148W Farts????

[HDTVFanAtic]

Was anyone up around 3:00AM Eastern / 12:00 AM Pacific this morning? 148W just "disappeared". No bad weather - not a rain cloud in the sky - but no 148W.

The fact that it happened about Midnight PST isn't lost on me either.

Its back now, but curious if anyone else saw this or called in and knows what happened?

 

[Pepper]

The little guy up in the sky pushed CTRL+ALT+DEL ?

 

[RandallA]

or the reset button.

 

[rcdallas]

Solar Flares are taking place. I believe it's "forecasted" to take place for the next week or so.

All radio communication is affected.

I notice it quite abit on broadcast in the morning about an hour or so before sunrise for the past week, the radio station gets static and comes back clear.

http://tech.dishnetwork.com/departmental_content/TechPortal/content/Home/HomeQuicSola.shtml

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

Solar Flares are taking place. I believe it's "forecasted" to take place for the next week or so.

All radio communication is affected.

I notice it quite abit on broadcast in the morning about an hour or so before sunrise for the past week, the radio station gets static and comes back clear.

http://tech.dishnetwork.com/departmental_content/TechPortal/content/Home/HomeQuicSola.shtml

If you read your link closely, that's a Solar Outage - Not Solar Flares.....I am very familar with those and they are very predictable for my location - problem is it happens about 9 1/2 hours prior to 3am with 148W.

It DOES NOT AFFECT ALL RADIO STATIONS. It only affects Satellites in the Clark Belt when the Sun is DIRECTLY BEHIND THE SATELLITE, thus the RF from the Sun overpowers the RF from the Satellite so you get no usable signal - as the Sun has more than a few hundred watts of RF emissions.

As stated, its very predictable according to location, band, satellite orbital position and the size of the dish.

And besides, by 3am the Sun is on the other side of the earth (and below the horizon) to cause an issue with 148W in the United States (behind its footprint).

148
Predicted Outage | Start    | End      | Duration | Start    | End
Date             | UTC      | UTC      |          | EST      | EST      
mm/dd/yyyy       |hh:mm:ss  | hh:mm:ss | mm:ss    | hh:mm:ss | hh:mm:ss  
-----------------|----------|----------|----------|----------|------------ 
03/07/2007       | 22:30:16 | 22:34:21 | 04:05    | 16:30:16 | 16:34:21
03/08/2007       | 22:28:31 | 22:35:36 | 07:05    | 16:28:31 | 16:35:36
03/09/2007       | 22:27:45 | 22:35:50 | 08:05    | 16:27:45 | 16:35:50
03/10/2007       | 22:27:40 | 22:35:25 | 07:45    | 16:27:40 | 16:35:25
03/11/2007       | 22:28:22 | 22:34:17 | 05:55    | 16:28:22 | 16:34:17

 

[rcdallas]

If you read your link closely, that's a Solar Outage - Not Solar Flares.....I am very familar with those and they are very predictable for my location - problem is it happens about 9 1/2 hours prior to 3am with 148W.

It DOES NOT AFFECT ALL RADIO STATIONS. It only affects Satellites in the Clark Belt when the Sun is DIRECTLY BEHIND THE SATELLITE, thus the RF from the Sun overpowers the RF from the Satellite so you get no usable signal - as the Sun has more than a few hundred watts of RF emissions.

As stated, its very predictable according to location, band, satellite orbital position and the size of the dish.


And besides, by 3am the Sun is on the other side of the earth (and below the horizon) to cause an issue with 148W in the United States (behind its footprint).

148
Predicted Outage | Start    | End      | Duration | Start    | End
Date             | UTC      | UTC      |          | EST      | EST      
mm/dd/yyyy       |hh:mm:ss  | hh:mm:ss | mm:ss    | hh:mm:ss | hh:mm:ss  
-----------------|----------|----------|----------|----------|------------ 
03/07/2007       | 22:30:16 | 22:34:21 | 04:05    | 16:30:16 | 16:34:21
03/08/2007       | 22:28:31 | 22:35:36 | 07:05    | 16:28:31 | 16:35:36
03/09/2007       | 22:27:45 | 22:35:50 | 08:05    | 16:27:45 | 16:35:50
03/10/2007       | 22:27:40 | 22:35:25 | 07:45    | 16:27:40 | 16:35:25
03/11/2007       | 22:28:22 | 22:34:17 | 05:55    | 16:28:22 | 16:34:17

Ok, I have just learned a few things. Thank you.

I came across that link last week in the tech portal snooping around and looked over it briefly. I seen 148 and a timeline for when it was out... and assumed.

You are correct it is a solar outage. I understand how predictable it is now, honestly I was scratching my head wondering how predictable it was, thinking the predictions must be like the local weather predictions, they are never right. I thought it was odd how every satellite had a specific prediction for each state.

I know 10,20,40,80,(etc) meters all behave differently during different times of the year and whether it be warm/cold, night or day each act differently.

It's perfectly clear now, especially seeing RandallA's latest icon. The footprint.

I am only a technician class operator, not that it's an excuse, I just haven't totally grasped radio propagation/theory taking into account the physics for all. I could ask countless questions, but this is not the place.

Satellite is unique with microwave focused purely on line of sight.

I'm not always right, but I do try. This is why I come here; to learn.

 

[lakebum431]

The little guy up in the sky pushed CTRL+ALT+DEL ?

Good one. That really took me by surprise and I about spit my beer all over the laptop!

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

148W Issues

In the early morning of 3/09 I noted that something happened with 148W when the High Bitrate HBOHD 9440 and SHOHD 9430 literally disappeared and asked if anyone knew what had happened.

Since that time, it's clear that something DID happen - as 9440 and 9430 are now giving small errors every 30-45 minutes or so since this time.

I have confirmed this on multiple IRDs and setups now - its literally impossible to view 9430 and 9440 without small video errors roughly every 30 minutes or so.

Obviously, I don't know if the transponder failed and they brought a spare online to replace it - or if they shuffled the transponder between Echostar 1 and Echostar 2 - but clearly something has happened and the clean feed now has errors - albeit small errors.

Also, it seems that the Signal Strength on this transponder is up 5+ points on my IRD to levels I have never seen before - so the signal is stronger - but video errors are apparent.

If any of the more tech people (P Smith) etc can shed any light, it would be appreciated as this was essentially the last place on E* to get full bitrate - Non-HDLITE HD Channels and now as these feeds are errors, the last place for PQ seems to be in jeopardy as well.