For most of us who may use satellite TV and Internet access via dish, and, it is actually very interesting. This comes from my company and is another great learning point.

73’

Jack

It is that time of year again where we enter one of the twice-a-year seasons of satellite sun outages. Sun outages will run from around February 25, 2023 through March 15, 2023 between 10:20am to 12:48pm (PST). Essentially our satellite receivers will be blinded by the sun for a short period of time (between 2 to 10 minutes) for a few days during this. For the nerdier technical stuff and some specific details see below 😃.

What is a Sun Outage?

A sun outage a natural phenomenon when the sun, the satellite in the sky, and the satellite dish on earth are in exact alignment. During this time of exact alignment, the sun overloads any satellite dish on earth it is lined up with. This type of outage affects ALL satellites and dishes on earth twice per year. The outage times vary based on location and size of satellite dish. Direct TV, Dish Network, Most Major Network Radio (including ESPN, BBC, NPR and others), Television Stations, and Cable TV Providers are impacted by this phenomenon.

Solar Outages | Aspen Public Radio

What does this mean?

Most Satellite Receivers will experience silence
Satellite Receivers with both working Ku-Band and C-Band signals should not be impacted by Sun Outages because the sun outage times for those different satellites allow us to automatically switch around the sun outages.
Sites with IP Backup or are IP Fed will not be impacted as this is only impacting Satellite Signals
ALL VSAT IP Sites will experience brief connectivity issues

Time in Which Sun Outages Will Occur

US 48 States KU Only (most sites) - Daily February 28^th to March 8^th at different points between 10:40am and 11:15am (PST)
US 48 States C-Band Only Sites - Daily February 25^th to March 9^th at different points between 12:01pm and 12:31pm (PST)
Alaska – Daily February 25^th to March 1^st at different points between 10:40am and 10:50am (PST)
Rocklin Eutelsat 172 – Dailiy March 5^th to 8^th between 5:05pm and 5:13pm (PST)
Hawaiian Islands – Daily March 9^th to 13^th between 10:20am and 10:30am (PST)
Puerto Rico – Daily March 11^th to 15^th between 12:29pm and 12:37pm (PST)

Note: The time above is a window of when this sun outage will occur, typically a station will only be impacted for up to 4 days in a row, lasting for a few minutes each (between 2-10 minutes max).
Note: Time change occurs on March 13^th. Hawaii, Arizona and Puerto Rico do not observe Daylight Savings Time.