Satellite Radio

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Mon, 16 Mar 1998 00:03:07 -0500 (EST), "'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@world.std.com> said:

> I was surprised that no one mentioned what I would expect to be the
> biggest problem in receiving satellite radio in a car.  How do you keep
> the dish aimed at the satellite when the car is moving?  I have enough
> trouble listening to some FM signals in my car because of the car's
> motion, what with multipath and dueling signals on the same channel.

You don't.  You use a high-powered satellite on a
centimeter-wavelength band (like up around 12 GHz, one of the K
bands), and have a really small, low-gain antenna.  So long as the
antenna is pointed roughly ``up'', you win.  (It would help to have a
number of satellites in polar orbit, rather than one or two in the
Clarke belt, which would reduce the power budget and the need for a
southerly exposure.)

- -GAWollman

- --
Garrett A. Wollman   | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same
wollman@lcs.mit.edu  | O Siem / The fires of freedom 
Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame
MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA|                     - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick

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