SULLIVAN - Watch much daytime TV? You may have noticed some minor interruptions in your cable service lately. It’s the time of the year for sun outages, affecting each channel at different times. The range is usually between 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. from now until about March 10.
Fidelity Communications asks customers to be patient during this period. The problem is only temporary. Twice each year, the sun is positioned directly in line with the ground-based satellite dish antennas used to receive CATV programming. This positioning causes programming interruptions as the sun’s energy overpowers the signals transmitted by the satellites.
“Unfortunately, there is technically nothing we can do to prevent these sun outage effects,” said Don Knight, Fidelity cable product manager. “The best advice we can offer when experiencing this phenomenon is to wait while the sun outage passes naturally.” When the digital signal is interrupted by the sun’s energy, the DCT set top converter displays “One Moment Please” on the affected channels. This condition may appear for short intervals during the sun outage period.
Satellite downlink locations in the Northern Hemisphere experience sun outages during a three-and-a-half week period prior to the Spring Equinox and following the Fall Equinox. This phenomenon affects all geostationary satellites. At first, the effects of a sun outage are minimal, beginning as "sparkles" in the picture during the first days. Some channels may experience "blocks" or "freeze frames" in the picture before and after the peak times. These are the channels received digitally from the satellite. During an outage, you also may hear increased noise in your network audio signal, or may lose audio altogether for a few minutes. Once it reaches its peak, the interference will gradually decrease, becoming less noticeable each day until it ends.
SULLIVAN - The question isn't when or if - it's how much? A steep increase in wholesale electric prices will soon translate into significantly higher electric bills for Sullivan Municipal Electric customers. And exactly how bad the news will be won't be known until a study can be completed and the new wholesale rates from the city's supplier, Show-Me Power Electric Cooperative, go into effect on April 1.
The city is expecting Show-Me's power cost to increase by as much as 90 percent on April 1. That doesn't mean that city customers will see the same increase, but they will see one. During Tuesday's special meeting of the City Council, Council members took.....
OWENSVILLE - Owensville Chamber of Commerce members voted unanimously recently to pursue a petition drive to move the Gasconade County seat to Owensville. During a dinner meeting at The Cafe´ Co., Chamber officer Mike Knehans, president, presented information about the three options revealed last month during a report by the courthouse committee studying county government needs. He noted a petition drive would require signatures from 25 percent of the county residents who voted in the last General Election. A measure to move the county seat would require a two-thirds majority for approval. “It’s an uphill battle. The voters will truly decide,” said Knehans. Knehans told the members present that members of the Chamber’s Board of Directors were, “as a board, collectively in agreement” to pursue the petition campaign.” Matt Lenauer made a motion to work to develop a petition and pursue a campaign to move the county seat to Owensville. It was seconded by Suzie Jost. No opposition to the proposal was voiced. Knehans informed the membership that the Chamber was looking int the possibility of having a professional “petition management service” collect and verify signatures on the group’s behalf. But, he warned, “the numbers were pretty staggering,” said Knehans about costs which could reach $30,000. A suggestion was made to contact an attorney specializing in petition law to see if it could be done by the Chamber or volunteers. In a letter released prior to the meeting, and published in the Feb. 13 issue of The Republican, the Chamber’s board sought input on the petition initiative stating: “The board feels this is a very positive and essential role for our Chamber and follows our vision statement of ‘Actively Promoting A Healthy Climate For Business, Commerce & Industry.’ The board feels that the Chamber should adopt this role for the betterment of our community.”
SULLIVAN - Get ready for sticker shock. The cost of city electric is going up; how much and what to do about it will be the topic of a special City Council meeting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 26 at City Hall. The city's electric supplier, Show-Me Power Electric Cooperative, is raising its average rates to municipal customers by as much as 90 percent. What does this mean to the average residential electric customer?
"One of the things we will discuss Tuesday is doing a study to see what the options will be," said City Administrator Mark Falloon on Monday. Falloon said that the city's monthly bill from Show-Me will reflect the increase in April. The administrator stated that other municipalites under contract with Show-Me will also see the increase.
"The City of Sullivan does not get to vote on rate increases and Show-Me does not have to get permission from the state," said Falloon. Show-Me's customers are municipalities and small rural electric cooperatives - such as Crawford Electric. However, municipal customers, unlike the co-ops, do not get to vote on rate increases. The new rate increases, explained Falloon, unfairly target heavier (but more stable/predictable) users, such as Sullivan's electric customers.
(An in-depth look at the rate increase will be published later this week on www.sullivanjournal.com)
Find us on Facebook!
This is so sad! It breaks my heart! I h...
Good job Chris!!!
I agree while its sad this happened ther...
You should never assume with Bourbon PD....
Very Proud!!!!!