Can E8 and E6 work at 61.5 and 148

[Stephen J]

With all of the speculation that E8 and E6 will move to new locations once E11 launches, no one has ever said how well E8 and E6 would work from a location that they were not designed to operate from. Can anyone shed some light on this?

[James Long]

They could work from another location. How well they would work is another matter. Generally the newer satellites were designed for a tight pattern around the US ... the newer the satellite the less the footprint leaves the country. Not a bad thing when the satellite is in it's designed location, but not good when they want to move it away from the designed location. The shape of that footprint from the satellite's perspective cannot be changed --- if the satellite isn't where it was planned to be the footprint can be off.

That is one of the issues facing E* with E5 at 129°. They have done what they can to get the footprint to line up but there are fringes where things just don't line up the way they would if E5 was designed for 129°. There are other issues with E5 as well, but even a perfectly working satellite (such as E6 or E8) would have a footprint problem.

The location at 61.5° is even further from the designed location of pretty much everything except E3 and E12 (which are there). If they put E6 or E8 at 61.5° it would be a situation of "better than nothing" but not much better.

I expect that E8 will remain at 110° as a spare (insurance against problems) and E6 will move to 129° to help E5 out with it's problems until the new 129° satellite is in service. I do not expect a move to 61.5° unless it is the AMC satellite that is being launched later this year.

BTW: The most modern satellite E11 which will launch later this year was designed with more of E*'s locations in mind. It is targeted for 110° but I have no doubt that it would work well at 119° and 129° if needed. Good for the future. When it's predecessors were designed (E1 through E8) there wasn't a hint of getting 129° ... they were designed to serve 110° or 119° (with E3 specifically designed for 61.5°).