On first impressions the Mediastar HDX9100 looks to be quite a nice fully featured satellite receiver that has had some time spent on the design and development of the receiver functions, something that isn’t to common these days as receiver manufactures and reseller are driven to get the new models out selling ASAP with out some of the testing you might expect.

The first thing I noticed about the Mediastar receiver is that the channel name is displayed on the front panel of receiver a feature I haven’t seen since the Nokia 9500’s of the late 90’s  a nice touch I thought. First I decided to connect the Mediastar to my terrestrial antenna and perform a automatic scan to see what the tuner would load knowing that I live in an area that has average reception as best. To my disappointment the rec

eiver did load some channels but it didn’t load all the digital channel that I know is available in my area by way of my standard $100 set top box from Aldi.  The Mediastar’s EPG was quite impressive though the receiver allows for up to 14 days ahead in the programing and will also allow you to bring up a description of the show you have selected even if it is a few days in advance, I also noted that you can

my setup

record program by pressing the yellow button the remote in blocks instead of setting a start and finish time which I alway seem to be out by a few minutes cutting off the end my documentaries .

I connected up the Mediastar to my motorised 2.3m dish using a Super jack V box III positioner (disequ 1.2) and after searching through the detailed list of satellite available I selected the short list for my motorised dish to be able to receive. I then manually moved my dish to the most Western limit using the V box front panel controls. The Mediastar asks for a transponder from each satellite which is easily selected using the left the right buttons on the remote control, there are then three options for moving the dish, continuous, time (in seconds 1-5) and pulses (1-5), I decided to use the continuous setting which prompted the dish to move to the East, the dish then stopped on my first satellite Asiasat 2, I thought that dish had stopped by coincidence on Asiasat 2 but further investigation found that the receiver measures the transponder you have selected for each satellite and stops the dish when the receiver measures a carrier on that particular transponder (provided you pick a transponder unique to each satellite). I have never seen this feature on a satellite receiver before and this made setting up by C band system extremely easy if only every receiver I had ever owned have this feature I would have saved many frustrating hours searching the skys for satellites.

Once I have my C band setup complete I wanted to load some MPEG 4 or DVB-s2 channels to see just good the picture quality was, I decided to start with Asiasat 3 as it has Fashion TV HD and a few Indian “HD” services.  The receiver loaded the channels with ease and they looked fantastic on my LG 42″ Plasma not that were of any particular interest to me but it was interesting to see these services running.

The last thing I thought I would try was the USB port on the back to record from the terrestrial and satellite, I had a Western Digital 320G HD from Officeworks handy so I plugged it in after formatting it to FAT 32 which is the only file system the Mediastar will run with unfortunately. The receiver sensed the presence of the hard drive and asked to format the drive which I said yes to. Recording was simple you could record program blocks from the EPG or setup timers, time-shift programs or simply record continuously. To play the recording on my computer back I have to search around on the Internet to find a player as it is recorded all programs in MPEG 4 compression I downloaded something called a GOM player and downloaded the necessary files, all of which was straight forward. The quality of the programming being played back was amazing I couldn’t believe the resolution very impressive but it did chew thought space on the drive every 30minutes of recording was around 1Gig of spare on the drive you wouldn’t want to record for a few days with out a massive drive.

I would conclude the Mediastar receiver to be quite good receiver with a few very interesting features I hadn’t seen in a while and a few new completely new ones. The terrestrial tuner could be improved on and the unit runs quite hot but I guess with so much packed into the receiver that is to be expected. The MPEG 4 and DVB-S2 channels looked great and I’m sure this is the way of the future for satellite transmission, EPG and recording work easily and didn’t require 5 university degrees in computer technology to operate. The price is quite expensive when you compare it to other standard DVB receivers on the market  but you can notice the little extras the receiver offers the user and when they say the receiver has a feature it does and is easily operated by a typical user.

Below I have put the receiver spec’s that I found on the web,

Video Output Formats: HDMI, YPbPr, S-Video, Composite Video, and SPDIF Optical.

External connections include: UBS 2.0, Ethernet IP, HTTP and FTP which can be set.

Other notable features are: 14 day EPG linked to PVR timer settings, Blind Scan, and Ethernet networking, and video mosaic function.

Recording Features: The unit can record  2 channels simultaneously, and viewing is possible from the HDD or “off air” at the same time.

Size: The receiver has a small footprint 330 x 200mm

Card Types Compatable : It is equipped with 2 smartcard slots for NDS and Irdeto as well as 2 common interface sockets for CI modules.

I bought my receiver from Av-Comm  located in Sydney via phone they were quite helpful and shipped the receiver Express Post arriving at my home two days later, I would highly recomend them to anyone wishing to buy this receiver as they seemed to have a general understanding of the receiver and were just a sales agents.

Asiasat 5 Footprint

The first service cutover from Asiasat 2 to Asiasat 5 was successfully conducted on September 17 at 22.15 UTC. All services are planned to be transferred by the end of September. Already many viewers are reporting increased signal levels from this new satellite.

Asiasat 5 is a Space systems Loral SSL1300 satellite with 26 C band and 14 Ku band transponders. The C band footprint covers 53 countries from Russia to New Zealand and from Japan to the Middle East and parts of Africa.

This new satellite offers 2 high power spot Ku beams over East Asia and South East Asia as well as a steerable beam which can cover any location within the footprint.

C band TWT power is 65 watts and Ku power is 150 watts.

According to a news item on the Big Pond News website, this strategy would allow Telstra to offer its own (Big Pond) content, which it already does to Telstra broadband customers, with no bandwidth charges.

It would also place Telstra in direct competition with both Foxtel, who offer PVR performance with their IQ STB, and the Seven Network who offer TiVo.

Already Big Pond has a significant library of material, and that coupled with its existing rights to show AFL, Rugby League, V8 supercars, and other sporting events, as well as an unbranded News service produced by Sky News. This would effectively make it Australia’s 4th network— even though it would be delivered by broadband.

Telstra is also reportedly working on separate plans to bring internet connectivity to Foxtel IQ users, including full length movie downloads and television shows.

These 2 strategies may well be insurance against the expected fallout when the Federal Government forces Telstra to split its retail and wholesale operations, possibly selling its 50% stake in Foxtel, a move announced on September 15 by minister Conroy.

Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said Telstra’s involvement in subscription television was a major impediment to competition in Australia. “In virtually every other developed country, the main competitor to the traditional phone network is the cable TV network. Here, the phone company owns both. It’s been dreadful for competition.”

Artist Impression

Japan’s indigenous H-2B rocket successfully launched the HTV cargo transporter on September 11 for a week long voyage to the ISS. The launch vehicle flew smoothly, and at 15 minutes and 6 seconds after liftoff, the separation of the HTV Demonstration Flight was confirmed.The HTV was designed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to transport supplies to the ISS. On this demonstration mission, the HTV is carrying 4.5 tonnes of food and supplies, and was scheduled to dock with the ISS on September 18. Launched from the JAXA Space Centre at Tanegashima Island off Kyushu, the H-2B launcher can lift 16.5 tonnes into low earth orbit. The H-2B launch vehicle is a two-stage rocket using liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as propellant and has four strap-on solid rocket boosters (SRB-A) powered by polibutadiene.

HTV arrived at the ISS on September 18, and was captured with the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), known as “Canadarm2″ when it approached to just 9 metres. The arrival of the HTV on its maiden flight was more than a triumph for Japan. It also proved that the capture of an independently powered spacecraft is within the capability of the ISs crew.

Both Russia’s Progress and the ESA ATV cargo transport ships feature automatic docking. The capture of HTV was an important event because it will need to be repeated often in the future, as Japan takes a more active role in supplying the ISS. While the HTV is berthed to the ISS, the ISS crew will be able to enter and remove the s

upplies from the HTV Pressurized Logistics Carrier.

After the supplies, such as food, clothes and a variety of experiment equipment are unloaded, the HTV will then be loaded with waste materials, including used experiment equipment or used clothes. The HTV will then undock and separate from the ISS then disintegrate as it reenters the Earth’s atmosphere.

In addition to Russia’s cargo spacecraft, Progress, the U.S. Space Shuttle (soon to be retired), the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), developed and built by the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan’s HTV will be utilized for delivering supplies to the ISS. Among these cargo-carrying spacecraft, the HTV is the only unmanned vehicle that can carry both pressurized and unpressurized cargo.

Photo: Palapa D1 rises from the Xichang Credit: Spacelaunchreport.com

Palapa D1, owned by Indonesian telco Indosat, suffered a third stage launcher mishap on August 31 during the launch sequence from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China’s Sichuan province. Consequently the satellite was placed in an unusable orbit.

Failure occurred 20 minutes after liftoff as the third stage was scheduled to ignite for the second burn of the launch. The 13 metre long third stage, powered by two YF-75 liquid hydrogen and oxygen engines capable of generating 35,000 pounds of thrust used on most long March launchers has never failed before.

Engineers at Thales Alenia Space, the designers and manufacturers of the satellite devised a plan though the conservative use of on-board propellant and succeeded in placing the satellite in a geo-transfer orbit on September 3, sufficient for the satellite to subsequently be lifted into geostationary orbit. Thales Alenia’s engineers then remotely reconfigured the  satellite’s on-board computers to gently push Palapa-D into its correct orbit.

The negative aspect of this unexpected maneuvering is that undoubtedly the use of the satellite’s on-board propellant is bound to impact the satellite’s expected 15-year life – and this is bound to trigger an insurance claim. It is too soon to predict the impact on the operational lifetime of the satellite, but it is likely to be measured in years, rather than months, of in-orbit service. Three perigee boost maneuvers were required to modify the injection orbit after spacecraft separation.

The Palapa-D contract was agreed on a ‘build and launch’ basis, so Thales Alenia own – and are responsible for – the satellite until it safely reaches its correct orbit at 113 deg East, which it did on September 10. The satellite is intended to replace Palapa-C2 that has been in position since 1996 and is due for retirement in 2011.

Palapa D1 was built without using American components, and was not restricted by the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which allowed the China Great Wall Industry Corporation to be selected as the launch service provider. Latest estimates by Thales Alenia Space indicate the satellite should have sufficient fuel for a ten year service life.

DigiAir Pro

Hot on the heels of last month’s review of Emitor’s G2 Microlook, is their offering for terrestrial TV installers, the Digiair Pro. This is an affordable, hand held meter capable of spectrum display, BER, MER and SNR measurements.

The Av–Comm version comes with Australian and New Zealand analogue and digital channel plans loaded into the memory, making it a simple matter to check levels on any service on an allocated channel.

The spectrum display covers 45 to 862 MHz, and signals can easily be observed on the 60mm LCD display. Like all devices with an LCD display, readability in bright sunlight is somewhat diminished.

There are several different menu screens that are used to display terrestrial signals. Analogue signal levels are displayed in bar graph format showing the channel frequency and level in dBuV, whilst digital signals are displayed showing SNR, pre and post corrected BER, uncorrected errors, MER and Constellation Display. There is also an indicator to show “locked” signal

Is also an indicator to show “locked” condition. From this menu, users simply press the OK button to display MER and Constellation Display. Yet another menu allows the display of six channels simultaneously, in either analogue or digital modes, very handy for capital city installations.

The unit is capable of powering a masthead amplifier, and also has an inbuilt 20db attenuator. The unit is powered by 8 x AA 1200mAh NiMh batteries, which can be removed for charging or charged in situ with the optional 12V 1 Amp regulated power supply. Battery endurance is 2 hours. A 12 V vehicle charging lead is also supplied along with a bright red rubberized protective shell and carry strap.

The DigiAir Pro (Cat # Q 1201) is available from several outlets in Australia.

Av-Comm sells the product on-line for $598 including GST. The optional regulated charger is available for an additional $18.

Our DigiAir Pro

Chinasat 6B Footprint

On Monday the 21st of September 2009 Central China Television has re shuffled the CCTV 4, 9, E & F services to a new transponder on Chinasat 6B. This re-shuffle has allowed additional services to be added to this transponder including an Arabic and Russian duplicate service to compliment the existing French and Spanish service on the transponder. The new transponder data is as follows,

Frequency : 4115

Polarisation: Horizontal

FEC: 3/4

Symbol Rate: 21370

This new transponder is much stronger than the previous and will allow reception to be much more reliable for people who are using dishes on the smaller side.

KLSV-1

South Korea’s indigenous KSLV-1 launcher lifted off from the Naro Space Centre on August 25, but failed to launch a scientific observation satellite into low Earth orbit.

A previous launch attempt several days earlier was halted when “abnormal data’ was observed during the automated launch sequence.

The launch had been postponed on five previous occasions: — the end of 2007, end of 2008, the second quarter of 2009 and July 30 and August 11, due to Russia’s refusal to transfer technology or problems in acquiring components.

The KSLV-1 launcher is a mix of Russian and local manufacture: Russia built the liquid fuelled first stage, whilst the second stage has been designed and manufactured in Korea.

Called KSLV-1 (Korea Space Launch Vehicle –1) the 33 metre tall launcher is the pride of the Korean space industry, arousing huge national interest and support.

The Russian made Angara first stage, can generate 170 tonnes of thrust, sufficient to propel the launcher to the edge of space, whilst the South Korean, Naro 1 second stage will generate 8 tonnes of thrust, allowing the launch vehicle to attain low earth orbit.

South Korea has developed a wide range of commercial satellites, including the multi-purpose satellites Arirang or the Mugunghwa. All of these satellites have been launched by American or Russian rockets. This was the first time a South Korea-developed rocket had been used to launch a satellite.

A South Korean official stated that ground stations had failed to contact the satellite, and that it was either in an unknown orbit, or loss

The “missing” STS2 100 kg satellite is a  non commercial scientific payload, fitted with cutting-edge meteorological research equipment using electronic frequencies to conduct tests on the earth’s atmosphere and gauge humidity levels in clouds and water vapor in the atmosphere.

South Korean and Russian scientists were reportedly studying launch data to try and determine the cause of the failure.

The payload was the first Korean satellite to carry laser reflecting mirrors, to accurately measure the distance between itself and the Earth. The equipment would have been used to forecast seismic activities.

Before the launch, officials knew the risk of failure was high. The Director of the Naro Space Centre, Min Kyung Ju is quoted as saying “ Initially the rocket will be moving relatively slowly making it hard to maintain stability as the main engine tries to push up the 140 tonnes  launch vehicle and satellite payload.

If there is a sudden gust of wind or any other slight problem in the stabilization mechanism, the rocket can tip over and be lost.”

Many rockets have been lost  during the first critical stages of ascent, including the US made Vanguard and Atlas, Europe’s Ariane 5, and several other launch vehicles from China and Russia were all lost within a minute of takeoff, according to the South Korean Technology Minister Lee Sang Mok.

Lee also said that the fairings that secure the satellite to the second stage rocket, were made in South Korea and had never been tested in flight.

The launcher cost US$415 million to develop, whilst the satellite cost 13.6 billion Won to build.

South Korean officials confirmed on August 27 that the second stage separation had been successful, but that the location of the satellite was not known. At that time the spacecraft was 342 Km above waters near Australia, instead of the 306 Km predicted trajectory.

The Naro Space Centre was specially constructed for this mission and is located at the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, about 300Km from Seoul.

A more detailed article on the Naro Space Centre appeared in May 2008 edition of Pacific Satellite News.

Palapa D1 is scheduled to be launched from the Xichang Launch Centre, China on August 31 aboard a Long March 3B launcher.

The satellite, said to have cost US$220 million, was built by Thales Alenia Space and based on their Spacebus 4000B3 platform will carry 35 C band and 5 Ku band transponders.

This satellite has been built without the use of any US made components and this allowed the satellite to be exported for launch by the China Great Wall Industry Corporation. The satellite will be located at 113 E with Palapa C2 which is due to be retired in 2011.

Palapa D1 will have a launch mass of 4.1 tonnes, payload power of 6 kW and a projected lifetime of 15 years. The launch company was selected by agreement with Thales and Indosat.

Indosat, the country’s second largest cellular operator after Telkomsel, has 50 corporate customers, including local, national and international television and radio stations.

With a larger capacity and a wider coverage compared with the previous Palapa-C2 satellite, the Palapa-D satellite will have a footprint that covers Indonesia, the countries of ASEAN, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.

Palapa-C2 only has 34 transponders and its footprint is limited to Indonesia, the ASEAN countries, East Asia and the Middle East.

Indosat’s main competitor, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, has launched nine satellites since 1976. The most recent one, Telkom-2, was launched in November 2005 from French Guiana.

Indonesia’s satellite program has not always run smoothly. Palapa B2 was launched for the Indonesian government on STS-41B in February 1984.  However, it failed to reach geosynchronous orbit due to an onboard rocket malfunction.

Sattel Technologies (California) purchased the satellite from an insurance group while it was circling the earth in a useless orbit, and contracted NASA to retrieve it. Retrieval occurred in November 1984 on Space Shuttle mission STS-51A.

Sattel also contracted Hughes Aircraft Company (the original manufacturer) and McDonnell Douglas (launch service provider) to refurbish and relaunch the satellite, then renamed Palapa B2-R.  The relaunch in April 1990 was successful, and title transferred back to Indonesia, 6 years and 119 million miles after launch.

In the photograph shown at left, Astronaut Dale A. Gardner, having just completed the major portion of his second extravehicular activity (EVA) period in three days, is holding up a “For Sale” sign.

The sign is referring to the two satellites, Palapa B-2 and Westar 6 both retrieved by astronauts after their Payload Assist Modules (PAM) failed to fire. Today Palapa B2 (renamed Newsat) is located at 42.5E.

Here’s what we found………..

The first sentence of the User Manual says it all..”This unit is made for exact alignment of satellite dishes” and that is exactly what it delivers. Our experience with Emitor products goes back ten years and we previously reviewed the Satlook Micro several years ago.

Since that time Emitor have striven to improve the product and the G2 represents the pinnacle of that development according to John Lindberg leader of the development team. Basically, this is an instrument that is faster and more accurate that its predecessors. It can search the spectrum for satellite signals, identify transponder frequencies, check the transponder NIT table and display the channel names being broadcast.

The unit is built into a robust black anodised aluminium case, and features a 75mm backlit LCD display and is powered by a 12 volt 1.8 Ah NiMh battery that will operate the unit for about 2 hours. It has 100 memory positions where the spectrum display of individual satellites can be stored for future identification.

A tone generator assists in initial location of a satellite, and the spectrum analyser with zoom feature ensures all dish parameters can be optimised.

The unit will accurately display the entire IF spectrum, transponder frequency, Symbol Rate, FEC,

The G2 spectrum display clearly allows the operator to identify individual transponders according to

frequency. The search function causes the unit to perform a blind search with amazing accuracy. Once locked to a signal, the unit displays frequency, C/N, BER, SR, FEC AFC constellation, and MER (not shown).