Having problems with cable reception because of solar flares that arent being talked about on the ne

Some may think I am a little nuts but I can normally tell when there are solar flares by the way my cable reception is. For instance. Yesterday prior to sunrise I had great cable reception, then the sun came up and I lost channels. A lot of them. As the day progressed I lost more channels. As the sun set I started getting my channels back. All night long I had great reception, then the sun rose again today, Dec 30th, and I started loosing channels again. Now it is 1:30PM and I have lost most of my channels again. No news channels at all, no TBS, no FX, no TBS nothing . I have 3 channels out of 300 (approximately). I can put it on TBS and the channel is there for 30 seconds then everything starts echoing and the picture freezes then its gone, 5 minutes later it comes back and then it echos and is gone again. its kind of like a bad CD that skips and plays and skips and plays. I know we were supposed to have solar flares yesterday and I read something somewhere that we have more coming and that there could be a communications blackout for a few days. I believe that the sattelites are being bombarded with the solar flares and that is causing the problem but no one wants to report on it. Is anyone else in the world having this same type of problem?

reply to post by candcantiques

Is anyone else in the world having this same type of problem?

Nope.
Cable is fine and dandy here.

Have you tried calling your cable company?
There may be other "down to Earth" explanations for your issue.

reply to post by candcantiques


or maybe the sun is just in line with the relaying satellite??? remember, the sun is a huge microwave transmitter, and the satellite is a puny one in respect, so if they line up, whose signal do you think is going to be stronger?

that is just reality...

I just have to mention that even though the signal is delivered to your home by cable, normally your cable company would have a satellite link to bring you the signals via cable.

Solar Outage Solar outages occur when a satellite dish is looking at a satellite, and the sun passes behind the satellite and within the field of view of the dish antenna. Solar outages occur during the spring and fall as the sun moves up and down the sky during the equinox. The outages only last a few minutes for a few days a year.

reply to post by Chamberf=6

They tell me nothing is wrong so I saw a tech at a neighbors house yesterday and asked him to come in and take a look and he said everyone is experiencing the same problem and they dont know what it is. Just seems kind of fishy to me that right when space weather is supposed to include solar storms that this starts and when the sun sets reception is fine.

Here is the UK news that is NOT being brodcast here--> Massive solar storm 'could knock out radio signals' over next three days, warn scientists

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

yes, the sun goes through 11 year cycles. Right now it is going up to a maximum solar cycle during 2013, and not a very violent cycle either. just google solar cyles, etc.... you might experience more blackouts, during the next couple of years....

if you are a radio-amateur, or an avid SWL, or a RADAR-operator, you will know how dependent our communications is on the sun, but it has always been. Just as much as a thunderstorm, or heavy rain, or heavy snow can interfere with communications. The sun is but just one more influence on communications.


I can remember giving clients lectures and demonstrations when they wanted communications, and I would take one look at the solar-weather, and just have to say, "Sorry, but you won't have any communications today". that is that. Different communications gets affected in different ways by the the sun, time of day, precipitation, depends on so many factors.

reply to post by Hellhound604


If you can hang out a few minutes I am going to post a video of what my Tv is doing to my photobucket page and link it here so everyone can see.

reply to post by Hellhound604


Here is the link to my photobucket video of my cable reception
s576.photobucket.com...

reply to post by Hellhound604


My question is this. Why is no one in the USA reporting on this? Are they trying to hide something? Is anyone else having this problem other than here in central Florida?

A friend passed this site to me earlier in response to a request I was looking for in radio propagation effects for the "huge" M-class event Fox and others have been going bonkers about. Ugh.. Slow news cycle, obviously.

Anyway, here is a site of tools and sensors I wish I'd found sooner but now ranks as one of my top resources for solar activity. It's dedicated to the effects of Geo storms on radio and HAM specifically, so it does have displays with a great deal of technical data. I've always found those technical details more informative than the watered down stuff made just for Homer Simpson out here. Hope this helps for the next one we get!

www.hamqsl.com...

reply to post by candcantiques


I guess it might be either some technical problem with the relay station, or the sun is in line with its receiving antenna. No idea how your system sticks together, just speculation

or it might even be somebody with an unsupressed engine close to the receiving antenna, or lots of other things, remember, their receving antenna will have sidelobes, so interference in the areas of the lobe, will interfere with the satellite signal. It might not even have something to do with the sun at all.

reply to post by Hellhound604

Seems funny that reception is perfect when the sun goes down, the cable co says nothings wrong on their end but everyone is experiencing it, and the UK Mail says we could be having communications blackouts from 28th-30th

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


If you went to my link you would see my best reception of FOX. It gets irritating and I cannot listen to it so I have heard no news reports of solar flares except on space weather

reply to post by candcantiques

lol, maybe the MSM thinks it is more important to report actual news, than a little solar storm that would affect the satellite reception of a view viewers?

reply to post by Hellhound604


I am actually used to this happening all the time. Maybe 5 minutes here and five minutes the next week, but I have never seen it happen like this. Not ever. According to FOX, since I was told FOX had reported on it I checked, FOX says we will have radio disturbances untill the 31st. Lets see if things get better when the sun sets again. Would like to hear from others that are having the same problem.

Originally posted by Hellhound604
reply to post by candcantiques

 

or maybe the sun is just in line with the relaying satellite??? remember, the sun is a huge microwave transmitter, and the satellite is a puny one in respect, so if they line up, whose signal do you think is going to be stronger?

that is just reality...

I just have to mention that even though the signal is delivered to your home by cable, normally your cable company would have a satellite link to bring you the signals via cable.

I have a sat dish and never in my life had problems because of the sun, but I admit it could be possible

Add: Because tv broadcast satelites are in a geostationary orbit, this would happen every year....

Originally posted by candcantiques
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

If you went to my link you would see my best reception of FOX. It gets irritating and I cannot listen to it so I have heard no news reports of solar flares except on space weather

Actually I did.... You're getting pixilation and buffering problems from a digital signal strength that is just barely capable of still carrying the signal at all during those periods. Go to your cable office personally and complain. If it's like mine, they have their own channels on TV's in the lobby for people to focus on while waiting to pay their bill.

If those TV's match yours..I guess it's the Satellite servicing your Cable Company and the Sun is to blame. If NOT... Well, given that you say it's happening to more than just you, I'd say the Cable Company has some major quality control issues on it's cabling and switching gear, which is leaving it absurdly exposed to cross talk or interference from outside. Either way.. It's their problem by the sound of it..and not yours. Use some logic with 'em and tell them to improve their equipment. I'm sure you're paying more than enough to demand at least that much.

reply to post by verschickter


I am at a loss for why I would only have this problem in daylight hours? TV is perfect at night. I certainly wouldnt think that the problem would originate at my home but only in daylight hours. Someone above noted that if there is some type of engine running near the satellite reciever at the cable company then that could create a problem and that would jive with daylight working hours but wouldnt the cable company be aware of this problem and correct it ? I will say this though, if it goes away after tomarrow it will substantiate , in my mind, that it was solar flares and therefore I hope that the problem would NOT be corrected so that I would always know when they were stronger than normal. It might be irritating but it could possibly be used as a warning sign in the future if in fact it is solar flares causing the problem.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


My telephone and internet run on the same cable line and I have had no problems with them. Ah 3PM and it just stopped. Weird. All by itself. Still getting a twitch here and there but it has mainly stopped now. Weird

reply to post by candcantiques

I guess if your phone line went out too, it is NOT satellite interference, and if your neighbour's system still works (if he/she is on the same cable system than you), then it might be a fault located closer to your house, or in your house. If it happens only during daytime at your house, don't you have some electrical system/electronic thingy that is only on during daytime? Doesn't you cable system have a diagnostics mode in which you can see signal strength, etc? then you can start switching off electrical systems and see if it affects your signal strength.

Originally posted by candcantiques
Some may think I am a little nuts but I can normally tell when there are solar flares by the way my cable reception is. For instance. Yesterday prior to sunrise I had great cable reception, then the sun came up and I lost channels. A lot of them. As the day progressed I lost more channels. As the sun set I started getting my channels back. All night long I had great reception, then the sun rose again today, Dec 30th, and I started loosing channels again. Now it is 1:30PM and I have lost most of my channels again. No news channels at all, no TBS, no FX, no TBS nothing . I have 3 channels out of 300 (approximately). I can put it on TBS and the channel is there for 30 seconds then everything starts echoing and the picture freezes then its gone, 5 minutes later it comes back and then it echos and is gone again. its kind of like a bad CD that skips and plays and skips and plays. I know we were supposed to have solar flares yesterday and I read something somewhere that we have more coming and that there could be a communications blackout for a few days. I believe that the sattelites are being bombarded with the solar flares and that is causing the problem but no one wants to report on it. Is anyone else in the world having this same type of problem?

lol i predict that if you pay your cable bill.......those channels will come back