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XM Satellite Question

S

SLD

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Ok. Every day I drive past our local elementary school, and invariably at just the same exact spot I lose my XM satellite radio signal. It comes back at the exact same spot every time. Like within inches. It’s really weird. I also noticed this happens at a certain stop light I am sometime driving through or stopped at.

I am assuming that this is because the satellite is in geosynchronous orbit? But I always thought those still varied, especially by longitude? I didn’t think it was completely stationary like that.

Or is the signal coming from a tower that in turn getting it from the satellite?

SLD
 
Geostationary orbits are a subcategory of geosynchronous orbits. It looks like the most recent Sirius XM satellite is geostationary.
 
SLD said:
Ok. Every day I drive past our local elementary school, and invariably at just the same exact spot I lose my XM satellite radio signal. It comes back at the exact same spot every time. Like within inches. It’s really weird. I also noticed this happens at a certain stop light I am sometime driving through or stopped at.

I am assuming that this is because the satellite is in geosynchronous orbit? But I always thought those still varied, especially by longitude? I didn’t think it was completely stationary like that.

Or is the signal coming from a tower that in turn getting it from the satellite?

SLD
Click to expand...

The bird moves at the same speed the Earth does so it's always in exactly the same spot in the sky. Something's shadowing you from the satellite. Satellite communications tend to be on frequencies high enough they're prone to shadow problems.
 
XM signals come from geostationary satellites, which are the satellites with the highest orbits commonly used. That makes those the closest to God, and as God is banned in schools, the school board is obligated to install jammers to prevent Him from breaching the US Constitution.

Possibly.
 
bilby said:
XM signals come from geostationary satellites, which are the satellites with the highest orbits commonly used. That makes those the closest to God, and as God is banned in schools, the school board is obligated to install jammers to prevent Him from breaching the US Constitution.

Possibly.
Click to expand...

What about the "geosynchronous" graveyard orbit? It's higher. Very confusing as birds are moved out there in their old age, you can't move a dead bird. That means suicides are the closest to god. I thought the Bible condemned suicide?
 
Loren Pechtel said:
bilby said:
XM signals come from geostationary satellites, which are the satellites with the highest orbits commonly used. That makes those the closest to God, and as God is banned in schools, the school board is obligated to install jammers to prevent Him from breaching the US Constitution.

Possibly.
Click to expand...

What about the "geosynchronous" graveyard orbit? It's higher. Very confusing as birds are moved out there in their old age, you can't move a dead bird. That means suicides are the closest to god. I thought the Bible condemned suicide?
Click to expand...
The bible says the sky is solid. I think the issue of self-topping satellites 8s a little out of the scope...
 
Keith&Co. said:
Loren Pechtel said:
bilby said:
XM signals come from geostationary satellites, which are the satellites with the highest orbits commonly used. That makes those the closest to God, and as God is banned in schools, the school board is obligated to install jammers to prevent Him from breaching the US Constitution.

Possibly.
Click to expand...

What about the "geosynchronous" graveyard orbit? It's higher. Very confusing as birds are moved out there in their old age, you can't move a dead bird. That means suicides are the closest to god. I thought the Bible condemned suicide?
Click to expand...
The bible says the sky is solid. I think the issue of self-topping satellites 8s a little out of the scope...
Click to expand...

So what if the sky is solid? It's just god left us space for communications and weather satellites below the dome of the sky.
 
It is probably due to chnaging currents in the ether. Some photons get dragged more than others.

There are 'diversity antennas' that can discriminate between reflections allowing a receiver to cancel them out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antenna_diversity


When I was living north of Seattle when in the middle of a bridge in my neighborhood an FM station would drop out.
 
I have a question too. I have a small radio and sometime the reception gets fuzzy and all full of static. However if I touch it it gets clear reception. Why is that?
 
fromderinside said:
Interesting use of words. Why aerials rather than antennas? Enquiring minds, maybe, ....
Click to expand...

Because I am neither American nor an insect...

A human isn't so much an antenna, which has an overtone that implies a specific shape (originating from the Latin for a yard, in the sense of a cross-piece in the rigging of a sailing vessel); But rather he is (when touching a radio receiver) an aerial, which implies a conductor forming its electronic function via suspension in the air (as opposed to a ground or earth, which is a condutor forming its function via the ground or Earth).

Certainly in context I am more interested in the disconnected feature of the human as a component separated from the radio by an air gap, than in his antenna like shape or appearance.
 
BH said:
I have a question too. I have a small radio and sometime the reception gets fuzzy and all full of static. However if I touch it it gets clear reception. Why is that?
Click to expand...

The technical term is FM, freaking magic. Some people have the touch.
 
fromderinside said:
Interesting use of words. Why aerials rather than antennas? Enquiring minds, maybe, ....
Click to expand...

I would consider "aerial" to be a wire suspended in the air purpose-built to receive radio energy.

An antenna, however, covers anything that can transmit or receive radio energy, whether purpose-built or not and whether it's a wire in the sky or not and even whether it's wanted or not.
 
back in the day when television sets had "rabbit ears" antennas sitting on the top of the cabinet the picture tube was mounted in, the head of the household would order the youngest to adjust the position of them during a show if the picture started getting fuzzy from a passing cloud or whatever... You couldn't really see the picture quality while moving the antena around at the same time, so it always was the room going, "a little to the left... a little more... THERE that's good". and the kid would let go of the antena and start to head back to the couch, and the room would go "awwwwwwww" and the kid would have to go back and adjust again.
I was that kid and I learned pretty quick that just holding on to the antena made it better, not moving it to a new position. I once stood next to the TV for an hour holding the antenna in one hand and my other arm at 135 degrees, for best reception.
 
Gun Nut said:
... snip ...

I once stood next to the TV for an hour holding the antenna in one hand and my other arm at 135 degrees, for best reception.
Click to expand...
My dad had a different solution... sheets of aluminum foil secured to the ribbit ears and adjusted. He had better use for me than as a substitute for aluminum foil. He preferred to use me as a bringer of snacks from the kitchen, telephone answering machine, and TV remote control to change channels and adjust volume.
 
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