I worked in satellite communications in the army for 8 years. This story is hard to believe. Everything I worked on in the Army was encrypted up to 3 different times before it was transmitted to the satellite. Even GI's phone calls to their wifes were encrypted. There was an bulk encryption stage after the voice to digital encoding/multiplexing. This stream was fed into a data multiplexer and multiplexed with incoming data circuits. The output of that multiplexer was encyrpted again. The other incoming data circuits were probably already encrypted when they got to us. This is all before anything is modulated so it's not like they can't encrypt the data because they are using civilian satellites.
It's either counter-intelligence stuff or just real stupid.
XM and Sirius do NOT fade because of bad weather. Both are at S-band and S-band is unaffected by rain , clouds etc.
You generally do NOT get a fade when you drive under a bridge. Both companies use 2 satellites for redundancy and have about 6 seconds buffered. I never lose the signal going under bridges with my XM radio.
I have a XM/MP3 player in my truck so I have the best of both.
I have had XM satellite radio since about Oct of last year. I am very happy with the service. I haven't listen to XM since. Plus the coverage is excellent.
Although XM is not totally commercial free they play very few commercials when they do play them. I listen to primarily the Bone (Heavy metal) and Liquid Metal (Heavier Metal) and both of these stations are stations that have commercials. I think I might here 2 minutes of commercials in an hour. Plus not all of their stations have commercials. There are many that are commercial free.
To say that XM is cheap because they only have two satellites up is to not understand the systems that Sirius and XM have in place. Sirius has three satellites because they use a Tundra orbit. Only 2 satellites can be seen at any one time. XM's are in a geosync orbit so both satellites can be seen at all times. I'm pretty sure both companies have spares on the ground.
Clear channel has a minority stake in XM. The only place that I've seen their influence is that XM re-broadcast 2 or 3 Clear Channel FM stations. It's a waste of bandwidth but I don't think Clear Channel has any real power over XM right now.
Also I have talked to a few of the DJs there for The Boneyard and Liquid Metal and these are people who are actually into the music that they play.
for more information about XM and to a lesser degree Sirius check out http://www.clubxm.com
There's a Vegas like station for this guy on XM.
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Homogenized Music
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There's a station on XM satellite radio just for this guy. It's called Frank's place and it plays all that Frank Sinatra type music. It would be funny if the man in charge of the Clear Channel stations in DC was listening to satellite radio because he couldn't hear what he wanted on FM.
Re:Connect Directv reciever to this?
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VoIP at $15 a Pop
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I have a strange DSL connection. It uses a Paradyne modem and basically a leased line to the ISP. The total cost is about $95 / month for 256K/256K and 1 static IP. The cost sucks (service is great so far) but it's better than what most people in my area can get.
This would be good if I could get a regular dial tone from it. I have a regular POTS line to my house, DSL and a cell phone. The only thing the POTS line is used for now is for the Directv receiver and Tivo. I'd like to ditch the POTS line. I know I can get an ethernet card for Tivo but I don't know what to do about DirecTV. It wouldn't be such a problem if I weren't addicted to the NFL Sunday ticket.
I would think that XM Satellite radio would have more problems with the 2.4 GHz unlicensed frequency than Sirius. XM's signals are closer to the unlicensed frequencies.
And if the unlicensed frequencies at 2.4 GHz are giving them problems what about XM Radio transmitting at 2000 watts with their repeaters at 2.34 GHz. Is it a problem with harmonics?
If you use the Sony Plug and play radio you can move the radio from a docking station in your car to one in your house. So there are ways around having to pay for multiple subscriptions.
The reception should be good. Their two satellites will be located on either side of the USA and will be broadcasting the same two carriers. One of the satellites will broadcasts it's signals about 6 seconds behind the other so you can pick up the other satellite if you lose the primary going under a bridge
They are also putting in repeaters in most decent sized cities in the country. These repeaters use some kind of modulation that is less prone to problems caused by multipath.(OFDM maybe?) So if you are in a city you will be getting three copies of their two carriers from 3 different sources.
The reception should be good. They will have two satellites at opposite ends of the country. One satellite will be transmitting the same information as the other but on different carriers about 6 seconds behind. This should help with bridges and such. They are also putting tons of repeaters in major cities that will also be transmitting yet another carrier. And the repeaters use a form of modulation that is less prone to problems caused by multipath (OFDM maybe?).
So if you are driving around a city, you will have 3 copies of their 2 carriers coming at you from multiple directions. Fading out shouldn't be a problem.
"IT organizations have standards and policies and renegade anythings should not be tolerated," he says. "If the company's IT structure is so weak that it's politically impossible to prevent or correct this, then it points to larger problems within the organization.""
Every place I've worked the IT people treat the rest of the employees like crap. Taking their servers down at inopportune times to do upgrades, having to get an IT person whenever you need to set the system time on your PC (I use GMT they use local).
They treat the employees in the company like unwanted people who they have to let use their network
IT people need to realize that the people on your network are your customers. You need to treat them as such. I've always thought that a company should have a seperate company run their IT stuff so that the IT people could be held more accountable.
I understand the need for control on a network but it has been my experience that to get anything other than the norm on your PC is almost impossible.
Good thing for competition. This one has a feature one better than the Tivo. The 10 hour pause is great. The Tivo only has a 30 minute pause.
Of course the Tivo already let's you do manual time recording. It's not quite what I would like however. (the local TV station here likes to start Friends at 2 minutes before the hour so I'm always missing the first 2 minutes. I'd like to be able to fix that without having to set a manual 6:55 to 7:30 recording)
When will they get all these features all together in one box? Hopefully when they do it will be a software upgrade.
Orbcomm units are perfect for email. (you can only check email that goes to the account they have assigned for you). However you can't do ICQ over the Orbcomm system. It's strictly email based. You will also have to use email programs that are designed for a particular orbcomm mobile.
They have a few mobiles (the Panasonic and the Stellar ST2500) that have a built in API that you can use to write imbedded apps in C. This is mainly for assest tracking. The compilers for these are pretty expensive. (~$2000.00)
The main problem Iridium has now is that they have to change their marketing strategy. This is going to take time. By the time they even start to break even, not considering paying the loans they have, they are going to have to launch new satellites. These LEOs only have about a 5 year lifespan. So if they can turn this company around they will run out of time because of the satellite lifespan.
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I worked in satellite communications in the army for 8 years. This story is hard to believe. Everything I worked on in the Army was encrypted up to 3 different times before it was transmitted to the satellite. Even GI's phone calls to their wifes were encrypted. There was an bulk encryption stage after the voice to digital encoding/multiplexing. This stream was fed into a data multiplexer and multiplexed with incoming data circuits. The output of that multiplexer was encyrpted again. The other incoming data circuits were probably already encrypted when they got to us. This is all before anything is modulated so it's not like they can't encrypt the data because they are using civilian satellites.
It's either counter-intelligence stuff or just real stupid.
2. 3 satellites is irrelevant because of the different types of orbits.
3. Sound quality is subjective.
4. NPR sucks.
5. I'm not sure second to market is a business advantage.
6. I agree the dog logo is cool.
A good site for XM and Sirius info/discussion
Sirius uses 3 satellites in a Tundra orbit not 8.
XM and Sirius do NOT fade because of bad weather. Both are at S-band and S-band is unaffected by rain , clouds etc.
You generally do NOT get a fade when you drive under a bridge. Both companies use 2 satellites for redundancy and have about 6 seconds buffered. I never lose the signal going under bridges with my XM radio.
I have a XM/MP3 player in my truck so I have the best of both.
I meant to say I haven't listen to FM since. Whoops
I have had XM satellite radio since about Oct of last year. I am very happy with the service. I haven't listen to XM since. Plus the coverage is excellent.
Although XM is not totally commercial free they play very few commercials when they do play them. I listen to primarily the Bone (Heavy metal) and Liquid Metal (Heavier Metal) and both of these stations are stations that have commercials. I think I might here 2 minutes of commercials in an hour. Plus not all of their stations have commercials. There are many that are commercial free.
To say that XM is cheap because they only have two satellites up is to not understand the systems that Sirius and XM have in place. Sirius has three satellites because they use a Tundra orbit. Only 2 satellites can be seen at any one time. XM's are in a geosync orbit so both satellites can be seen at all times. I'm pretty sure both companies have spares on the ground.
Clear channel has a minority stake in XM. The only place that I've seen their influence is that XM re-broadcast 2 or 3 Clear Channel FM stations. It's a waste of bandwidth but I don't think Clear Channel has any real power over XM right now.
Also I have talked to a few of the DJs there for The Boneyard and Liquid Metal and these are people who are actually into the music that they play.
for more information about XM and to a lesser degree Sirius check out http://www.clubxm.com
There's a station on XM satellite radio just for this guy. It's called Frank's place and it plays all that Frank Sinatra type music. It would be funny if the man in charge of the Clear Channel stations in DC was listening to satellite radio because he couldn't hear what he wanted on FM.
I have a strange DSL connection. It uses a Paradyne modem and basically a leased line to the ISP. The total cost is about $95 / month for 256K/256K and 1 static IP. The cost sucks (service is great so far) but it's better than what most people in my area can get.
My POTS line is a totally seperate line.
This would be good if I could get a regular dial tone from it. I have a regular POTS line to my house, DSL and a cell phone. The only thing the POTS line is used for now is for the Directv receiver and Tivo. I'd like to ditch the POTS line. I know I can get an ethernet card for Tivo but I don't know what to do about DirecTV. It wouldn't be such a problem if I weren't addicted to the NFL Sunday ticket.
I would think that XM Satellite radio would have more problems with the 2.4 GHz unlicensed frequency than Sirius. XM's signals are closer to the unlicensed frequencies.
And if the unlicensed frequencies at 2.4 GHz are giving them problems what about XM Radio transmitting at 2000 watts with their repeaters at 2.34 GHz. Is it a problem with harmonics?
This doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Actually that's not true. Stateside the bases follow the law of the US and the state that the base in is.
Overseas however someone in the military under 21 can drink. And not just on base.
What exactly is allowed is determined by circumstance, the bases location, commanders etc.
If you use the Sony Plug and play radio you can move the radio from a docking station in your car to one in your house. So there are ways around having to pay for multiple subscriptions.
0 /P rodView.asp?s=0&c=4&g=10470&I=158XM01H&o=&a=
http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-4Y5nL2FzLr
The reception should be good. Their two satellites will be located on either side of the USA and will be broadcasting the same two carriers. One of the satellites will broadcasts it's signals about 6 seconds behind the other so you can pick up the other satellite if you lose the primary going under a bridge
They are also putting in repeaters in most decent sized cities in the country. These repeaters use some kind of modulation that is less prone to problems caused by multipath.(OFDM maybe?) So if you are in a city you will be getting three copies of their two carriers from 3 different sources.
The reception should be good. They will have two satellites at opposite ends of the country. One satellite will be transmitting the same information as the other but on different carriers about 6 seconds behind. This should help with bridges and such. They are also putting tons of repeaters in major cities that will also be transmitting yet another carrier. And the repeaters use a form of modulation that is less prone to problems caused by multipath (OFDM maybe?).
So if you are driving around a city, you will have 3 copies of their 2 carriers coming at you from multiple directions. Fading out shouldn't be a problem.
"IT organizations have standards and policies and renegade anythings should not be tolerated," he says. "If the company's IT structure is so weak that it's politically impossible to prevent or correct this, then it points to larger problems within the organization.""
Every place I've worked the IT people treat the rest of the employees like crap. Taking their servers down at inopportune times to do upgrades, having to get an IT person whenever you need to set the system time on your PC (I use GMT they use local).
They treat the employees in the company like unwanted people who they have to let use their network
IT people need to realize that the people on your network are your customers. You need to treat them as such. I've always thought that a company should have a seperate company run their IT stuff so that the IT people could be held more accountable.
I understand the need for control on a network but it has been my experience that to get anything other than the norm on your PC is almost impossible.
Good thing for competition. This one has a feature one better than the Tivo. The 10 hour pause is great. The Tivo only has a 30 minute pause.
Of course the Tivo already let's you do manual time recording. It's not quite what I would like however. (the local TV station here likes to start Friends at 2 minutes before the hour so I'm always missing the first 2 minutes. I'd like to be able to fix that without having to set a manual 6:55 to 7:30 recording)
When will they get all these features all together in one box? Hopefully when they do it will be a software upgrade.
Orbcomm units are perfect for email. (you can only check email that goes to the account they have assigned for you). However you can't do ICQ over the Orbcomm system. It's strictly email based. You will also have to use email programs that are designed for a particular orbcomm mobile.
They have a few mobiles (the Panasonic and the Stellar ST2500) that have a built in API that you can use to write imbedded apps in C. This is mainly for assest tracking. The compilers for these are pretty expensive. (~$2000.00)
The main problem Iridium has now is that they have to change their marketing strategy. This is going to take time. By the time they even start to break even, not considering paying the loans they have, they are going to have to launch new satellites. These LEOs only have about a 5 year lifespan. So if they can turn this company around they will run out of time because of the satellite lifespan.