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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Sun Outage Predictions

It’s that time of year again when the sun reasserts its reputation as the biggest radio broadcaster in our cosmic neighborhood. For Alaskan satellite antennas looking at the AT&T / Alascom satellite the Spring outage season has arrived.


Beginning Thursday, February 23rd, 2012, your satellite reception will experience daily outages between 12:15 and 12:40 PM local time. These outages will last up to 15 minutes. They will occur when the satellite upon which your antenna is focused passes in front of the sun and the signal is momentarily lost in the noise. The outages will continue to occur as late as Sunday, March 4th.

The ARCS multiplex and all associated services will be affected by these outages, including

  • ARCS TV
  • Alaska One TV
  • University of Alaska TV
  • Audio Services:
    • APRN (alternate feed)
    • KSKA
    • KUAC
    • KCAW
    • KUCB
  • Also affected will be the SCPC satellite radio services, including:
    • APRN (main feed)
    • KNBA
    • KMXT
You can calculate more exact times and dates for your specific location at this web page.
Public Radio stations with NPR satellite dishes can find out more about their solar transit outage schedule at this link.
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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.