In early morning satellite operations, several Pakistani channels experienced on-air and off-air movements on Apstar-7 and Paksat 1R. Detailed below are the technical parameters and timings for each channel’s activation and removal.
Apstar-7 (76.5° E)
At 06:46 CET, three major Pakistani broadcasters came online on Apstar-7:
- Waseb TV
• Frequency: 3745 MHz
• Polarization: Vertical
• Symbol Rate: 5000 kS/s
• FEC: 3/4 - News One
• Frequency: 3745 MHz
• Polarization: Vertical
• Symbol Rate: 5000 kS/s
• FEC: 3/4 - TV One Pakistan
• Frequency: 3745 MHz
• Polarization: Vertical
• Symbol Rate: 5000 kS/s
• FEC: 3/4
These channels restored their feeds after routine maintenance, providing uninterrupted news, entertainment, and regional programming to viewers across South Asia.
Just two minutes later, at 06:48 CET, all three channels ceased uplink transmissions on a different transponder:
- Waseb TV, News One, and TV One Pakistan
• Frequency: 3820 MHz
• Polarization: Vertical
• Symbol Rate: 30000 kS/s
• FEC: 3/5
This off-air action corresponded with a transponder reallocation, shifting from a lower symbol rate of 5 MS/s to a high-capacity 30 MS/s feed before migration to an alternate satellite slot.
Paksat 1R (38° E)
Shortly thereafter, at 06:50 CET, five channels experienced on-air and off-air events on Paksat 1R:
- Al Ehsaan TV
• Frequency: 3846 MHz
• Polarization: Vertical
• Symbol Rate: 6600 kS/s
• FEC: 3/4 - Prime TV Pakistan
• Frequency: 3846 MHz
• Polarization: Vertical
• Symbol Rate: 6600 kS/s
• FEC: 3/4 - Love TV Pakistan
• Frequency: 3846 MHz
• Polarization: Vertical
• Symbol Rate: 6600 kS/s
• FEC: 3/4 - Life News (Return)
• Frequency: 3846 MHz
• Polarization: Vertical
• Symbol Rate: 6600 kS/s
• FEC: 3/4 - Starlite TV (Departure)
• Frequency: 3846 MHz
• Polarization: Vertical
• Symbol Rate: 6600 kS/s
• FEC: 3/4
- Life News resumed broadcasting on the same transponder at 06:50 CET, ensuring its viewers could once again tune into live updates and talk-show coverage.
- Conversely, Starlite TV concluded its uplink session simultaneously, likely to facilitate transponder bandwidth reallocation for incoming or expanding services.
Technical Notes
- FEC (Forward Error Correction) indicates the ratio of useful data to error-correction data. A 3/4 FEC provides moderate error resilience with reasonable throughput.
- Symbol Rate reflects the number of symbol changes (modulation events) transmitted per second; higher rates (e.g., 30000 kS/s) support greater data capacity but require more robust satellite link conditions.
- Polarization (Vertical in all cases) prevents interference by orienting the electromagnetic wave’s oscillation plane orthogonally to horizontal signals.
These scheduled on-air and off-air operations highlight the dynamic management of transponder resources on both Apstar-7 and Paksat 1R, ensuring optimal channel delivery and maintenance windows for Pakistani broadcasters.
