Interference in Communications

Anyone old enough to read this remembers that it used to be impossible to make a cell phone call while in an elevator. One would either stand in the lobby until the call ended, or warn the person on the other end that the call would soon drop.

Some of us reading this are old enough to remember party lines. For those who have not experienced this – a party line meant that when you picked up the phone to make a call from your home, instead of a dial tone, you might hear two people already engaged in their own discussion – your line was crossed with theirs. You could hear their entire conversation and worse still, couldn’t place your call until they ended theirs.

The two issues above are, for the most part, obsolete. But it’s easy to remember a time when personal communications were not guaranteed. A bad connection, busy tone, or static on the line all meant that your call may not go through. And if it did go through, the quality was not certain.

Today, not being able to reach someone is annoying, but for the government or military user, the results of bad communications can be devastating. Unclear signal, lack of signal, being booted from the call, or scrambled video could mean disaster for our user in the field. And unfortunately, these types of interference continue today, especially when utilizing non-dedicated frequency bands.

Freedom from interference is just one way in which X-band is an ideal frequency band for the government or military user. It comes down to three simple reasons:

• XTAR only provides capacity to government or military users. This means that we have no higher priority user, commercial or otherwise. This frees the user from worries that their communications will be interrupted by someone deemed to be ‘higher priority’.
• Because X-band is a reserved frequency, there are fewer users overall. Those that are on X-band are better trained, minimizing the chances of signal being interrupted accidentally.
• X-band satellites are spaced 4° apart, which is twice the spacing between orbital slots as Ku- and Ka-band. This spacing is key as it significantly reduces the chance of adjacent satellite interference (ASI).

These days, personal communications cause very little stress or uncertainty from a technology perspective. So why shouldn’t it be the same for our government and military personnel? Why shouldn’t every effort be made to provide them a signal which is clear, reliable and free from interference?

At XTAR, you get the peace of mind that your communications links will be clear. Along with other technical and operational advantages, X-band offers a reliable and robust capability in almost every situation. When getting your message through clearly and in a timely fashion is your highest priority, X-band is the logical choice.