Sun Spots May Cause Brief TV Outages

ALAMEDA, Calif., March 5, 2006 — When the sun passes behind a satellite, the channels that are distributed by that satellite may be affected by what are called "sun spots." These sun spots are not specific to Alameda Power & Telecom, or even the state of California. If you experience a sun outage on a particular channel, that channel is being affected all over the country.

Occasionally, we may experience short term outages on particular channels due to sun spots or sun outages. This occurs for about two weeks every spring and every fall. What you may experience on a channel is a fuzzy signal, sparkles, or a complete loss of the channel. This will usually last for 5 to 10 minutes.

Beware of These Times:

The most likely times that sun spots could interupt transmission are between the hours of 9 AM and 2:00 PM from Feburary 24th through March 14th