Countywide

The first few weeks of fall may bring brief interruptions in some cable television services, Cox Cable San Diego has announced. The outages--which affect only satellite-transmitted cable services--are caused by solar interference and usually last between one and 15 minutes, said Steve Gautereaux of Cox Cable.

The interruptions occur during the weeks following the autumnal and vernal equinoxes, when orbiting satellites and land-based satellite dishes line up with the sun, Gautereaux said. The sun’s energy overwhelms the satellite signals, causing snowy reception and outages for cable TV customers, he said.

Services prone to the disturbances include such pay stations as HBO, Cinemax, the Disney Channel and Showtime, as well as such basic cable services as the USA network, ESPN, C-SPAN and MTV.

Gautereaux said outages should not be widespread and that complaints about interruptions in service increase only about 1% during these periods.

“I probably have seen one (outage) in all the time I’ve been watching television,” he said. “Most people probably won’t notice it.”