i live in NJ and i'm not able to mount the antenna out on the roof as the cable is not long enough. i have the home docking kit set up in the living room and the sirius boombox set up in the kitchen. they each have their own antenna. problem is, the signal sucks about 80% of the time. i try to face it NW like the instructions say, but even though i get a good signal for a few minutes, it'll go away, guaranteed. i dread that "acquiring signal" display which i see WAY too often!

anyone have any solutions to this? and please no stupid get rid of sirius and go back to radio answers! sirius is WAY better than any of the lame stations around here!

You don't need to mount the antenna on the roof. Unless you are fortunate enough to live near one of their terrestrial repeaters, you need to place the antenna near a window that has a clear view of the sky, usually in a southerly direction. Otherwise, you are probably not getting enough signal strength for reliable reception.

nope. i've tried putting it near a window and still the same. in the summer i have it outside, at ground level, and still the same. sometimes i can have the antenna in the living room literally facing the wall and i have fine reception...for a few minutes. so far best place has been the west side of my roof.

I am going to assume that you have sirius as xm doesn't have this problem. The sirius sats are stationary so you can have a fix on one and it will drift. Xm sats orbit with earth, so it is not an issue. One is geostationary and the other is geosynchronous.

primus - You may have a defective piece of equipment. Only way to tell is to try a substitute. XM radios have a diagnostic screen that is helpful, because you can use the info to tell what the received signal strength is. Don't know if the Sirius equipment have the same feature.

dc - You got it backward! XM has the geostationary orbit (85 and 110W). Sirius uses the geosynchronous orbit that cycles in the figure-8 pattern. The geosynchronous is supposed to be better in the car because the look angle is higher and is less easily blocked by trees.