XM Reception  

John,
I also live in Chicago (sw burbs) and have xm and do a lot of driving and I almost never lose the signal. Even under overpasses I have reception. It must be picking up the terrestrial repeater signal. When I go under an overpass in Bolingbrook near my home I lose it though so they must not have the repeaters in the burbs. If your downtown and losing the signal maybe they don't have the terrestial part of the antenna hooked up or it could be loose, or maybe the unit is defective.

I believe there is a memory buffer that covers brief interruptions. Essentially the buffer gets "refilled" after you pass any obstruction such as an overpass. I think if you stopped under an overpass you might hear the signal drop after 4-5 seconds.

My reception is rock solid except for the worst case conditions such as driving through canyons with steep walls. There are only a couple of locations in my area where the signal drops out and I live in a rural area with no repeaters.

John,

There should be two wires between your antenna and your reciever. The wire that carries the local repeater info must be loose/defective. I'd check and return if you don't find a connection problem.

I have an delfi unit and while in Chicago I almost never loose the signal unless I am stuck in traffic under an overpass out of range of a repeater.

Remember, there should be a buffer in your radio that will keep you from dropping the signal when traveling at normal highway speeds. The delfi unit has three seconds of buffer time.

Bottom line is it should work almost perfectly in any metro area, and in rural areas an occasional dropout due to overhead obstructions. The cool thing is you can drive for fifteen hours a day and still listen to your favorite stations states away from where you started!

later,

joe