MSG...

C-Band MSG-1 EUMETCast service

At a recent EUMETSAT Council meeting it was decided that the EUTELSAT Atlantic Bird-3 satellite will carry the C-Band dissemination service for MSG-1 data.
This satellite is stationed at 5 deg. West and is part of EUTELSAT's 'Atlantic Gate' series of satellites

The C-Band beam to be used will cover the whole of Europe and Africa all of which, with the exception of parts of Morocco, southern Algeria, Mali and Niger, lie within the 39 dBW footprint.

The format of the C-band dissemination will be the same as for Hot Bird-6 dissemination - DVB EUMETCast.
The data will be uplinked to Atlantic Bird-3 via the Fucino ground station in Italy and will be a re-broadcast of the Hot Bird EUMETCast service.
Tests were carried out during the first two weeks of June and were successful.
C-Band trial dissemination is now due to commence late August/early September.
It is hoped to check out the PUMA systems already installed in African States during September.

EUMETSAT document EUM TD 15 has been updated to Issue 3 and now includes details of the C-Band EUMETCast service as well as the Ku-Band dissemination of MSG-1 data and system requirements for both services.

Satellite EUTELSAT Atlantic Bird 3 at 5° West.
Transponder C02.
Downlink Frequency 3726.7535 MHz.
Downlink Polarisation Circular Left Hand.
Symbol Rate 5.964 Msymbol/s
FEC Auto

Access to the C-Band EUMETCast trial dissemination both within and outside EUMETSAT Member States is subject to applications using the MSG Image Data Service registration form which can be found at -
http://www.eumetsat.de/en/dps/helpdesk/registration.html.

T-Systems tq®-TELLICAST software will be required and software to deal with file management and image viewing such as David Taylor's MSG Data Manager.
EUMETSAT state that the tq®-TELLICAST software runs under Linux as well Windows but long term tests have only been completed under Windows.

I have been informed that EUMETSAT have not yet carried out tests using the TechniSat SkyStar 2 PCI card for the C-band service. Though it's thought it should be OK.
EUMETSAT carried out the C-Band tests using a BroadLogic VBox 2030 PCI card.
Details of this at - http://www.vbox.to/ and - http://www.vbox.to/vbox/pci%20+.pdf.
It is thought other DVB cards may also work with this service.

I have checked with TechniSat and have been advised that the SkyStar 2 card will receive
C-Band satellite services provided a C-Band LNB that outputs between 950 and 2150 MHz is used to feed the card.
These used to be freely available as many analogue satellite TV receivers would also receive
C-Band transmissions, with the correct LNB.

However, the Atlantic Bird-3 C-Band footprint over Europe and Africa is only 39 dBW compared to Hot Bird-6's [Ku-Band] spot beam of 53 dBW over SE England and central Europe.
EUMETSAT recommend a 2.4 m dish for reception of the C-Band service within the central contours of the Europe/Africa footprint.

The Atlantic Bird-3 C-Band EUMETCast footprint extends into the eastern part of the US.
EUMETSAT recommend a dish size of 3.7 m will be required in most US locations.

Footprint diagram for EUTELSAT Atlantic Bird-3 C-Band transmission

John Tellick : 01-09-03

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