OT: Tried to do read through Sirius 10q & asked on the XM & Sirius board & this is the response I got off XM's board:
xm has two, will have 3 when the first replacement is launched and the first two are co located to save power, until they can be replaced with #4. xm is designed around 2 geostationary, siri is designed around 3 in an eliptical orbit.
the siri people got cute with the soviet orbit thinking it gives them a higher angle and better line of sight. but in reality it gives them more dropouts as they hand off, more risk (xm can survive if it loses one of its sats, siri can't), and most importantly, it makes sirius almost impossible to receive in a fixed location on the ground unless the antenna is mounted outdoors, because the darned satellites keep moving relative to the ground. the xm satellites are significantly more powerful, anyway. as a practical matter, the siri design is also a leading cause of their being so far behind in chipset design and hardware.
& from the Sirius board:
By: doberman007
17 Sep 2004, 01:31 PM EDT
Msg. 81823 of 81826
(This msg. is a reply to 81820 by xgin.)
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xgin......
Sirius has 3 birds in the sky
