Sun Outages are a good example of how Mother Nature and technology can conflict - and Mother Nature wins.
Good sailors rely on the sun for many things. In this case, though, the sun is the villain, causing what we call "sun outages" for about two weeks every Spring and Fall.
Here's what happens: As the sun's path across the sky gets lower, it occasionally comes into a direct line behind a communications satellite sending signals to satellite dishes here on Earth. The dish antenna is looking into the sun, trying to find a signal but solar interference is often stronger than the signal and that's when you'll experience a sun outage.
The good news is that sun outages usually happen only in February & March and September & October for a period of about 15 days each season and only about 15 minutes at a time. Outages will usually occur from late morning through mid-afternoon. Sun outages can be minimal or total and once they reach their peak, the interference will become less noticeable each day.
Here's what you'll see: During the first few days of a sun outage period, you may experience "sparkles" in your picture. These will gradually worsen to the point of a total outage. Some channels - those we receive digitally from satellites - may experience blocks or "freeze frames" in the picture. After the sun outages reach their peak, the effects will decrease every day
The bad news is that there isn't any technical remedy. All we can do is apologize for the inconvenience and ask you for your patience until the sun outage is over.
