Effect of sun outages on satellites: In March / April and September / October, day and night are about the same length. At these times of year, the sun crosses the equator and it traces an arc that places it directly behind the broadcast geostationary satellites. This can cause a strange phenomenon known as a solar (or sun) outage which typically lasts for about 10 days. This is a disruption to satellite reception for a few minutes each day for a few days.
The exact date, time and duration of such events depends on the receiver site location, the satellite in question, the size of the dish on your house, the station keeping accuracy of the satellite and how accurate your dish points at the satellites. This does not harm the satellites, receivers or modems. No service call is necessary.
What a customer sees:
During sun outages, most customers have good reception. Some customers may see static or a dropped connection. Solar noise occurs only during daylight hours, in March / April and September / October. Solar noise may last only a few seconds, or up to 15 minutes.
What to do:
No action is required by the customer or installer as the effects of solar noise will go away on their own. During the brief effect of solar noise, signal strength normally drops, but No service call is necessary.
Further information can be found at http://www.satellite-calculations.com/SUNcalc/SUNcalc.htm or http://www.satellite-calculations.com