In March and October, day and night are about the same length. At these times of year the sun crosses the equator and traces an arc that places it directly behind the broadcast geo-stationary satellites that we use to provide cable television service.
This can cause a strange phenomenon known as a solar (or sun) outage. This is a disruption to reception for a few minutes each day for a few days. After a few minutes, the Sun moves past the satellite, and your pictures will re-appear. The exact date, time and duration of such events depends on a number of variables. The degree of interference varies from slight signal degradation to complete loss of signal.
