If your TV picture momentarily turns snowy or blurry, it’s probably from a sun outage. This natural phenomenon occurs twice a year, in the spring and fall.

During these brief “eclipse” periods — when the receive antenna on the earth, the satellite, and the sun are in direct alignment — the sun’s focused “noise” energy overwhelms the video signal from the satellite. Reception becomes degraded and eventually impossible for a brief period of time, usually less than 15 minutes. This activity occurs for about two weeks every fall and spring. All communications providers using satellites experience this effect.

When you experience a sun outage on a particular channel, that channel is being affected all over the country. What you may experience on a channel is a fuzzy signal, sparkles, or total loss of the channel. There is nothing that can be done from a technical standpoint to prevent the sun outage effects. Fortunately, however, sun outages are a short-term problem and end when the equinox is over. Please contact us if you have any questions or watch the video below for more information.