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speech_ferapist
Host starts ranting
Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 27
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 Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:37 pm Post subject: Sirius turning off ground repeaters? |
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Has anybody noticed problems in Harrisburg, Philly or Wilmington, DE?
| Quote: | Sirius Silence - Link
News 8 Finds Out What's Keeping Some Satellite Radios Silent
POSTED: 12:08 pm EST February 1, 2007
UPDATED: 12:29 pm EST February 1, 2007
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- With tens of millions of subscribers, satellite radio is growing in popularity. But subscribers to one satellite radio service in the Susquehanna Valley want to know why their signal is fading away.
News 8 On Your Side consumer reporter Brian Roche filed this investigative report.
Sirius Silence
Sirius Satellite Radio has more than 5 million subscribers. But for the past few months, many listeners in the Susquehanna Valley have been experiencing a Sirius silence.
"When you try to use it inside your office, it worked fine from December 2005 until October of 2006," said Mark Lacoco, of Camp Hill.
Lacoco works in a Harrisburg office building. When his signal went silent last October, he called Sirius and got an explanation.
"They were down for maintenance and it would be about two days. And it just never worked consistently again," Lacoco said.
Lacoco said that call happened more than three months ago. Since then, Lacoco has only been able to use his Sirius receiver in his car without a problem, but not inside.
To understand the problem, you have to understand how Sirius gets its signal to subscribers. The company has three satellites that orbit in an elliptical pattern over the United States throughout the course of a day. The satellite signal can be picked up directly by a Sirius satellite receiver, but it is also picked up by a terrestrial, or ground-based, repeater.
The repeater strengthens the signal and helps you receive it indoors. When the repeater is turned off, the signal is coming directly from the satellite and any obstruction blocks the reception.
On most Sirius receivers, there's an indicator that tells subscribers whether they are getting the signal from satellite or from the ground. Lacoco said he has not received a terrestrial or ground based signal since October.
Sirius has admitted to News 8 in a statement that its Harrisburg repeater is temporarily off. That is all they will say.
But deep within the company's quarterly statement, News 8 found some answers. In the statement filed last fall with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sirius states that "On Oct. 13, 2006, we ceased operating 11 of our terrestrial repeaters, which we discovered had been operating at a variance to the specifications."
On the Web site for the Federal Communications Commission, News 8 discovered that Sirius has applied to resume operating the 11 repeaters, including the one for Harrisburg. Repeaters for Philadelphia and Wilmington, Del., are also shut down. The FCC said it did not order the repeaters turned off.
As for Lacoco, he called Sirius and got a break on his subscription.
"They did issue me a credit for November, December and January," he said.
Sirius told News 8 On Your Side that they're willing to issue a credit for the last three months to any customer in the Harrisburg area. If you are a subscriber and would like to get the credit, call Sirius at 1-888-539-7474.
News 8 wants to make it clear that the reception problem only occurs inside a building or when something is blocking the satellite signals, which in the Susquehanna Valley come from the west. The problem only affects Sirius satellite radio. |
_________________
Speech coach to 'special' comedians with budding radio careers. George Flowers did speech coaching on the side. Howard was advised to become a speech ferapist instead of a radio host. History would have been a lot different with no Howard... |
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