Attention "science geeks" !!!!!!

[so.cal.fan]

:confused:

My digital cable TV is working weird.......I called the cable company and got a recording...."due to SUN SPOTS, we are experiencing technical difficulties that should correct themselves, blah blah blah".........
I now read on the DMFF that these SUN SPOTS are causing havoc with the signals to and from Santa Anita to simucast areas...(now this is serious!)

What are these? How long do they last? Is there anything we can do to make our TVs work better?

I looked up Sun Spots on google and sort of understand them.....but not really :confused: One of the sites said we are currently in a sun spot cycle.
Whatever that is????

[46zilzal]

heard this one before as it suppossed to be interacting with the satellites, but STRANGELY, have never had it happen since I switched to satellite (which should be MORE susceptible to it)

[BillW]

:confused:


Whatever that is????
Diane,

Sunspots is a ridiculous explanation. We are at the minimum in the sunspot cycle at this time. It's actually the big sun spot (the sun itself). Twice a year the sun traces an arc across the sky that crosses directly behind the satellites and the noise generated by the sun overcomes the signal coming from those satellites. Picture replacing the satellite dish with a telescope. When you look into the telescope, if aimed properly you see the satellite. For an hour or so a day the sun appears behind that satellite. For that time period you cannot see the sattelite because the sun is too bright. The same thing occurs with the radio signals. It occurs twice a year during the equinox's.

HTH

Bill

[GameTheory]

I'm not so sure it is baloney. When I lived in Los Angeles, the DirectTV would have weird outages this time of year. In fact, they would send you something with the bill saying, "It's sunspot season, so you may experience temporary loss of signal occasionally over the next few weeks."

[GameTheory]

Oh yeah, I just remembered that the sunspots they were talking about were not about the position of the sun (being behind the satellite) -- sunspots are storms on the sun itself that cause electromagnetic interferece or something.

Check this out:

http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20010919sunspot.html

[JustRalph]

for some reason it is worse in California.........I used to live right over the mountain range from SoCal and it happen to dishnetwork there.....in the fall. Here in Ohio it happens.....but to much lessor extent

[BillW]

GT,

It is the same noise as created by sunspots, but it is a function of the position of the sun relative to the focal vector of the satellite/dish combo and not the activity level of the sun (the sun is noisy as hell regardless of sunspot activity when a dish is focused on it). The sunspot cycle is now at a minimum in its 11 year cycle and the satellite interference phenomena occurs every equinox. See the attached bulletin.

[BillW]

for some reason it is worse in California.........I used to live right over the mountain range from SoCal and it happen to dishnetwork there.....in the fall. Here in Ohio it happens.....but to much lessor extent
Ralph,

It doesn't occur at exactly the same time. Based on your latitude (Picture the telescope metaphor I mentioned below) S. Cal. problems would peak at a slightly different time than in Ohio. It all has to do with the alignment of your dish, the satellite and the sun.

Bill

[gillenr]

Sun outages occur twice a year - Mar & Oct. They result from your(or your provider's) dish being in a direct line with the satellite & the sun. Your location affects the dates & times of the problem. The size of the dish affects the severity & duration.

[DJofSD]

It's not sun spots that cause the problems. It's solar flares.

These are huge -- and I mean huge, many times larger than the earth -- ejections of gas from the surface of the sun. Sun spots are just areas that are relatively cooler than the surrounding area so they appear darker.

When there's a flare, there's a large amount of matter that streams outward from the sun. If it happens to be in our direction, we experience two effects.

The first are northern/southern lights. The second is interference in electronics and electrical systems. Any kind of telecommunication can be effected. There have even been power outages due to flares.

The government monitors these things. Since it's the ions that are the culprit, we get an advance warning since they travel slower than the speed of light. We can see the flare errupt on the surface then we know there will be a stream of particals wizzing by a couple of days later.

Look at the NOAA web site or listen to WWV for period announcements for large storms.

It may seem like a bogus excuse for problems of poor signals or periodic loss of a signal but it is real. Perhaps not for every problem with a signal but when it does happen, it is real.

We just had a new moon, those that live in the upper tier of states should take a peak outside tonight to see if there's any aurora borealus.

DJofSD

[gillenr]

Solar flares have nothing to do with the current problem.

[DJofSD]

Didn't say they did. I just pointed out that sun spots are a bogus explanation.

DJofSD

[so.cal.fan]

Okay, you guys are making sense, I still don't understand why we NEVER experienced this when we had regular cable....we now have digital cable via Adelphia in Arcadia/Sierra Madre area. I don't have a dish.
Is it a case of the more complex the electronic equipment, the more likely to be a problem?
Another thing.........now this sounds like Coast to Coast.....with Art Bell....but there was a plethera of longshots today at Santa Anita?????
Also....EVERYONE I know, EVERYONE around here is either very tired or feeling out of sorts to being actually ill.....I'm not kidding....this is weird.
Now, aren't we bundles of electrical energy waves? Could we be affected by sun spots or sun flares????

[BillW]

Okay, you guys are making sense, I still don't understand why we NEVER experienced this when we had regular cable....we now have digital cable via Adelphia in Arcadia/Sierra Madre area. I don't have a dish.
Is it a case of the more complex the electronic equipment, the more likely to be a problem?
Another thing.........now this sounds like Coast to Coast.....with Art Bell....but there was a plethera of longshots today at Santa Anita?????
Also....EVERYONE I know, EVERYONE around here is either very tired or feeling out of sorts to being actually ill.....I'm not kidding....this is weird.
Now, aren't we bundles of electrical energy waves? Could we be affected by sun spots or sun flares????

Even the land based cable distributors get their product from satellite. I'm not sure why the difference between digital and the old cable. Different satellites probably would be used though and have differing vulnerabilities to the sun.

As far as solar radation goes, as I said before we are at a minimum of the 11 year solar cycle. the peak radiation levels from sun spots occured around 1999-2000. The sun is relatively quiet now.

BTW the signals at the track are over a Dish/DirectTV type system and you will notice similar interference characteristics.

Bill

[NoDayJob]

Another thing.........now this sounds like Coast to Coast.....with Art Bell....but there was a plethera of longshots today at Santa Anita?????
Also....EVERYONE I know, EVERYONE around here is either very tired or feeling out of sorts to being actually ill.....I'm not kidding....this is weird.
Now, aren't we bundles of electrical energy waves? Could we be affected by sun spots or sun flares????

:D It's simply MOON madness, created by the little green men from outer space. :D

NDJ [AKA Troll #1]

[so.cal.fan]

Bill W....."Even the land based cable distributors get their product from satellite"

I didn't know that......interesting.

NDJ?
Didn't I listen to you on Coast to Coast the other night? LOL :D

[DJofSD]

Didn't I listen to you on Coast to Coast the other night?

Naw, that wasn't him. He was the guy howling like a werewolf in Ohio during the summertime.

DJofSD

[Lefty]

I've had my Direct TV 2 yrs and never had a prob. But the sun doesn't shine much here in Vegas...

[gillenr]

The difference between digital & analog is that until the signal degrades enough, the digital won't show anything but the analog will show "snow" until they both go away.