Sun Outages

We’re currently experiencing intermittent Sun Outages which may affect TV service in Hawaii. The Sun Outage is expected to affect Hawaii from 3/3/21 - 3/13/21.

Sun Outages or Solar interference occurs every February/March and September/October of each year, and results in the degradation or loss of satellite signal for short periods of time each day for about one week.

Solar interference is an inherent part of satellite operations. The effects will be seen on most channels and will occur during various times of the day. Interruptions can last from just a few minutes to up to 15 minutes a day and can range from mild to severe.

A Sun Outage takes place when the orbital positions of the satellite and the sun are in one line. The earth station receives signals from both, but the more powerful sun rays subdue the desired signal, causing a loss of service. Since Hawaiian Telcom receives our signal from a variety of satellites, the Solar Outages can occur at different times on different channels.

Unfortunately, there is technically nothing we can do to prevent sun outages from occurring. Each satellite service that TV providers receive signals from will experience this interference. The best advice we can offer when experiencing this phenomenon is to be patient while the sun outage passes naturally. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Service Impacts

You may see sparkles in the first days of the sun outage time-frame. Service may gradually deteriorate to the point of total outage. Some channels will experience blocks or freeze frames in the picture before and after the peak times. These are the channels we receive digitally from the satellite.

Once it reaches peak, the interference gradually decreases and becomes less noticeable each day after the peak. Unfortunately, there is technically nothing that can be done to prevent the sun outage effects. Note, however, that sun outages are a short–term problem

Sun outages are not TV outages. If any group of channels is affected for much more than 15 minutes or if all channels are affected at one time, the technical department should be notified. There may be a problem that is unrelated to sun outages or you may need to contact us at 643-4888.