The long wait is over for Canadians. Satellite radio is finally here at long last. Canadian Satellite Radio is officially available since November 2005. The CRTC (Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission) finally came to an agreement that will change the landscape of Canadian radio from here forward.

XM satellite radio was the first provider to be licensed in Canada by the CRTC. They signed a six-year deal to provide the service across the airwaves to Canadians. You can rest assured that with the initial success this agreement will be renewed when it comes due. An interesting point to be made, once the agreement with the CRTC had been signed several of the car manufacturers in Canada inked deals to provide satellite ready units in their cars.

As Canadians we’ve heard about the satellite radio rush that was happening in the US. Because of this Canadians have long awaited the arrival of such a service. Like their US counterparts, Canadian Satellite Radio customers are able to subscribe to a wide array of broadcasts including news, entertainment, sports, comedy, and about any music genre you can think of.

So what is Canadian Satellite radio going to cost you? Subscribers will be required to pay a monthly fee the same as US customers. This fee will give users access to all the content available. To be able to receive the signal you will need satellite radio receiver. The receiver is the actual radio/device that will play or receive the signal.

One of the biggest benefits to potential Canadian Satellite Radio subscribers is the service is highly affordable! For less then the cost of most Internet services per month you can enjoy access to all of the non-stop music and entertainment available. XM radio will also be offering advertisers a new channel to get their message to the masses. With small spots of advertising available on several of the all talk channels businesses will be able to tap into the growing pool of Satellite radio subscribers.

So on a whole what does Canadian Satellite Radio really mean to the country? More great news, music and entertainment for subscribers, advertisers will be offered a benefit of more airtime to get their messages out. Consumer electronics stores will have a new product line with multiple brands to sell, as well as a new installation revenue stream for Satellite car radio units. Of course it is the subscriber that will have the biggest benefit, but all looks bright to benefit both entertainment and commerce in the coming years for Canadian Satellite Radio.

For more information about Canadian Satellite Radio, and other services and products to do with the industry please visit out website Satellite Radios

You have probably been hearing about satellite radio for a while and of course, lately there has been plenty of news about Howard Stwern setting up shop on Sirius and bringing his fan base along with him. So now you have decided that it’s time to get on the bandwagon with this new technology and experience satelite radio for yourself.

If you live in the US you only have two choices for programming, XM and Sirius. In this article, we will discuss Sirius and the things you will need to do to sign up with them and receive their programming signal.

First of all, before you get started, make sure that Sirius is the provider that you really want. This is because once you decide on the provider or service, that will dictate which receiving equipment that you will need to purchase, and most importantly, once you have that equipment you will not be able to use it to change your subscription and receive the other provider’s signal. So make your choice wisely here to avoid costly changes later on.

Now that you have definitely decided on Sirius as your satellite radio provider, here are the two simple steps that you need to do to start getting satellite radio:

1. Sign up for a monthly subscription with Sirius. It will cost about $12.95 a month if you pay on a monthly basis, but you can save money by buying the subsciption annually or even longer. So choose your plan and sign up.

2. Buy your receiving equipment. You will need a receiver and an antenna to start getting the signal. Your regular car radio will not be able to receive satellite radio unles it is specifically enabled for that purpose, so check your manuafcturers material to see about that first.

Before buying though, think about where you plan to listen tio your programming. Will you only be listening in your car? Then you probably only need a car receiver and antenna to get going. Just be sure that your receiving equipment matches the manufacturer of your car’s radio. However, if you plan on listening at home too, you may need to get a plug-and-play type of unit that enables you to pull the receiver from your car when you get home and plug it into a home based unit to start receiving the signal through your home audio system. And if you need a portable unit for those times when you are neither at home or in the car, those are available as well. Prices for these units can vary considerably, but by shopping online you can usually get a very good deal on the equipment and have it installed locally if needed.

Once you have the equipment and the subscription, you are ready to start enjoying satellite radio whenever you want. Remember, it’s always on and always available wherever you go.

Jim Johnson is a successful author and publisher on consumer related matters. You can find out more about sirius satellite radio and satellite radio services by visiting our Satellite Radio Review website.

For many years, radio and TV broadcasts were all done pretty much the same and consumers had no choice but to put up with the limitations of the broadcasting system. It was well-known that you could only be so far away from a radio or TV station if you ever hoped to pull in a strong enough signal to make the reception clear and enjoyable. But when cable TV was first introduced all of that began to change and now satellite technologies are in place to allow everyone to enjoy clear, high quality broadcast reception no matter where they are in the US.

Old analog radio and TV broadcasts have been extremely limited in what they could do for two major reasons: (1) The signal could only carry so much information, and (2) the shape of the earth made tall obstructions and distance a serious obstacle past a 30 - 50 mile range. So if you exceeded that range, picture and/or sound became sketch and eventually not worth even putting up with.

As mentioned above, cable started to address those issues, but it’s been the advent of satellite technology that has really brought clear digital entertainment to the masses no matter where they live in the US. And here is why:

Satellite radio and TV both broadcast their signal in digital formats rather than analog. The signal is much more dense and contains more information. What that means for you is better clarity on the TV screen and high quality CD-like sound for both radio and TV.

But perhaps one of the most incredible advances made available by satellite technology is the ability to stream perfectly clear reception throughout the US even if you live in remote or rural areas. This is possible because the satellites that broadcast the signal are in orbit thousands of miles above the earth, so there is absolutely nothing to obstruct the signal or degrade it as it is beamed down to those on the ground who can receive it with the appropriate equipment.

There is also enough satellites in use that service is never interrupted as they travel around the earth. When one starts to go out of range, the next in line picks up the broadcasting chores and the reception is never broken.

This means that if you have a subscription to either XM or Sirius satellite radio service, you could get in your car and travel nonstop from one end of the country to the other end and never lose the radio broadcast signal or even have to put up with any static or reduced quality. It’s entertainment that is always on and always available, everywhere throughout the country.

This kind of technology was only a dream just a few years ago, but now has become the standard for top quality broadcasting entertainment for now and the foreseeable future.

Jim Johnson is a successful author and publisher on consumer related matters. You can find out more about sirius satellite radio and delphi satellite radio by visiting our Satellite Radio Review website.

If you want to take advantage of the satellite radio boom which is picking up steam with almost every passing day, you only have two major choices if you live in the US, either XM or Sirius. Both providers offer high quality, digital programming with over 100 channels to listen to so you can never run out of something good on the radio.

But what are the differences between the two services? It makes sense to figure that out in advance and make the right decision for you, as the equipment that you buy that enables you to receive the signal from one of the providers, cannot be used with the other provider if you decide that you want to make a change for some reason. So that means that examining the programming options from both XM and Sirius is an important step in the buying process, as it will be very expensive if you decide to change after the equipment has been purchased.

In actuality though, there are more similarities between the two providers than there are differences, especially in the field of music. Each has over 60 channels of music to tune into including all of the major generes like pop, hip-hop, blues, all kinds of rock, country, jazz, classical, as well as dance music and music by the decades (70s, 80s, 90s, etc.) So in this area, either one will no doubt provide you with all the music programming that you could ever need.

The differences in programming start to show up in the talk radio and sports radio sections though. In sports, XM broadcasts baseball games and Nascar, whereas Sirius has committed to more overall sports programming including all NFL footbal games, most NBA games, NHL, and Nascar. So if you are a sports fan, the differences can be important in this area.

In talk radio, one of the biggest draws for Sirius is Howard Stern. Of course, his radio show has been very popular for many years and has lots of listeners, so if he is a favorite of yours, you can only find him on Sirius. But there are other talk shows available as well, although Sirius tends to attract more celebrity talk shows hosted by the likes of Martha Stewart, Jimmy Buffet, and more. One other advantage in the talk area, is that Sirius also carries NPR, which has a wide fan base as well. The list is constantly changing though, so check the latest channel lineup to see what talk channels are being offered at this point.

Both services offer always-on, everywhere service that is available no matter where you live in the US, and the equipment for receiving each service is pretty extensive, with XM maybe having a slight edge in the portability field.

So look over the channel lineups carefully, choose your provider and enjoy the next step in high quality, digital entertainment.

Jim Johnson is a successful author and publisher on consumer related matters. You can find out more about sirius satellite radio and portable satellite radio by visiting our Satellite Radio Review website.

Satellite radio is definitely a growing technology and each month the number of people receiving it’s broadcasting continues to grow steadily. So who can access satellite radio?

The answer to that depends on where you live in the world. If you happen to live in the US the answer is that just about anyone with a subscription to either XM or Sirius can get it. They are both companies that have received approval by the FCC to broadcast digital radio across the entire US by satellite. If however you live outside the US and Canada your options are much more limited. There is only one other provider called WorldSpace that serves countires in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America. So if you live in those areas, WorldSpace is your only provider choice.

For those that live in the US the monthly costs of the service is between $9.95 for XM and $12.95 for Sirius. Sirius charges more because they claim to use technology that improves the digital sound even more than XM and they also have given more attention to customer service to address issues that may arrive after the sale.

Once you have a subscription to a satellite radio provider’s service, all you need at that point is the equipment to receive the signal and play it. You can get the receivers and antennas online or at local electronics stores. Generally, you can save money by buying the equipment online and then having it installed in your car, boat, or RV locally. If you wish to get a receiver that integrates with your home audio system, they can usually be easily installed on your own.

Your choices for equipment include plug-and-play units that can be used both at home and in your car, dedicated car radio units, and small portable units that can taken almost anywhere. At this point there are plenty of electronics manufacturers that have cooperated with both XM and Sirius in making equipment that will receive each provider’s unique, proprietary signal.

So the amswer to the question of who can access satellite radio is that anyone who lives in the areas of the world where the three major providers are currently providing service and who also has the equipment to be able to receive and play the radio broadcasting signal can access satellite radio. So if you live in one of these areas why not arrange for a demonstration and find out why satellite radio is the wave of the future in radio broadcasting?

Jim Johnson is a successful author and publisher on consumer related matters. You can find out more about sirius satellite radio and satellite radio receiver by visiting our Satellite Radio Review website.

Choosing a tuner for your system is of little difference from choosing other components. When auditioning other components, people are primarily concerned with their sound quality, not their technical performance.

For example, if a preamplifier under audition sounds good, you do not need to worry much about its technical performance. Because .if it sounds good, then it is working well.

Tuners, on the other hand, exhibit great variability in their technical performance. It will not only concern the tuner’s sound; tonal balance, sound staging, portrayal of timbre, etc., but also basic characteristics such as the ability to pick up weak or distant stations, reject adjacent stations, provide a noise-free audio signal, and stay tuned to a station without drifting.

A tuner’s performance in these areas can be accurately characterized by measurement; this makes tuner specifications much more significant than those of other audio components.

There is a direct correlation between a tuner’s specifications and its sonic performance. You still have to listen to the tuner before you buy, but you can often separate poor performing models from better units by looking at the specification sheets.

Unlike most audio products, the best high-end tuners have more features, front-panel controls, and displays than the lower-end products.

The price range for a good tuner from a mass-market manufacturer is between $400 and $1000. Some of the higher-end models from mass-market companies offer excellent performance.

The price range from $750 to $1200 is very competitive, with many superb units to choose from. The very best tuners cost as much as $12,000.

The differences between mediocre and excellent tuners.

Good tuners are characterized by their sensitivity or the ability to pull in weak stations. The greater its sensitivity, the better it can pick up weak or distant stations.

This aspect is more important in suburban or rural areas that are far from radio transmitters.

On the other hand, a tuner characteristic of greater importance to the city dweller is adjacent-channel selectivity or the ability to pick up one station without interference from the station next to it on the dial.

This specification defines a tuner’s ability to reject a strong station two channels away from the desired channel. When stations are packed closely together, as they are in cities, adjacent-channel and alternate-channel selectivity are more important than sensitivity.

Equally important to all listeners is the tuner’s signal-to-noise ratio, a measure of the difference in dB between background noise and the maximum signal strength. A tuner with a poor signal-to-noise ratio will overlay the music with an annoying background hiss.

A poor tuner will have trouble receiving weak stations, may lack the ability to select one station when that station is adjacent to another station, have high background noise, and be overloaded by nearby FM transmitters or other radio signal sources.

Many tuners have a high-blend circuit that automatically switches the signal to mono when the signal strength falls below a certain level.

The difference between high-blend and the mono/stereo switch just described is that the high-blend circuit puts only the treble into mono, leaving the rest of the spectrum in stereo. This gets rid of most of the noise, but maintains stereo separation through most of the midrange and bass.

Lastly, all good tuners have a 75-ohm coaxial antenna input as well as the more commonly used 300-ohm flat-lead input. The coaxial input should be used for best signal transmission between the antenna and tuner.

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides tuner resources on http://www.abouttuners.info.

What a huge idea! To have the ability to listen to commercial free music, wherever, whenever! One great idea can change everything. XM Satellite Radio has changed everything. XM is now America’s #1 Satellite Radio provider. It features over 160 digital channels — over 30 channels of news, sports, talk and entertainment, over 20 dedicated channels of XM-brand Instant Traffic & Weather, and the largest playlist in the industry with access to over 2 million song titles.

Probably the best thing about an XM Satellite radio is that you don’t have to replace your old radio to get XM. It’s swift and simple to add XM to your existing car or home stereo. With the XM system, you’ll still be able to listen to your regular AM, FM stations and your CD or cassette player. A great feature of XM radios is its ability to display the channel name, artist name and song title, so you won’t ever have to ask "what’s the name of that song?" That’s priceless! If you’re in the market for a new car, be sure to ask about having a XM Radio installed. XM-equipped audio systems are offered in over 100 new cars for the 2005 model year.

There is no doubt that satellite radio is the future of the music and audio entertainment industry. Satellite radio is doing to radio what cable television did to television years ago. An explosion of information is ready for your ears! Founded in 1992, as the American Mobile Radio Corporation, XM offers receivers from the price range of $30 - $300. For the budget-friendly consumer, XM also offers these receivers at a month-to-month plan, with service fees at about $12.95 for the first receiver. Subscribers may purchase packages from 1-5 years, in which the average cost is under $10 per month. XM also offers internet only packages and mobile (i.e. Ipod) services for satellite radio.

For those you curious to how they “do it”, here’s a synopsis. XM provides digital programming directly from three satellites in geostationary orbit above the equator. There are the XM-1 (“Roll”), XM-2 (“Rock”) and XM-3 (“Rhythm”). The integration of three satellites and a ground-based repeater network is designed to give gap-free coverage anywhere within the continental United States. Unfortunately, XM-1, and XM-2 were created with a design fault on the Boeing 702 series of satellites, which basically means that their life spans will be only about six years, instead of 15 like the maker intended.

A new author trying to contribute to the internet community.

If you like listening to the radio, you should know that there are huge changes happening in the radio broadcasting industry and they all center around satellite radio. This new breakthrough will change forever the way that we listen to radio programming. If you haven’t already heard a sample, or experienced satellite radio for yourself, make sure that you do soon.

Currently there are two major providers of satellite radio in North America and that is XM and Sirius. In this article let’s see what you can expect to get when you become an XM radio customer.

First and foremost is the incredible unique programming that XM offers as part of it’s service. With over 100 channels to choose from there is always something good to listen to. But check out some of these one-of-a-kind special broadcasts that is available, many of them only on XM :

* Music shows hosted by Bob Dylan, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Tom Petty, and Wynton Marsalis.

* Public Radio’s Bob Edwards

* Major League Baseball games

* NASCAR

* World Cup

* Good Morning America Radio

* The Ellen Degeneres Show

* Oprah & Friends

and much more. New and fresh programming is being added constantly too.

Now consider that with all that great programming to choose from, most of it is provided absolutely free of all commercials and ads. Who actually likes listening to those anyway? And who likes having their favorite music or talk show interrupted by a person pitching something instead? Since the subscriber base pays for the programming with their $9.95 monthly subscription, there is no need to load up the channels with ads and commercials.

XM also records and transmits all of their radio signals in digital format, so as the listener you get clean clear sound that rivals that of CDs. This allows you to play XM satellite radio over your home or car stereo equipment without any hiss, fade, or loss of sound quality.

And because the radio signal is broadcast from satellites you never have to lose it like you do with standard radio stations. One of the most irritating things about standard radio for travelers is that the sound begins to break up and fade after just 30 miles or so and so you have to keep fishing for new radio stations that have the kind of programming that you like to listen to. But with XM radio that is a thing of the past.

So all-in-all XM satellite radio is inexpensive, high quality radio programming is always on no matter where you go. What could be better?

Jim Johnson is a successful author and publisher on consumer related matters. You can find out more about xm satelite radio and xm radios by visiting our Satellite Radio Review website.

If you haven’t experienced listening to satellite radio yet, be sure that you schedule some time to do so soon. It’s a real breakthrough in radio broadcasting technology that improves the entire listening experience. For so many years, radio broadcasting has been essentially static, with no real improvements or significant changes in the technology at all. But thanks to XM satellite radio and it’s competitor, Sirius, the radio broadcasting landscape has been changed forever. Here are the top 5 reasons why you need XM radio now:

1. Over 100 channels of unique programming including over 65 music channels that play almost any kind of music that you could want to listen to. But there is also talk radio and sports programming too, including MLB games. If you can’t find something interesting to listen to on XM radio you just aren’t trying very hard. And new, more original radio shows are constantly being made available as well.

2. The sound is incredible. Since the radio signal is recorded in digital instead of analog format, you get to hear crystal clear CD-like sound. So it’s like having your CD player with you wherever you go, without having to lug along all those CDs at the same time.

3. No loss of signal. Because the signal is digital and transmitted to a group of satellites that orbit high above the earth in the atmosphere, there are no obstructions like trees, buildings, or even the curvature of the earth’s surface that can prevent you from receiving any of the available channels no matter where you go. So you can drive for hundreds of miles and listen to the same radio channel if you like.

4. No commercials. On most channels there are no commercials or ads whatsoever because the XM radio service is a monthly subscription. That means that there is no need to run ads to pay for the service. It’s paid for by it’s subscriber base instead. What that means for you as the listener is no more irritating interruptions of your favorite programming by pitchmen that want to sell you something that you probably don’t even want anyway.

5. If you happen to live in Canada, you are now able to receive XM satellite radio in your area too. XM is the only provider at this point that is making satellite radio available to Canadians.

If you add up all the features of XM satellite radio including it’s incredibly diverse programming, it’s digital sound quality, it’s lack of on-air ads, and more it’s easy to see why almost 6 million people have already subscribed to XM radio already. How about you?

Jim Johnson is a successful author and publisher on consumer related matters. You can find out more about xm satelite radio and xm radios by visiting our Satellite Radio Review website.

Satellite radio is catching on like wildfire these days and as more consumers actually gain experience with it, they come to appreciate it’s benefits and get on board with this new technology. There are two main satellite radio service providers and they are Sirius and XM, but for this article let’s just focus on what you need to know about XM satellite radio.

First of all, satellite radio is a new way of broadcasting radio signals that eliminates most of the problems and shortcomings of standard radio broadcasts. For instance, haven’t you found it annoying that after you travel about 30 - 50 miles across country, you have to change the radio station because the one you are listening to fades out and becomes unlistenable? Well, satellite radio solves that problem as the radio signal is recorded digitally and transmitted to satellites that orbit the earth high in the atmosphere. Since there are no obstacles or obstructions between them and the listeners here on the ground, you can literally travel from coast to coast and keep listening to the same radio station as you do.

XM radio offers over 100 channels of radio programming too that runs the gamut from every kind of music you can imagine, to talk radio, sports programming, and much more. You can always find something good to listen to on XM radio, and they keep adding even more popular programming content as they go on. For instance, XM has recently added a channel called "Oprah & Friends" that will feature Oprah herself and many of the popular personalities from her show. They have also brought Bob Dylan on board to host a weekly show for music fans across the country. And more of this kind of original programming can be expected to arrive on XM in the near future.

One of the big advantages of XM satellite radio though is the ability to listen to it generally free of commercial interruptions. Because it is a subscription based service, there is no need to sell on-air advertising, and that simply means that listeners get more of what they really want, the programming that they signed up for. The service is very inexpensive at only $9.95 a month, so it’s affordable by almost everyone.

You will have to purchase the receiving equipment necessary to decode the radio signal, in order to listen to it, but there is a wide array of electronics products that cater to XM radio. You can find units specifically made for your car, your home stereo, and even those that can be switched back and forth whenever you want. In fact, XM is also leading the industry by providing portable units from Samsung and Pioneer that can play XM radio wherever you are and also play MP3s, WMA files, and even recorded XM content too.

So why not consider joining the almost 6 million subscribers that are currently already on board and enjoy the breakthrough radio broadcasting technology from XM satellite radio?

Jim Johnson is a successful author and publisher on consumer related matters. You can find out more about xm satelite radio and xm radios by visiting our Satellite Radio Review website.