It is time once again for a technical phenomenon called “sun outages”. For a period of about 7 days, starting approx. October 4, 2024, the sun will cause “solar interference” to all geostationary satellite signals. As the sun’s path across the sky gets lower each day, there are times when it is in a direct line behind a communication satellite that is sending signals to our receiving satellite dish here on earth (at the Headend). When the dish antenna is looking into the sun, the interference from the sun overrides the signals from the satellite. This is when a sun outage occurs. The effects of sun outages vary in outage time from 2 minutes to 8 minutes. Once it reaches its peak the interference will gradually decrease becoming less noticeable each day after. The rolling outages will start at approximately 1:00 PM EST each day and should be over by approximately 6:00 p.m. EST.

This will affect all channels except for some of our local off-air stations (NBC, CBS, etc.).

Here is a description on what to expect when viewing digital services through our STB’s:

When the digital signals are interrupted by the sun’s energy, the set top converter displays “One Moment Please” on the affected channel(s). This condition will be present for several minutes each day during the sun outage period.

Just a reminder that sun outages do not affect cable modem services.

Remember, even if the sun is not shining here on earth it is still up there.