I know this is off topic, but how does the coverage in Canada,
specifically in southwest Ontario (and the northern USA) with respect to
XM versus Sirius ?

ALSO:

In cities without terrestrial rebroadcast transmitters, how is the coverage?

I can find lots of info about XM, but is there a Sirius user group ?


Thanks for reading.
Pat

I know this is off topic, but how does the coverage in Canada,
specifically in southwest Ontario (and the northern USA) with respect to
XM versus Sirius ?

ALSO:

In cities without terrestrial rebroadcast transmitters, how is the coverage?

I can find lots of info about XM, but is there a Sirius user group ?


Thanks for reading.
Pat

Sirius' sats use a different orbit which place them higher in the
sky, allowing them to get overtop of buildings better than XM, so you'd have
slightly better luck with Sirius. However if you're planning for mainly in
home use, XM is a bit easier to receive at the house, due to the signal
coming in from lower on the horizon, through the windows rather than from
straight up.

Their satellites are in a 24 hour orbit, but not in the usual
geostationary orbit. They have 5 or so satellites tracing what
looks like a figure 8 path in the sky, 2 or so are pretty much
overhead the USA at any one time. Elsewhere in their orbits
they go silent and just recharge their batteries. This means
that there is less tall building shadowing, and they didn't have
to fight for space on the usual geostationary orbit.

Sirius' sats use a different orbit which place them higher in the
sky, allowing them to get overtop of buildings better than XM, so you'd have
slightly better luck with Sirius. However if you're planning for mainly in
home use, XM is a bit easier to receive at the house, due to the signal
coming in from lower on the horizon, through the windows rather than from
straight up.

Their satellites are in a 24 hour orbit, but not in the usual
geostationary orbit. They have 5 or so satellites tracing what
looks like a figure 8 path in the sky, 2 or so are pretty much
overhead the USA at any one time. Elsewhere in their orbits
they go silent and just recharge their batteries. This means
that there is less tall building shadowing, and they didn't have
to fight for space on the usual geostationary orbit.

Sirius' sats use a different orbit which place them higher in the
sky, allowing them to get overtop of buildings better than XM, so you'd have
slightly better luck with Sirius. However if you're planning for mainly in
home use, XM is a bit easier to receive at the house, due to the signal
coming in from lower on the horizon, through the windows rather than from
straight up.

Their satellites are in a 24 hour orbit, but not in the usual
geostationary orbit. They have 5 or so satellites tracing what
looks like a figure 8 path in the sky, 2 or so are pretty much
overhead the USA at any one time. Elsewhere in their orbits
they go silent and just recharge their batteries. This means
that there is less tall building shadowing, and they didn't have
to fight for space on the usual geostationary orbit.

They have 3 satellites. And the orbit on the polar inclined ones is a
very clever configuration. I guessing it's cycle that causes the bird to
pass north to south while North America is facing the path, and as it's
now passing south to north, the planet has rotated about such that the
western hemisphere is facing it yet again.

I just picked up a Roady2 at Target yesterday, it was 129.99.
I activated it online and have been listening to it quite a bit.

XM has a lot of self promoting commercials for a supposedly
commercial-free service.

The fidelity on XM is restrained at best. Some streams are outright
mushy sounding. (the audio is wired directly to the amplifier.)

There is a lot of selection, but the quality is not even as good as
local FM broadcasts.

An just to keep this as an on topic posting, the Roady2 XM radio is
mounted right beside the control head of my Icom 2720. :)

Cheers!


Robert Casey wrote:
Their satellites are in a 24 hour orbit, but not in the usual
geostationary orbit. They have 5 or so satellites tracing what
looks like a figure 8 path in the sky, 2 or so are pretty much
overhead the USA at any one time. Elsewhere in their orbits
they go silent and just recharge their batteries. This means
that there is less tall building shadowing, and they didn't have
to fight for space on the usual geostationary orbit.

They have 3 satellites. And the orbit on the polar inclined ones is a
very clever configuration. I guessing it's cycle that causes the bird to
pass north to south while North America is facing the path, and as it's
now passing south to north, the planet has rotated about such that the
western hemisphere is facing it yet again.

I just picked up a Roady2 at Target yesterday, it was 129.99.
I activated it online and have been listening to it quite a bit.

XM has a lot of self promoting commercials for a supposedly
commercial-free service.

The fidelity on XM is restrained at best. Some streams are outright
mushy sounding. (the audio is wired directly to the amplifier.)

There is a lot of selection, but the quality is not even as good as
local FM broadcasts.

An just to keep this as an on topic posting, the Roady2 XM radio is
mounted right beside the control head of my Icom 2720. :)

Cheers!


Robert Casey wrote:
Their satellites are in a 24 hour orbit, but not in the usual
geostationary orbit. They have 5 or so satellites tracing what
looks like a figure 8 path in the sky, 2 or so are pretty much
overhead the USA at any one time. Elsewhere in their orbits
they go silent and just recharge their batteries. This means
that there is less tall building shadowing, and they didn't have
to fight for space on the usual geostationary orbit.

They have 3 satellites. And the orbit on the polar inclined ones is a
very clever configuration. I guessing it's cycle that causes the bird to
pass north to south while North America is facing the path, and as it's
now passing south to north, the planet has rotated about such that the
western hemisphere is facing it yet again.

I just picked up a Roady2 at Target yesterday, it was 129.99.
I activated it online and have been listening to it quite a bit.

XM has a lot of self promoting commercials for a supposedly
commercial-free service.

The fidelity on XM is restrained at best. Some streams are outright
mushy sounding. (the audio is wired directly to the amplifier.)

There is a lot of selection, but the quality is not even as good as
local FM broadcasts.

An just to keep this as an on topic posting, the Roady2 XM radio is
mounted right beside the control head of my Icom 2720. :)

Cheers!


Robert Casey wrote:
Their satellites are in a 24 hour orbit, but not in the usual
geostationary orbit. They have 5 or so satellites tracing what
looks like a figure 8 path in the sky, 2 or so are pretty much
overhead the USA at any one time. Elsewhere in their orbits
they go silent and just recharge their batteries. This means
that there is less tall building shadowing, and they didn't have
to fight for space on the usual geostationary orbit.