It gets worse; beginning in the early afternoon of Sep 28th we will lose the signals from both the Star Choice and the other Dish Network satellites. Let me explain. Most of the TV channels we watch come to us via satellite, either directly from the satellite antenna on our rooftops, or from the cable company satellite antennas. These parabolic dishes are all pointing at geosynchronous satellites that are positioned over the Equator.

During the spring and fall of each year, when conditions are just right, or maybe I should say just wrong signals from these satellites are jammed by a very large and much more powerful transmitter – the sun. The only time the sun competes with the satellite you are pointing your dish at is when it is directly behind that satellite. At such times, your dish is pointing at both the sun and the satellite. The sun only positions itself directly behind the satellites a couple of times per year. During the summer months, the sun traverses from East to West at a higher elevation than the satellite you might be looking at. During the winter, the sun traverses the horizon at a much lower elevation than these satellites. However, for a few days in the spring and a few days in the fall, the sun will overpower the transmission you might be watching from that satellite. As the sun moves from East to West, each satellite is only jammed for a few minutes. At our latitude of 20 degrees north, the sun passed immediately behind the geosynchronous satellites, first during February, and will begin again Sunday. There will also be smaller amounts of interference for a couple of days before and after the dates shown below when the sun passes close to, but not directly behind, the satellite.

The exact time of these outages depends on where you are located and what satellite you are pointing at. For those in the greater Guadalajara area watching Dish Network or Star Choice the outages will begin on the September 28 and end on October 4. These outages will occur early to mid afternoon and will last 5 to 15 minutes.