ALKHOBAR, 23 August 2005 — Back on July 17 there was an announcement in the business section of Arab News that World Space (worldspace.com) global radio service had come to Saudi Arabia. The report said that World Space offered listeners international audio content in digital quality sound using dedicated satellites.
The radio programs available while on the road in Saudi Arabia leave something to be desired. In fact it is impossible to find a radio broadcast offering international news in English. The BBC is there but its broadcasts are often impossible to hear due to static. Armed Forces Radio broadcasts news but it is often only of interest to American listeners. Bahrain has hourly news broadcasts but they are usually inadequate, giving only the news highlights at best. Many satellite services offer radio along with their video programs, but this is totally useless in the car. Consequently, I was delighted to learn about World Space satellite radio.
My husband and I met Anwar, the World Space representative from A.M. Batterjee Company, in a large parking lot outside an Alkhobar shopping mall. Anwar had the satellite radio set up in his company car for demonstration purposes. He clicked around to different channels for us. He told us that the radio was portable and could be used in the car or the house. In Anwar’s parked car the World Space radio seemed to work fine. We liked it. We bought it. Total cost for the radio and one year’s service — SR1,100 — not insignificant. Anwar turned over a radio and its hardware to us on the spot. The key and password to activate the system arrived the next day by e-mail. That’s when we got our first inkling that operating this radio was going to be a complicated enterprise.
To get the World Space radio from Xi’an Tongshi Technology Company started it was necessary to mount the radio antenna flat on the top of the car with a magnetic plate, creating an omnidirectional antenna. With the car parked outside our home, we did as instructed, although we were skeptical about how long the antenna would stay in position with the rough roads in our area. The radio gets its power from plugging into the cigarette lighter and has a wireless FM audio connection to the car stereo. We plugged up everything as required and then we had to enter the key and password — each was made up of 22 numbers. Even though we did the entry slowly and tried to be accurate, it took us two attempts to manage it. And then the radio didn’t work
Late for an appointment, eventually we gave up on the equipment, left our home’s driveway and started driving toward the highway. Suddenly the radio came to life. We began clicking around the channels and found that we had several good ones. But our delight didn’t last. It took us just one outing to see that the World Space radio had some serious limitations.
The World Space antenna can only receive transmissions when it has uninterrupted line of sight with the satellites. This means that if you drive under anything or into a tunnel or even down a narrow street with tall buildings on either side, the signal is lost. Just imagine trying to listen to a news bulletin while driving down the highway and losing bits and pieces of the voice transmission as you drive under sign boards or under overpasses. Pulling into a parking lot, it is necessary to stay at least 10 meters away from any small building to maintain the signal and if the building is more than a few stories tall, reception in the parking lot will be impossible.
We were very unhappy with this situation and called Anwar to ask him about the reception problem and asked if a better antenna was available. He readily admitted to being aware of the problem and stated that he’d call us back about the antenna. He never did.
We contacted World Space and here is the reply from their Customer Service Center:
“We would like to inform you that there is possibility of signal loss whenever the line of sight to the satellite is lost during movement. This may be prominent in a city where tall buildings line up on both sides of narrow roads or on some roads where huge trees can create the same problem. This is due to a technical deficiency as the current WorldSpace radio is not designed for truly mobile usage. However, our Research & Development Department is working on this problem. The option of upgrading the antenna for better reception of the signal is unavailable.”
So here’s the truth about the World Space Radio from Tongshi (and in Saudi Arabia from A.M. Batterjee). For drivers who frequently travel long distances between Saudi cities, it would definitely be enjoyable. In the city, its use is limited and frustrating. The device could be considered desirable for campers or individuals in the petroleum services industry or others who make frequent forays into the desert. Note though that if the radio is mistakenly left in a parked vehicle, it won’t function until it cools down and frequent exposure to high heat is not recommended. Some individuals and businesses would consider the World Space radio a good addition to their emergency preparedness equipment. The radio can function inside a building as long as the antenna can have line of sight with the satellite, either through a window or by placing it on the roof. It is essential to remember in all these limited use situations that while the radio hardware is a one time purchase the reception subscription must be renewed annually. Subscription rates vary depending on the package selected.
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