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NoReality
02-28-2008, 10:10 AM
Satellite outages
Its getting close to that time of year again and we should all be aware that its sun fade time again, toward the end of February and early March the sun will be behind some of the satellites we watch, this will cause the satellite signal to drop out for up to 10 to 15 minuets at a time, here is a link to find out when to watch out for this. (or when to read a book)

hXXp://www.spacecom.com/customer_tools/html/body_sunoutage_calc.htm

Enter the satellites location (82, 91, 110 ect) and your longitude and latitude (Google maps) select [Ku] select [spring] or [fall] and enter your time zone.
On a sunfade, you'll see the signal slowly and steadily dropping, similar to when a storm or thick cloud passes in front of your sat. The sunfade effect goes away in about 15 mins and you'll see the signal slowly gain quality until it goes back to normal.

When you have hardware or dish alignment problems they are constant or go out unexpectedly.

NoReality
02-28-2008, 10:14 AM
here are times outage times in and around the New York City area

61.5W from 11:02AM to 11:22AM
82W from 12:34PM to 12:54PM
91W from 1:15PM to 1:35PM
110W from 2:39PM to 2:59PM
119W from 3:19PM to 3:38PM
129W from 4:02PM to 4:20PM

These are approximate times and apply for users with 33" or less size dish

Ultra 500
02-28-2008, 03:30 PM
Also a good idea for us BUD users to start think about parking the dish in different positions during the day the closer it gets to equinox. Todays modern LNB's don't seem to be affected by solar energy like years ago,but it's still a good safegaurd to move the BUD around. I guess since the smaller dish required for Testing doesn't reflect as much solar as a 10' BUD,the LNB's survive that short period of radiation heat.

Mr.Hyde
02-28-2008, 03:45 PM
A I guess since the smaller dish required for Testing doesn't reflect as much solar as a 10' BUD,the LNB's survive that short period of radiation heat.

10' Bud Thats one Tall Beer must be fun at parties better than a KEG:D