Satellite Radio

Satellite radio has in fact been around for quite some time, but it was inaccessible to most people because the stations that were broadcasting were fairly obscure, the apparatus was costly and the antennas, usually in the form of dishes were highly directional, which meant you had to use expensive, experienced installers.
For proof of this you should look no further than bookmakers and betting shops who needed specialized satellite broadcasts beamed to their establishments with the results of the races live.

The difference now is in price and the power of the satellite radio transmission units as well as the receivers. In other words, satellite radio technology has progressed a long way since the Eighties. Satellite radio can also be received more easily nowadays, although the reception of satellite TV broadcasts still requires a directional receiving dish. This is why satellite TV cannot be received well on a boat or in a car, but you can still get satellite radio and you can still operate your mobile phone.
Satellite radio broadcasts are digital so most of the advantages of using it are linked with digital technology. Some of these are: the ability to pick up signals from all around the wold through the satellite network and the loss off interference - that annoying hiss that you often got at night while listening to a distant broadcast. Reception is now consistently crystal clear due to the simple rythym that is digital - on and off or high and low.
Digital only makes use of two signals so they are not possible to mix up, whereas analogue had millions of them allowing for mistakes due to bad weather or / and bad equipment. There were originally problems with satellite radio in some areas because natural or man-made structures would block the line of sight from the antenna or dish to the satellite causing a break in transmission. Typical reasons for this would be tunnels, mountains and sky scrapers.
However, the satellite radio service providers soon came up with a resolution to the problem by bouncing the signal from the space satellite off terrestrial dishes, in other words, reflecting them at closer to ground level, thereby providing satellite radio to millions of inner city dwellers.

Introduction to How Satellite Radio Works

We all have our favorite radio stations that we preset into our car radios, flipping between them as we drive to and from work, on errands and around town. But when you travel too far away from the station, the signal breaks up and fades into static. Most radio signals can only travel about 30 or 40 miles (48 to 64 kilometers) from their source. Now, imagine a radio station that can broadcast its signal from more than 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers) away and then come through on your car radio with complete clarity. You could drive from Tacoma, Wash., to Washington, D.C., without ever having to change the radio station! Not only would you never hear static interfering with your favorite tunes, but the music would be interrupted by few or no commercials.
XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio each launched such a service at the beginning of the 21st century. Satellite radio, also called digital radio, offers uninterrupted, near CD-quality music beamed to your radio from space.
In February 2007, XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio announced their plans to merge into a single company. XM and Sirius were both in debt, and believed a merger would quickly solve that problem. They thought that the merger would also lead to lower prices and more programming choices for consumers. Some people were skeptical about the two companies joining, though, fearing a monopoly would only reduce competition, raise prices and affect consumers poorly. Sirius and XM received approval from the U.S. Department of Justice, but the companies couldn't move until the FCC begrudgingly allowed the merger to go forward in July 2008. The new company goes by the name Sirius XM Radio.

Systems

Satellite radio is an idea over a decade in the making. In 1992, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated a spectrum in the "S" band (2.3 GHz) for nationwide broadcasting of satellite-based Digital Audio Radio Service (DARS). Only four companies applied for a license to broadcast over that band. The FCC gave licenses to two of these companies in 1997. CD Radio (later Sirius Satellite Radio) and American Mobile Radio (later XM Satellite Radio) paid more than $80 million each to use space in the S-band for digital satellite transmission.

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