Optus 10 - launch successful

[Mr 672A]

Hummm .Looks like its dig a hole time soon for me for Optus 10. I have a spare 90CM doing nothing in the shed sacked from use from Intelsat 19 as it was to small for some transponders..

[Thala Dan]

In between showers tonight (and by torchlight), I attempted to optimise my LNB skew for Optus 10.

Reminds me of some of the dumb (so my wife reckoned) things I used to do during my ham radio days

Thanks for the effort, Tristen - I fired up the 90cm this morning with your info in the meter.

Found 12345 and 12484 no problems, but not a whimper out of 12595.

12345 was much weaker than 12484 - -35dbm versus -25dbm - the strength of 12484 is on a par with what I'm getting from D2.

12345 scanned in OK as "GWN News Backhaul", but 12484 returned no channel info when scanned.

12345 scanned in as DVB-S, 12484 as DVB-S2.

Had another go after lunch, but still no sign of 12595.

Found setting up the dish noticeably more finicky than the other Optus birds, which in general have a pretty broad brush signal (other than D1).

Azimuth and Elevation were both quite touchy, skew had a reasonable range. Skew was familiar Optus configuration.

Anyhow, at least I know where it is now, and will keep an eye on it from time to time - let's hope they put something interesting and FTA on it eventually.

Thanks for all contributing comments.

Incidentally, the mercury hasn't got past 8 today, and I don't even want to think about the wind chill

[gordon_s1942]

Reminds one of the similar thing they did back in 1994/1995 with Optus B3 - launching it (1994) and then taking almost a year (1995) to add anything onto it. Takes a whole year off of the lifespan of the bird.

The only sensible possibility could be that because of the time it takes after deciding to increase their fleet to the actual launch day is a couple of years that part or all of the original purpose has not eventuated and that wont be the first time needs have changed.
Is it possible Optus was standing in the wings based on the previous Governments plans to launch 2 Internet Satellites until Mr Turnball quashed the idea, either to make Optus 10 available short or long term or run their own service or feeds because they could see the original FTTH network was going to take some time to implement.

Failing that of course, is it possible Optus 10 is in fact transmitting away merrily but in such a manner not intended for the 'Over the Counter' STB's to receive??? (Conspiracy Theory 15/ 201?)

[apsattv]

According to reports ,Optus 10 is near fully loaded if you look at it on a speccy. Its mostly used for backhaul to remote cell sites etc same as the old B3 was used for.

[tristen]

According to reports ,Optus 10 is near fully loaded if you look at it on a speccy.....

That's interesting, because I did notice numerous carriers but was unable to resolve them (apart from those I listed above) on either of the two receivers I tried.

[Mr 672A]

Its mostly used for backhaul to remote cell sites etc same as the old B3 was used for.

Expensive bird just for backhaul and remote cell sites.

[Thala Dan]

That's interesting, because I did notice numerous carriers but was unable to resolve them.........

Likewise, Tristen......when I looked with the analyser on May 31, after you posted those freqs (minus SR) on May 30, there were numerous carriers on the screen including, as I recall, the elusive 12595.

But when I finally got a lock with the meter, using the SR's you kindly provided, and did a blind scan, only 12345 and 12484 scanned in.

[irritant]

Hey guys. No new stuff on Optus 10 happening lately? Maybe on the speccie and so on? Nothing new on Lyngsat.

[gordon_s1942]

Expensive bird just for backhaul and remote cell sites.

Not necessarily as this may give Optus the chance to instal/upgrade/replace other services with the long view of then using 10 to add or supplement existing services.
Theres an aweful lot going on that we havent any idea of but Optus isnt there to spend money without the aim of recouping it from their Satellites.
I dont think its unreasonable to assume that while cable is still the best and 'safest' transmission option, it has the problem of taking time to lay and its fixed in place but although a satellite costs more, its advantage is it has Australia wide coverage and can be accessed by suitable mobile ground stations from anywhere at a moments notice.
Microwave is also an option but takes time to instal and with the need of repeaters located between 30 and 60 kms apart, it has it limits making the more expensive satellite a far better option I think overall.

[Guiseppe]

Hesitant posting this as I was caught out with GWN News Backhaul!

Bunbury Contribution ASI1 12345 SR 7199 H SID1 VID1 AUD 3581 PCR 3580

EDIT: This is on a 1.2m.

EDIT2. GWN7 News commenced at 09:30GMT.

[irritant]

Anything new popped up yet on Optus 10 since last year? Doesn't look like anything has been reported on the net as such. Do you guys still aim at this bird every now and then?

Sounded like quite a promising bird at one stage regarding sat TV. Do you guys think it'll stay at 164 for most of its life?

I take it that it was not designed to replace C1 or any of the D birds? Maybe B3?

[Guiseppe]

Nothing has changed since my post above! One has to wonder about the economics ....

[hos here]

"One has to wonder about the economics ...."

Agreed. Most of the time 'Bunbury Contribution' is running dead air!

Cheers
Hos Here

[apsattv]

Nothing has changed since my post above! One has to wonder about the economics ....

Its near fully loaded, with permanent customers. What's the problem with that?

[irritant]

Its near fully loaded, with permanent customers. What's the problem with that?

Is there a place where a person can see who is on there and what they are delivering?

[gordon_s1942]

Is there a place where a person can see who is on there and what they are delivering?

Unless you can infiltrate the Control room and even then you would most likely just see a transponder operating without knowing whats in the 'stream', the next best place is in the office where they handle the applications for use of the Satellite.

There is always the option that you could write Optus a letter telling them of your interest and would they please supply you with a list of who is what and what they do and on what transponder etc and see how you go...........

[irritant]

Unless you can infiltrate the Control room and even then you would most likely just see a transponder operating without knowing whats in the 'stream', the next best place is in the office where they handle the applications for use of the Satellite.

There is always the option that you could write Optus a letter telling them of your interest and would they please supply you with a list of who is what and what they do and on what transponder etc and see how you go...........

Haha, OK, yes, point taken. What I meant was where on the web is that place where people are seeing more info about what's on Optus 10, because I'd like to visit that site too.

Just out of interest guys, in previous posts it was mentioned that on the spectrum analyzer there were many tps operational. What band did they fall into, was it 12.25-12.75 GHz, 11.7-12.25 GHz or the whole upper Ku 11.7-12.75 GHz? There seemed to be two bands the satellite was planned to broadcast in, a FSS and BSS band. Would be cool to know if one or both are being used.

If they all fall into FSS, which is 12.25-12.75 GHz, maybe they are reserving a future sat-TV platform on the Broadcasting Satellite Service (BSS) which will then be 11.7-12.2 GHz. Maybe there is a bounty of TV offerings from this bird just around the corner.

Maybe a new home for Sky NZ or a new South Pacific Pay-TV platform?

[hazman]

According to lyngsat Optus 10 is on the move west from 164E, Currently around 158E. I wonder why?

[apsattv]

D2 went up in 2007 , likely they are moving Optus 10 to replace it, then shifting D2 to 164E

[wiilliiss]

optus C 1 went up in 03 could be d10 replacing c1&d3 then sending d3 to 164 & c1 to recycling