It's Solar Outage Season!

[Scott Greczkowski]

Head up... as it happens twice a year we are coming into Solar Flare season. The next one is coming up this week starting on Wednesday September 29, 2010 and continue to October 15, 2010.

Not only will the outage temporarly knock out your satelite signal at your home for up to a few minutes, but DISH Network expects to lost channels that they get from satellite as well.

A friend of mine from DISH has sent over a 171 page document showing the expected outage time for each channel they receive, so I am passing it along...

So over the next few days if you lose a channel for a few minutes, chances are good nothing is wrong and its just due to this solar flare activity.

Thanks for being SatelliteGuys!

 

[The Meal]

That Sunday afternoon outage (including NFLRZ) is going to annoy some people. (I'm off backpacking this weekend, so no worries for me...)

 

[TheKrell]

Unless those times correspond to provider downlink satellites passing in front of the solar disk, I say "It's more like Dish Knave season!"

 

[Jim S.]

Here we go again... It's got nothing to do with solar flares (or sunspots). The sun is emitting radio waves all the time, it would interfere with satellites whenever it's behind the Clark Belt regardless of how active or inactive it is at the moment.

 

[navychop]

Yes, it's the line up of the celestial bodies and satellites. And there's pretty much flares all the time. But it's a shorthand way of speaking and we all understand it means we may lose some reception.

 

[tvropro]

We always called it sun outage on c-band. The sun lines up with the bird and emits solar noise that is stronger than the satellite, thus overpowering its signal with noise.

 

[pabeader]

sorry Scott, i was worried that SOME folks would call you on that one

 

[Dah-Henny]

I like this time of year. I like to trace the belt, as the sun travels, with my own eyes, and see exactly how low on the horizon I can get LOS. October 7th-ish is the sweet spot for my location.

 

[radtech]

I like this time of year. I like to trace the belt, as the sun travels, with my own eyes, and see exactly how low on the horizon I can get LOS. October 7th-ish is the sweet spot for my location.

Yes, me too! I have some doubts about my LOS to the Sat 129. I hope we have a sunny day on October 8th and 9th at 4:40pm local time here, so I can see where the satellite is.

Ed

 

[jorossian]

Is there a good centralized website where can i get information on what days and times I can use the sun as a LOS tool for each individual satellite from a particular lat/long during this cycle?

It would be a huge help for finding a new mounting location behind some trees in my yard before winter hits. Much appreciated if anyone can point me in the right direction.

 

[peano]

Is there a good centralized website where can i get information on what days and times I can use the sun as a LOS tool for each individual satellite from a particular lat/long during this cycle?

I use this:

Place satellite dish using sun or moon

 

[jorossian]

thanks peano

 

[tvropro]

I like this time of year. I like to trace the belt, as the sun travels, with my own eyes, and see exactly how low on the horizon I can get LOS. October 7th-ish is the sweet spot for my location.

Actually if the sun shines on your location, proposed or current (as it lines up with that bird) you will be fully illuminated.

 

[Beef4Me]

Here's the site.

Sun Outage Calculator

 

[whatchel1]

Here's the site.

Sun Outage Calculator

KEWL I like the fact that it give az el for all the sats.

 

[jorossian]

Peano and Beef4me

thanks guys. These sites have been perfect. I'm all set to check all the LOS locations I need next week thanks to you guys. The 2 sites' results match up exactly. Peano's site works great with windows with a recently updated Java virtual machine but doesn't work in Ubuntu Linux. I was grateful to find that the link Beef4me gave works perfectly on Linux.

Kudos guys

 

[ml460]

Lost Signal

I live in Mexico and I have lost all of my signals on 119, my antenna is a 1.8 meter dish. Just a week ago, I had transponders 21,20, 16, 13,12,8 but they were weak signals but enough to have TV. Do you think the Solar Flares has anything to do with me losing my signals this week.

Thanks

 

[pabeader]

no

 

[whatchel1]

I live in Mexico and I have lost all of my signals on 119, my antenna is a 1.8 meter dish. Just a week ago, I had transponders 21,20, 16, 13,12,8 but they were weak signals but enough to have TV. Do you think the Solar Flares has anything to do with me losing my signals this week.

Thanks

Solar activity has nothing to do w/ it. You need a 2.4 m to pick up most anything from where you live.

 

[sca]

as an installer this has never affected me. guess i'm lucky.