Lost 2d signals last two days at same time

[Gefiltefish]

It has just happened again. As yesterday all 2d signals lost for half an hour (1130 here in Spain). Any similar experiences around?

 

[Analoguesat]

Solar outages. Its the time of the year when the sun passes behind the satellite arc (March and October) It will happen at the same time for the next week or so, and then again in 6 months time..

The sun is a giant microwave radiator and it swamps the feeble downlinks fom the satellites.

 

[Analoguesat]

2D will be the weakest signal in Spain, so the one most easily affected.

 

[Gefiltefish]

Thanks for this, AnalogueSat. Would be nice to think this also explains why my remote control no longer works the garage door!

 

[Analoguesat]

Thats more likely to be flat batteries

Actually, you can track the satellite arc using the sun at this time of year. A couple of years ago I followed the sun round the arc watching the outages on each satellite

The sun is due south at 1200GMT and moves 15 degrees an hour or 1 degree every 4 minutes.

So using this info you can align the dish onto any satellite slot by aligning the dish at the appropriate time.

Theoretical GMT times are below (although exact times depend on your latitude and longitude)

60E at 0800
45E at 0900
30E at 1000
15E at 1100
0E at 1200
15W at 1300
30W at 1400
45W at 1500
60W at 1600

fill in slots between these by using the one degree every 4 minutes rule

You can find exact times for your latitude / longitude here.

 

[jno]

This probably explains why Arabsat at 26e all died for a short while this morning - crazy! It came on again after about an hour and a half.

 

[makum101]

Solar outages. Its the time of the year when the sun passes behind the satellite arc (March and October) It will happen at the same time for the next week or so, and then again in 6 months time..

The sun is a giant microwave radiator and it swamps the feeble downlinks fom the satellites.

Now that explains it...
We also lost D signal last week most days at 10:30am (11:30 mainland spain time) on our 3.1M dish in Tenerife for about 10 mins each day.