Sun Spots???

[N6BY]

Solar cycles are about every 11 years, and currently we are in the low activity phase of the cycle. But there are almost always sunspots, even now during the low activity phase (an image of the sun from GOES-16 about 15 minutes ago is below).

In general I have noticed satellite signal quality is better at night than in the middle of the day. I'm not sure if this is due to the sun or less cellphone activity at night (or both).

 

[Brct203]

Solar cycles are about every 11 years, and currently we are in the low activity phase of the cycle. But there are almost always sunspots, even now during the low activity phase (an image of the sun from GOES-16 about 15 minutes ago is below).

In general I have noticed satellite signal quality is better at night than in the middle of the day. I'm not sure if this is due to the sun or less cellphone activity at night (or both).

View attachment 134586

I have noticed that too, and I have also noticed a significant improvement last winter on the few nights when we had sub-zero temps, particularly on the satellites where the dish was aiming though trees. My guess is that it has to do with noise, and maybe cold objects generate less RF noise than warm objects. Likewise, maybe the actual temperature of the dish and LNBF could have an impact? But then maybe the light itself might have an impact on noise?

 

[a33]

, maybe the actual temperature of the (...) LNBF could have an impact?

Absolutely!
With freezing the LNB (tested wih freeze spray), Klaus Schumacher (I believe his name was) was able to receive 19E in Brazil. There is a DrDish film of that on the inernet somewhere.

Greetz,
A33

 

[907TECH]

There is quite a bit of inaccurate information around the difference between sun outages and sunspots. Sun outages occur twice a year, for about a week when the dish feed is in perfect alignment with the satellite and the sun. It is from thermal noise coming from the sun which degrades carrier to noise ratio, causing signal loss. Sunspots can occur anytime and do not affect communications generally. What happens during a sun outage is if you are viewing signals on a spectrum analyzer, you can see the noise floor gradually come up, then it drops back down. I have seen 15db or more increase in noise.

 

[KF4YLM]

Sounds like feed setup ain't optimal (like Ti said) to me.... Lobes may be pulling some solar noise. Noon PDT at 99w sounds reasonable. If the freeze goes away for a few days, this theory looks more accurate.