Q: Overview of satellite radio
A: Satellite radio means pay-radio or it may also be called a subscription radio. It is a little bit like the traditional one, but it has more programs than it. It’s available in Africa, Asia and Europe due to the services provided by WorldSpace and in North America by Sirius and XM Radio.
Q: What are the advantages of this new radio?
A: You’ll have a wide variety of programs that includes music channels (rock, modern rock, alternative, classical, pop, hip-hop, country, jazz, electronic, Christian, Latin), weather, news, traffic, sports and entertainment channels, no commercials included. All musical channels are commercial free.
This radio has a clean, digital signal and it has almost the quality of a CD. It has no static and no interference.
You can get satellite radio not only in your car, but anywhere you like: in your house, in an Rv or boat so that you can enjoy the programming variety that this radio is offering whether you are relaxing in your sofa, if you are in a vacation or if you are in your car on a business travel. The only thing you must do is to properly install the equipment that you need.
Purchasing the equipment, you will also have information which will be displayed on the radio receiver about channels, music, songs and artists.
Q: What about disadvantages?
A: Unfortunately, Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. Territories can’t receive the satellite radio’s signals.
There are no local stations, but you will have local traffic and weather channels provided by XM and Sirius.
Q: What does provide XM and Sirius radio?
A: There a few differences between them. For example, the XM provides more that 150 channels and the other one more than 120 channels. The first has two Nascar racing channels, Major League Baseball, PGA TOUR coverage, plus ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-10 football and basketball coverage and the Sirius has Live NFL, NHL, and NBA play-by-play, plus English Premier League soccer and college sports game. But they have the same price $12.95/Month
Q: How do I install satellite radio?
A: There are a few things that are necessary to get satellite radio.
First you need a satellite radio antenna that picks up the signal from communicational satellites and then delivering it to you.
Then you need a satellite radio tuner that passes the signal from the radio antenna to the receiver. There are three basic types of radio turners. There are the Plug-and-play satellite radio tuners that can be used in the car or at home or with a portable boombox wherever you have satellite signal and they only need one subscription. There are three types of Satellite radio tuners for the car: universal tuners, „Satellite radio-ready“ in-dash receivers and in-dash receivers with a built-in satellite radio tuner. The last basic type is the Home satellite radio tuners perfect for using them in-door.
The third item is a satellite radio receiver which helps you to select channels and categories, to view various songs or artists information.
Last but not least is a subscription to XM or Sirius radio that must be acquired in order to receive programming.
If you want to have the best quality sound in your car you can choose between these three options:
1. in-dash receiver with a built-in satellite radio tuner
2. „satellite radio-ready“ receiver connected to an external satellite radio tuner
3. Plug-and-play satellite radio tuner connected to your car stereo’s auxiliary input.