Beginning Wednesday, October 7th, at approximately 12:50 P.M., all ARCS satellite dish antennas, as well as any dish aimed at SES Americom's AMC-8 spacecraft (aka: Aurora III) will experience brief interruptions in service known as "sun outages". They will happen between 12:50 and 1:10 P.M. daily through Tuesday, October 20th.
All services inside our multiplex on transponder 18 will be affected, including ARCS, Alaska One, UATV, and the associated audio channels. Also affected will be the SCPC radio channels on transponder 24.
These twice-yearly outages occur when the sun and the satellite we look at are aligned for a few minutes each day over the course of two weeks. They are not caused by sun spots.
If you would like to calculate more precise calculations for your particular location and dish size, visit the SES Americom site and use the Sun Outage Tool.
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ARCS, Digital Television, and The Future
You have probably heard a lot about Digital Television and the upcoming February deadline when “all TV must be digital”. Well, not exactly. Even after February 2009, ARCS will still be “Analog” and your current TV will work just the same way it does now. You won’t need to make any changes to keep watching because ARCS is a “low-power” television system that is not required by the FCC to convert to digital at this time.
The FCC has required some 1,700 full-power stations nationwide to meet this conversion deadline. However there are nearly 7,000 low-power transmitters across the USA, just like ARCS, which are not yet required to convert. Most of these transmitters serve viewers in rural communities.
ARCS probably will convert to digital in the next three to five years, so eventually you will need to do something. One thing you can do right now is check out the TV Converter Box Coupon Program. Created by Congress, this program allows households to get up to two coupons, each worth $40, for use in obtaining a box that will convert over-the-air digital television signals for viewing on an analog television set. Even though you won’t need a converter to watch ARCS in the near term, you can still get your coupons, use them to purchase converters at the reduced cost, and then keep them for future use. You can find out more at http://www.dtv2009.gov/ or by calling toll free, 888-388-2009.
Meanwhile we continue to work with volunteers across the state, in more than 230 communities, to repair and maintain the ARCS system.
Would you like to help keep ARCS going in your community? Send an email to arcstv@gmail.com.
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