Slacker.com satellite car receiver kit

[aegrotatio]

Does anyone know what sort of technology the Slacker.com satellite car receiver kit is going to use?
It only works in the car. It has a roof antenna and a docking cradle.
They claim it is using Ku-band and the company has said they are leasing a Ku-band transponder.
It's not for live music, just for store-and-forward.

What I want to know is: what sort of antenna can receive Ku-band in your car that does not cost hundreds of dollars? I have not seen anything cheap enough for normal consumers to buy, so what magic technology are they using for the Slacker.com satellite car kit?

Thanks!

 

[Anole]

just a few points

1) haven't you seen Sirius and XMradio satellite receivers for the car?
2) they use some very small antenna, and it receives on Ku band, so far as I know.
3) one or the other company already have a receiver with a built-in hard drive or flash, to let you wind back and pause your music or get through tunnels.
4) I don't see anything very remarkable in the Slacker product.
5) it just seems to be an MP3 player you load at home, and can get semi-live reception when on the road.
6) pretty good idea, I'd say.
7) probably overpriced.

 

[photoman76]

Sirius and XMradio aren't using Ku band. They use S band, 2.310 - 2.360 GHz.
I don't think ku would be a practical choice for a moving car.

 

[Anole]

You are quite correct:

Sirius broadcasts using 12.5 MHz of the S band between 2320 and 2332.5 MHz.

The XM signal uses 12.5 MHz of the S band: 2332.5 to 2345.0 MHz

Sirius Satellite Radio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
XM Satellite Radio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[aegrotatio]

Thanks Anole but the other posters are right.

There is something unusual about the Slacker car kit and I can find no information except some mentions that they are leasing a Ku-band transponder and are using Ku-band.

Sirius and XM not only use 2.3 GHz but they are also using extremely high-powered transponders.
The Slacker kit uses the same weak FSS transponders as, say, Galaxy 25.
They're not even DBS power.
There must be some kind of really high error correction factor and probably very slow and very redundant transmissions.
Slacker is not a live service--it is delivered to the device's hard drive for playback later so a 5-minute song might take several hours to download. Kinda like DiSH Network on-demand and EPG downloads.