Monday, September 14, 2009

CABLE SIGNAL DEGRADATION CYCLE

Cable signal degradation graphic.
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These degradations in the signal will begin as a mild interference starting at 12: 30 PM on 9/30/09, with the maximum degradation occurring 10/3-10/5 and ending each day at 5:17 PM on 10/07.
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A sun outage is an interruption in, or distortion of, Geostationary Satellite signals caused by interference from solar radiation. The effect is due to the sun's radiation overwhelming the satellite signal.
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Generally, sun outages occur in February, March, September and October, that is, around the time of the equinoxes. At these times, the apparent path of the sun across the sky takes it directly behind the line of sight between an earth station and a satellite. As the sun radiates strongly at the microwave frequencies used to communicate with satellites (C-band and Ku-band) the sun swamps the signal from the satellite effectively blinding it.
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The effects of a sun outage include partial degradation, that is, an increase in the error rate, or total destruction and loss of the signal during these short periods of interference.
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Dave Israel
Cable Chair
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3 comments:

mag said...

I'll be sure to wrap my head in aluminum foil. That's the proper protocol, right?

UCO President said...

Hi Mag,
Sep 15, 2009 8:50:00 PM,

That might help, but the best approach is to put sun block (SPF 30)
on the Antenna.

Dave Israel

Cinephile said...

I am reminded of that scene from the movie The Cable Guy where Jim Carrey shows Matthew Broderick the secret of the cable: It is a big satellite dish.