SUN OUTAGE:

Customers of all cable television, Internet and long-distance telephone companies utilizing satellites could experience brief disruptions in service Oct. 1 - 20 due to a seasonal solar occurrence known as a "sun outage." Each outage could last up to 15 minutes, although the length of the outage will vary. Land-based services such as fiber optics and microwave are not affected by sun outages. If a cable TV outage occurs, viewers will notice a slow degradation of picture for up to 10 minutes, followed by several minutes of total disruption. The picture then slowly clears.

These semi-annual interruptions, called sun outages or transits, affect all satellite-based communications and occur when the sun is located directly behind the satellite and in line with the antenna on the ground. At that point, the noise energy from the sun is often greater than the communication signal level and may result in loss of signal. Many factors affect the duration and intensity of the sun outage. This includes antenna size and downlink frequency. The timing of the outage is attributable to ground site location and spacecraft longitude. The outage predictions need to be considered estimates by antenna operators. Preparation for signal degradation a few minutes on either side of the outage window is strongly recommended.

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Starting in early October some satellites will be affected by sun outages lasting approximately one to two weeks. Please pay attention to the satellite/transponder listed for sun protection and most importantly pay attention to its corresponding times. It may require you to switch from one satellite and transponder to another. Sun outages can last up to 10-15 minutes.  It varies in different parts of the continent and depending on the downlink site dish size.

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