BBC SATBACk on Intelsat 901 at 27.5°W moving satellites?
BBC SATBACk on Intelsat 901 at 27.5°W is a back up service for the UK Freeview service.
The main channels from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are available on Intelsat 907 at 27.5° West.
This service is a backup for Freeview and carries channels from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
It is used when the relays to the Freeview transmitters fails, and they use this satellite service to feed the Freeview transmitter masts in emergencies – such as when a Freeview transmitter caught fire recently, and many repeaters had no signal to repeat, so a large are of the UK had no Freeview signals, until they set up satellite dishes at the repeater sights for the Intelsat Satback service.
It is often referred to by its network name BBC-SATBACK.
The service has been at 27.5W for several years. AS it is not for public use it is encrpyted. But with certain receivers, the channels can be “unlocked”. This has been a good way of watching UK TV in areas where signals from the main UK TV Astra 2 satellites is unavailable.
It is currently transmitted from Intelsat 901, which is nearing the end of its mission life.
Which could be why an exact copy of this service has appeared on another satellite.
It is being reported that an exact copy of the BBC SATBACK service on Intelsat 901 has recently appeared on Telstar 12 Vantage at 15° West, on frequency 11043 V SR 44095 FEC 9/10 QPSK-S2 DVB-S2
And it appears that the beam that this is on is very focused on the UK.
And thus appears much weaker than the Intelsat signal it is currently on.
Which could cause problems for those in southern Europe and Spain who are currently using this service.
The reports say that the frequency being used is on the “North Sea” beam, which is heavily focused on the UK and Scandinavia.
This is complicated by the fact that the Telstar satellite has another beam , the “Med West” beam, covering the western part of the Mediterranean. It could be that any similar signals active on the Med West beam could override any signal from the North Sea beam.
So this change in BBC Satback could have an impact on those using it in Southern Spain and Portugal.
Something else is different with the new broadcast. I can manually input VPID, APID, Video Modulation and Biss Control Word on my Technomate receiver and have no problems catching 27.5W from the UK.
But over at 15W no signal on this new muxx, however my Octagon receiver (which I cant manually do PIDs on without PC/Laptop channel editor or similair) has a strong signal on 11043 V.
It is not an exact copy of 27.5W, I think the Modulation has changed in some way.
Its an exact copy in relation to the channels.
But you are correct that there is a change in the modulation, or something else, that is restricting the opening of the signals.
Hi Darren, how big is your satellite dish and from where do you catch 15W?
Thank you in advance.
I’m in Altea area, and using an Icecrypt 1600 receiver for Intelsat 901/907, with an 85cm dish. In previous winters the signal has been excellent, but this year I am experiencing a lot of signal break up. The signal strength and quality are all excellent 90/75 and should give good reception, but the bottom line on the signal meter jumps about from 75 down to 60 and back. Sometimes the signal is stable giving perfect reception, other times it’s not.
Any one else experiencing these symptoms..
Dave.
None that i know of. But then in Altea most with satellite have the right size of dish to get all the UK TV channels from Astra 2, which i dare say you will have to do very soon when the satback channels are removed from I901
I used to bring a big dish for Astra2, but recently have relied on IS907. Looks like i may need to dust off the big dish. This year I have a Starlink system, so have belting good internet, combined with a VPN and fire stick, I have a back up for tv. Im a bit old school, and have not been into streaming tv in the past, but must admit what with live tv, catch up tv, Netflix etc, and no weather wipe outs it’s is growing on me, so that is probably the way to go.
Is BBC satback still working i have lost the signal last week, or maybe my dish
has moved.
Yes it is still working.
But no longer on the Intelsat at 27.5W
Read my latest blog posts : https://www.satandpcguy.com/2024/04/04/satback-service-on-intelsat-901-at-27-5west-users-in-south-of-spain-and-portugal-reporting-signal-loss/