Save the date: The EUMETCAST Africa service will move from 5° location to 8° location!

The current EUTELSAT 5 satellite is approaching its end of life and a C-band service will no longer be available from the 5° location. The follow-on service will be provided from EUTELSAT 8 West starting 1 May 2018

The EUTELSAT 8W will be used for the new EUMETCast Africa Service, based on DVB-S2 to take advantage of the better spectral efficiency of the broadcast. That shift has implications:

Antenna Size Requirements

• Continental Africa will be almost completely covered, up to 99%, with 1.8 to 2.4 m antennas. The exceptions concerns extreme south of South Africa (Cape region, North of madagascar), Mauritius and Seychelles that need a 3.2 m antenna to reach a link availability superior to 99,95%.

C-Band downlink coverage

• The strength of the signal varies from 36 dBW (edges of the African countries, the south western Indian Ocean Islands, to 42 dBW.

Future anticipated data rates

• On 1 May 2018: Start of the new DVB-S2 EUMETCast Africa Service. The rate will increase fastly to reach 17-19 Mbps by September.
• On 1 August 2018: End of current EUMETCast Africa Service.

What hardware changes are needed?

• No PC hardware changes are necessary to continue receiving the current selection of products on the new service. However, users who want to receive new services might want to upgrade their hardware to keep up with the growing data rates.
• The existing feed and LNB can be used. However, it is strongly recommended that users point existing antennas following the latest EUMETCast, Satellite Antenna Pointing Guide (PDF, 774 KB)
• The new service will use the DVB-S2 Transmission Standard — all users should check if their existing device is compatible with DVB-S2:    
  • If your device is compatible with DVB-S2 and you are successfully receiving the current service, then it will also work under DVB-S2.
  • If the existing device supports only DVB-S then it must be upgraded. The devices compatible with the EUMETCast Europe service will also be compatible with EUMETCast Africa and are listed on the Reception Station Set-up web page.

What software changes are needed to support the new EUMETCast Africa Service?

• Although the existing working version will continue to work, it is strongly recommended you use the latest Tellicast versions available from EUMETSAT. 
• These versions are distributed via EUMETCast twice per day. Upgraded EUMETCast packages are also available as DVDs: V2.14.1 rpm or debian or tar.gz for Linux ; V 2.14.2_5 installer for Windows
• The configuration changes will be described in the Tellicast installation guides, updated for the new C-Band service.

Source and more information: EUMETSAT