Basic HTML Version
9
11
12
13
10
14
108
TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 04-05/2012
— www.TELE-satellite.com
blind scan with the HISPASAT
satellite configuration still in
place. In such a case a regu-
lar transponder search would
hardly bring a result since
transponders on different sat-
ellites generally have different
frequencies and deviating re-
ception parameters.
One of the found channels
was TUNIS TV with a symbol
rate of 2893 Kbit/s, which goes
to show yet again how capable
the tuner of the AZBox ME re-
ally is. It should definitely be
able to meet even the exact-
ing demands of feed hunters
and satellite DXers.
As our in-depth test pro-
gressed wemoved the antenna
further west until we reached
INTELSAT 905 (24.5W). Apart
from NTA International and
RTI 1 there are no FTA chan-
nels transmitted in the Ku
band from that position. There
are, however, numerous tran-
sponders dedicated to feeds
only, which prompted us to
perform another blind scan.
This time, many transponders
were found again in steps 1
and 2 of the blind scan pro-
cess, while not a single result
was achieved in step 3, when
the actual channels should be
scanned.
To obtain a second opinion
we attached our reference
meter (Spaun Sparos 609)
9. Thanks to the NIT, the
transponder search is speeded
up a lot.
10. Pass 3: On the last stage,
all listed transponders are
scanned for valid channels.
11. Blind scan of Hispasat
30.0W.
12. Pass 1: Frequency scan.
13. Pass 2: Transponder
analysis.
14. Pass 3: Channel scan for
each of the 55 transponders.
15. Ribamontana TV: FTA
channel with particularly low
Symbol Rate
16. The AZBox offers detailed
information of the active
channel.
17. Visualization of the different
PIDS used by the current
channel. This is important for
channel- and feed-hunters: they
is the position of choice for
a number of regular feeds
which come with totally out-
of-the-ordinary symbol rates.
To make matters worse, those
rates usually are also very low
and hardly exceed the 2000 to
5000 Kbit/s bracket.
To make sure the AZBox
ME’s new firmware does not
rely on ‘dirty’ tricks or use
any shortcuts we performed a