tracking the sirius birds

[bobby cornelius]

anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
given time?

wouldn't that be cool to have on the sirius homepage? a graphical
real-time rep of where the birds were?

also, does anyone know how the birds switch signals? if two are
visible to CONUS at any given time, are both transmitting at the same
time, and your receiver decides where bird to tune to? or does sirius
control switch the rising bird on, while turning the other one off as
it sets on the horizon?

thanks

[Truth]

> wouldn't that be cool to have on the sirius homepage? a graphical
> real-time rep of where the birds were?

Since they have this on giant screens at their facility, would not be very
hard to put that info on their website. So the question is, why do they
feel it would not be a GOOD thing for consumers to know where the
satellites are?

I can think of at least one answer right away.

[Mark S.]

"bobby cornelius" <bcornel@hushmail.com> wrote in message
news:fu84q0hsc61pc8r2ngq98r304m0616ks09@4ax.com...
> anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
> given time?

You can try this page: http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/satellite.html
The Sirius satellite radio sats are the ones marked Sirius-1, Sirius-2 and
Sirius-3. The ones without the dashes are geostationary sats in Europe,
totally unrelated to the Sirius satellite radio here in North America.
Still, you're best off downloading a freeware satellite tracking program and
uploading the keps to it yourself. That will give you a better view and
idea than any online tracaker.

> wouldn't that be cool to have on the sirius homepage? a graphical
> real-time rep of where the birds were?

I don't think enough of the listening community is technical enough to care,
unfortunately. It's hard enough to find an FM or AM station who will show
anywhere on their webpage a plot of where they cover.

> also, does anyone know how the birds switch signals? if two are
> visible to CONUS at any given time, are both transmitting at the same
> time, and your receiver decides where bird to tune to? or does sirius
> control switch the rising bird on, while turning the other one off as
> it sets on the horizon?

Both are transmitting at the same time but on slightly different
frequencies. One is transmitting at a 4 second delay and the other one is
live. Actually, they consider the 4 second delay one to be live because the
radio buffers the live one for 4 seconds. The radio picks up both at the
same time and if either drop out, it can still make a useable signal out of
the other. If both drop out, you have 4 seconds for it to come back before
losing any data/sound. Sirius does switch satellites not at the horizon, as
this differs depending on where the listener is located, but at the equator.
For many, the spot where they handover at the equator, the satellite is
still a good 30 degrees or so above the horizon. As the one satellite heads
southwest over the equator southwest of Mexico, the satellite heading north
over the equator southeast of the continental US is turned on; the signal is
handed over.

[Mark S.]

"Truth" <yenc@sucks.com> wrote in message
news:41A23D8E.920DDCBD@sucks.com...
>> wouldn't that be cool to have on the sirius homepage? a graphical
>> real-time rep of where the birds were?
>
> Since they have this on giant screens at their facility, would not be very
> hard to put that info on their website. So the question is, why do they
> feel it would not be a GOOD thing for consumers to know where the
> satellites are?
>
> I can think of at least one answer right away.

Because 90% of the public is too stupid to care? All people really need to
know is that there is always one satellite above central Canada, so if they
need to point a home antenna, point it in that direction. You could also
tell people that at all times, at least one, if not both of Sirius'
satellites are higher in the sky than XM's, thus giving superior mobile
reception.

bobby cornelius <bcornel@hushmail.com> wrote in
news:fu84q0hsc61pc8r2ngq98r304m0616ks09@4ax.com:

> anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
> given time?
>


http://www.cashflowbusiness.net/siri_orbit.htm

[Mark S.]

"<INSERT NAME HERE>" <NOSPAMemail@NOSPAMemail.com> wrote in message
news:8eGdnf_JqsKu9D_cRVn-rQ@adelphia.com...
> bobby cornelius <bcornel@hushmail.com> wrote in
> news:fu84q0hsc61pc8r2ngq98r304m0616ks09@4ax.com:
>
>> anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
>> given time?
>>
>
>
> http://www.cashflowbusiness.net/siri_orbit.htm

This isn't live, but a good depiction of what the near 24 hour cycle looks
like.

[Boston Blackie]

In article <8eGdnf_JqsKu9D_cRVn-rQ@adelphia.com>,
"<INSERT NAME HERE>" <NOSPAMemail@NOSPAMemail.com> wrote:

> http://www.cashflowbusiness.net/siri_orbit.htm

Van Nuys! Now if the simulation showed the footprints we'd be in
bidness!

[Ben Hogland]

"Mark S." <vo1one@gee-mail.com> wrote in message
news:cntfkp$cse$1@nntp-stjh-01-01.rogers.nf.net...

> You can try this page:
> http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/satellite.html
> The Sirius satellite radio sats are the ones marked Sirius-1, Sirius-2
> and Sirius-3. The ones without the dashes are geostationary sats in
> Europe, totally unrelated to the Sirius satellite radio here in North
> America. Still, you're best off downloading a freeware satellite
> tracking program and uploading the keps to it yourself. That will
> give you a better view and idea than any online tracaker.

After you mentioning it, I went looking for a freeware satellite
tracking program. I found WinOrbit which seems to work well. Took me a
little while to add the Sirius Sats buts it's easier than I originally
thought it would be. Those sats are not in the programs database but
simply going to the above link and selecting each sat one by one will
give the necessary info at the bottom of the screen. Copy and paste that
info into a TXT file (3 total). Then in Winorbit, you can add to the
database via the TXT files just created. Works great and tracks the
same as that web site except real time on my screen.. Just kinda fun to
play around with. Now anytime I open it, it will show me exactly where
all three sats are or I can leave it run on my desktop.

Ben

[Mark S.]

"Boston Blackie" <bblackie@mail.com> wrote in message
news:bblackie-115C90.17580422112004@comcast.dca.giganews.com...
> In article <8eGdnf_JqsKu9D_cRVn-rQ@adelphia.com>,
> "<INSERT NAME HERE>" <NOSPAMemail@NOSPAMemail.com> wrote:
>
> > http://www.cashflowbusiness.net/siri_orbit.htm
>
> Van Nuys! Now if the simulation showed the footprints we'd be in
> bidness!

Footprint maps!
http://www.freewebs.com/vo1one/sirifoot.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/vo1one/sirius%20directional%20antenna.JPG
http://www.freewebs.com/vo1one/sirius%20standard%20antenna.JPG

[Mark S.]

"Ben Hogland" <benhogland@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:30fs4pF2vt99oU1@uni-berlin.de...
> "Mark S." <vo1one@gee-mail.com> wrote in message
> news:cntfkp$cse$1@nntp-stjh-01-01.rogers.nf.net...
>
> > You can try this page:
> > http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/satellite.html
> > The Sirius satellite radio sats are the ones marked Sirius-1, Sirius-2
> > and Sirius-3. The ones without the dashes are geostationary sats in
> > Europe, totally unrelated to the Sirius satellite radio here in North
> > America. Still, you're best off downloading a freeware satellite
> > tracking program and uploading the keps to it yourself. That will
> > give you a better view and idea than any online tracaker.
>
> After you mentioning it, I went looking for a freeware satellite
> tracking program. I found WinOrbit which seems to work well. Took me a
> little while to add the Sirius Sats buts it's easier than I originally
> thought it would be. Those sats are not in the programs database but
> simply going to the above link and selecting each sat one by one will
> give the necessary info at the bottom of the screen. Copy and paste that
> info into a TXT file (3 total). Then in Winorbit, you can add to the
> database via the TXT files just created. Works great and tracks the
> same as that web site except real time on my screen.. Just kinda fun to
> play around with. Now anytime I open it, it will show me exactly where
> all three sats are or I can leave it run on my desktop.

That's what I've got installed is WinOrbit. It's alright, easy enough to
use, and you can see where the satellites are above the horizon at any given
time, all 3 satellites at once and run prediction tables for the satellites
if you wish. I used to use Instant Track and was really comfortable with it
but then it had a y2k bug in it come 2000, plus it was a DOS program so I
guess its lifetime was limited anyways so I had to switch to something and
WinOrbit is what I installed. Nova is another sat tracking program and that
animated gif someone else posted was made by that. It's got some great
looking maps and views in it, but I found it more difficult to use and being
that I was already used to other fuctional software, I didn't bother trying
to give it enough time to learn it well.

Anyways, I'm glad you found the keps from that page. The keps do change
constantly and you'll lose accuracy over time if you don't keep the keps
updated. I think once a month is very adequate, especially for what we're
using it for. Here's where you can get the latest keps for Sirius, and XM
is listed there, too, even though they don't move:
http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/other-comm.txt

You should find that a tad bit easier than selecting the satellites manually
on the other website, then copying and pasting them all individually.

[Boston Blackie]

In article <cnudtc$mv1$1@nntp-stjh-01-01.rogers.nf.net>,
"Mark S." <vo1one@gee-mail.com> wrote:

> "Boston Blackie" <bblackie@mail.com> wrote in message
> news:bblackie-115C90.17580422112004@comcast.dca.giganews.com...
> > In article <8eGdnf_JqsKu9D_cRVn-rQ@adelphia.com>,
> > "<INSERT NAME HERE>" <NOSPAMemail@NOSPAMemail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > http://www.cashflowbusiness.net/siri_orbit.htm
> >
> > Van Nuys! Now if the simulation showed the footprints we'd be in
> > bidness!
>
> Footprint maps!
> http://www.freewebs.com/vo1one/sirifoot.jpg
> http://www.freewebs.com/vo1one/sirius%20directional%20antenna.JPG
> http://www.freewebs.com/vo1one/sirius%20standard%20antenna.JPG

Excellent (doing best Montgomery Burns imitation)

[bobby cornelius]

wow! never thought i'd get so much good help...thanks again everyone.



On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:41:06 -0600, bobby cornelius
<bcornel@hushmail.com> wrote:

>anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
>given time?
>
>wouldn't that be cool to have on the sirius homepage? a graphical
>real-time rep of where the birds were?
>
>also, does anyone know how the birds switch signals? if two are
>visible to CONUS at any given time, are both transmitting at the same
>time, and your receiver decides where bird to tune to? or does sirius
>control switch the rising bird on, while turning the other one off as
>it sets on the horizon?
>
>thanks

[D Ray]

bobby cornelius <bcornel@hushmail.com> wrote in message news:<fu84q0hsc61pc8r2ngq98r304m0616ks09@4ax.com>...
> anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
> given time?
>

Here's what you're after:

http://home.att.net/~satrad/sirius3a.gif

[Truth]

> > anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
> > given time?
> >
>
> Here's what you're after:
>
> http://home.att.net/~satrad/sirius3a.gif

Wow. Sirius looks like a great choice if you live in South America!

[Mark S.]

"Truth" <yenc@sucks.com> wrote in message
news:41A37A6A.F88B0CF2@sucks.com...
> > > anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
> > > given time?
> > >
> >
> > Here's what you're after:
> >
> > http://home.att.net/~satrad/sirius3a.gif
>
> Wow. Sirius looks like a great choice if you live in South America!

Too bad that the transmitters are turned off while south of the equator. It
helps extend the life of the satellites anyways.

[Bob Haberkost]

"Truth" <yenc@sucks.com> wrote in message news:41A37A6A.F88B0CF2@sucks.com...
>> > anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
>> > given time?
>> >
>>
>> Here's what you're after:
>>
>> http://home.att.net/~satrad/sirius3a.gif
>
> Wow. Sirius looks like a great choice if you live in South America!

Get..........A............Clue!

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there's nothing that offends you in your community, then you know you're not
living in a free society.
Kim Campbell - ex-Prime Minister of Canada - 2004
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For direct replies, take out the contents between the hyphens. -Really!-

[Ben Hogland]

"Mark S." <vo1one@gee-mail.com> wrote in message
news:cnueu8$n90$1@nntp-stjh-01-01.rogers.nf.net...
> "Ben Hogland" <benhogland@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:30fs4pF2vt99oU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Anyways, I'm glad you found the keps from that page. The keps do
> change
> constantly and you'll lose accuracy over time if you don't keep the
> keps
> updated. I think once a month is very adequate, especially for what
> we're
> using it for. Here's where you can get the latest keps for Sirius,
> and XM
> is listed there, too, even though they don't move:
> http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/other-comm.txt
>
> You should find that a tad bit easier than selecting the satellites
> manually
> on the other website, then copying and pasting them all individually.

Mark, thanks for the link. That will definitely make it easier for me
loading the keps.

Ben

[yqf@my-deja.com]

"Mark S." <vo1one@gee-mail.com> wrote in message news:<co0adk$8vf$1@nntp-stjh-01-01.rogers.nf.net>...
> "Truth" <yenc@sucks.com> wrote in message
> news:41A37A6A.F88B0CF2@sucks.com...
> > > > anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
> > > > given time?
> > > >
> > >
> > > Here's what you're after:
> > >
> > > http://home.att.net/~satrad/sirius3a.gif
> >
> > Wow. Sirius looks like a great choice if you live in South America!
>
> Too bad that the transmitters are turned off while south of the equator.

Although they could turn them on at any time if it ever became
economically feasible to offer service to South America, giving Sirius
the ability to transmit a completely different digital stream to South
America using their same existing satellites without having to
sacrifice any of the bandwidth that they use to transmit to North
America.

> It helps extend the life of the satellites anyways.

Yep, that's another advantage to the Sirius satellites superior
orbital path, in addition to the fact that it guarantees that there
are one or two Sirius satellites directly over North America at all
times.

On the other hand, the inferior placement of the XM satellites leaves
them parked over the middle of the ocean off the west coast of South
America, and since the XM satellites are geostationary, that means
that they never move any further north than that. I guess would be
good if your target audience was fishermen out in the middle of the
ocean off the coast of South America, but unfortunately that's not
where XM's customers are so they are forced to augment their inferior
satellite coverage with many more terrestrial repeater transmitters
than Sirius requires.

[Truth]

> On the other hand, the inferior placement of the XM satellites leaves
> them parked over the middle of the ocean off the west coast of South
> America

I can always see both of them at all times. Line of sight. Sirrius go completely away and no line of
sight at all, they are gone completely, and worthless to me.

I can monitor the individual signal I get from each XM satellite separately with the service menu of the
Roady2. Both are always giving me rock solid signal, and I only need ONE of them to get service! I
like that I have two at all times, just in case.

I like that I can look up in the sky and point to exactly where both of them are in the sky too. Can't
do that with Sirius, you need a satellite tracker to constantly know where the hell they are.

But on another topic, I am getting pissed off at XM.

This morning, I tune in and they have an in studio concert playing on the live concert channel 200, which
is fine. But they ALSO have the same exact concert playing on THREE OTHER channels simultaneously!
Top Tracks, Deep Tracks, and I forget what the other one was. Why interrupt three channels for the
same program?! Why do they even HAVE channel 200, if anytime they put something on that channel, they
have to broadcast the same program on 3 other channels too?

And instead of using channel 200 for Christmas music, they take away 4 other channels to put Christmas
music on, including the Chrome 83 channel which takes that channel away from fans for a whole month, yet
channel 200 will have nothing on it most of that month anyway.

The more I tune around XM, the more it is pissing me off. They also played some Led Zeppelin song from
the 70s on the 80s channel yesterday.

When channel surfing, I always have to scan past dozens of sports channels that never have anything on
them anyway but the same female announcer saying the channel doesn't have any scheduled programming at
this time. Yet you have to scan past them, and the dozens of weather channels everytime you go
around. It really sucks. When they add the baseball channels, it is going to be pure hell.

Howard Stern is in reruns this week, so I tune in to my XM to hear some music. Well, they have DJs on
the music channels now, so there was some jerk talking for 5 minutes and I finally just turned the thing
off because there was no music. XM is ALREADY starting to be like regular radio! I got XM to get
AWAY from DJs, AWAY from weather and traffic reports and to hear the MUSIC or SHOW I tuned in to hear!
Not all that other crap!

At least with XM I can cancel service and get back the rest of the money I paid. Had I got Sirius, I
might have got stuck with it, or had to pay a penalty for stopping service like some here have mentioned.

How sad would it be if satellite radio failed before it even got a chance to get off the ground, because
of the way they programmed it too much like regular radio stations?

No one is going to PAY to listen to what they can already get for FREE!

The reason I pay, is too get uninterrupted music without any TALK at all, and to hear UNCENSORED adult
language without "beeps" over every other word. And to get away from weather and traffic reports.

Looks like XM is already starting to let me down on all of this. When I tune in to hear XM COMEDY on
the weekends, they interrupt that channel to play Opie and Anthony because no one is paying to hear them
on the premium channel.

This constant interruption of every channel and format is really starting to piss me off.

Enough that I am just ready to cancel service and forget radio altogether. I will make my own CDs and
screw all these assholes and their corporate programming ideas!

[Ben Hogland]

"Truth" <yenc@sucks.com> wrote in message
news:41A4C871.86ACC112@sucks.com...

> I can always see both of them at all times. Line of sight.
> Sirrius go completely away and no line of
> sight at all, they are gone completely, and worthless to me.
>
> I can monitor the individual signal I get from each XM satellite
> separately with the service menu of the
> Roady2. Both are always giving me rock solid signal, and I only need
> ONE of them to get service! I
> like that I have two at all times, just in case.
>
> I like that I can look up in the sky and point to exactly where both
> of them are in the sky too. Can't
> do that with Sirius, you need a satellite tracker to constantly know
> where the hell they are.

Yes, you are correct that you can point to the XM sats not worry about
them moving after you locked in. That is an advantage when you are in a
heavily wooded area; you simply find a place to put the antenna that
works and it will continue to work

But with that said, there is an advantage to Sirius too. When traveling
down the road in a heavily wooded area but open roadway, you'll likely
be able to get reception when XM will be fading in and out. This is due
to the fact that Sirius sats are higher in the sky and more directly
over the continent.

I live in Washington State and I have both XM and Sirius. XM works
better when I'm stationary in the mountains camping with many trees
around. Sirius works better when I'm driving the mountain roads, hands
down.

Ben

[Bob Haberkost]

"Truth" <yenc@sucks.com> wrote in message news:41A4C871.86ACC112@sucks.com...
>> On the other hand, the inferior placement of the XM satellites leaves
>> them parked over the middle of the ocean off the west coast of South
>> America
>
> I can always see both of them at all times. Line of sight. Sirrius go
> completely away and no line of
> sight at all, they are gone completely, and worthless to me.

WTF are you talking about?

> I like that I can look up in the sky and point to exactly where both of them are in
> the sky too. Can't
> do that with Sirius, you need a satellite tracker to constantly know where the hell
> they are.

You don't need to know where the bird is. The antenna's (relatively)
non-directional.

> The more I tune around XM, the more it is pissing me off. They also played some
> Led Zeppelin song from
> the 70s on the 80s channel yesterday.

Oh, well...let's keep all the good music from one era pigeonholed on one channel.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there's nothing that offends you in your community, then you know you're not
living in a free society.
Kim Campbell - ex-Prime Minister of Canada - 2004
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For direct replies, take out the contents between the hyphens. -Really!-

[Larry Fine]

On 24-Nov-2004, Truth <yenc@sucks.com> wrote:

> When channel surfing, I always have to scan past dozens of sports channels
> that never have anything on
> them anyway but the same female announcer saying the channel doesn't have
> any scheduled programming at
> this time. Yet you have to scan past them, and the dozens of weather
> channels everytime you go
> around. It really sucks.

You can set up your receiver to skip channels you don't want when you're
surfing. Just hit the Menu button and scroll down to "Channel Skip/Add".
Press the XM button and you can start knocking unwanted channels out of the
lineup.

Larry Fine

[Bob Haberkost]

"D Ray" <david@timecalc.com> wrote in message
news:eaf9681.0411222341.34d12f78@posting.google.com...
> bobby cornelius <bcornel@hushmail.com> wrote in message
> news:<fu84q0hsc61pc8r2ngq98r304m0616ks09@4ax.com>...
>> anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
>> given time?

> Here's what you're after:

> http://home.att.net/~satrad/sirius3a.gif

This discussion has gotten me so interested in this Molniya orbit that Sirius uses,
that I ended up finding a shareware program called Satbuster, written by an Italian
named Paolo Cosetti. Those interested can get their own copy at www.satbuster.com.

It's rather well done, as it displays the ground track on both orthographic and
mercator projections, calculates instantaneous look angles, as well as shows the
apogee/perigee and other orbital measures at either synchronised or simulated times.
This app may exactly answer bobby's questions.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there's nothing that offends you in your community, then you know you're not
living in a free society.
Kim Campbell - ex-Prime Minister of Canada - 2004
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For direct replies, take out the contents between the hyphens. -Really!-

[Danny]

I use a free satellite tracking program called Satscape, it's used mainly
for amateur radio sat tracking but will also track any sat that is in orbit.
I've since added the sats for Sirius and am able to track them in real time,
pretty cool..........



"Mark S." <vo1one@gee-mail.com> wrote in message
news:cntpm2$fui$1@nntp-stjh-01-01.rogers.nf.net...
> "<INSERT NAME HERE>" <NOSPAMemail@NOSPAMemail.com> wrote in message
> news:8eGdnf_JqsKu9D_cRVn-rQ@adelphia.com...
>> bobby cornelius <bcornel@hushmail.com> wrote in
>> news:fu84q0hsc61pc8r2ngq98r304m0616ks09@4ax.com:
>>
>>> anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
>>> given time?
>>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.cashflowbusiness.net/siri_orbit.htm
>
> This isn't live, but a good depiction of what the near 24 hour cycle looks
> like.
>

[Ben Hogland]

"Bob Haberkost" <cbclistener-really!-@canada.com> wrote in message
news:h2Ipd.14$%R1.0@trndny03...
>
> "D Ray" <david@timecalc.com> wrote in message
> news:eaf9681.0411222341.34d12f78@posting.google.com...
>> bobby cornelius <bcornel@hushmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:<fu84q0hsc61pc8r2ngq98r304m0616ks09@4ax.com>...
>>> anyone ever seen anything on where the 3 sirius birds are at at any
>>> given time?
>
>> Here's what you're after:
>
>> http://home.att.net/~satrad/sirius3a.gif
>
> This discussion has gotten me so interested in this Molniya orbit that
> Sirius uses, that I ended up finding a shareware program called
> Satbuster, written by an Italian named Paolo Cosetti. Those
> interested can get their own copy at www.satbuster.com.
>
> It's rather well done, as it displays the ground track on both
> orthographic and mercator projections, calculates instantaneous look
> angles, as well as shows the apogee/perigee and other orbital measures
> at either synchronised or simulated times. This app may exactly answer
> bobby's questions.

I just loaded it too and agree it's easy to use and has a nice look to
it/interface. With that said, it is not freeware though. Winorbit is
freeware.

Ben

[yqf@my-deja.com]

Truth <yenc@sucks.com> wrote in message news:<41A4C871.86ACC112@sucks.com>...
> > On the other hand, the inferior placement of the XM satellites leaves
> > them parked over the middle of the ocean off the west coast of South
> > America
>
> I can always see both of them at all times. Line of sight. Sirrius go completely away and no line of
> sight at all, they are gone completely, and worthless to me.


Unless of course, if you are moving (you know... like all those people
who buy XM and Sirius for listening in their cars) in which case a
satellite being geostationary is useless, because then XM satellites
then aren't at a constant elevation and azimuth to the ever-moving
receiver. Then the higher position in the sky that Sirius offers has
the advantage, and XM's satellite orbits have no advantages.

True, from a stationary receiver... and *IF* XM's lower in the sky
position is still high enough to be visible to you from that one
stationary location, you will never lose visibility of the satellite
from that one stationary position.

If satellite radio wasn't primarily a mobile receiver application,
geostationary satellites might be a good idea.

[Mark S.]

> If satellite radio wasn't primarily a mobile receiver application,
> geostationary satellites might be a good idea.

Sirius has a geostationary satellite, too -- the Dish Network satellite :-)
Oh, and if you subscribe to Dish network, you can listen to the Sirius music
channels in excellent quality for free, well no additional cost added on to
what you'd pay to watch TV on Dish anyways. I think somewhere along the
lines of 6 million people have the ability to listen to Sirius thanks to
Dish network. With XM's previous alliance with DirecTV, you'd think they'd
strike up a similar deal with each other. I don't think they've done
anything together since the $50 off XM equipment coupon for DirecTV
subscribers (when XM equipment costed $250+) and the XM infomercial channel
that appeared for a month on DirecTV.

[Truth]

> > When channel surfing, I always have to scan past dozens of sports channels
> > that never have anything on
> > them anyway but the same female announcer saying the channel doesn't have
> > any scheduled programming at
> > this time. Yet you have to scan past them, and the dozens of weather
> > channels everytime you go
> > around. It really sucks.
>
> You can set up your receiver to skip channels you don't want when you're
> surfing.

No I can't.

> Just hit the Menu button and scroll down to "Channel Skip/Add".

No such option on my receiver.

> Press the XM button and you can start knocking unwanted channels out of the
> lineup.

Read the manual and tell me what page of the Roady2 manual that is from.

Go through the menu and see if you can find "Channel Skip/Add"

[Larry Fine]

On 27-Nov-2004, Truth <yenc@sucks.com> wrote:

> Read the manual and tell me what page of the Roady2 manual that is from.
>
> Go through the menu and see if you can find "Channel Skip/Add"

You'll find it in the manual for the SkyFi2. :)

Larry Fine

[D Ray]

> Dish network. With XM's previous alliance with DirecTV, you'd think they'd
> strike up a similar deal with each other. I don't think they've done
> anything together since the $50 off XM equipment coupon for DirecTV
> subscribers (when XM equipment costed $250+) and the XM infomercial channel
> that appeared for a month on DirecTV.

Sirius isn't being paid for its deal with sat TV deal and I think it
is fair to say that XM wouldn't do a deal like unless there was money
in it for them. I suspect that's the reason nothing has happened
there...