Quote:
Originally Posted by CrushedBeerCan /forum/post/12865584
This is in my home with an indoor/outdoor antenna. So I have 1/8 to RCA jacks into my AV switch. The weird thing is it is good one day then bad the next. I have no idea.
Sirius has superb reception.
In listening a minimum of 4 hours a day, every day, for over a year, I have yet to have 1 single drop out in my home.
I love how people judge this technology without understanding it.
First of all, is your antenna outside? This is satellite radio. The frequencies used do not pierce through roofs or walls. Do you ever see DirecTV satellites in someone living room? NO.
Secondly, it IS possible to receive inside if you are near a ground repeater, but once again, this is not terrestrial radio, it is satellite radio. Ground repeaters do not nearly have the power of a strong FM transmitter, and unless you are one of the few that are lucky enough to live very near a repeater, then get it from the satellite. It is, after all, satellite radio.
Finally, Sirius satellites are in a highly elliptical orbit. This gives them the height and versatility for superior reception to XM in a car. On the other hand, XM's geostationary satellite is much more convenient for in home reception. If you can see the XM sat now, you always will. If you simply put your Sirius antenna in a window, you might see it now, but as it moves your roof overhang, walls, etc... might block it out.
Sirius has 3 sats, 2 active at a time in the northern hemisphere. Place your antenna outside, in a direction that can see high into the open sky in the direction of Minnesota. Point towards Minnesota and you'll be fine as long as you can also see a bit north and south of Minnesota, which is the middle point of the figure-8 shaped sat path with repect to you.
If you still have reception iussues, it has nothing to do with Sirius or the satellites. Then you have to troubleshoot. You can have a bad antenna jack, a bad antenna, a lose cable, a lose connection to the dock, a faulty dock, a damaged radio.. .etc...
The bottom line is these signals are always broadcasted from the sats. I don't care if you're in Maine or california, you're still looking at the same sats. I have used my radio through tropical storms with 70MPH winds and amazingly hard florida rain without a single dropout.
There's no such thing as poor reception. There's poor equipment, poor antenna placement, and way too many people trying to listen to "terrestrial" sirius, but there's no such thing as bad Sirius reception.
If you live inside a big city with big buildings and you HAVE to relay on a terrestrial repeater, and that repeater is having technical difficulties, than maybe nothing you can do. Otherwise for the other 95% of us, look at the sats and you'll be fine.
Good luck. If you still have problems, let us know the specifics:
Model of radio?
How many "bars" of sat and terr signal?
What happens on the screen during a drop out? Is there a message like "Antenna not found" or "Acquiring signal"?
Where is the antenna?
Have you replugged all jacks?
Have to reseated the radio in the dock?
Did you do the radio reset (some models)?
Did you try another antenna, and did it help?
Did you try another dock?
etc....
Good luck.
