I bought worldspace celeste mk2 (silver coloured )of bpl make for a mrp of 6999/- in september, 2003.The receiver had a patch antenna the size of a palm which is an indoor one with out any weather proofing, it is to be used in indoor only otherwise the rain water may damage it in two days.It can be used if you live in an upstair room or in a flat near a window facing east, the signals coming from satellite can pass through window glasses so you can keep your window closed even while using it.But if you live in ground floor like me then it might be difficult to get a clear sight of eastern sky from ground because of trees or near by buildings.Line of sight between antenna and satellite is a must for good reception.so I am forced to buy an external small yagi antenna which with cable cost me 1500.I installed it myself referring the catalog get 4 out of 6 signal strength and the voice quality is excellent when I bought it all channels where free to air so I enjoyed it well then later with in a period of two years almost all channels became pay forcing me to take subscription for one year which costs me 1800/year it can be equaled to you buying a cd /month.The choice of music is 40 channels which includes old hindi song channel, new hindi song channel, one malayalam song channel, tamil, karnatic music, news channels from bbc, cnn, wrn(world radio network), ndtv, there is also spiritual stations like sai geeth harmony(sathya sai baba), art of living (sri sri ravishanker), moksha (osho discourses) , one sports chanel etc, for updated chanels one can log into https://worldspace.com The radio and transmission is digital and one can feel the music coming from 36000 km deep space , i must say celestial.Now the radio is available for 1999/- plus subscription of 1800/- now there is some exchange schemes as well.Being an early bird is good some times but not so good in my case.Unlike shortwave which is really noisy now a days with a lot of interfearence this gives a good quality sound.if one is not particular to any special channel they offer I prefer one to take dd dth which also provide digital quality radio along with their dth free of cost, which I think also include hindi song channels .The set can be operated on battery also if you go for outings.All of india is well covered so far signal availability is concerned.The service provider is a non profit organisation called worldspace corporation in us.they have placed 3deep space satalite which is providing coverage for the entire globe.They are called afristar, amristar, and asiastar respectively for the continents. Signal encryption is done with the help of starman chipset which is there in all worldspace radio sets , each set bought by consumers makes some money to the corporation too.even though the set is capable of internet(receive only I think) with a port on the back side of the radio set which can be connected to computer but the data services is not yet started here in india.The external antenna and lna(low noise amplifier) went damaged and I replaced once during this period.The set can preset 10 worldspace channels, and it can also tune fm, and mw(multi band).What is in my wish list is that they start one ghazal channel too so that I can listen to mirza ghalib singing “Dil-e-Nadaan Tuje Hua Kya Hai Aakhir is dard ki dawaa kya hai” means “O wayward heart what is your predicament What for this ailment is the right medicament” All small and big towns in India are allocated license for running fm radio stations, and there are many takers too.So where ever you live you will soon see an fm radio station in your city which is permitted to transmit non news items like music.So one can have cheap music forever free so I think worldspace likely to have a setback if it happens.The most unhappy thing about worldspace is that there is no consumer selection in stations, we are forced to take 40 channels and pay for it even though many stations are english rock, pop, etc which you may not like at all.I think there must be something like cas(in cable tv) here too.And most importantly if you decide not to continue subscription then the radio is of no use other than to use for fm/mw reception (multi band).I don’t think in near future the price will fall as this is not likely to become popular .
santo o kundukulam