This is a non-commerical web page and site. The use of proper names on this web page are solely for the purpose of identification and NOT affiliation. None of the entities mentioned on this web page endorse the content contained herein. Information contained in the Introduction section of this web page was found via several publicly available web sites (my sources are listed in the references section). Information found in the antenna and base station sections came from personal observations and travels. Data in the site section is from the application of observations detailed in the antenna and base station sections. Finally, this web site is NOT an attempt to dilute any valued brand names OR trademarks. Yes, this is a sad attempt at CYA but it is needed in today's letigous society. Thank you.
Introduction:In April of 1997 XM Satellite Radio, then American Mobile Radio Corp., was one of two successful bidders for the two Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (SDARS) licenses available in FCC Auction #15. XM Radio paid almost $90 million dollars (the FCC says $89,888,888) for license EBN002 while Satellite CD Radio, Inc. (Sirrius) won the other license, EBN001, for about $83.3 million (this time the FCC says $83,346,000).
In 2001 XM satelittes XM-1 & 2 (Roll on 05/08/2001 and Rock on 03/18/2001 respectively) were put into geostationary orbit by Sea Launch. Each Boeing 702 satelitte handling either coast and parts of the central US with an expected service life of 15 years. However, the satelittes are planned for replacement in 10-12 years. A third satelitte is under construction to serve as a backup should one of the existing satelittes fail.
While XM Radio's two satelittes manage to cover a large chunk of the continental United States and have been authorized by the FCC to increase their broadcast power to 68.5 dBW (FCC File No. SAT-MOD-20000131-00051) there are still problems in high density areas such as northern Virginia. To combat this potential reception problem XM Radio contracted LCC International to design, deploy and manage a network of about 1,000 terrestrial repeaters sites operating between 2332.5-2345 MHz. The plan orginally called for most sites to be located on building rooftops but that was changed in Janurary of 2001 to favor existing tower sites.
Antenna:All sites are equiped with one receive antenna and atleast one transmit antenna. The transmit appears to be manufactured by Til-tek and looks like a an angled rectangle with shielding (Fig. 1-1). The receive antenna is very distinctive and looks like a bent toadstool .
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| Figure 1-1 |
Low power repeater sites seem to use a small black box sporting the XM Radio logo. Full power sites use a medium sized weather hardend grey cabinet, most likely made by Lucent (Fig 2-1).
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| Figure 2-1 |
XM sites can have two types of markings. All sites have a blue and orange XM Radio logo on the cabinet (Fig. 3-1) with some sites having an additional black on white contact sign, sometimes having the repeater id hand written on it as well (Fig. 3-2).
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| Figure 3-1 | Figure 3-2 |
Maps of XM repeater locations based on the site listing that follows this table. Site listing will be condensed and improve over the next few days. Map is missing two sites in Washington, D.C. that I have not obtained coordinates for. This will be fixed in the coming months. Yellow circles are sites within Washington, D.C. and red are sites in Virginia. Maryland coverage is possibly coming in the future.
| Metro area | Updated |
|---|---|
| Washington, D.C. | 07/05/2004 |
| Richmond | 07/05/2004 |
| Hampton Roads | 07/05/2004 |
Below is a list of repeater sites in the Virginia and Washington, D.C. area that represent typical examples of XM repeater installations. Please note the water tank site in Manassas has not been confirmed and appears to have been removed! This list is also not complete. If you know of a site in Va or DC not listed here please drop me a line. Thanks.
