Mar21
With all the news surrounding satellite radio, you may be more and more interested in these systems. Whether you want to take yours on the go, in the car, or keep it at home, there are systems that can fit one or all of you needs.
For those who are on the go, a portable satellite radio that works much like an mp3 player is flexible in its use. Plug in a pair of headphones and listen to your favorite music on the bus or on the job. If you want to make portable systems work in your car, you can easily purchase a plug-n-play system so that you listen while you drive through your car’s audio system.
In fact many of the car satellite radio systems work in this manner. Others, however, attach behind the dash of the vehicle and can be left there on a permanent basis. Vehicle specific brackets, as well as universal mounts, allow you to place the system in your car as well.
Home satellite radio systems come as simple or sophisticated as you need. From a plug-n-play option to a tuner with optical and coaxial digital outputs, you can now connect these systems to your TV screen and home entertainment center.
Continue reading »
\\ tags: Satellite Radio
Mar21
This is a brief article on my opinion of satellite radio since I purchased it almost 5 years ago. These opinions are my own, and I’m sure others will differ. You can always have your own opinion if just go out and buy a Sirius universal tuner, and hook it up to your car. Then you can make your mind up on the matter.
I originally purchased a cheap Sirius tuner because I was taking a 1200 mile trip about 3 times a year in an automobile. I always ran through some long stretches where I encountered some dead zones. The relatively new satellite radio seemed the perfect solution.
Once I started using this radio at home on a regular basis I found out that I may have lucked out. I had perfectly good reception in my home town, but when I drove to a highly populated area about 15 miles to the north I couldn’t get a clear signal. It seemed all of the lower FM frequencies which Sirius was using were all being used by local radio stations, causing them to bleed over to the satellite station. I haven’t given it a whole lot of thought, but what are these people doing to correct their poor reception?
Continue reading »
\\ tags: Satellite Radio
Mar21
Once you decide that satellite radio is for you, you’re going to have to decide which company to go with. You have Sirius and XM to choose from, and there are several factors in considering which one to go with. There is cost, which realistically is the same between the two. There is also station selection. This one is a biggie, and rightfully so. Both providers offer a large variety of stations, in all music genres, and they offer a good selection of sports channels, news channels, talk channels and more. There are some differences though, in station availability, so make sure that you research each provider’s program guide.
Another big factor, and this one sometimes gets overlooked until you after you have already signed the deal, is what device or devices do you have to choose from to listen to your satellite on. Each provider offers devices for the home or office, for the car and portable devices. While some are going to be very similar, others are going to differ quite a bit. Keep in mind also, that your monthly subscription only pays for one device. If you want multiple devices, it will cost you a little more each month. Here is a little information about the many ways you can listen to your satellite radio:
Continue reading »
\\ tags: Satellite Radio
Mar21
Sirus Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio are the only two radio services of their kind in the United States. Let’s focus on Sirus Satellite. This radio service has many channels-65 sports broadcasting channels and 69 music stations. The sports channels include news and various forms of entertainment. You can recognize a Sirus channel by the “SR” in front of the channel number. Prior to 1999, Sirus used to be called Satellite CD Radio. It was named after the most brilliant star in the sky.
Sirus began a radio service by internet that was available all around the world in 2006. in 2007, Sirus Satellite Radio decided that they should join together with XM and provide just one satellite network here in the United States.
Sirus has three satellites orbiting over North America. These satellites are where their channels are transmitted from. Also, most Sirus radios will allow you to view a picture of the artist along with information about the song. The sirus radios have several remote controls that will operate the radio.
Continue reading »
\\ tags: Satellite Radio
Mar21
Many folks have been awaiting the merger between XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, as this would bring more choices to satellite radio listeners and give us all more options too. Satellite Radio has sure made waves in the radio industry and completely turned the entire sector on its ears.
Each month there seems to be more options, venues and new shows on both Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Radio and the number of subscribers is truly out of this world as well. XM radio currently has about 7.5 million subscribers and Sirius Satellite radio has about five million. Together they have 12.5 million subscribers that are listening to music, talk radio in news that actually really is truly out of this world.
They both have about 170 channels and whereas many are duplicated some are not. This means if they were two combined there would still be just under 300 channels total. And the merger of this size would allow them to keep all of their channels and all their subscribers would become more loyal than ever before.
Continue reading »
\\ tags: Satellite Radio
Mar21
The most fitting solution for these organisations would be to use Long Range Radios. They transmit HF SSB (High Frequency – Single Side Band) radio waves which does not require any expensive re-transmission devices. The waves generated by the HF SSB transceiver are of two components.
- Ground Wave – These waves travel directly from the transmitter to the receiver following the contours of the earth
- Sky Wave – These waves are the key element for Long range radio transmission. These waves travel upwards at an angle from the transmitter, so that it will hit the Ionosphere and refracted back to the receiver.
Long Range Radios have the following advantages which makes them a better option over satellite and cellular communications.
- Zero Operating Cost – communications made through HF SSB radios are totally free. On the other hand, Satellite and Cellular communications are expensive
- Minimal Infrastructure – less dependent on land based infrastructures whereas, cellular and satellite communications heavily depend on infrastructure
Continue reading »
Mar21
It all happened so fast, and it was a really exciting time. First, satellite radio was considered a huge breakthrough for the music industry. Everyone was going to benefit: the music industry and the consumer could be happy with this choice. New music markets would emerge. Music that could never be heard on commercial radio stations would find an audience. Sales would go up. Consumers would have more choices.
It was truly a win-win idea with a lot of excitement and momentum. It was going to change everything. That is, until the MP3 showed up. Now satellite radio has about as many subscribers, as people buying iPods in one-quarter. How did this all happen?
What you may remember most is the whole Napster scandal, but that isn’t the beginning. The beginning was the creation of the MP3 form of music, which came along in 1987. While the MP3 format was around, it didn’t develop traction until SubPop started distributing music tracks through the format, while also distributing MP3 players in 1999. That year was the year of Napster file sharing, and within two years, Steve Jobs and Apple introduced the iPod to the world (2001). Now, over 174 million iPods have been sold.
Continue reading »
\\ tags: Satellite Radio
Mar21
Known as a special kind of satellite receiver that is developed to detect unencrypted signals from different satellite dishes, Free-to-Air (FTA) receiver has the capacity to receive data that follow MPEG-2 formats. Since this receiver was created for this sole purpose, FTA receiver does not have the capacity of decoding satellite transmissions from DirecTV and Dish Networks. However, this receiver has distinct functions that individuals may find useful and helpful when it comes to television and radio broadcasting.
Description of the Types of the Receivers
The most common type of FTA receiver looks like a typical hardware box and is similar with DirecTV receivers, as well as Dish Networks. Meanwhile, the other type of FTA receiver allows people to receive free-to-air satellite transmissions in their computer systems. By just looking at the appearance of FTA receivers, individuals can already determine its type.
Continue reading »
Mar21
Although many Nintendo Wii’s, Xbox 360′s, and many other toys are not always easy to come by in the holiday season, one thing we never fall short of is Christmas music. Needless to say it is not always so easy to find quality Christmas music.
Many lucky consumers who were able to afford the IPod touch, IPhone, or a decent set of computer speaker will have no trouble finding exactly what they are looking for. Pandora is one website which allows users to pick an artist of their choosing, for the site to mold stations around. Another useful internet site great for these devices is Wunder Radio which links to many great stations. Sites such as AOL Christmas 365, Classic Holliday Radio, 181.FM, and Christmas 24/7 should all do the trick.
Subscribers to Serius and XM will be delighted to know that they have revamped their regularly scheduled programming to introduce twenty-four hours of holiday music, seven days a week, with no commercial interruption, all the way through the holiday season.
Of course we can always return to “old reliable and turn on the local AM/FM stations. Not for you? Around the country many local radio stations are converting their programming for the holidays in hopes of gaining listeners such as yourself. Simply scanning the airwaves is an easy way to find the holiday music of your choosing.
Continue reading »
Mar21
If you are just now making the leap into satellite radio then you face an interesting dilemma. There are two satellite radio providers, Sirius and XM Radio. You might think, “Great – having to choose between only two should make my decision easier.” Unfortunately, it may not be as easy as you think. You see, the two companies proposed a merger last year. While it has not been approved yet, it hasn’t been flat out denied either.
So if you don’t want to wait and see if in fact the merger will happen, you have a choice to make and there are two sides to that choice. On one hand, you go along and compare what the two services offer, not thinking about the merger. You decide which one you think would offer you better channels and programming. You sign up and everything is going great. You’re enjoying your service and you have finally remembered which channel is located where.
Then along comes the merger and that will end up being one of two scenarios. Either everything you know and love about the provider you chose stays the same, you just get more channels to choose from (those that belonged to the other company); or, one or more of the channels that prompted you to go with the service provider you went with gets dumped to make room for a channel from the other guy.
Continue reading »
\\ tags: Satellite Radio
Stumble it!