How to determine the time of solar interference. Solar interference. Sun exposure. Satellite communications Solar interference

Owners satellite dishes sooner or later they are faced with such a concept as "solar interference". This usually happens in the first year of the antenna's operation, when the provider itself warns users about the possibility of signal loss for just this reason. Let's figure out what it is and why the radio signal transmission is deteriorating or disappears altogether.

What is solar interference

Any star, including our Sun, emits not only visible light energy, but also radio waves of the centimeter range. When the sun is in a direct line with the satellite and satellite TV antennas, signal reception is not possible. All due to the fact that the Sun creates interference, and the signals of the transponder are corny overlapped by noise from the Sun.

When it happens

This phenomenon occurs 2 times a year - in autumn and spring. It is during these seasons that solar interference can occur. Most often, this phenomenon occurs within 3.5 weeks from the days of the spring and autumn equinox. In this it makes an annual path, crossing the equatorial plane.

In February and March, the interference first affects earth stations that are located in northern latitudes, then covers more southern receiving stations. At the equator, the phenomenon itself falls on September 21 (equinox). The zone then moves to the southern hemisphere. It is the southern receiving stations that are the last to experience the influence of solar interference, which ends 3.5 weeks after the vernal equinox.

In August, September, October there is a reverse picture, because the Sun begins to move in the opposite direction - to the Southern Hemisphere from the Northern. During this period, for each station, the interference period lasts for one week. Every day during this time, there is interference. Moreover, in the morning the eastern communication satellites are influenced, in the evening - the western ones.

How does it manifest

At first, if the influence is weak, a slight noise may appear on the TV screen, which becomes strong during the day. At the very peak of solar interference, there is no satellite signal at all. Therefore, do not worry about this and think that something is broken or the antenna has gone to the side. You are all right, and this phenomenon is completely normal.

What to do

At the very peak of the signal, in the middle of a sunny day, it is advisable to move the antenna off the satellite line altogether. This is done to prevent the plastic parts of the feeds from melting. This can threaten the complete breakdown of the converter electronics. Because of this, aluminum reflectors are very "successful" in concentrating the sun's rays at the focal point.

So in case of strong interference or complete loss of the satellite signal, check with your provider if there is solar interference or the signal is lost for another reason. If this is an interference effect, then go up to the roof (or where you have an antenna) and move it to the side. And then let it have to re-direct it to the satellite. It's better than spending money on new converter electronics. Although there are more simple ways... For example, you can simply cover the antenna with something opaque to keep out the sun's rays.

Harm of solar interference

First of all, due to solar interference, radio stations and television companies suffer, which relay the signal from the satellite to the air. As a result of this phenomenon, they lose the signal, which is fraught with a marriage on the air and loss of rating. Therefore, all self-respecting companies prepare alternative signal sources and switch to them before the solar interference fully takes effect.

The stations that receive radio signals from the Express and Gorizont satellites also suffer. A feature of these satellites is movement in an inclined orbit. Receivers Pansat XR4600D, Drake ESR-700 and ESR2000XT-plus are used to receive the signal. As a result of interference, these receivers can "lose" satellites and start tracking the sun. Therefore, it is necessary to program the receivers for these satellites in advance as stationary and turn off tracking when such a phenomenon occurs. When the interference passes, the receivers need to be re-programmed to these satellites as tilted satellites. All these actions need to be done 2 times a year, and this is an extra cost of effort. However, if not used, then you can simply switch it to Stanby mode during solar interference.

The stations receiving signals from the Express and Horizon satellites with inclined orbits suffer not least. Sometimes during the interference, the data of the tracking tables may be checked. If at this time the controller aims at the Sun, it will spoil the entire table row. As a result, repeated interruption of signal reception cannot be avoided even if the interference has already ended on the second day. Therefore, the controller is disconnected from the network in advance and after the restoration of normal reception conditions, it is turned on again. The main thing is not to miss this moment.

Ordinary users who use large diameter antennas can suffer as well. In clear weather, the sun's rays are focused on the converter using this very antenna. The converter heats up and may melt. So it will fail, and the user will have to replace it with a new one. Therefore, watch out for solar interference and when it does occur, either move the antenna to the side or cover it with cardboard or opaque film. Otherwise, the radiation from the sun using the antenna will melt the receivers.

Determination of the interference time

there is special programs for the onset of solar interference. One of them is called Look, and it is distributed free on the web. The program is simple and even primitive, it just shows the exact date when the interference will be maximum. It also allows you to find out the first and last days of the "session" of the interference. To do this, from the specified date you need to count the number of days back and forth. The number of these days is also determined by the program, depending on the specified diameter and range of the antenna. But it should be noted that this program works only with receiving stations in the Northern Hemisphere.

Interference calculator

If you have not found or do not want to download the above program, then you can use the online calculator. It is featured on the PanAmSat website. However, to work with it, you need to have some data.

For example, you need to know the orbital position of the satellite (you can select from the search or enter it manually), the coordinates of the receiving station (you can select your city specified in the list), frequency range, antenna diameter, season. If you have all these data, you need to enter them into the online calculator and click "Calculate". The program will show the start and end times of the interference. All data will be in HTML format, so you can print it and hang it on the wall to always remember it.

Features of working with a calculator

Note that, although this program is focused more on the United States, it works for all receiving stations. However, there are some peculiarities of working with this program:

1. When entering the antenna diameter, you must enter values \u200b\u200bwith decimal places using a period, not a comma. Otherwise, the program will freeze and will not be able to calculate anything.
2. Satellite positions are indicated in degrees west longitude from 0 to 360 W (west of Therefore, for satellites in the Eastern Hemisphere, you must enter values \u200b\u200bwith a minus sign.
3. Also, don't get confused about dates. In the US, the date is written like this: "month-day-year". We are used to specifying the date like this: "day-month-year".

Usually this calculator is sufficient for accurate calculation of the onset of interference and its end. But if you can't figure it out, then visit thematic forums on satellite TV... There are usually topics for determining interference for different cities. Moreover, some providers warn users about the onset of this period and even give advice on how to "survive" it correctly.

1. You can use a simple calculator program look.exe, which is distributed free of charge on the Internet from ftp://mckibben.com/look.exe. It is a MS DOS program and does not require installation. The program is primitive, it gives only the date when the duration of the interference is maximum and the time of the middle of the "session" of the interference. To determine the first and last days of the interference, it is necessary to count back and forth from the received date the number of days determined by the same program by the antenna diameter and range. The same must be done over time to obtain the earliest start time and latest end time of the interference. The program works only for receiving stations in the Northern Hemisphere.

2. Much more convenient is the in-line calculator available on the PanAmSat website. To calculate the interference time, you must enter the orbital position of the satellite (or select a satellite from the list), the geographic coordinates of the receiving station (or select a city from the list - there are even Russian cities !!!), select the frequency range (C-Ku), season (spring -autumn), enter the antenna diameter in meters, year and press the Calculate button. The program will display a schedule of start time, end time and duration of the interference by day. It can be obtained as a separate html file to print or save on disk, for this you just need to click the Print / Save As button.

The program works for any point on the Earth, however, it is focused on US receiving stations, therefore, when entering data, you must take into account some features:

o The orbital positions of satellites are calculated in degrees west longitude in a circular measure from 0 to 360 W (from the Greenwich meridian to the West). For satellites over the Eastern Hemisphere, you must enter the value of the east longitude with a minus sign, or recalculate the east longitude in a semicircular measure to the west longitude in a circular one: W \u003d 360 - E

o The longitude of the receiving point must also be entered in degrees west longitude in a circular manner. For the Eastern Hemisphere, it is necessary to put a "minus" in front of the value of the eastern longitude, or recalculate it to the western one using the same formula.

o When entering the antenna diameter, use a full stop, not a comma, to separate the decimal places. When you enter a semicolon number, the program hangs.

o It should be remembered that Americans write the date: month-day-year, not day-month-year.

1. Handbook of satellite communications and broadcasting / Ed. L. Ya. Kantor.-M .: Radio and communication, 1983.

2. Petrovich N.T., Kamnev E.F., Kablukova M.V. Kosmichek radio communication.-M .: Sov. Radio, 1979.

3. Nefedov V.I. Fundamentals of radio electronics and communications: Textbook for universities / V.I. Nefedov - 2nd ed., Revised. and add. - M .: Higher. shk., 2002.

4. Stevenson D. Satellite TV: a practical guide.-M.: DMK Press, 2001

5. Radio communication / ed. O.V. Golovin. - M .: Hotline - Telecom, 2001

6. Gornostaev Yu.M., Sokolov V.V., Nevdyaev L.M. Promising satellite systems communications - M .: Hotline - Telecom, 2000.

7. Basics of building telecommunication systems and networks: Textbook for universities / ed. Gordienko V.N., Krukhmaleva V.I.-M .: Hot line - Telecom, 2004.

8. Teplyakov I.M. Fundamentals of building telecommunication systems and networks: Textbook. M .: Radio and communication, 2004.

9. Frolov O. P. Antennas for satellite earth stations. - M .: Radio and communication, 2000.

10. Badyalik V.P. Fundamentals of television broadcasting from satellites. - M .: Hot line - Telecom, 2004.

11. Zakharov V.E. Information coding and compression systems: Textbook. Kaliningrad: KSU, 2002.

Hereinafter, all indicators related to ground equipment are assigned the index "z", and indicators related to onboard equipment - the index "b"; quantities related to the Earth-to-satellite section have the index "l", related to the satellite-to-Earth section - index "2".

Similar information:

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Channel One, Russia-Kultura, Petersburg 5 channel, Radio Mayak 27.09 - 20.10.2018 from 13:37 to 14:41 maximum duration up to 10 minutes.

Russia-1, Radio Russia 07.10 - 19.10.2018 from 13:25 to 13:48, the maximum duration is up to 20 minutes. Per day

Alena Mutovkina (Danilchenko): * On the topic of the day

Attention! Autumn solar interference begins

On September 27, a period of solar interference began in Russia. At this time, the Sun, the communication satellite and the receiving antenna of the ground satellite station line up on the same line, which leads to a deterioration in the quality of the reception of TV and radio channels from the satellite, up to a complete disappearance. Interference occurs twice a year, for three and a half weeks from the days of the autumn and spring equinox (September 21 and March 21).

RTRS uses all available technical capabilities to minimize the influence of solar interference on the reception of TV and radio channels by TV viewers. For communication satellites located in different orbital positions, the time of the adverse effect of solar interference is different. Therefore, RTRS branches organize reception of TV and radio channels from backup signal sources locally.

Both digital program packages (federal version of the first multiplex and the second multiplex) and direct broadcast satellites (Tricolor TV, Tricolor TV Siberia, NTV-Plus, NTV-Plus East "," Continent TV ", etc.).

Thanks to the reliable operation of modern RTRS equipment, the majority of Russian TV viewers from year to year do not notice the interference.

Influence of the autumn solar interference on the reception of TV and radio channels in the region

Program Interference period Interference time (local)

Digital terrestrial broadcasting

The first multiplex RTRS-1, the second multiplex RTRS-2 09.29 - 20.10.2018 from 12:47 to 13:52, maximum duration is up to 5 minutes.

On September 27, a period of solar interference will begin in Russia. At this time, the Sun, the communication satellite and the receiving antenna of the ground satellite station line up on the same line, which leads to a deterioration in the quality of reception of TV and radio channels from the satellite, up to a complete loss. The interference is observed twice a year, during three and a half weeks from the days of the autumn and spring equinox (September 21 and March 21).

RTRS uses all available technical capabilities to minimize the influence of solar interference on the reception of TV and radio channels by TV viewers. For communication satellites located in different orbital positions, the time of the adverse effect of solar interference is different. Therefore, RTRS branches organize reception of TV and radio channels from backup signal sources on the spot. Both digital program packages (federal version of the first multiplex and second multiplex) and direct broadcast satellites (Tricolor TV, Tricolor TV Siberia, NTV-Plus, NTV-Plus East "," Continent TV ", etc.).

Thanks to the reliable operation of modern RTRS equipment, the majority of Russian TV viewers from year to year do not notice the interference.

In the Tyumen region, including the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous okrugs, interference will be observed from September 27 to October 21.

Influence of autumn solar interference on the reception of TV and radio channels in the region