S-band propagation (SiriusXM in the UK)

[astra19]

Hi all,
I was reading at some point last year about radio DX on this forum, and one member (for the life of me I can't remember who) had a website with archives of all the things they had managed to catch. One thing that caught my attention was that many years ago they had managed to receive SiriusXM satellite radio in the UK. I know that line of sight is needed for satellite, but I'm impressed that somehow they managed to receive it all this way.
I know that SiriusXM also has terrestrial repeaters (SiriusXM Satellite Radio (info for techies)) and I'm curious as to whether it was ever established whether the reception had come from satellite or a ground repeater as they operate mostly the same frequency.

 

[s-band]

I think that @uhf-satcom.com and maybe others managed to receive it when it was on the HEO satellites which were visible from the UK.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1253924314287611904

Looks like the HEO satellites are done

Looks like the HEO satellites are done. The date has passed (set in 2008) to decommission them. Sirius FM-5 and FM-6 are co-located with XM-5 and XM-6, respectively. Sirius FM-5 was supposed to hang around 96 degrees but they changed their mind for some reason. Anyone notice a reduction in...

www.satelliteguys.us

 

[Channel Hopper]

http://neilrieck.net/images/sirius-xm-orbital-animations.gif

Spot the UK.

VPN should give you their streaming service for a few weeks.

https://care.siriusxm.com/subscribe/checkout/purchase/streaming/organic?intcmp=PKS_NA_www:phx:sxm-tryfree_3forFree_PS&programCode=IONUSTPSRTP3MOFREE

What's wrong with 648kHz ?

 

[s-band]

Spot the UK.

From the link:
"All satellites are considerably higher than this animation suggests."

They've all lost their E-W station keeping but see: Real time satellite tracking for: SIRIUS 3 SIRIUS 2 SIRIUS 1
They were in Tundra orbits which were geo-stationary variants of the Molniya orbit When I looked at 22:00, Sirius 1 was over the Aleutian Islands and still 7 deg elevation 6 deg az viewed from London

 

[Channel Hopper]

From the link:
"All satellites are considerably higher than this animation suggests."

They've all lost their E-W station keeping but see: Real time satellite tracking for: SIRIUS 3 SIRIUS 2 SIRIUS 1
They were in Tundra orbits which were geo-stationary variants of the Molniya orbit When I looked at 22:00, Sirius 1 was over the Aleutian Islands and still 7 deg elevation 6 deg az viewed from London

At the time (circa 2007) these were the footprints being used to determine the coverage.

http://www.freewebs.com/vo1one/xm 115 east antenna.JPG

http://www.freewebs.com/vo1one/xm 85 east antenna.JPG

Whilst S-band is relatively forgiving, reception in Europe was always a gamble

 

[astra19]

Thanks @s-band, you were the perfect person to respond! That's very interesting.

I'm actually a subscriber from when I lived in the US, and kept it on once I left because I enjoyed it. Was just really surprised to see the reception was possible in the UK but it must have been the tundra orbit that allowed for it. Very interesting.

 

[uhf-satcom.com]

Look at https://uhf-satcom.com/sounds

25th July 2012 - Sirius XM satellite radio on S-Band as received in Southern UK (pjm recording) - this is my recording of Sirius XM.

regards,

Paul.