A Simple Introduction to Satellite Radio Technology

A satellite radio is a digital radio signal that is broadcast by a communication satellite, which covers a much wider geographical range than terrestrial radio signals. It is a type of direct broadcast satellite and is strong enough that it requires no satellite dish to receive.
The quality of the broadcasts is higher, the quality of the apparatus's reception is higher and the general coverage of the channel, that is to say the so-called satellite's footprint is far greater as well. 
Radio signals can travel only about 30 to 40 miles past the transmitter. This is why when you are travelling and you drive too far away from the radio transmitter, it becomes static and eventually you lose the signal completely. Whereas satellite radio signal can be sent to more than 35,000 miles (22000 km), with perfect clarity and sound quality.
Satellite radio service – digital broadcast centers where a huge quantity of music stored – sends songs and material for the satellites in digital format so that the signal is high-quality sound. The signal is encoded inside the satellite and then re-sent for the repeaters antennas, which then sends it to a radio receiver that decodes and plays sounds. 
The music tracks are catalogued in a comparable way to the MP3 system, which uses names called ID3 tags. Digital compression is a process here by which material is compressed as much as possible with the quantity of bandwidth available on the channel.
Radio services are usually provided by commercial ventures and are subscription-based. The various services are proprietary signals, requiring specialized hardware for decoding and playback. On purchase of the service, the satellite radio device is programmed into a database that allows users to receive specific radio transmissions from specific satellites. 
In order to receive satellite transmissions, you will have to use a special antenna on your decoder. This antenna must be capable of receiving L-band broadcasts for it to be of use. These new antennas are a huge improvement on the parabolic dishes (similar to those used for satellite television) that one used to have to have in order to take advantage of satellite radio technology.
The fact that satellite radio is commercial free for numerous of its channels can also be a major selling point. Presently, key satellite digital radio systems in the world are WorldSpace (covers Africa, southern Europe, Middle East and Asia), XM Radio, Sirius Radio (US and parts of Canada), and MBCo (Japan and Korea).