Satgen 25 by GM4IHJ 20th September 89    Ku Band TV Satellites

Several questions have come in recently about using Astra equipment to
look at other TV sats. It is not easy. Some Astra gear only tunes 11.2 to
11.45 GHz. Most have fixed dishes which are difficult to realign . Worse 
still all available sats except TDF-1 and Tele X and the latest Eutel sat 
are much weaker signals than Astra. BUT if you are prepared to try, the
following produce usable pics in Scotland on a 1.8m dish connected to a
1.3 dB LNB.

Geosat   Ops    System   Station  Frequencies Polarisations Good Channels
Astra   Europe PAL/MAC   19.2E   11214,11243,11273,11302,11332,11361
                                 11391,11421 all horizontal
                                 11229,11258,11288,11317,11347,11376
                                 11406,11435 all vertical
Eutel   Europe PAL       11.5E   11176(Dutch),11472 both horizontal
                                 10991,11140,11179,11512(Sat1), all 
                                 vertical. Sat1 good German
Eutel   Europe PAL        7.0E   11475,11588,11675,all horizontal
                                 11138,11182,11465,all vertical, good
                                 Spanish and Italian channels
Tele X  Nordic   ?        5.0E   12206,12322,12475 all LHCP
Eutel   Europe PAL        2.0E   10999 H, 11143 V lowpower Life style prog
Intel   Int  CMAC/PAL     1.0W   11131,11172,11471 all horizon
Gorizont  Russia SECAM  14/16W   11475 global,11536 spotbeam circular pol.
TDF -1   French DMAC     19W     11727.11804,11880,11957,12034 RHCP strong
Intel   Int    PAL       21W     10971,11134,11145,11172 all vertical
Intel   Int    PAL       27.5W   10975(MTV),11134,11176 all horizontal
                                 10986,11153(CNN),both vertical
BSB     British DMAC     31W     11785,11861,11938,12015,12092 all RHCP

Note. BSB is not yet operating (Sept 89 ). Some of these channels have
privacy scrambling. Some are pay channels even if not scrambled, and some
are not for home reception, being intended for cable TV station
distribution. The Russian Gorizont has been more off than on lately.

If your Astra gear tunes 10.9 to 12.5 GHz there are about 48 channels you
can tune on a dish of 1.8metres minimum.If your dish is only 60 or 80cms 
forget allbut Astra,Tele X,Eutel,TDF-1. There are other geosats nearer the
horizon but unless you go to considerable expense and trouble ( a remotely
trained polar mounted big dish on a very strong wind proof base) you can
forget them. For DX TV studies this writer prefers a dish which moves
separately in AZ and El,feeding a narrow band B+W TV.

UFO 432.881 This mystery sat continues to put down strong signals into GM
every 115 minutes or so between 1500 and 0900 GMT.73 de John GM4IHJ@GB7SNE