# Solar Outage Time is less than a month away...



## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Here's a calculator that I found to figure when it will happen in your area.
http://www.satellite-calculations.com/SUNcalc/SUNcalc.htm
Fill in the required info and it creates a chart for you tellng you when you will be effected.


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

Cool, thanks for the link.

This one is much easier to read/use than some of the others I have seen.

Looks like beginning of October for me in MN


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

Nice find, will add it to the EKB Solar Outages page.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

BobaBird said:


> Nice find, will add it to the EKB Solar Outages page.


As I would say when *I* lived in Minnesota, Gopher it.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Grentz said:


> Looks like beginning of October for me in MN


Where in Minnesnowta?


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## mraviator (Aug 25, 2008)

Newbie here needing to get satellite TV in a couple of weeks when I move to a new house (going with Dish I've decided...).....

How does the solar outage affect satellite TV reception? 

Thanks


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

mraviator said:


> Newbie here needing to get satellite TV in a couple of weeks when I move to a new house (going with Dish I've decided...).....
> 
> How does the solar outage affect satellite TV reception?
> 
> Thanks


Most people don't even notice it to be honest. Worst case scenario, you lose signal for up to 10-15 minutes, once a day for about a week. This happens in March and October.

What basically happens is that during this time the sun is exactly where the satellites are, and "overloads" the dish. No damage or anything, just loss of signal. I'm in Cincinnati and it happens about 2:30 or so, depending on the satellite. I wouldn't worry about it. On the bright side, if you are looking at getting satellite, it is an easy way (with precautions) to see if you have clear line of sight, since the sun will mark the approximate location of the satellite.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

The interesting thing about solar outages is that you can sometimes track the sun across the sky as it effects the satellites that Dish or Directv receive from. Solar outages effect their receive dishes also, although, with the current generation of more powerful satellites this is less of a problem than it used to be. The typical symptoms are static lines across the picture, starting as barely noticeable and increasing as the sun moves closer to the center of the focal point then fading again. With my old C-band dish I could track the sun across the sky and watch each successive satellite fade out and back (if I really wanted to). :lol: I haven't actually checked for solar outages in years on my Dish system, but I know a few years ago it was quite noticeable.


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## NorfolkBruh (Jun 9, 2007)

I used to track the outages via my old C band dish too but then my grandma (a wise ole 95 year old lady!) asked me what I was doing and I told her. She gave me the weirdest look and said, "oh yeah... I do the same thing only I go out on the porch! You youngin's!" Then walked off just shaking her head! lololol

Norfolk



Richard King said:


> The interesting thing about solar outages is that you can sometimes track the sun across the sky as it effects the satellites that Dish or Directv receive from. Solar outages effect their receive dishes also, although, with the current generation of more powerful satellites this is less of a problem than it used to be. The typical symptoms are static lines across the picture, starting as barely noticeable and increasing as the sun moves closer to the center of the focal point then fading again. With my old C-band dish I could track the sun across the sky and watch each successive satellite fade out and back (if I really wanted to). :lol: I haven't actually checked for solar outages in years on my Dish system, but I know a few years ago it was quite noticeable.


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## Christopher Gould (Jan 14, 2007)

i have had D* for 10 years and i have only seen the sorry solar outage card come up one time.


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