TWC Today Forums
Present - The Weather Channel 2000 => Everything Else TWC => Topic started by: lfmusiclover on September 23, 2008, 04:02:10 PM
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It just occurred to me that we are entering a (roughly) week long period where the sun may cause interference with TWC and the local forecast. This interference is known as a sun outage. These sun outages occur in a roughly week long period at the beginning of both fall and summer. They do not affect TWC exclusively. Any TV signal may be affected. There really is no remedy either, as the sun's radio waves are simply far stronger than any man made wave. For more about these outages, check here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_outage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_outage)
So you know what this means: its time to be ready to record TWC in the event an outage occurs! If you capture any outage, please be sure to share with us!
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They wont last a "week long period" they will happen for a few days for about 15 minutes each day... In my experience, with dishes 31" and bigger, the outage will only last for a peak of about 6 minutes (Cable headends use 6ft + dishes so they will be out for about that time) while DTH users such as Dish Network / DTV can expect a full 15 min.
Twice a year, in the spring and fall, we experience temporary service outages because of the path of the sun. We call it sun transit. It’s when the sun passes directly behind our satellites and interferes with the signals.
These service outages are minor. The worst case is about 15 minutes a day for about 10 days. Often it only lasts three days. Sun transit can also interfere with transmission of various channels because other satellites, used to broadcast these signals, are also affected by sun transit.
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They wont last a "week long period" they will happen for a few days for about 15 minutes each day... In my experience, with dishes 31" and bigger, the outage will only last for a peak of about 6 minutes (Cable headends use 6ft + dishes so they will be out for about that time) while DTH users such as Dish Network / DTV can expect a full 15 min.
Twice a year, in the spring and fall, we experience temporary service outages because of the path of the sun. We call it sun transit. It’s when the sun passes directly behind our satellites and interferes with the signals.
These service outages are minor. The worst case is about 15 minutes a day for about 10 days. Often it only lasts three days. Sun transit can also interfere with transmission of various channels because other satellites, used to broadcast these signals, are also affected by sun transit.
I actually shortchanged the time period. The time frame is more like a month, according tho the folks at TWC. They cited September 25th-October 19th. Though when any one person experiences one depends on their geographic location.
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The Weatherscan @ Camden, NJ was freezing a few times around 5PM this afternoon. Could this be symptoms of a sun outage?
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Here's a nice little site that I found that can calculate when a location will experience a sun outage:
http://www.satellite-calculations.com/SUNcalc/SUNcalc.htm
Just select the satellite (TWC is on AMC 10 or AMC 11), choose a location, then click calculate.
Mike, that was likely not a sun outage. Here are the results from Philadelphia on AMC 10:
Predicted Outage| Start | End | Duration| Start | End
Date | UTC | UTC | | PC Local| PC Local
mm/dd/yyyy |hh:mm:ss| hh:mm:ss|mm:ss | hh:mm:ss| hh:mm:ss
--------------------|-----------|------------|-----------|------------|------------
10/03/2008 | 21:11:55 | 21:14:15 | 02:20 | 17:11:55 | 17:14:15
10/04/2008 | 21:08:37 | 21:16:57 | 08:20 | 17:08:37 | 17:16:57
10/05/2008 | 21:07:08 | 21:17:53 | 10:45 | 17:07:08 | 17:17:53
10/06/2008 | 21:06:14 | 21:18:09 | 11:55 | 17:06:14 | 17:18:09
10/07/2008 | 21:05:49 | 21:17:59 | 12:10 | 17:05:49 | 17:17:59
10/08/2008 | 21:05:48 | 21:17:28 | 11:40 | 17:05:48 | 17:17:28
10/09/2008 | 21:06:07 | 21:16:32 | 10:25 | 17:06:07 | 17:16:32
10/10/2008 | 21:07:11 | 21:15:01 | 07:50 | 17:07:11 | 17:15:01
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The Weatherscan @ Camden, NJ was freezing a few times around 5PM this afternoon. Could this be symptoms of a sun outage?
Chances are, yes. :yes:
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Interesting. I better keep my eyes peeled during those times. These would make interesting clips if anything unusual occurs.
As for the AMC satellites, remember that IntelliStars use the AMC-10 satellite, whereas the legacy Stars use the AMC-11.
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Yep that would be interesting. And like I said, if anyone catches anything, please do share. They'll make interesting additions to the site. :yes:
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AMC 10 and AMC 11 are correct, while TWC HD is on both AMC 4 and AMC 6.
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The Weatherscan @ Camden, NJ was freezing a few times around 5PM this afternoon. Could this be symptoms of a sun outage?
I'm surprised you're getting the one in Camden... my TWC is pulling one from Woodbury/Clayton, NJ for some reason for the past week... It's making me angry because those cities are too far from me for there to be any accuracy :furious:
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What about Weatherscan? Are you still getting the Camden one, or a different one? I'm still seeing the Camden Weatherscan here in Marlton, like how it's always been, and I live farther from Camden than you do.
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What about Weatherscan? Are you still getting the Camden one, or a different one? I'm still seeing the Camden Weatherscan here in Marlton, like how it's always been, and I live farther from Camden than you do.
I do get the Camden one for Weatherscan.
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(http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u104/wxmancanada/twc_takeahint_wxscan_sun.png)
Clearly I have too much time on my hands.
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(https://twctodayforums.com/forums/Smileys/1/lgh%20%2821%29.gif)
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That's hilarious. :rofl2: :rofl2:
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What about Weatherscan? Are you still getting the Camden one, or a different one? I'm still seeing the Camden Weatherscan here in Marlton, like how it's always been, and I live farther from Camden than you do.
I do get the Camden one for Weatherscan.
I'm guessing I can use the Woodbury one for now and not complain... it is a mere 11 miles up the street from me, yet Camden was only 4 miles from me :/ Only problem is that it says TWC is on Channel 9 when it is not which is why I don't want them to use this IntelliStar...
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We've got a sun outage going on right now. Just seeing a black screen. :thumbsup:
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We've got a sun outage going on right now. Just seeing a black screen. :thumbsup:
I know this sounds dumb, but are you recording it?
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We've got a sun outage going on right now. Just seeing a black screen. :thumbsup:
I know this sounds dumb, but are you recording it?
Yes, but it wasn't much to see. Just a long black screen.
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My Weatherscan kept rebooting and was was showing the boot screen all afternoon. Was this possibly a sign of the sun outage?
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As mentioned on the Satellite LF sightings topic in the "Local Forecast" section, TWC in my area shorted out at 4:07PM CT then 2 minutes later, TWC reappeared. So that's probably it. But what I don't get is that how come the other channels are unaffected?
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But what I don't get is that how come the other channels are unaffected?
Because they're carried on different satellites. All the different satellites will experience the sun outages at different times.
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But what I don't get is that how come the other channels are unaffected?
Because they're carried on different satellites. All the different satellites will experience the sun outages at different times.
Oh, I see. :D
Come to think about it, during one of those "sun outage" moments in 2001, not only did CNBC, TBS, TNT, CNN suffer those outages in my area, I saw a couple scrambled channels blacked out. All I could see was the blinking white squares on the black-ish gray line. LOL!!!
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Sou Outage day three is in progress. Today, it happened around 5:11 pm, and the LDL was already on.
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On Weatherscan (Cherry Hill, NJ), during the Travel segment at 5:10 PM ET, the portion where the segments play turned all blue. Then when the segment ended, the CC/radar portion of the L-bar disappeared, and only the bottom forecast and NOW ticker displayed for a few seconds before the next segment began. Everything was normal after that.
I didn't capture video of this, but I will tomorrow, as we are expected to have a sun outage here then as well.
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Cable up here in Canada is received by headends via fiber now, so the use of satellites is very limited, and if they are used, its usually at one location, then transmitted via fiber anyways.
At my headend, we have no satellites, all 600+ channels come in via Fiber!
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Today's sun outage is now in progress! B)
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Today's sun outage is now in progress! B)
Really? I don't notice anything wrong at all
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That's because it differs from locale to locale.
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No issues on Weatherscan this time. :no:
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Well, its that time of year again-time for sun outages. Let us know what you see! If you catch anything on video worth posting, please do! B)
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Wait, do "sun-outages" come twice a year? :dunno:
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Wait, do "sun-outages" come twice a year? :dunno:
Yes, they occur close to the equinoxes.
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I think I had one today from about 4:35-4:38 PM. B)
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Well, its that time of year again-time for sun outages. Let us know what you see! If you catch anything on video worth posting, please do! B)
http://f.imagehost.org/download/0903/sunoutage-0305 (http://f.imagehost.org/download/0903/sunoutage-0305)
Enjoy! :biggrin:
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Apologies for bumping, but before you come here saying you lost your TWC feed and the STAR didnt go out, just remember its now time for the Autumnal sun outages! B)
Find out the times for your area here: http://www.satellite-calculations.com/SUNcalc/SUNcalc.htm (http://www.satellite-calculations.com/SUNcalc/SUNcalc.htm)
If you have the IS, use AMC-10, and for the XL, 4000, and Junior, use AMC-11.