Originating at the XM broadcast center, XM's broadcast signal is beamed from two huge earth-station antennas to our broadcast satellites, known affectionately as "Rock" and "Roll". But despite their names, these satellites don't move; positioned more than 22,000 miles above the earth in geostationary orbit, their beams combine to span the entire contiguous U.S. while remaining stationary with respect to the land below. This enables XM's signal to reach from coast to coast. Ground antennas, or repeaters, keep the signal strong in challenging locales such as urban canyons.

• Bi-coastal satellites?
  Yes. Rock and Roll are positioned over east and west coasts and both keep the entire contiguous U.S. continuously within broadcast range.

• Can you hear the focus?
  Definitely. The XM satellites' fixed orbits ensure a focused and consistent signal, eliminating broadcast irregularities associated with moving satellites.

• Power-hungry?
  Rock and Roll are the most powerful commercial satellites ever, beaming 10 megawatts of equivalent transmitted power back to earth. They were built by Boeing Satellite Systems, the world's leading commercial manufacturer of satellites.

• Who knew radio could sound so good?
  Popular Science called our overall sound quality "superb, with good dynamics, crisp frequency response and virtually inaudible distortion." Using aacPlus audio encoding by Coding Technologies and Neural Audio optimization, XM is able to achieve sound quality that is remarkably close to Compact Disc.