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Originally Posted by irokcj5
LOL..... "I like talk radio and I HATE commercials." We may be related!! I use and like pandora. But like the talk shows too. Your description must be dead on for the sound quality. That explains the digital processed sound i'm hearing. With todays technology, you'd think it would be the best sound coming from paid radio. Thanks. Now at least my wife will stop thinking I'm crazy!!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jl8200
Ok Marque answered the question. I was going to say basically the same thing that he said. It does seem like some of the more popular channels have a little better sound quality than some of the less popular channels. However the sound quality is not as good as terrestrial radio and no where near CD quality. When I listen to Pandora the difference in sound quality is huge.
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There are a laundry list of reasons why the sound quality of satellite radio is not better. The first being the designated bandwidth the government allots to Sirius/XM. They are only allowed to broadcast within a certain frequency so there is only so much bandwidth available. When you spread the 200 plus channels over the allotment there is only so much bandwidth to go around. So the more popular channels get a bigger slice of the pie. Thats why the quality is going to be much better on Hits 1 than on the Elvis channel. Whatever they broadcast has to be shot up from earth to the satellite. The satellite then scrambles the signal into a bunch of fragments so its encrypted to prevent people from stealing it. Then it shoots the fragments back down to the receiver in your truck. Your receiver then pieces the signal back together. I assume its a UHF signal which means its directional where as terrestrial radio is broadcast VHF which is an omni directional signal. Its basically the same as difference as a shot gun and a rifle. VHF, being the shot gun is basically not effected by walls and roofs and will cover the target more at shorter ranges because the single bounces. Were as UHF has a longer range but has to travel in a straight line or the signal is blocked. If there were less channels there would be less interference because the signal would be stronger. If it wasn't encrypted there would also be way less interference as well. The bandwidth is allotted because there are a million other forms of communication that also operate in the UHF spectrum.
By the way, I need to throw out a disclaimer. A lot of what I just said is my assumption based on lots of time trying to get satcom radios to work when I was a Marine. I wasn't a radio operator but had to use them so I did a lot of research. They were a giant pain in the a$$ and never really worked right unless we were doing real world operations. Whenever we were training we were given the smaller bandwidth satellites which hardly ever worked, especially if they were crowded. I could be completely full of it, but based on experience, I would assume my explanation is plausible.