That time of the year is coming around again soon, site has been updated:
http://www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/suninterference.php
http://www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/suninterference.php
Sun Outage Calculator Update
- Thread starter phlatwound
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In case anyone new is reading, it's worth pointing out that this is also the time of year to do a site survey if you have a lot of trees or other obstacles that make it tricky to choose a location for the dish. Since the sun tracks along the same elevation as the satellites, all you have to do (on the spring and fall days identified) is watch the shadows and pay attention to the time of day to know if you have line of sight. I will be doing some rechecks at my place come next month.
Might be time to get some of those tree limbs cut back in the yard. This will help identify the ones that need to go immediately.
I did my site survey last Fall, planning ahead for the day I was going to put up a dish for 30°W. I finally got around to putting it up a couple of weeks ago, and the signal comes in great. Glad I did the site survey to verify the location would be optimal.
Good to know. Been trying to get 97 and 99 in the back yard. Might have to sticky this as the date comes closer.
I have also made a tool at www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/sunoutagestatus.php which can plot the area affected by potential sun interference as it happens.
Does not work well in MSIE8 or older but as long as 60s or 30s updates is used it seems to work in most browsers.
Here is screenshots from 110W 7 October 12:10 PDT:
Here is screenshots from 119W 7 October 12:50 PDT:
Does not work well in MSIE8 or older but as long as 60s or 30s updates is used it seems to work in most browsers.
Here is screenshots from 110W 7 October 12:10 PDT:
Here is screenshots from 119W 7 October 12:50 PDT:
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Thanks for that, very nice work.
Just another reminder, my outages start day after tomorrow.
Thanks for all the information. I only understand about 10% of it, but I went out and looked at where I was trying to relocate my C band dish, and sunrise this morning ---- the sun was blocked by the house/barn by over 8 feet! I am SO GLAD I had so much trouble getting the building forms ready that I had not gotten the concrete yet (getting 2 truck loads of ready mix and was going to do my pole at the same time.) And then... a new neighbor came by, towing a trailer with an auger rig used for setting telephone poles. He will come over and bore me a 8 inch diameter hole 6 feet deep, where it needs to be! Sure beats filling a 4 foot by 3 foot hole with ready mix!
the times must be off by a smidge.
It said today between 16:08 & 16:19 I'd have issues with 137W.....I trimmed some branches today (shhhhh thats the advantage of being the only one around in the complex) so I lined up the big dish.....16:14 was the "peak" time so it looked good.
16:30 still barely a signal on 137W the Luken mux. Nothing on the Alaska mux
Finally got it back about 5 minutes or so....20 minutes after the supposed "end"
It said today between 16:08 & 16:19 I'd have issues with 137W.....I trimmed some branches today (shhhhh thats the advantage of being the only one around in the complex) so I lined up the big dish.....16:14 was the "peak" time so it looked good.
16:30 still barely a signal on 137W the Luken mux. Nothing on the Alaska mux
Finally got it back about 5 minutes or so....20 minutes after the supposed "end"
Dish size greatly affects the duration of the outage. A smaller dish with the wider beam will be affected much longer than a larger dish with a tighter beam pattern and higher attenuation of off axis signals (or noise).
That sun outage calculator was really useful today. I typed in my address and found out the times corresponding to when the sun was in line with each satellite. As the day progressed, I took pictures of my yard to see which areas had sun shining on the yard at whatever particular time. I think I found a good spot where I can get 50W to 107.3W. The first pictures shows the sun shining at 72W, and the second picture shows the sun shining at 103W. I think I'll set the dish just to the right side of the swing in the picture.
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You can also use dishpointer.com, and place the "x" on the exact spot you want to place your dish. Then, play around with the different sat choices, and see which way the beam goes. That way you can check if moving it even a few more feet one way or the other will help. I would also suggest putting it UP about 6-7 feet minimum, to make sure you don't get any roof shading. They also have a checkbox you can check, and then you can move a pointer to any nearby trees, to see the heights where it'll properly clear the sat beam. That is, if you know about how tall your trees (if any) are. I dropped some of mine, and then measured them. That way I have a very good idea how tall the still standing ones are.
A well-known recurring Saturday feed (rhymes with Jet) has a warning to their cinema viewers about the possibility of a solar outage during the performance 
...
I *think* I'm going to be safe here in New Orleans, however it will be close. Outage for my size dish is supposed to start tomorrow. Perhaps it will have some effect today, hopefully not.
...I *think* I'm going to be safe here in New Orleans, however it will be close. Outage for my size dish is supposed to start tomorrow. Perhaps it will have some effect today, hopefully not.
Strange thing. I tracked the sun today and no picture loss on Ku band @ 72W. Supposed to be peak time of year for me and all I get is 30% signal loss and picture stays rock solid. I remember the c-band days when I would loose the picture for 10-15 minutes. I'm tracking with 76cm ku dish.
Sure did loose the signal on c-band. Tracked the sun to SES-2 and lost signal completely for 10 minutes. Just like the good old days of analog c-band.
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