Wednesday 23 November 2011

Tips on Satellite Radio

By Angela Gymmy


For many years, satellite television had been available to the viewer, allowing you to watch your favorite shows in high definition quality. It is now even possible to surf the Internet by these means and you get to enjoy super fast speed. So, it is logical that you should be able to listen to satellite radio with this technology. Swapping over from your regular radio to this new technology means that you no longer have to become frustrated over poor signal strength or quality. The broadcast quality is excellent and you never have to worry about constantly fine tuning your favorite station due an enlarged sized footprint.

Normally, if you are driving on a long journey, you will have to constantly retune your radio as you travel to search for a new station you like as you move from one locality to the next, unless you have tuned into a national station. This switching and tuning that has been a part of life for FM and AM radio listeners really is now becoming a thing of the past.

On some channels, the music controller or disc jockey will choose, say, fifty minutes worth of music, will listen to it in order to determine that the quality and the order are correct and then let the computer play it over the airwaves. This allows ten minutes every hour for the news and then the sequence can be repeated automatically.

What you may find different in listening to the radio in this digital age is that there will be less talk time, less intros and just good quality music. The disc jockey does still exist in satellite radio, but he takes more of a back seat. He will prepare the songs for the next hour and compile them onto a format that is like an MP3 to play; long gone are the days where records got stuck or jumped on your favorite show.

The resulting binary or digital code is then translated into analogue signals so that your speakers can replay it. This process produces sound which is just about of CD quality. The transmitting satellites are in a geo-static orbit at 23,000 miles above the equator and have a large footprint which is the name given to the area of ground that is capable of receiving their broadcasts.

The footprints that are used in order for these digital broadcasts are huge, and the advantage of this is that you will never have to retune your set on a long journey again. A country the size of Britain needs only footprint to cover even the furthest of points, America starting with two, one for the west coast, and the other for the east.

In order to receive satellite transmissions, you will have to use a special antenna on your decoder. This antenna must be capable of receiving L-band broadcasts for it to be of use. These new antennas are a huge improvement on the parabolic dishes (similar to those used for satellite television) that one used to have to have in order to take advantage of satellite radio technology.




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