You have probably heard of the two satellite radio companies, Sirius Radio and XM Satellite Radio, but you may not know a lot about them such as how much each costs or what radio talent is available on each. Many people are tired of listening to regular AM and FM radio stations for several reasons. It may be that they are tired of being bombarded with commercials. It may be that they do not like the programming available to them. On the other hand, it may simply be that they are in a rural area and tired of losing their radio signal all the time. Regardless of the reason, many consumers are turning to satellite radio as a viable alternative to regular radio stations.

Both companies are able to offer you static free radio due to satellites. XM (based in Washington D.C.) has two and Sirius (based in New York) has three satellites across the United States. Both companies offer users commercial free radio. Sirius offers over 125 channels and XM offers 160 different channels. There are dedicated channels for genres of music such as jazz, folk, country and pop for diehard fans. One cool feature of satellite radio is you can see the name of the artist playing as well as the song title. So never again do you have to spend time wondering just who sang that song you just heard! There are also channels for local weather and traffic, sports, comedy, women’s issues, talk shows, even old time radio shows. Soon, you may be able to see video as well as hear audio on your satellite radios.

There are also celebrity shows for both satellite radio companies. Martha Stewart recently signed a deal to launch a 24-hour radio channel on Sirius Satellite Radio. And most everyone has heard that Howard Stern is on Sirius as well – uncensored. Having gotten in trouble with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for his radio talk show, he decided to jump to the uncensored airways of satellite radio. Since his show started, the Sirius subscriber base has increased by at least 2.7 million. If have satellite radio and want to hear National Public Radio (NPR), you will have to subscribe to Sirius as they are the only one offering NPR. But XM is not to be left behind by Sirius. XM signed Snoop Doggy Dog, but the big coop is Oprah. In September of 2006, XM users will be able to tune in to Oprah & Friends. The new channel will offer broadcasts of The Oprah Winfrey Show, O, the Oprah Magazine and programming on fitness, health and self improvement.

All this sounds great, but what do you actually need to be able to receive satellite radio? You will need either a Sirius or an XM radio. This does not necessarily have to be a radio only for use in your car either. There are also home radios available today and there are even radios you can use both at home and in your car. The price for a basic radio offered by both Sirius and XM is as low as $49.99. You will also need to subscribe to a service. Both Sirius and XM charge $12.95 a month for you to receive satellite signals on your radio. However, if you have several cars with satellite radios, you can save by choosing the family plan available from both companies.

Just how popular is satellite radio becoming? In March of 2005, Hyundai announced that it would be the first automaker to put satellite radios in all of its models sold in the United States. Each Hyundai, including the popular Sonata, Santa Fe, and Elantra models, will come equipped with an XM satellite radio. When this was announced, shares in XM’s parent company rose by more than 8 percent. Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz also announced in March 2005 that Sirius radios would be a dealer-installed option on some of their models.

So which satellite radio should you choose? That depends on you. You should check out the stations available by visiting each company on the web before making a decision. Both offer radios at comparable prices, so it really comes down to what you want to hear. Are you a Stern fan? Then you have to go with Sirius. But if you love Oprah, you can only hear her on XM. Regardless of which one you choose, you will no doubt be very pleased with the services and reception of satellite radio.

About The Author

Matt Barstow offers valuable tips and information about satellite radio, players, and services. Read his latest report answering the most popular questions about satellite radio. http://www.satellite-radio-review.net.

Written By: Matt Barstow

Dish Network, and other satellite TV providers didn’t just appear over night. The development of satellite television took years and its origins can be traced back to the 1950s and the space race.

The original concept of satellite television is often attributed to writer Arthur C. Clarke, who was the first to suggest a worldwide satellite communications system. Funding for satellite technology in the U.S. began in the 1950s, amidst the space race, and the Russian launching of the satellite Sputnik in 1957.

The first communication satellite was developed by a group of businesses and government entities in 1963. Syncom II orbited at 22,300 miles over the Atlantic; the first satellite communication was on July 26, 1963, between a U.S. Navy ship in Lagos, Nigeria and the U.S. Army naval station in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Overloaded land based distribution methods had the telephone companies utilizing satellite communication way before the television industry even came into the picture. In fact, it was not until 1978 that satellite communication was officially used by the television industry.

In 1975, RWT’s co-founder and BBC transmitter engineer Stephen Birkill built an experimental system for receiving Satellite Instructional Television Experiment TV (SITE) transmissions, beamed to Indian villages, from a NASA geostationary satellite.

Birkill extended his system, receiving TV pictures from Intelsat, Raduga, Molniya and others. In 1978, Birkill met up with Bob Cooper, a cable TV technical journalist and amateur radio enthusiast in the U.S., who invited him to a cable TV operators’ conference and trade show, the CCOS-78. It was there that Birkill met with other satellite TV enthusiasts, who were interested, and ready to help develop, Birkill’s experiments.

Interest in Television Receive Only (TVRO) satellite technology burst forward. The American TVRO boom caught the attention of premium cable programmers, who began to realize the potential of satellite TV. Back in the mid-1970s, TV reception was the under the control of international operators, Intelsat and Intersputnik.

On March 1, 1978, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) introduced Public Television Satellite Service. Satellite communication technology caught on, and was used as a distribution method with the broadcasters from 1978 through 1984, with early signals broadcast from HBO, TBS, and CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network, later The Family Channel). TVRO system prices dropped, and the trade organization, Society for Private Commercial Earth Stations (SPACE), and the first dealerships were established.

Broadcasters realized that everyone had the potential to receive satellite signals for free, and they were not happy. But the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was governed by its open skies’ policy, believing that users had as much right to receive satellite signals as broadcasters had the right to transmit them.

In 1980, the FCC established the Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), a new service that consisted of a broadcast satellite in geostationary orbit, facilities for transmitting signals to the satellite, and the equipment needed for people to access the signals. In turn, broadcasters developed methods of scrambling their signals, forcing consumers to purchase a decoder, or a direct to home (DTH) satellite receiver, from a satellite program provider.

From 1981 to 1985, the big dish satellite market soared. Rural areas gained the capacity to receive television programming that was not capable of being received by standard methods.

The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association of America (SBCA) was founded in 1986 as a merger between SPACE and the Direct Broadcast Satellite Association. But by this point, American communication companies had soured on the prospect of satellite TV. Broadcast cable was very successful at this time, and the satellite industry received a lot of negative press coverage. Fifty percent of all satellite retailers closed their businesses.

Business eventually recovered, but the illegal theft of pay television signals was still a problem. Ultimately, encryption has proven to be the ultimate salvation of the satellite industry as it has made the transition from a hardware to software entertainment-driven business.

Early successful attempts to launch satellites for the mass consumer market were led by Japan and Hong Kong in 1986 and 1990, respectively. In 1994, the first successful attempts in America were led by a group of major cable companies, known collectively as Primestar.

Later that year, Direct TV was established, and in 1996, the DISH Network, a subsidiary of Echostar, also entered the satellite TV industry. DISH Network’s low prices forced competing DBS providers to also lower their prices. And an explosion in the popularity of digital satellite TV ensued.

About the author:

I am first and foremost an observer of life. I enjoy analyzing and exploring all aspects of life on planet Earth, and expressing my personal perspective on the nitty gritty of it all. As a result of my observations, I have become a freelance writer. http://www.dish-network-satellite-tv.ws/

Written By: Frank Johnson

How a Satellite Dish Works

By Gary Davis

Dish-Network-Satellite-TV.ws

Webmasters: You may reprint this article in its entirety, providing you leave the Byline and About the Author sections intact, including the links to Dish Network Satellite TV.

A satellite dish is an antenna designed to focus on a specific broadcast source. The standard dish consists of a parabolic (bowl-shaped) surface and a central feed horn. A controller sends it through the horn, and the dish focuses the signal into a relatively narrow beam.

A narrow beam is generated as the dish reflects energy from the feed horn.

The satellite dish on the receiving end can only receive information; it cannot transmit information. The receiving dish works in the exact opposite way of the transmitter. When a beam hits the curved dish, the parabola shape reflects the radio signal inward onto a particular point, just like a concave mirror focuses light onto a particular point.

The curved dish focuses incoming radio waves onto the feed horn.

The feed horn then passes the signal onto the receiving equipment. Ideally, there will be no obstructions, such as trees to interfere with the signal from the satellite to the satellite dish. With no obstructions you receive a much clearer signal.

Some systems are set up to receive signals from more than one satellite. A new dish design uses two or more horns to pick up different satellite signals. As the beams from different satellites hit the curved dish, they reflect at different angles so
that one beam hits one of the horns and another beam hits a different horn.

The central element in the feed horn is the LNB (low noise blockdown converter) The LNB amplifies the radio signal bouncing off the dish and filters out the noise (radio signals not carrying programming). The LNB passes the amplified, filtered signal to the satellite receiver inside the viewer’s house.

A cable is run from the satellite dish into the house and then connects to the satellite TV receiver (black box) thus completing the connection.

About the Author

Gary Davis is owner of Dish Network Satellite TV, has several years experience in the Satellite TV Industry and has written several articles on satellite TV.

Written By: Gary Davis

This article provides useful, detailed information about Free Satellite TV On PC.

Technology is advancing so fast that now one can watch satellite TV or hear radio on a home PC. All you need is special hardware known as PCTV cards that are of two kinds. One kind needs to be installed in the PC while the other kind is an external box that plugs into the PC’s USB port.

There are cards that use the PC\’s infrastructure to decode satellite signals and allow users to enjoy free-to-air digital television and radio programs. There are cards that have built-in processors that allow TV viewing in a separate window while the PC runs other programs. Both kinds of cards can be utilized to receive Broadband Internet via Satellite. Requests are made using a telephone line but data is received at 40MB per second via the satellite dish.

To view satellite TV on your PC you would require a minimum processor that is Pentium II 333 MHz, an operating system like Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, as well as hardware consisting of sound card, spare USB slot, and a CD Rom drive. If you are a computer geek you could in addition to the cards have a Windows media player, real player, or quick time player all of which will take you to the next level of viewership.

The options are many. The PC can be directly connected to a satellite dish by using a product like Hauppauge 3000 or through the Internet cable; or via the satellite box (run an aerial lead from the RF output socket of the Shy Digibox to the input aerial socket on a standard PC TV card or USB TV adapter). Direct TV and Dish TV both recommend using a connection via their proprietary satellite TV receiver box as ideal.

With a PC-TV-Radio one can simultaneously or alternately watch regular TV, a movie, or sports, and enjoy crystal clear music while writing, checking mail, telewebbing, or surfing the Internet. The options are astounding one can download and record favorite programs, record music, and be creative.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Free Satellite TV Systems provides detailed information on Free Satellite TV, Free Satellite TV Systems, Free Satellite TV on PC, Free Satellite TV Offers and more. Free Satellite TV Systems is affiliated with Dish Satellite Network.

Written By: Steve Valentino