On Aug 29, 3:57*am, "Dave" wrote:
"Art Unwin" wrote in message

...

Aussiland television was turned off for a short while yesterday.
Statement made that there was a sunburst aproaching the satellites!
They were only off for a short while but it would appear the sunspot
cycle has become alive!

no solar activity... eclipse season maybe? *for a short time each spring and
fall geostationary satellites happen to line up with the sun's path,
stations that have no backup satellite may lose signal when their satellite
lines up with the sun for a few minutes and the sun's noise blocks the
satellite signal.

Exactly right. Back in 1986, I worked for a bank data processing
service in Bellevue, WA. I set up a leased data line between our site
and two banks in Hawaii. The line went to San Francisco then via
satellite to Hawaii. Twice a year the service was stopped for about
1/2 hour while the sun passed through the focus of the satellite dish
in Hawaii. I don't think it affected the SF end of the link. AT&T
always called to warn of the disruption.

Paul