TELE INTERNATIONAL - TELE-satellite International Magazine

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With Astra, stronger Intelsats and an extended Eutelsat fleet the number of manufacturers of appropriate reception units was increasing significantly and so was the number of satellite dishes installed on the roofs and in the front lawns of private homes (back then a motorised dish was a kind of status symbol). For many satellite viewers TSI was the only independent source of information and consequently TSI featured a great number of test reports and introductions to satellite technology. But how to navigate through the enormous wealth of channels? Hardly any provider offered a teletext service and so there was great demand for an international satellite TV guide. In 1989 TSI took that courageous step which was not so easy at first. After all the programming information had to be collected before it could be presented in an easy to read format. The result was called TVI and the new magazine was accepted with great enthusiasm by the satellite viewing public. The channel data alone was a first. Finally the Russian channels were listed, so was TDS from Turkey, Lifestyle from the UK and Prem1ere (has nothing to do with the German pay TV channel with a similar name). Other international channels were listed as well, such as EBC, La Cinq, DDR1, DDR2 or ECO. This alone was reason enough for many public authorities east and west of the iron curtain to get a TVI subscription. Of course content was also provided and the editorial part of TVI was filled with programme descriptions. All was separated according to genre and truly international. Every day one channel with all the technical information was presented. Of course dual subscribers (TSI and TVI) were preferred by the editor and the publisher, but for TVI readers short technical reports, a market watch for manufacturers and sellers and reports from all over the world were included. Exclusive market research by TVI in association with Loewe showed the rapid increase in private satellite equipment ownership. In Germany there were some 30,000 homes with satellite equipment in 1988, a number that was expected to increase to 70,000 to 100,000 by 1989 and for the year http://www.TELE-satellite.com 1997 2.7 million were predicted. These figures later turned out to be quite realistic. Fuba presented the first multi-feed system for as many as four satellites in TVI, Loewe introduced a luxury TV set with integrated satellite receiver and Chaparral added an international version to its U.S. software for many different languages—a fact that was not common back in those days. Additionally, a satellite system was introduced in each edition of TVI. In July 1989 it was the DFS Kopernikus, with all technical detail and the real footprint, which was another first at the time. By the way, the really curious and the professionals were able to subscribe to a newsletter which was the predecessor of today’s TSI and Satco-DX newsletters that are distributed via the Internet. In its July edition this mother of all satcom newsletters reported about the difficulties of English pay TV channels and the mistakes that were made by them. If only a south German pay TV provider had read that article he would have been able to avoid many mistakes. The then leading satellite receiver Maspro was put to an extreme test in the test report section of the magazine and an insider report on the American C-SPAN channel was filed by TSI’s U.S. correspondent. The quickly increasing number of advertising clients and the large amount of letters to the editor were proof of TVI’s success. An editorial by A. Wiese on the chances and risks of pay TV channels in Europe was met with much interest. Unfortunately a reader in Munich did everything he could not to read those lines. The TSI office in Munich hired a few additional employees since more than 400 pages of editorial material were published each month in TSI, TVI and the newsletter. TELE-satellite’s Time Tunnel Ten Years Ago Above right: “Satellite Market” Right: “Kopernikus, the German super satellite” Christian Mass 117
EIRP vs DISH-SIZE S.J. Birkill/C.Mass TELE-Sateellite International publishes exclusively footprints on a world-wide basis. For the newcomer - and sometimes even for the specialist - it is difficult to compare the EIRP-reading in the charts with the dish-size needed to receive a certain beam. To get the correct size, one has to determine if the signal is used for DTH-reception, re-broadcasting, SMATV or just for the DXer. The figures of dish-size can vary between 80cm up to 2m for one and the same signal (between sub-threshold- and re-broadcasting-reception). The following charts should make work a little bit more easy The EIRP vers. Dish-Size-Charts where provided by Steve J. Birkill, Director of “Real World Technology Ltd.” (www.rwt.co.uk/). DTH is the central band and shows the range of recommended dish size for reliably high quality individual Direct-To-Home reception, based on current standard to good performance systems under moderate conditions of climate and elevation angle. The higher bands, SMA, CAB, and RBR, include the additional performance and fade margins required for SMATV, Cable Head and Re-Broadcast applications, respectively. Of the lower bands, MAR indicates Marginal: pictures are clear of sparklies under clear-sky conditions with zero pointing error, but will be rapidly impaired by any signal loss. In digital terms this corresponds to just meeting the QEF (quasi error-free) condition. THR indicates operation at threshold: expect some threshold artefacts to be visible most of the time. And SUB-threshold reception is for anoraks only: the enthusiasts and DX-ers will enjoy the exotic shimmer their receivers impart to the most ordinary sets of colour bars. With digital transmissions there is no sub-threshold; this region is equivalent to loss of signal. Where the bands terminate in vertical lines this indicates some external constraint on any further reduction in dish size — typically the risk of adjacent-satellite interference. But in all cases a larger dish than indicated may be used, so allowing DTH to overlap with SMATV, SMATV with Cable, and so on. The six transmission “flavours”, each with its own chart, are: PAL 27 Covers the Astra type signal, assuming a PAL (or SECAM or NTSC) transmission of some 16 MHz/V (peak to peak deviation) at Ku-Band in a 27 MHz receiver noise bandwidth. An 8dB extended dynamic threshold is assumed. Allowance is made for a reducing value of antenna efficiency above 3m aperture. http://www.TELE-satellite.com PAL 36 A Eutelsat or similar full-transponder analogue transmission, at 25 MHz/V in a 36 MHz Ku-Band transponder. The closer spacing of the curves is typical of wider deviations, with a steeper decline below a higher threshold, but also an improved signal to noise ratio once clear of that threshold. MAC 27 B-MAC, D-MAC or D2-MAC modulation in an Astra or similar transponder. The threshold region is narrowed by the steep failure mode of the audio/data channel, and above threshold the enhanced colour SNR reduces the high end dish size requirements. C-Band 36 A full-transponder (36 MHz) PAL, SECAM or NTSC transmission of 21 to 25 MHz/V, downlinking in the 4 GHz band, with a 25K LNB. The steepening of the curves below 1m antenna size is due to feed blockage and diffraction causing low illumination efficiency. Atmospheric influences are much reduced at these frequencies, resulting in smaller margins being required. Note the range of EIRPs covered is 10dB below that of the Ku-Band charts, as encountered with typical satellites. Euro DVB 33 This assumes an Astra or Eutelsat full-transponder multiplex, 55 Mbits/s (27.5 MS/s) QPSK with 3/4 rate FEC. Moderate assumptions are made on satellite loop degradation and modem implementation margin. US DSS 24 Here the transmission is at 40 Mbit/s (20 MS/s) in a 24 MHz channel (e.g DirecTv), with 6/7 rate convolutional coding. This lower level of redundancy means about a 1dB higher G/T (larger dish) is required for a given EIRP, relative to the European example, despite the lower symbol rate. 173
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TELE INTERNATIONAL SATELLITE IFA Sp
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TELE-satellite International Signin
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12 Upcoming Satellite Fairs and Exh
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Eutelsat, Europe’s leading satell
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22 Innovative Produkte für die Zuk
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26 Spionage selbstgemacht, Teil 30
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28 Testaufbau im Fahrzeug Test set-
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32 zweites Fahrzeug mit dem Sender
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New compact signal processing for u
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42 Sendersuchlauf, einem Digitalaus
Page 21 and 22: 46 Fachhändler nachrüsten läßt.
Page 23 and 24: 50 mit der Betriebsspannung an Bord
Page 25: We have been waiting for over one y
Page 28 and 29: Software Release 1.0 (aktuell) QPSK
Page 30 and 31: ASC-TEC, innovationsfreudiger OEM-L
Page 32 and 33: 62 Nein, was da auf der Testbank de
Page 34 and 35: 64 bestimmten Personenkreis den Zug
Page 36 and 37: For one year we have all been betti
Page 38 and 39: 72 Amstrad SAT 401 SDU 80 TELE-sate
Page 40 and 41: 74 tiger Satelliten muß es nicht u
Page 42 and 43: 78 Wer die Wahl hat, hat die Qual -
Page 44 and 45: 80 Unklarheiten und nervenaufreiben
Page 46 and 47: 82 Nicht immer hat der Verbraucher
Page 48 and 49: 84 vor, daß eine weitere Receiver-
Page 50 and 51: 88 MTI Blue Line Die Preise für LN
Page 52 and 53: 90 Satelliten werden wie durch Geis
Page 54 and 55: 92 In einigen europäischen Städte
Page 56 and 57: 94 man als Kernschatten. Sein Durch
Page 58 and 59: Low-Cost reception of Small airport
Page 60 and 61: 100 What's going on in Ukrainie? SA
Page 62 and 63: 104 Hasan Basri Aktan and Michael M
Page 64 and 65: 106 Izcom, Turkey / Tron, Turkey He
Page 66 and 67: 108 CABLE & SATELLITE MEDIACAST DEL
Page 68 and 69: 110 Humax, Korea F1 VACI Viaccess e
Page 70 and 71: 112 SMS, UK / Eurostar, UAE EURO-bo
Page 74 and 75: 174 SATELLITE SNAPSHOTS by Wolfgang
Page 76 and 77: in GF, is 120°. However, an approp
Page 78 and 79: Now you must place the level on the
Page 80 and 81: 206 GPS gegen Verbrechen Christian
Page 82 and 83: 208 eigentlich nur noch auf den Kon
Page 84 and 85: 212 Questions? email: drdish@drdish
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