Solar Event Affects Radio Communications

[astral]

SUMMARY: X-ray Event exceeded X1

Begin Time: 2013 May 13 1548 UTC

Maximum Time: 2013 May 13 1605 UTC

End Time: 2013 May 13 1616 UTC

X-ray Class: X2.8

Optical Class: 1n

Location: N11E85

NOAA Scale: R3 - Strong

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at

www.swpc.noaa.gov/NOAAscales

Potential Impacts: Area of impact consists of large portions of the sunlit side of Earth, strongest at the sub-solar point.

Radio - Wide area blackout of HF (high frequency) radio communication for about an hour.

[IsaanUSA]

They often mention these things on the news, but do outages actually happen? In my daily life, I have not noticed anything out of the ordinary.

[joncl]

There have been three more event reports since the OPs post this morning, the XRAY event is one we keep our eyes on and yes you will see small outages on satellite here in Thailand and as it says HF radio goes bye bye on any R1-3 event,

For near live information see http://www.hamqsl.com/solar101sc.php or http://www.hamqsl.com/solarpic.php (the one we use all the time)

[Chicog]

Satellite TV is particularly prone to brief interruptions, but I've never had an hour long outage.

[JetsetBkk]

Satellite TV is particularly prone to brief interruptions, but I've never had an hour long outage.

I think those are called "sun outages" but are simply because the satellite moves right in front of the sun so your dish gets swamped with radiation.

The events in the OP sound different.

[Guest]

Satellite TV is particularly prone to brief interruptions, but I've never had an hour long outage.

I think those are called "sun outages" but are simply because the satellite moves right in front of the sun so your dish gets swamped with radiation.

The events in the OP sound different.

I always assumed that the satellite moves behind of Earth's shadow (no power from the solar panels).. and did wonder how much extra batteries would cost as added weight.. Thanks for clarifying that out.