Are sun outages a thing of the past?

[DJ Lon]

When I had my Dish 500 originally installed in the mid-2000s around the Spring and Fall equinoxes there would be a temporary channel with a slate explaining what sun outages were and for a few days one would actually lose signal for a couple of minutes in the afternoon. I haven't noticed this with my new installation. Are the satellites that much more powerful or the technology better now than back then?

Just curious

 

[RimaNTSS]

No, sun outages are still in place twice per year and do some effect on sat-system performance. Perhaps you did not sit in front of the TV screen at the proper time of the day. Explore THIS site to find out exact date, time and satellite position when sun outage happens at your location.

 

[Howard Simmons]

No, sun outages are still in place twice per year and do some effect on sat-system performance. Perhaps you did not sit in front of the TV screen at the proper time of the day. Explore THIS site to find out exact date, time and satellite position when sun outage happens at your location.

They usually happen in May from past experience.

 

[RimaNTSS]

They usually happen in May from past experience.

No no and no. It can not be May, it is always March and October. Wery much depends n the place of the reception though.

 

[JSheridan]

When I had my Dish 500 originally installed in the mid-2000s around the Spring and Fall equinoxes there would be a temporary channel with a slate explaining what sun outages were and for a few days one would actually lose signal for a couple of minutes in the afternoon. I haven't noticed this with my new installation. Are the satellites that much more powerful or the technology better now than back then?

Just curious

Most of the sun outages that happened on the big dishes used for receiving the signals from all the different providers at Dish have been eliminated because so much of the content is delivered by fiber now.

With the high powered DBS satellites that Dish uses as you noticed there's very little if any sun outages anymore.

 

[RimaNTSS]

In the past I made some experiments during sun-outage periods. Results of one of them represented on the picture. You can clearly see influence of the outage on different satellites. It was done on base of 1.2m dish. On some satellites it was real drop of the signal till total 0, on some satellites there were considerable drop of the reception.

 

[JSheridan]

In the past I made some experiments during sun-outage periods. Results of one of them represented on the picture. You can clearly see influence of the outage on different satellites. It was done on base of 1.2m dish. On some satellites it was real drop of the signal till total 0, on some satellites there were considerable drop of the reception. View attachment 137856

Are they the satellites I think they are and are you seriously in Riga, Latvia?

 

[comfortably_numb]

Are they the satellites I think they are and are you seriously in Riga, Latvia?

Yes, he is

 

[JSheridan]

Yes, he is

Cool. It looks like they're all regular Ku satellites that he graphed which are way less powerful than our US DBS satellites. In my experience C Band is affected the most by the sun outages, then Ku, then DBS which is hardly affected at all.

 

[RimaNTSS]

are you seriously in Riga, Latvia?

Longitude does not really matters, main is Longitude. So, Sun-outage effect in Latvia is more or less same as people in Canada have. Sun-outage timing in Florida, of course, takes place in different time, but not in May, that is for sure.

 

[sam_gordon]

With the high powered DBS satellites that Dish uses as you noticed there's very little if any sun outages anymore.

I don't know that any satellite is going to have enough power to overpower the SUN. For any specific satellite to any specific receive point, the outage is generally only going to last minutes, so you'd have to be watching a channel that's on the satellite that is directly in front of the sun as it relates to your position on earth.

 

[JSheridan]

I don't know that any satellite is going to have enough power to overpower the SUN. For any specific satellite to any specific receive point, the outage is generally only going to last minutes, so you'd have to be watching a channel that's on the satellite that is directly in front of the sun as it relates to your position on earth.

The beamwidth of the small dishes also is a factor as well as the power of the satellite transmission, etc. I haven't seen or heard of any outages of DBS satellites in quite a while.

 

[primestar31]

I don't know that any satellite is going to have enough power to overpower the SUN. For any specific satellite to any specific receive point, the outage is generally only going to last minutes, so you'd have to be watching a channel that's on the satellite that is directly in front of the sun as it relates to your position on earth.

That time length depends on the size of the dish, and how "wide" an area (beamwidth) it can see. A 10ft or 12ft dish sees a smaller spot in space, so actual Sun outage would be a bit shorter in length.

p.s. Uh, JSheridan beat me to the post button, lol.

 

[sam_gordon]

The beamwidth of the small dishes also is a factor as well as the power of the satellite transmission, etc. I haven't seen or heard of any outages of DBS satellites in quite a while.

Again, you'd have to be watching a specific channel at a specific time in order to see the interference. I just used this calculator and the difference between a satellite at 119 degrees vs one at 129 degrees with a 1.2m dish at my home is an hour, with the longest duration 8 minutes. Unfortunately, both sats hit the outage in the afternoon when I'm not home to see it.

 

[JSheridan]

Again, you'd have to be watching a specific channel at a specific time in order to see the interference. I just used this calculator and the difference between a satellite at 119 degrees vs one at 129 degrees with a 1.2m dish at my home is an hour, with the longest duration 8 minutes. Unfortunately, both sats hit the outage in the afternoon when I'm not home to see it.

If you were home you probably wouldn't see any outage. We have channels from DISH playing here all day on several TV's and haven't seen any sun outages in a very long time.

I'm very familiar with sun outages from the C Band days, thank you.

 

[nelson61]

Unless someone moves Earth to another galaxy , they will always be there.

But, if you have a multiple satellite dish, only one drops at a time.

Sent from my SM-G955U1 using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[the mack]

Unless someone moves Earth to another galaxy , they will always be there.

Pretty sure some of the people who post here are from another galaxy, I know for a fact Claude is....

 

[NYDutch]

The few times I've paid attention over the years, I've seen an occasional drop from HD to SD or a switch from 61.5 to 77 for a couple of minutes about the time the outage calculators said I should see an outage. Back in my C-band days, the outages were an "EVENT". Now with DBS, if anything, they're just an "event".

 

[mwdxer1]

No, sun outages are still in place twice per year and do some effect on sat-system performance. Perhaps you did not sit in front of the TV screen at the proper time of the day. Explore THIS site to find out exact date, time and satellite position when sun outage happens at your location.

About the only way to get around sun outages is to stream. I learned about the sun outages back in 1985 when I got my big dish. That will always be the case in the Spring & Fall.

 

[JSheridan]

About the only way to get around sun outages is to stream. I learned about the sun outages back in 1985 when I got my big dish. That will always be the case in the Spring & Fall.

Please, enough with the streaming crap you inject into every thread! This is the SATELLITEGUYS DISH SUPPORT FORUM!!!