Why 157?

[nick80]

Why is there a 157 satellite, and why does it have content on it?

[Bobby94928]

Why is there a 157 satellite, and why does it have content on it?

Because it's 9° west of 148, perfect for the west coast and Alaska and Hawaii. The Dish 500 simply swings a little west.

[Darkman]

Why is there a 157 satellite, and why does it have content on it?
cuz it belongs to them (for now).. and they decided to test some things on it.. to show some activities on it (if nothing else)...

Content not available to subscriber anyhow....

[Cyclone]

Cause if they don't do something with it, the FCC will take the slot away from them and sell it to someone else.

[James Long]

The original plan was to have four satellite slots for the east coast and four for the west coast. 175, 166, 157, 148 were the western slots and 119,110, 110 and 61.5 were the eastern slots. Early assignments were offered in pairs, with the same number of transponders granted both east and west. (The eight assignments are by international agreement, and are the eight that are controlled by the US - delegated to the FCC.)

But satellites being very expensive, and 101, 110, and 119 being visible from the entire US, the satellite providers built their eastern slots to serve the entire US (and 61.5 to serve as much of the US as can see it). MOST of the satellite assignments on the western slots were abandoned. Echostar is the only company to keep their western assignments.

Now that all the eastern slots and 148 are full (except for two transponders on 61.5) the companies are looking west for more space. Echostar just bought the rest of 157 at auction, and Voom bought all of 166 and 175. They want the space to expand their service. And DBS slots are higher powered than anything else up there. More power equals smaller receive dishes. That's why 157 (and 166/175).

JL

[alebowgm]

What are the transponders on the 61.5 that are currently not active?

[chelsea]

Tp 28 on 61.5 malfunctioned, causing enough damage to be unusable.

Canada controls ku DBS positions of 72.5, 82, & 91 and is assigned 129 & 138,
new future postions. 72.5 was just leased out to directv, the pattern doesnt
perform in the southwest.

[BFG]

23 and 24.

Here are the satellite orbitals and active ownership in US and Canada http://www.dbsforums.com/compare/chart.html

[ajohnson]

http://www.lyngsat.com/echo3.html shows what transponders are currently active on echostar 3 - 61.5°

[JohnH]

At 61.5, transponders 23 and 24 are not assigned to anyone, but are being used by VOOM under Special Temporary Authority(STA) from the FCC.

[rocatman]

Cause if they don't do something with it, the FCC will take the slot away from them and sell it to someone else.

I believe since Dish just won the auction for all TPs at 157 W, they have six years to do something with the slot just like Voom with 166 and 175. They don't need to keep E-4 at 157, so if E-4 has become anywhere close to fully functional with the stuck solar array now deployed, Dish could use it at one of their other DBS slots. It could replace E-1 and/or E-2 at 148 since both of these satellites are getting old or it could ask the FCC to use it experimentally at 105.5 W or 114.5 W. I know SES Americom has been looking at the 105.5 W slot and Dish is leasing AMC-15 and AMC-16 from SES Americom so there already exists a business relationship between them.

[JohnH]

I believe since Dish just won the auction for all TPs at 157 W, they have six years to do something with the slot just like Voom with 166 and 175. They don't need to keep E-4 at 157, so if E-4 has become anywhere close to fully functional with the stuck solar array now deployed, Dish could use it at one of their other DBS slots. It could replace E-1 and/or E-2 at 148 since both of these satellites are getting old or it could ask the FCC to use it experimentally at 105.5 W or 114.5 W. I know SES Americom has been looking at the 105.5 W slot and Dish is leasing AMC-15 and AMC-16 from SES Americom so there already exists a business relationship between them.

E* won the auction for the remaining 29 frequencies at 157. They still need to keep E*4 there for Tps 1, 7 and 11.

[James Long]

E* won the auction for the remaining 29 frequencies at 157. They still need to keep E*4 there for Tps 1, 7 and 11.Correct. Those three assignments are the last of the original 11 channels assigned to EchoStar for the west. E* is the *ONLY* DBS carrier that did not lose their western assignments.

EchoStar was assigned 11 channels east and west, with the eastern channels landing on 119. The western channels were only finalized last year, eight that E* was using under STA on 148 and three on 157. DirectSat was also assigned 11 channels east and west, the western channels (on 175) were lost and the eastern channels (10 on 119 and one on 110) were merged into E*. MCI bought 28 channels on 110 at auction and eventually sold to E*. DBSC was assigned 11 channels east and west, the western channels (on 175) were lost and the eastern channels (11 on 61.5) were merged into E*. The recent auction win, as stated, was for the rest of 157. They are responsible for using their three current channels NOW.

DirecTV got 27 channels east on 101, with the western channels (lost) on 157. USSB got eight channels east and west, the eight east five on 101 and three on 110, the western ones were to be on 148. Tempo got 11 channels east and west, the eastern channels on 119 and the western ones were to be on 166.

Dominion/SkyAngel got 8 channels at 61.5 and lost eight at 166. Cablevision/Voom got 11 at 61.5 and lost eleven at 166. They just bought ALL of 166 and 175 at auction.

JL

[Darkman]

another 2 channels are being tested at 157 W.... according to Lyngsat's Jan 22/05 update:

102 11 TV Guide (USA) 050122

8334 7 KTFL-TV (Flagstaff) 050122

(mirrors more likely)
at: http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/dish157_sid.html

[JohnH]

It should be pointed out that the only significance of the channel choices at 157w is that the Transponders are mirrors of other Transponders in the DISH Network system and those channels just happen to be on the Transponders being mirrored. This is the cheapest way EchoStar could put something up at 157w and make it look as though they are providing service there. :D

[Darkman]

... and to be able to still keep it? :D

[Mike Richardson]

Could somebody point a dish at 157 and technically receive the stations available there if they subscribe to them?

[JohnH]

It would require a custom modified receiver as the Transponders are identified as being in their primary location. That is not on those Transponders or that slot.

[James Long]

another 2 channels are being tested at 157 W.... according to Lyngsat's Jan 22/05 update:

102 11 TV Guide (USA) 050122

8334 7 KTFL-TV (Flagstaff) 050122

(mirrors more likely)
at: http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/dish157_sid.htmlYep. P. Smith swung his dish over and took a peek after being asked kindly at SatelliteGuys. And as JohnH states ... they are just mirrors of the muxes found on other satellites. No thought has gone in to what is on the three transponders they have filled, and they don't even identify themselves as "157" transponders to the system.

JL

[scooper]

E* will have to build a satellite for 157, and I wouldn't be surprised for 148 either. E1 and E2 are getting up there in age, and E4 is basically "spacejunk".

[alebowgm]

Two questions, doing with the satellite assignments and the echostar/voom merger.

Now that echostar will have control of the Voom Satellite at 61.5, does that mean that they would be able to use the Voom dish for the malfunctioned transponders on the current echostar dish at 61.5?

Also, does Echostar acquire the rights to the Western Satellite Orbital slots? Personally, I would rather use the smaller BSS Technology instead of the FSS, as it is easier to work with and smaller, so maybe this will allow dish to go back to its orignal east-west game plan...

[rocatman]

Once E-10 is up and operational, Dish could move one of the following satellites to 148 W or 157 W:

E-5 currently at 119 W but unused, E-6 currently at 110 W with a few TPs being used and although unlikely, E-8 which is the primary satellite including the spotbeams at 110 W. Moving one of these to 157 W could provide 32 TPs of new capacity that could be used for HD locals but only on the west coast.

Certainly a new spotbeam satellite designed specifically for 148 or 157 would provide the most capacity. The contract for E-11, a DBS satellite was just recently announced although a location was not specified and it isn't scheduled to launch till 2007.

[Jacob S]

If a lot of the locals could be unloaded to the west coast slots in which a Dish500 could be used for then that could free up a lot of space for the core national slots. If Dish Network could get 72 in addition to 61.5 as Rainbow was going to get then they could also have a one dish solution for the east coast as well the same as the west coast. The bad thing about that is that this dish would be needed in addition to the Dish500/SuperDish that the customer may currently own. They could also duplicate a bunch of HD channels on the east and west coast orbital slots without taking up any room on the core slots until they get MPEG-4 rolling.

[Mike123abc]

E5 and E6 are very unlikely to be moved until more satellites are built. They are the backups for 110/119. E10 will be a spot beam satellite, E6 is still needed for backup at 110 even after E10 launches. If E7 failes E5 can step in and cover the national channels. If E8 fails, E6 will be needed for the same thing.

157 is a tough location... The best I can see it being used for is to mirror 110 for AK/HI and possible HD LIL for far west smaller DMAs.

[alebowgm]

What/Who is located at 52.5 ? Obviously it isn't designated for North America but why can't it be used?

[SAEMike]

I wish they would use the 157 satellite to provide full service for those of us here in Alaska who only get the 119 satellite.

[James Long]

I suspect that they will. But it won't be until 2007 the way things are going.

JL

[Mike Richardson]

Interesting to note is that a lot of the channels on 157 are AT180 channels that are only on 110 anyway.

[TNGTony]

The channels on 157 are identical to 119° transponder 1 sport beam 3 (Oregon), 110 °transponder 11 and 119° transponder 7 spot 6 (Arizona).

The entire transponder mux is mirrored to transponders 1, 7 and 11 at 157°.

See ya
Tony

[garypen]

I see a lot of talking about moving the current x bird to y orbit, and y bird to z orbit. I know they've done this before...But...How many times can a DBS satellite be moved, before it runs out of fuel? I would imagine that these things have very limited transport ability.

[JohnH]

If the moves are not emergency type which require a fast move, they can be moved several times as is evidenced by EchoStar 4, but it is apparently showing the signs of this as its orbit is inclined now. Usually a sign that fuel supply is very low.

[rocatman]

If the moves are not emergency type which require a fast move, they can be moved several times as is evidenced by EchoStar 4, but it is apparently showing the signs of this as its orbit is inclined now. Usually a sign that fuel supply is very low.

Actually the E-4 satellite has suffered some failures with its fuel system which probably limit station keeping thruster firings resulting in an inclined orbit. See the link below. This combined with all the transponder failures has made E-4 almost useless except for keeping Dish's 3 long time held frequency licenses at 157 W active. Dish is probably holding fuel useage to a minimum so that E-4 can be moved out of the way to a higher orbit or de-orbit it when they put another satellite there.

http://www.sat-index.com/failures/index.html?http://www.sat-index.com/failures/echo4.html

[Darkman]

Quite interesting main site there also: http://www.sat-index.com

Thanks rocatman...

[BFG]

Yup, that's nice.

so now we can be real eggheads and quote the exact orbitals :)

E7 is actually at 118.9
E6 is at 110.2

[tnsprin]

What are the transponders on the 61.5 that are currently not active?
They are all active. But of cause lots of them don't, at least yet, belong to Echostar. Voom was using 13 of them. A number of them belong to Dominion.

[rocatman]

They are all active. But of cause lots of them don't, at least yet, belong to Echostar. Voom was using 13 of them. A number of them belong to Dominion.

Actually there are two, TP 4 and TP 28 that are not currently being used. TP 28 belongs to Dominion/Sky Angel but is being leased/bartered to Dish for allowing Dominion/Sky Angel to place their programming on the Echostar-3 (E-3) satellite. Failures on E-3 prevent it from being used. TP 4 is licensed to Dish but there hasn't been a specific reason given for why it is not being used although it may be power limitations on E-3 from other failures. Two of the TPs being used by Voom, IIRC 23 and 24 have been licensed to Voom temporarily. The FCC plans to auction/award these sometime in the future but has ruled that Voom, Dish and DirecTV are not eligible for them.