Sun spots and solar flare activity are a separate phenomenon from equinox outages / sun fade. I also think sun spot / solar flare activity that strong should have effected more than one channel and possibly more than just DBS alone.
AND
The next equinox outages (aka sun fade) should not be due yet. Each last about 10-20m / for 7 - 10 days.
Spring Equinox outages: Late Feb/Early Mar
Fall Equinox outages: Late Sept/Early Oct
This year's fall sched is approx:
Predicted Outage| Start | End | Duration| Start | End
Date | UTC | UTC | | CST | CST
mm/dd/yyyy |hh:mm:ss| hh:mm:ss|mm:ss | hh:mm:ss| hh:mm:ss
--------------------|-----------|------------|-----------|------------|------------
10/03/2006 | 18:32:48 | 18:39:58 | 07:10 | 12:32:48 | 12:39:58
10/04/2006 | 18:30:58 | 18:41:08 | 10:10 | 12:30:58 | 12:41:08
10/05/2006 | 18:29:55 | 18:41:35 | 11:40 | 12:29:55 | 12:41:35
10/06/2006 | 18:29:20 | 18:41:35 | 12:15 | 12:29:20 | 12:41:35
10/07/2006 | 18:29:14 | 18:41:09 | 11:55 | 12:29:14 | 12:41:09
10/08/2006 | 18:29:27 | 18:40:22 | 10:55 | 12:29:27 | 12:40:22
10/09/2006 | 18:30:16 | 18:39:01 | 08:45 | 12:30:16 | 12:39:01
10/10/2006 | 18:32:18 | 18:36:18 | 04:00 | 12:32:18 | 12:36:18