SATELLITE-TV.INFO

SATELLITE RADIO CLEAR WITH NO STATION LOSS WHEREVER YOU GO!

• Introduction

• 100 streams distortion free that will not fade.

• Ideal for travel with no commercials.

• A great variety of programs from special interest to live sporting events.

• The three major providers of Satellite Radio.

• XM Satellite Radio and its advantages.

• Sirius Radio and its advantages.

Introduction (back to top)

Satellite radio is a major revolution in radio that is equivalent to when cable tv came out and took over from the old tv antennas. Satellite radio is the same as a television with only an antenna compared to satellite tv. Satellites dedicated only to radio in various orbits from the 3 major providers beam the waves from their satellites which are all at the same approximate distance of 22,000 (35,000 km) miles up in outer space.

 

100 streams distortion free that will not fade. (back to top)

Once you have listened to the distortion free digital quality of satellite radio you will feel like your eating stale bread when you listen to AM/FM radio again. Satellite radio gives us around 100 streams of high quality digital music, popular radio talk shows, news sources and sports events from around the country. All of this is yours - and it will not fade - in your home or wherever you go on boat, in a plane or in your car to any part of the continental US and beyond - after all satellite waves do not have boundaries covering the planet from 22,000 (35,000 km) miles up in space.

 

Ideal for travel with no commercials. (back to top)

Imagine, you do not have to miss your favorite radio station when you travel on a long trip in your car. If you travel 40 or 50 miles from the signal source of an average radio station the signals break up and fade into static. Who needs to find radio stations every hour as you travel from city to city and lose the preset that you had on the channels you regularly listen to at home. With satellite radio wherever you are you have crystal clear near CD quality sound on a wide range of radio programs not only without static but also without interruptions from radio commercials - except maybe a few brief ones on some stations.

 

A great variety of programs from special interest to live sporting events. (back to top)

You can listen to a wide range of music from rock to classical and more specific music such as Christian. The same is true of news and radio talk shows. With news you can get some of the best sources such as CNN and BBC. Listen to live sporting events from the NBA and NFL. If you are really into listening to radio talk shows, satellite radio delivers up to 40 streams of exclusive original content talk shows from around the country, from general public interest to more specific interest, such as, a Christian talk show on XM Satellite Radio. Its portable entertainment and plug in adapters allow you to use it anywhere! Its yours crystal clear in a plane, on the road, on a mountain, in your fitness club, or on the beach and it stays the same wherever you are in the US and other nearby regions.

 

The three major providers of Satellite Radio. (back to top)

There are two major providers of satellite radio in the US - Sirius and XM Radio. Both companies offer subscriptions for individuals and business so that you can even have satellite radio installed at your business. XM radio was the first to launch commercial service in limited areas in the United States with its launch on September 25, 2001 which was delayed from September 12 because of the terror attacks on the United States. Sirius Satellite Radio is now operational in the United States with its official launch on July 1, 2002. WorldSpace is not in the United States but is already broadcasting in Africa and Asia and will being broadcasting in South America soon.

 

XM Satellite Radio and its advantages. (back to top)

XM satellite radio is the most popular service today with over 1 million subscribers. They provide Listener Care customer support by telephone toll-free with simple easy activation. You can get more information on the service at XM Satellite Radio Superstore.

XM Satellite Radio uses two Boeing HS 702 satellites placed in geosychronous (stationary) orbit. Geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) is about 22,223 (35,764 km) above the Earth, and is the type of orbit most commonly used for communications satellites. The first satellite was launched on March 18, 2001 and the second soon after on May 8, 2001. XM Radio has a third HS-702 satellite ready to be launched in case one of the two orbiting satellites fail. XM radio receivers are programmed to receive and unscramble digital data signals which contains up to 101 channels of digital audio. Also, the signal contains additional information such as the song title, artist and genre of music which are displayed on the radio.

XM is big on car radios and portables and has partnered with Pioneer, Alpine, Clarion, Delphi Delco, Sony and Motorola to manufacture XM car radios. GM started installing XM radio receivers in early 2001 and has invested $100 million in XM. Honda has also signed an agreement for its cars with XM.

XM has the lowest price per month at only $9.99 per month compared to $12.95 per month for Sirius. Also, if you pre-pay on a 5 year plan XM is only $7.48 per month. Some XM channels have commercials but many do not and the ones that do have no more than 7 minutes of ads per hour. XM has a great variety of radio and is the only one (as of 2/14/03) that been more generous towards the very large Christian segment by not only offering one Christian hits stream like Sirius but a Christian radio talk show and strong Christian music programming. XM is in the lead when it comes to peripheral devices and portability of their service. In general XM and Sirius have roughly the same breakdown of available channels with some different exclusive channels which PR folks will talk-up. Opinion on the internet is that XM tends to be more conservative and Sirius more liberal. For a comparison of programming check this site out here!

 

Sirius Radio and its advantages. (back to top)

Sirius satellite radio is the newest player of the 3 satellite radio providers in the world. They provide subscribers with 24 hour Customer Support through email and toll free telephone.

Sirius dose not use geostationary (GEO) satellites like XM but rather 3 satellites rotating around the earth that form an inclined elliptical satellite constellation. This allows each satellite about 16 hours a day over the United States with at least one over the country at all times which delivers superior line of sight coverage throughout the US and virtually eliminates signal interruption. This three satellite constellation was completed on November 30, 2000.

The Sirius system is similar to the XM system with programs beamed to one of three satellites which then transmit the signal to the ground where radio receivers can pick up one of the channels within the signal. Like XM, signals are beamed to ground repeaters in urban areas so that the signal cannot be blocked by buildings just like local radio waves cannot. Sirius is concentrating on the car radio market unlike XM which is also big in portables. Sirius has agreements with manufacturers to install receivers on Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Volvo, Mazda, Land Rover, Dodge, Jeep, MINI, Volkswagen, Audi, Nissan, and Infiniti vehicles, along with trucks from Freightliner and Sterling. Sirius also offers an adapter that allows conventional car radios to receive satellite signals.

Sirius delivers 103 streams with no premium streams available. They provide uninterrupted, commercial free music unlike XM which does have a small amount of commercials. They provide 60 streams of music produced by "in-house" stream jockeys with exclusive interviews and performances from top artists and today's emerging talent in the music industry. Sirius beams 40 streams of talk radio with unique content programming. XM has a slight edge on Sirius in terms of the number of music streams but Sirius has a stronger non music lineup. Sirius has more sports programming diversity than XM although both have lots of sports. Sirius is a little better than XM in widely divergent news offerings such as NPR, PRI, and World News Network, in addition to the usual news channels such as CNN, FOX, CNBC, and Bloomberg. Sirius is also the leader in Spanish language programming while both are strong in the talk category. Sirius tends to have a liberal political leaning in their streams while XM has a more conservative leaning.

 

 

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The Author :
David J. Thomson is the author and publisher of http://www.Satelliite-Tv.info - a one stop information source for Satellite Internet, DSL Internet and Free Satellite Tv systems.