XM problem

Day 1 for me.

Working on XM Radio. Surprised to hear BBC Radio 1, top 20.

Came home and logged into XM web site.

There are about 900 channels. 805 IS Radio 1.

But in my car, cannot tune into anything over 100.

Anyone know how to?

Or is this US / European satellite issue?

Thanks for starting this thread, sp4rk. I'm sorry I don't have an answer to your question but I have a question of my own.

We have had our LEAF for almost two months and we are enjoying the XM radio. However, if we go by a stand of trees (there are many around here) or a hill (many of those too) on our west side (we are in the north east) the radio drops out. In some places the radio is quite useless. Mrs J is very annoyed. Our Jetta had a Sirius radio and never had this problem. I found a signal booster on line for satellite radio antenna cables.

I wondered if anyone has experienced this condition with their LEAF XM radio. Has it been corrected? How? I am going to ask the Nissan folks to replace the satellite antenna in hopes it is a faulty unit. I'm not sure how far I'll get with that but I am going to try. Any other thoughts on the subject?

jimcmorr said:

if we go by a stand of trees (there are many around here) or a hill (many of those too) on our west side (we are in the north east) the radio drops out.

Click to expand...

This also happens to me under the same conditions, but not always. I don't listen to XM that often so haven't pursued it with the dealer yet.

This is my first car with XM, and no problems so far. Only time I've lost signal was in an underground parking garage. I'm in the northeast, and there are plenty of hills and trees here. XM reception is much better than FM.

Athough SiriusXM is now the same company, the way their signal reaches you is very different between Sirius and XM. XM uses three satellites located above the equator in a stationary orbit. Therefore if you are traveling on East-West roads (more noticeable at higher latitudes) you will experience signal loss from trees, buildings, etc that are located to the South of your position. Sirius, on the other hand, has multiple satellites in moving orbits over the United States. They converge at a much higher latitude over the Midwest which reduces signal dropout from ground obstructions. When I lived in Michigan, Sirius was far superior to XM for signal delivery but now living in central Florida the dropouts are similar in each system however I believe the Sirius signal still does better. BTW--both services use ground repeaters to provide better signal coverage in large urban areas.

Thanks siai. If I could find a signal booster for the antenna do you think that would help?

For the OP...

If you check the channel line up for XM radio, channels over 239 are online only. Check the column to the far right. So if you want those higher channels you need an online subscription and your computer. Though on the list I found 805 is enLighten, Christian, Southern Gospel. 815 is BBC 1.

Does anybody know the Longitudes of the XM satellites?

"fuzz out" on Sirius is a very common issue here and it has been no better in the Leaf than it was on the Prius which is one of the reasons i wont pay for it.

sure, its nice to not have to search for radio stations when traveling outside an area we are not familiar with, but it does no better than poor FM. i find Pandora over my phone is a better option nearly all the time. granted, now you are dealing with the limitations of your wireless provider, but i have Verizon, 4G and unlimited data, so far, so good.

garygid said:

Does anybody know the Longitudes of the XM satellites?

Click to expand...

I found two XM satellites mentioned on this site :

http://www.adec.edu/satdb/sat-loc.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SATELLITE BAND LAUNCH ORBIT
width DATE LOCATION

XM 1 05/08/01 85.0 deg W
Also called XM ROLE. Multi-channel broadcast to mobile digital radio receivers.


and

XM 2 03/18/01 115 deg W
Also called XM ROCK. Multi channel broadcast to mobile digital radio receivers.

The XM satellites are all orbiting at the equator. Rock and Roll are the east and west satellites. The third satellite is call Rhythm and was orginally a spare Boeing 702 but they launched it into orbit a while back. I don't know where it is located but it actually isn't necessary for XM to work unless one of the other satellites fails. Therefore with XM and a fixed antenna, you need to point it to one of the orbital locations to get the best signal. Sirius is a problem for a fixed antenna as the satellites are in a lower earth orbit and move in both latitude and longitude so they are a moving target. I believe they all cross over Minnesota hence a lower chance of signal loss in the upper midwest with Sirius. As to an antenna amplifier, if the signal isn't getting through there is nothing to amplify---they just don't work very well at the microwave frequencies the satellite system works at.

Okay. I have been told from three separate sources that should know, that the SBA-1 amplifier I mentioned earlier is not going to help the situation where the XM signal drops out, going by a stand of trees. And all three said the same thing that siai said, if there is no signal to amplify, an amplifier (signal booster) will not help.

Another device that was recommended by one of those sources was this one;
http://www.tss-radio.com/products/universal-sirius-factory-kit-for-car-radios .
This device is a SIRIUS receiver that feeds a signal directly to the RDS FM radio by the antenna wire. It is controlled by a small remote control. All electronics are hidden behind the dash except for the IR control receiver.

I found only one review on this which was quite negative. Does anyone else on this forum have any experience with this or thoughts on it? I am thinking it is worth the risk for $115 (with the SIRIUS rebate). Considering that the XM signal is unreliable and that the SIRIUS radio signal seems to be more dependable. Any one have any thoughts on the level of difficulty of installing this device?

An amplifier improves a weak signal. It does not create a signal