[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Between February 27th and March 9th, 2022, you may experience brief, unavoidable interruptions to your TV services due to sun outages

[Steve Isenberg]

Why can't they schedule these solar outages to be between midnight and 5am
when it won't affect most people?

On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 1:27 PM john rudy <jjrudy1 at comcast.net> wrote:

> We should engage Joshua.  As I recall he was able to get the sun to stop
> for a small period of time without deleterious effect on the earth and then
> speed up so Lexington would not be affected.  It would probably affect
> Jericho.
>
>
>
> Luckily the problem seems small; not one of biblical proportions.
>
> John
>
>
>
> John Rudy
>
> 781-861-0402
>
> 781-718-8334 (cell)
>
> John.rudy at alum.mit.edu
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* LCTG <lctg-bounces+jjrudy1=comcast.net at lists.toku.us> *On Behalf
> Of *Ken Pogran
> *Sent:* Monday, February 28, 2022 1:21 PM
> *To:* Lex Computer Group <lctg at lists.toku.us>
> *Subject:* Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Between February 27th and
> March 9th, 2022, you may experience brief, unavoidable interruptions to
> your TV services due to sun outages
>
>
>
> The email I received from Astound/RCN said these outages would affect "TV
> service", but didn't mention Internet.
>
> These cable channel solar outages have got to be affecting all local cable
> providers equally.
>
> Cable channels are distributed via geosynchronous communication
> satellites.  During a period a few days before the spring equinox and after
> the fall equinox, for a few minutes each day the sun appears directly
> "behind" the satellite a cable provider's receiving antenna is pointed at,
> and the solar radiation overwhelms the receiver. A cable provider's "head
> end" site in a given region will have a small cluster of receiving antennas
> pointing in slightly different directions at the various satellites; each
> will experience slightly different solar outages.
>
> There may be "landline" backups for the several major television networks
> (I don't know), but the so-called Multichannel Video Programming
> Distributors offer so many channels that satellite is the only
> realistic/economic way to distribute them.
>
> The Wikipedia article Sun outage
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_outage> offers more detail, including
> the following:
>
> Sun outages occur before the March equinox (in February and March) and
> after the September equinox (in September and October) for the Northern
> Hemisphere, and occur after the March equinox and before the September
> equinox for the Southern Hemisphere. At these times, the apparent path of
> the Sun across the sky takes it directly behind the line of sight between
> an earth station and a satellite. The Sun radiates strongly across the
> entire spectrum, including the microwave frequencies used to communicate
> with satellites (C band, Ku band, and Ka band), so the Sun swamps the
> signal from the satellite. The effects of a Sun outage range from partial
> degradation (increase in the error rate) to the total destruction of the
> signal. The effect sweeps from north to south from approximately 20
> February to 20 April, and from south to north from approximately 20 August
> to 20 October, affecting any specific location for less than 12 minutes a
> day for a few consecutive days.
>
>
> Ken Pogran
>
> Mitchell I. Wolfe wrote on 2/28/22 1:05 PM:
>
> Here <https://www.astound.com/support/tv/sun-outages/> is the RCN
> (Astound Broadband) explanation. It includes the following:
>
> *"The sun outage happens only during the day between **10:30 AM and 5:30
> PM ET** (no sun, no interference) and is brief, lasting for a few
> minutes—from 5 minutes, up to 15 minutes."*
>
> -- Mitch
>
> On 2022-02-28 11:23, Robert Primak wrote:
>
>
>
> Comcast/Xfinity has not made such an announcement. Maybe we on Comcast
> have a better backup system? Something to consider when choosing a
> provider?
>
>
>
> Or maybe Comcast is simply not telling us something?
>
>
>
> I haven't had any scheduled recordings yet since Feb. 27th, so I'll just
> have to stand by and stay tuned.
>
>
>
> -- Bob Primak
>
>
>
>
>
> On Monday, February 28, 2022, 11:06:14 AM EST, Martin Kafka
> <mpkafka at rcn.com> <mpkafka at rcn.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> I received this message from my Internet Provider, RCN, recently re-names
> as Astound Broadband.
>
>
>
> There could be some brief internet ser4vice disruptions  between Feb 27th
> and March 9th.
>
>
>
>
>
> *Astound Broadband Powered by RCN <astound at connect.astound.com
> <astound at connect.astound.com>>*
>
>  I am posting to our group in case other provider satellites could be
> affected as well.
>
>
>
>
>
> Marty Kafka
>
>
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