Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with satellite

Gift horse, mouth, etc.

InsanePenguin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:49:27 -0800

Why am I getting free Sirius? I bought a Kia Soul+ in July (great car, just made the IIHS's 2010 top safety list!) and was graced with the 3 month free Sirius subscription. Awesome, but not awesome enough for me to pay for it, so when it ran out in October I wasn't terribly upset. I got myriad letters from SiriusXM asking me to come back, giving me offers, etc. but I ignored them and they stopped coming.

Then, like 3 days ago when I was turning on the stereo I hit a bump and my finger pushed the satellite radio. Low and behold, it loaded my stations right up and started playing!

Now, I went to check the Sirius website to see what status my subscription was at, but I realized I never made an account (confirmed by entering my Sirius ID, they didn't have an account on file for it,) and when you go to make an account it asks for your credit card number. I didn't want to accidentally end up actually paying for it, so I stopped there.

So my question is, has anyone seen something like this happen? Did they send me a letter that I missed offering me a free trial or something?

Will Satellite work with leaves off trees?

priested — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:09:23 -0800

Will a Hi-Defintion Satellite Signal go through tree branches in the winter months? Just moved and found out the trees in my backyard will interfere with a Direct TV or Dish Signal (my request for them to move the satellites went ignored). Now I have cable and am just not a big fan as I don't get the international sports channels Direct TV offered (namely Gol TV) or the NFL package for free as Direct TV offered. It is also really expensive.

A Direct TV technician came out and said the trees in the back yard would've needed to have been cut back about 8 feet or cut down. This was in mid-Summer. I don't believe in cutting down trees for the boob tube (yeah, my relationship with TV is dynamic).

Here's the question... When the leaves fall off the trees (in about a month in my area), can a Hi-Def signal get through? My plan is to get Direct TV for about 4 months a year and possibly got on TV sabbatical for the other 8 or switch between cable and Direct TV. Any experience with this? Thanks in advance.

Will I get a a refund for the time spent lauching a new satellite?

Jimbob — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:44:41 -0800

What happens when the satellite my pay-tv satellite-dish is pointing at dies? Like tens of thousands of people in my part of the world, I get my "cable" TV via a satellite dish on my roof, pointing at a geostationary satellite. By my understanding, satellites have a limited life-span - am I right in thinking that this is probably more relevant to orbital satellites that will eventually fall out of orbit? - but in any case, a stray rock might hit my Austar satellite and render it useless.

Will my cable company then devote itself visiting every subscriber and pointing their dish at a new satellite? Is there any precedent for this?

What can you see in satellite photos?

k. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:33:01 -0800

Satellite photos: what interesting features can be seen or measured in them (or other aerial photos), and where can I get a supply of images? Examples I have already seen, from some crude Google-searching:
Roads
Buildings
Degree of development (urban/suburban/rural)
Oil spills (apparently these are usually hard to see)
Blooms of algae (cyanobacteria) in the Baltic Sea
Damage to buildings from earthquakes

More would be appreciated--the more specific, the better. These will be used in a computer vision system, so I'd especially like to know where I can find a supply of images containing whatever feature I'm looking for (including the above)--easy for buildings or roads, but hard for rare events like oil spills. Natural disasters seem interesting, if there are pictures available.

I would also consider some other kind of non-photographic data as well, if it could be combined with maps or photos. Don't worry whether you think it's suitable; any idea you have will help!

My Taxes paid for that satellite... can I at least have pix?

tmcw — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:43:15 -0800

I want to download a bit of Landsat data - two small countries worth - but can't find any way to efficiently do this via GloVis or elsewhere. Where can I just select places on a map (or use my GloVis-exported) scene list to download these in bulk? Given 200MB/scene and the 80 scenes I need, it'll be 15.6 gigs downloaded (and likely around 40 unzippped), but that's not the problem; there just doesn't seem to be a way to do this. Also, huge bonus for any source that offers even a rough natural color (simulated) version of these files so that I don't have to do the merging myself. GeoTIFF is probably the format I'm going for (I'm using a completely open-source stack, and may have access to an ArcGIS install, but it's way way inconvenient for me).

Yes, this is an obscenely specific and obscure question. I guess I am testing the outskirts of askmeta utility by asking this one, but seeing all of these interfaces to the data and high prices and all of this bs, I have a feeling that smart people must know a better way to get lots of this data in a good form quickly.

Thanks!

Can I convince DirecTV to upgrade me or should I switch to Dish?

chndrcks — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:20:59 -0800

Should I stick with DirecTV or switch to Dish? OR: Can I get DirecTV to upgrade my receiver for free? (I've read this previous question but there are some differences in options and preferences)

I've had DirecTV since 2005 and have always been happy with their service, but I'm looking into upgrading to HD and can save a not insignificant amount of money with Dish (Comcast is more expensive).

DirecTV has a reputation for good customer service, which is important to me and is part of the reason I chose DirecTV when first signing up. We've been thinking about upgrading to HD-DVR, and to do so we would have to get a new receiver - we currently have an old DirecTiVo receiver (from 2005). I've called DirecTV twice and the best (they say) they can offer me is the receiver for $200. In addition, adding the HD package ($10/month) will bring our monthly cost to around $77.

With Dish, we can get the channels that we want, plus their HD and DVR for $67-$77 (depending on which package we go with) a month and we wouldn't have to pay the $200 for the new receiver. Also, we would get a -$15 /month promotion for the first year.

The biggest sticking point right now is the $200 for the receiver. I've been happy enough with DirecTV that I wouldn't mind the extra per month cost (there are more channels, even if they're not on our 'must have' list - and their customer service at least until now has been good).
Is there a way I can convince DirecTV to upgrade my receiver for free or less than $200? Here are the ways I'm a good and bad customer for DirecTV:
Pro:
-Customer for 4 years
-First upgrade in 4 years (first person I talked to said this would help)
-I've had premium channels (HBO) in the past
-I've referred a friend (did the actual referral so DTV knows)
Con:
-No current premium channel subscriptions
-Last summer and this summer we put the satellite on vacation mode (so we didn't get or pay for service for ~4 months each year)

I thought my next step would be to call directv and tell them I'm thinking about switching to Dish, is there something else I should try first? Should I tell them that I'm thinking about switching because I can get the free receiver?

If they still won't budge - should I switch to Dish? My concerns are:
-Customer Service
-DVR cool features
-DVR ease of use

I've never experienced Dish's customer service, but for some reason I have a bad impression of it (probably just a sense I've picked up from the internet). Those of you who have it - how is the customer service? How does it compare to DirecTV?

How is the DVR service? I get the impression that neither will live up to the DirecTiVo that I have right now - is one significantly worse than the other?

Does either offer cool ways to connect my service with my computer? (e.g. an easy way to stream shows from my DVR to my computer) It looks like I can schedule recordings from the web or iphone with both, but does one company offer other features that the other doesn't?

Are satellites built from old metals to avoid post-A-bomb radiation levels?

metaBugs — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:49:45 -0800

Are satellites (or satellite parts) ever made from metal salvaged from pre-1945 shipwrecks? Possibly to ensure that those metals were refined before atmospheric A-bomb explosions increased the background radiation levels? A friend of mine recently visited the ESA site (Europe's answer to NASA) in the Netherlands. While there, he was told by one of the guides that some satellite components are made from metals salvaged from old (WW2 or earlier) shipwrecks. The reasoning ran:

i) The planet's atmospheric background radiation is measurably higher now than it was before the A-bomb detonations.
ii) Therefore, some materials manufactured before the war (presumably referring to steel here) have a lower background radiation than the equivalents manufactured today.
iii) For some scientific applications, having slightly less radioactive materials is worth the extra expense of hauling old shipwrecks up from the seabed and re-processing the materials. Examples given were very sensitive radiation sensors and building radiation shields around delicate equipment.

I've heard this before from another source, although can't remember what that source was. I can just about imagine a mechanism (an increased proportion of Carbon-14 in the Carbon used to make steel from iron?), and Europe certainly has enough WW2-era shipwrecks available for this to be logistically possible.
However, a phycisit friend of ours reckons that this is probably nonsense. She argues that radiation isn't contagious; there's no way a slightly increased atmospheric radiation level could affect the radioactivity of a newly refined slab of steel.
So my questions are:

1) Have you heard that satellites or their components are sometimes made with metal from shipwrecks? What's your source for this?
2) If satellite parts are made from shipwrecks, could it be due to different radiation levels? If so, why is old metal less radioactive?
Bonus question:
3) Is my hypothesis about increased levels of Carbon-14 in modern steel completely insane? If not, could an archaeologist in the future apply Carbon-14 dating techniques to chunks of steel in the same way that we do to our archaeological finds?

How long will satellite repeaters last?

jsonic — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:16:54 -0800

Ham Operators: In the event of the apocalypse, how long will satellite-based repeaters last? Are some of the satellite repeaters in completely stable orbits, thus requiring no fuel to maintain orbit? Are the electronics expected to die after a certain period of time? It seems as if the oldest fully-functioning amateur satellite repeater was launched in 1974.

On a side-note, in the event of societal collapse, is the complication of using satellites to bounce signals around the planet worth the effort? Is there a much easier method of communicating (ie. short-wave, higher-power, etc.)?

Have Satellite Dish, Will Watch TV

Effigy2000 — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:57:42 -0800

The house I'm renting has a satellite dish up on the roof, and I'm pretty sure I know where the wall-plug for it is indoors. What kind of equipment and cables would I need to do/buy to easily (and importantly, cheaply) access satellite TV and watch it on my television set? I'm in Australia, if that matters.

Do we tip the satellite installer?

hippybear — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:14:12 -0800

Do we tip the satellite installer? We arranged to have an upgrade done to our satellite service, moving to an HD-capable system. The upgrade, which we thought would be a simple case of swapping out satellite boxes, has turned into him running new higher-grade cable into the house, crawling about in our attic space to drop cable down through the walls, really he's going well above and beyond what we expected him to do.

We aren't paying for this install / upgrade -- it's somehow being covered through the upgrade deal.

Should we tip the installer? If so, how much?

Help me interpret an LED diagnostic sequence

gene_machine — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:53:56 -0800

Can anyone interpret this LED diagnostic sequence? My wife's Toshiba Satellite Pro M10 (the one featured previously) was finally dropped on the floor, and now it refuses to power up. I tried it without the battery - still nothing, so I stripped it right down, reseated everything, and put it back together. Still nothing. The left-most LED (the "plug") is now blinking in a diagnostic sequence, but I am at a loss to interpret it. It was giving exactly the same sequence before I took the machine apart ;)

I suspect the motherboards's been damaged, and if that's the case then it's not worth replacing, but I'd like to know why it's complaining in case it's something relatively easy to fix.

I recorded a movie of the LED sequence; apologies for the low quality.

What's wrong with my DirecTv HD receiver?

calgirl13 — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:19:51 -0800

One of my two HD direcTv receivers routinely loses its satellite signal and will spend countless hours 'searching for signal' while my other receiver works just fine. What's up? A couple months ago, I finally upgraded my bedroom directv receiver from a non-hd receiver to an hd one. Since I installed the new receiver (which I noticed is a refurbished one), it will routinely crap out on me and give me the 'searching for signal' error 771 msg. Re-setting it doesn't work and everything's plugged in correctly. It's not a satellite problem, I live in northern calif and don't have weather related issues and my satellite dish is completely unobstructed. My b-band box is connected. My other receiver never has this problem.
The weird thing is that it only happens when it gets dark. On average, this happens once a week. I usually turn it off and then the next day, it works just fine again. I've exhausted customer service and am trying to avoid the cost of having a repair person come to my house. Any idea what's going on?

How much detail could the Hubble telescope see?

crazyray — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:35:38 -0800

What resolution would the Hubble Telescope be able to discern, if we pointed it at my back yard instead of into the stars? Would it be able to pick up individual blades of grass? Would it be able to see bacteria or anything not visible to the naked eye? Could it see the illuminated dial of my watch at night? For the sake of argument, assume that there is zero cloud cover or atmospheric interference. Also assume the camera and mirrors etc. would even work pointed towards the earth instead of away. Bonus points if you can show how you calculated the resolution.

Solar power in space?

greytape — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:35:23 -0800

Would orbiting solar power farms be remotely practical? So I've just read this story and it fairly blew my mind; now that's a 21st century solution to the energy crisis. Made me think though. Is this evenly remotely practical? It all seems to make a lot of sense, apart from the disgustingly high cost of putting stuff into orbit.

The most curious part of it for me though was the means of transmitting electricity via radio waves at 90% efficiency. I totally didn't realise this was possible. According to the Guardian article, this is more efficient than using wires to transmit power, wow. If this is true. why don't we have a network of satellites transmitting power around the world? Set up the mother of all solar plants in the Sahara and broadcast the power across the globe.

So really I'm asking about what some of you engineer types think about the story. Does this seem like a genuinely innovative idea, a flashy distraction or a vapourware nonsense proposal?

Thanks,

What did we see in the Kenyan sky?

allkindsoftime — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:03:48 -0800

Did we see the International Space Station on Friday night from the beach in Malindi, Kenya? So my buddy and I were watching the stars come out at just around 7pm local time on the central coast of Kenya. We're sitting there on the beach and there are a few stars showing in the early evening but not many.

All of a sudden, bright and very hard to miss, we saw what we concluded most likely was a satellite - it was definitely far away enough and too small to be a plane (and it wasn't blinking). We were fascinated, however, because it was also extremely bright - 2 to 3 times as much as we've both seen in normal satellites - which made it seem either very close or very large. Also, it seemed to be moving very fast, but slowed as it passed towards the horizon over the Indian ocean.

If it helps, looking straight up while facing east, the object in question seemed to be on a orbit with earth about 2-3 degrees south of the equator (so that if we saw it on the other side of the planet, from near the equator, I suppose it would look about 2-3 degrees north). Also, we waited outside the next night for about an hour around the same time and never saw it come by.

Could it have been the ISS? Are satellites potentially more visible from the equator for some reason? Is there something else it could have been - maybe space junk burning up on re-entry? Ideas welcome.

Is it technologically feasible to shoot down a North Korean rocket/ ICBM?

crazyray — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:15:48 -0800

Could the US or Japan shoot down the missile that North Korea is planning on launching next week? In recent news reports such as this one, and this one, it is clear that the US is not planning on shooting down the missile North Korea is firing for the somewhat dubious stated purpose of a satellite launch.

My question is a bit more direct: Regardless of intent, are the US ships in the area, specifically the ones with Aegis systems, actually capable of shooting down and destroying a multi-stage rocket? In other words, regardless of whether we decided to do so, is it even technically feasible to do so?

Help me fix my wife's laptop

gene_machine — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:06:19 -0800

What has caused a sudden failure of my wife's laptop? I bought my wife a laptop on eBay for her birthday, and I now feel responsible for managing its failure.

It's a Toshiba Satellite Pro M10. It initially failed to boot, with an "IDE #0" error, so I figured that it was having trouble finding the hard drive. Booting into Ubuntu from CD worked fine, so I opened up the HDD cover, reseated it, and then...nothing. It now refuses even to power up, either from battery alone or from mains power. The orange power LED is now blinking, which leads me to believe that it's a power/mother-board problem.

My wife assures me that the laptop has not received any harsh treatment (ie. it hasn't been dropped or subject to spillage).

Has anyone experienced this before, and, if so, what was the recommended repair route? I'm happy with opening up desktops and fiddling around, but laptops are a whole different ballgame. If it's going to be sent off for repair, how much would a reasonable charge be (I am in the UK).

Stick 'em up

paxton — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:31:53 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good adhesive tape for an automobile dashboard? I have a '08 Nissan Versa and I'm trying to affix a small satellite radio antenna to the dash where it meets the windshield. This is one of the magnet mount antennas but I can't find a good place to channel the antenna to the roof of the car, so I'm leaving it inside and it's working great. However I can't find any sort of tape to hold it in place and keep it from sliding around.
The dash seems very slick, like it's coated with a wax of some sort but even cleaning with alcohol is not helping. I've tried everything from double sided foam tapes to duct tape and nothing will stick. I'm sure I could sand the dash down a bit, but would rather not damage the car for a half assed radio installation; this is also the reason I'm avoiding glues. Are they making dashboards out of some sort of anti-stick material now, or have I just not found the right tape to use?

Never tell me the odds - wait, no, please tell me the odds.

monkey!knife!fight! — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:56:27 -0800

With things falling out of the sky with a little more regularity then usual lately, and what with me being a bit of a flybaby, I was hoping some of the Metifilter geniuses could help reassure me with some science... I hate flying. I have to do it quite often, and sometimes I'm sort of OK with it, but I'm having a lot of anxiety about my upcoming flight (I'm pretty sure it's because I'm moving away from one city which I don't really love, and to another that I'm pretty excited about and am just doing my usual "Gee, I sure hope nothing goes wrong" thing).

I know this is stupid. I really do feel stupid for even asking this. But here goes:

What are the chances that some bit of the satellites that collided above the earth would still be a hazard at 30k feet? If the stupid FAA hadn't put out a stupid "hey pilots, watch out for bits of space debris as you fly" and didn't put any sort of end time for the warming, I'd likely be less insane about this. Also, honestly, what would the chances be of avoiding some bit of flaming something flying at you from the upper atmosphere if you were a flying a commercial jet? I'm guessing not so much.

Fire from the sky!

dejah420 — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 11:05:19 -0800

There was a huge fireball in the sky; looking southwest from my back yard this morning. How do I find out what it was, or where it landed? So, I'm standing outside this morning (in North East Texas), about 10:30 am I'd guess, looking to the southwest, and there was a huge fireball streaked across the sky. I didn't hear anything hit, and it appeared to flame out before it crossed the horizon line...but I can't find any news about it...and with anything in the sky, it's really hard to tell how far away something is.

Did anyone else see this? NASA and spaceweather.com are reporting that there are meteor showers this time of the year, but anything big enough to be visible in the daylight would have to be relatively close or relatively large. Reportedly two satellites collided on 2/10/09, but I'm not finding much on the debris coming to earth.

It was astounding; and I'd love to know what it was, but I'm not even sure where else to look besides NASA and spaceweather.

Help me figure out what this was.

Looking for old satellite images

banjo_and_the_pork — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:54:59 -0800

Searching for historical satellite images? I'm looking for an online way to obtain historical satellite images (ideally, for three months of 2008) for a particular county in Massachusetts- I can narrow it down to one particular NOS station that I really care about, but that's not helping my search. I've been driving myself crazy on the NASA, NOAA, and Mass GIS sites, and am just not finding what I'm looking for. Any ideas?

Are there any good satellite Internet options for travelers?

nitsuj — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:59:37 -0800

Are their any satellite Internet options for the budget traveler? Browsing Google for satellite Internet options doesn't reveal much in the way of options that cost less than the price of a car; everything out there seems stale, like it's been around since late 90s.

Are there any solutions for satellite Internet for the backpacker/independent traveler? Something that can either be rented our purchased cheaply, with a monthly fee? Say, less than $1,000 for the hardware, and less than ~$100 a month?

Something that could, you know, fit in a backpack.

Speed isn't quite an issue -- I know Internet via satellite is mostly slow, and I'm OK with that.

Personal anecdotes welcome!

Mysterious truck in Soho London.

vacapinta — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 05:06:02 -0800

What is this device? And what was this truck doing in Central London (Soho) today? I'm not sure what the device is. Looks like its gathering something? The dish on top is marked 'holkirk' which on quick Google seems to be for satellite uplinks?

There was nobody that I saw around or outside the truck. The truck is completely white and unmarked. There may have been someone inside. Anybody know what this truck was doing?

High speed internet in the sticks?

youcancallmeal — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:21:25 -0800

How can I get DSL in Barre, Vermont? Alternately: is satellite internet really that bad? So, my boyfriend and I are moving to an apartment just south of town in Barre, VT and the lease says that Verizon services the place. The Verizon website disagrees. Is there something I'm missing? Is there another provider I should be looking for?

If we can't get DSL... I've heard bad things about satellite speeds. Is it still that bad? We mostly just use the internet for surfing, general youtube watching, some TV streaming, XBOX/Wii playing, etc. Will it choke?

Internet in rural Jamaica?

humannaire — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 14:57:54 -0800

Is is possible to purchase commercial satellite internet service and equipment in the US to install and use in Jamaica? My friends in JA say yes.

From what I hear, people regularly do this between Miami and JA with DirectTV.

The set-up I am proposing would be for a rural school—Brampton Primary, Trelawny Parrish—atop a small mountain where 1) I have brought/am bringing donated computers for a newly-constructed computer room, and 2) the nearest phone line is a mile away. Furthermore, there is no internet access anywhere within an hour's distance. When I was there, tap water flowed only about 50% of the time but power was on 90% of the time to give an idea of the local.

In time we may be able to have the phone line brought to us (we are working on it now), but in the meantime I want to bring real googling to the school of young students sooner than that.

We have used a 56k cel phone modem successfully but the lagtime is impractical for holding the attention of 5-12 year olds.

I looked through the previous satellite internet threads and the related suggestions contained therein, however much of the information is out of date. (Though this suggestion seems within the realm of possibility, and this suggestion perhaps even more so.)

Does anyone have any experience with this? Recommendations? Insights? Help?