12 (34 or so more spots than today). Is this enough for their spot beam requirement?

Dish will have access to the remaining 7-8 transponders onNimiq 5 at 72.5W by year end (assuming the Directv lease ends at that time).
Echostar 8, with its 32 transponders, will move to 86.5W inFeb 2012 with two beams. One will cover southern US markets (avoiding Canadian interference) and a Mexico beam.

Quetzsat 1 at 77W will have two North American beams that extend from close to the Canadian border down to Panama with 32 transponders (presently 8 Dish Mexico and 24 Dish)
Echostar 8 and Quetzsat 1 will be separated by 9.5 degrees which will fit a single dish antenna .

A mashup of the ~50 dBw reception contours of the 4 beams onE8 and Quetzsat shows the approximate reception areas for those beams (attached). The green contour is the E8 Southern Conus beam.
And, my guess for the future:

Dish/DishMexico may have a single dish solution with 64 transponders covering North America, from Panama up to the Canadian border. No one else has that capability.
Could it be they plan on creating a major network covering the entire market? They could easily combine both Spanish and English programming on the two satellites, toss in the major Mexican networks, nationals from a local city in the US and have a dynamite network with 20 million or so Spanish/English customers and still have capacity for some US local into local transmission.

And, no significant problem with cross border transmissions since, unlike US and Canada, US and Mexico have a bilateral agreement allowing access to each other's markets.
Time will tell

 

[CK SatGuy]

Here's what bugs me about what's happening with 61.5. They just launched Echo 15 there last year and they now they plan on launching Echo 16 next year at the same location, thus replacing Echo 15 and making it useless at that orbital. My question is that after E* launches Echo 16, can't they move Echo 15 to another orbital that needs more capacity (say 129 for example)? I know moving Echo 15 to another may decrease the life of that satellite but at least it will be in use after it would get moved. Making Echo 15 just another orbital spare just seems like a waste of capacity to me.

 

[nelson61]

Can't put more milk in the bottle than it will hold. The other satellites are already using 100 percent of their licensed bandwidth (minus the 148w slot).

If anything, they need another spare spot beam satellite for backup.

 

[simonhwsn]

Dish/DishMexico may have a single dish solution with 64 transponders covering North America, from Panama up to the Canadian border. No one else has that capability.
Could it be they plan on creating a major network covering the entire market? They could easily combine both Spanish and English programming on the two satellites, toss in the major Mexican networks, nationals from a local city in the US and have a dynamite network with 20 million or so Spanish/English customers and still have capacity for some US local into local transmission.

And, no significant problem with cross border transmissions since, unlike US and Canada, US and Mexico have a bilateral agreement allowing access to each other's markets.
Time will tell

OMG I'm afraid of misunderstanding this (you know english is not my first language) are you saying they would offer same or similar programming packages on both sides of the border?

 

[rocatman]

The lack of spot beams on Quetzsat 1 makes one wonder whattheir long range plans are for the 77W slot. Why would they construct it with North American beams if they just were goingto use it for local into local service?

Some background facts:
Internationals moving off 61.5W freeing up bandwidth at 61.5W (announced).

Echostar 15 goes to spare status upon launch of Echostar 16(they noted in a filing that E16 would replace "the satellites" at 61.5W)
Echostar 16 will probably have ~50 spot beams and Conus,similar to their other newer spot beam/Conus satellites, providing three times the spot beam capacity of Echostar 12 (34 or so more spots than today). Is this enough for their spot beam requirement?

Dish will have access to the remaining 7-8 transponders onNimiq 5 at 72.5W by year end (assuming the Directv lease ends at that time).
Echostar 8, with its 32 transponders, will move to 86.5W inFeb 2012 with two beams. One will cover southern US markets (avoiding Canadian interference) and a Mexico beam.

Quetzsat 1 at 77W will have two North American beams that extend from close to the Canadian border down to Panama with 32 transponders (presently 8 Dish Mexico and 24 Dish)
Echostar 8 and Quetzsat 1 will be separated by 9.5 degrees which will fit a single dish antenna .

A mashup of the ~50 dBw reception contours of the 4 beams onE8 and Quetzsat shows the approximate reception areas for those beams (attached). The green contour is the E8 Southern Conus beam.
And, my guess for the future:

Dish/DishMexico may have a single dish solution with 64 transponders covering North America, from Panama up to the Canadian border. No one else has that capability.
Could it be they plan on creating a major network covering the entire market? They could easily combine both Spanish and English programming on the two satellites, toss in the major Mexican networks, nationals from a local city in the US and have a dynamite network with 20 million or so Spanish/English customers and still have capacity for some US local into local transmission.

And, no significant problem with cross border transmissions since, unlike US and Canada, US and Mexico have a bilateral agreement allowing access to each other's markets.
Time will tell

I wouldn't assume that E-15 is going into spare status or being moved from 61.5 W. E-16 might only be replacing E-3 and E-12 at 61.5 W. My guess would be that E-16 will have the ability to provide all 32 TPs at 61.5 W in CONUS mode but its primary purpose is to provide spotbeams. In most cases the limiting factor for a satellite is its power, the less power E-16 needs for CONUS, the more spotbeams it can provide. So if E-15 stays at 61.5 W and provides all the CONUS TPs, this would allow E-16 to provide more spotbeam capacity. If I am wrong about E-15 staying at 61.5 W, it was designed to be used at other slots. Moving it would not decrease the life of it in any significant way.

 

[HDRoberts]

My thinking is that 77 LiL will go to E16, and 77 will become the Latino satellite (perhaps mirrored on 118.7 for those in the North). One satellite that can provide Spanish content simultaneously to the Southern 2/3rds of the country and Mexico.

I would not be surprised if 24-28 61.5 TPs are set aside for spot on E16. Hopefully they can convince programmers that SD versions do not need simulcast. In that case, all national programming and then some can fit on 72.7.

 

[nelson61]

E15 to spare is not assumed. They stated that in fcc correspondence

 

[rocatman]

E15 to spare is not assumed. They stated that in fcc correspondence

I don't remember seeing the FCC filing for the E-16 satellite. Did it include spotbeam information?

 

[nelson61]

I don't remember seeing the FCC filing for the E-16 satellite. Did it include spotbeam information?

The info was in one of the correspondence letters concerning the movement of other satellites. Only said the E16 was "replacing the other satellites" at 61.5W and that E15 would go to "spare" status.
No other info. It stuck in my mind since the brand new E15 has great coverage for Puerto Rico and I wondered if that will go away.

 

[nelson61]

The info was in one of the correspondence letters concerning the movement of other satellites. Only said the E16 was "replacing the other satellites" at 61.5W and that E15 would go to "spare" status.
No other info. It stuck in my mind since the brand new E15 has great coverage for Puerto Rico and I wondered if that will go away.

We also know that E16 has a launch weight of 6600 kg. Looks like it will set a record for ILS lift weight.

 

[rocatman]

We also know that E16 has a launch weight of 6600 kg. Looks like it will set a record for ILS lift weight.

The E-14 satellite that launched to 119 W on a ILS Proton was loaded with what appeared to be a very large excess of propellant. I believe it was insurance against an upper stage failure that made AMC-14 useless to Dish. Hopefully will see a filing on E-16 soon and perhaps it will have a very large power capability that will support a large number of spotbeams at 61.5 W. This is probably crazy speculation but Dish could design E-16 to have a northern U.S spotbeam using 24 TPs to cover the area that QuetzSat-1 can't cover therefore providing essentially EA CONUS coverage for those 24 TPs provided by the QuetzSat-1 satellite in the U.S. Dish could use the 8 TPs on E-16 for spotbeams near this northern spotbeam and any or all of the 32 TPs for spotbeams for the rest of the EA.

 

[nelson61]

One also has to remember that the 50 or so spots on the big spot beam satellites have one polarization - left or right but not both.

The 24 Dish transponders at 77W have both left and right polarizations which generate 48 beams.

So, if they stay on local into local service, Dish will have 48 North American "spot" beams on Quetzsat 1, all covering the area from the edge of Canada to Panama.

 

[simonhwsn]

Nobody ever answer my silly questions XD but here I go again XD

One also has to remember that the 50 or so spots on the big spot beam satellites have one polarization - left or right but not both.

The 24 Dish transponders at 77W have both left and right polarizations which generate 48 beams.

So, if they stay on local into local service, Dish will have 48 North American "spot" beams on Quetzsat 1, all covering the area from the edge of Canada to Panama.

Does this means then that the mexican service with 8 transponders will count with twice the capacity which it has today?