BRITISH TV NEWS PROGRAMS AVAILABLE VIA SATELLITE The two international satellites below contain the bulk of the international satellite video traffic to the United States, and both are visible from the eastern half of the United States. These same satellites also send video programs to Europe in the other direction. Intelsat VA F13 is the only Intelsat (other than Pan Am Sat) that directly links the west coast of Europe with the west coast of the United States. Thus signals can reach the west coast via this satellite without taking a hop on a domestic satellite. I believe this bird mainly carries business data between the continents. It can be "seen" low on the horizon in the L.A. area, but not at significantly more northerly latitudes. In Columbus, Ohio, it has an azimuth = 138 degrees, and an elevation = 34 degrees. Intelsat VA F11 is low on the horizon here in Columbus, Ohio, and has an azimuth = 113 degrees, and an elevation = 17 degrees. Those living significantly north and west of this locality will not be able to "see" this bird. ========================================================================== | SATELLITE | TIME, EST | PROGRAM | |===============|=============|============================================| |INTELSAT VA F11| | | | 27.5 W | | | | NTSC/525 | | | |===============| | | | Transponder | | | |---------------| | | | 3 | | TV International (Spain). | | 9 | | BrightStar (see Westar 4 for details). | | 11 | | NBC London. | | 14 | | ABC London, | | | | Capital Radio - London (5.80 & 6.70 MHz). | | 15 | | U.S. Information Service (C-SPAN I). | | 16 | | CBS London, | | | | BBC World Service (5.82 & 6.66 MHz). | | 18 | | Occasional strong feeds out of London. | |===============|=============|============================================| | WESTAR 4 | | | | 99 W | | | | NTSC/525 | | | |===============| | | | Transponder | | | | 12 | 1300 - 1330 | BBC1 6 pm News (Mondays thru Thursdays). | | | | Transponder normally becomes active at | | | | about 12.50 pm EST. | ========================================================================== ========================================================================== | INTELSAT VA F13 | | | 53 W LONGITUDE | | |-----------------------------------------| | | TRANSPONDER 14 | Narrow Bandwidth Audio | | PAL/625 | Subcarriers = 6.12 MHz, | |-----------------------------------------| 6.30 MHz, 6.50 MHz, | | Time | 6.70 MHz, & 6.85 MHz. | | |--------------------------------| | PST EST *GMT | PROGRAM | |-----------------------------------------|--------------------------------| | 2100 - 2130 | 0000 - 0030 | 0500 - 0530 | ITN World News | | 2200 - 0000 | 0100 - 0300 | 0600 - 0800 | TV AM Breakfast Program | | 0940 - 1000 | 1240 - 1300 | 1740 - 1800 | ITN 5.40 pm News | | 1000 - 1030 | 1300 - 1330 | 1800 - 1830 | BBC1 6 pm News | | 1030 - 1100 | 1330 - 1400 | 1830 - 1900 | BBC1 London Plus or World News | | 1100 - 1200 | 1400 - 1500 | 1900 - 2000 | ITN Channel 4 News | | 1249 - 1259 | 1549 - 1559 | 2049 - 2059 | WTN DSSA News | | 1300 - 1325 | 1600 - 1625 | 2100 - 2125 | BBC1 9 pm News | | 1325 - 1330 | 1625 - 1630 | 2125 - 2130 | BBC1 South East News | | 1330 - 1350 | 1630 - 1650 | 2130 - 2150 | Visnews | | 1400 - 1430 | 1700 - 1730 | 2200 - 2230 | ITN News at Ten | | 1430 - 1515 | 1730 - 1815 | 2230 - 2315 | BBC2 Newsnight | | 1515 - 1520 | 1815 - 1820 | 2315 - 2320 | BBC2 Weather | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Weekends | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | Saturday | | 2100 - 2130 | 0000 - 0030 | 0500 - 0530 | ITN World News (every hour) | | | | 1705 - 1710 | BBC 1 News | | | | | ITN News | | | | | Times vary | | | | | | | | | | Sunday | | 2100 - 2130 | 0000 - 0030 | 0500 - 0530 | ITN World News (every hour) | | 1025 - 1040 | 1325 - 1340 | 1825 - 1840 | BBC1 & ITN News | | 1245 - 1240 | 1545 - 1555 | 2045 - 2055 | ITN News | | 1400 - 1410 | 1700 - 1710 | 2200 - 2210 | BBC1 News | | | Times vary | | | Occasional late evening BBC | | | programs. | ========================================================================== During the summer months, GMT times are replaced by BST times. EST = Eastern Standard Time, PST = Pacific Standard Time. The transponder designations are approximately those corresponding to domestic U.S. transponders, but will require some fine tuning. The tables in the first half of this document were prepared about two years ago, and I have just edited them to bring them up-to-date. Since it is sometime since I've checked the night-time ITN World News and weekend program times, I cannot vouch for their accuracy. When two different feeds have to be sent at the same time on this satellite, the signals are time-multiplexed (alternative fields). This causes severe flicker and is a pain to watch - viewing is not recommended if you have any tendency to epilepsy! The corresponding sound channels will be found at different subcarrier frequencies. Occasional special feeds, such as cricket and football are sent to Australia and New Zealand via this transponder, and other special yearly events such as the BAFTA Awards may also be found. Unfortunately, I have never discovered a "Last Night of the Proms" feed. Special sporting feeds are also handled by BrighStar out of its Docklands uplink. Transponder 11 carries a mixture of NTSC and PAL French signals from Paris. The signal is quite strong. Transponder 16 carries occasional NTSC feeds via British Telecom. Pan Am Sat at 45 W has occasional news feeds on Ku-band. Domestic satellite Satcom F2, Transponder 16 carriers SCOLA for 24-hour international news (most tape-delayed by one or two weeks) and live soviet programming. Note that the BBC World Service is also available as a narrow-band sound- subcarrier on C-SPAN 1. This may be found on domsat Galaxy 3, Transponder 24, at 5.44 MHz. If you get your C-SPAN 1 via cable too bad - they won't provide you with the World Service. The strongest U.K. News signal is the BBC 6 pm news on the domsat Westar 4. For those of you who want more details about all the commercial birds in geostationary orbit, I would recommend Mark Long's World Satellite Almanac and World Satellite Annual, the 1992 version of which I would assume will be available this summer. It can be found in good book stores or ordered from: MLE Inc. P.O. Box 159 Winter Beach Florida 32971 Tel. (407) 571-1021. In a follow-up message I will be giving details about the hardware required to receive satisfactory Intelsat signals, and how to modify NTSC TVs to watch PAL signals in black and white. What I will say now though, is that almost all the Intelsat feeds described above require a minimum of a 10 ft. diameter dish, circularly-polarized C-band feed, 50 K or less C-band LNB, and a receiver I.F. filter that can halve the I.F. bandwidth to about 14 MHz for extending the F.M. threshold. There are other feeds around with global beams, but they are so weak that a 16 ft.+ dish would be required to receive them. Note that the circularly-polarized C-band feed, which avoids a 3 dB reduction in carrier-to-noise ratio, is mandatory for a 10 ft. dish, because without it, the signals will be below threshold and wiped out by noise. (INTELSAT.DOC) Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley Consultant FIBERDYNE OPTOELECTRONICS 545 Northview Drive Columbus, Ohio 43209 United States Tel. (614) 258-7402 Email: skingsle@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu CompuServe: 72376,3545