Broadcasting Satellite Radio
Almost everybody have their own choice of radio station that they want to listen to when they’re on the road, whether simply going to work or going out to get something, they can’t seem to get off that favorite dial. However, the biggest problem with standard radio stations are the signal they transmit when one goes out of range; the signal breaks-up and it fades into static. The farthest that most regular radio station signals reach is about thirty to forty miles from its source. On long travels, they become unavailable and one has to keep changing the dial to anything they can listen to.
This being said, try to vision a radio station transmitting signals from over twenty-two thousand miles way above, then coming through on ones car radio with absolute clarity; it would certainly break the barriers of distance for radio signals. Well, this type of transmission already exists through satellite radio. Satellite radio has rapidly increased popularity with its uninterrupted and flawless signals, along with its countless commercial-free channels.
The concept of broadcasting satellite radio has already been more than a decade in the making. The United States’ Federal Communications Commission apportioned a range in the “S” band in 1992 for national broadcasting satellite radio based on Digital Audio Radio Service (DARS). There were four companies who applied for the broadcast license, and only two of them were granted licenses, the American Mobile Radio (presently XM Satellite Radio) and CD Radio (now known as Sirius Satellite Radio). Both companies paid over eighty-million each for the use of S-band space for digital satellite broadcast.
The companies broadcasting satellite radio have compared the importance of their service to that of the impact made by cable TV on television history. They have opened the opportunities for listeners to have the access of numerous stations that offer almost every music genre. Both companies have different plans for their system of broadcasting satellite radio; however, they do have similarities which include satellites, ground repeaters, and radio receivers.
A closer look at these companies broadcasting satellite radio service will reveal slight variances, but the excellent quality of service they offer to their subscribers have rapidly increased the ‘believers’ of satellite radio and continuously allows its growth in the technology industry. More advancements and features are in store for listeners in the near future; who would have thought that love for ‘music” would bring on one of today’s greatest technologies.