Signal Strength Assistance

[mraudit]

I have been a Sirius man for 3 years now, and will never get rid of it!!! Why everyone doesn't have it, I will never know.

Anyway, on to my question. I have a Sportster Replay that is roughly 6 months old. It works great in my car, full signal strength, but when I hook it up to my Sportster Boombox inside my office at work, I hardly ever get more than one bar of signal, and most of the time it says "Acquiring Signal". Now my boombox is about 3 years old. Do the antennas go bad?? I have a large window in my office that faces to the west, and I move the antenna around all the time to get a signal. In the mornings, I will get 2 bars and it works fine for an hour. Then all of the sudden, the bars go away, and I have nothing, and I didn't even move the antenna!!!! It then comes and goes the rest of the day.

Is there a new antenna out there designed for inside use? Could I just need a new antenna for my boombox? Or am I just screwed?????

 

[charper1]

Do the antennas go bad??

They can or you might have a bad connection, but lets look at the ideas below first.

I have a large window in my office that faces to the west

In NE Texas (your area correct) you are supposed to aim the antenna somewhat facing North or even directly upward like on your car would be better than West?

Is there a new antenna out there designed for inside use?

No, but you should have access to your Sirius online streamer to use at the office, correct? Also, I you have any "say-so" or pull at the building, you might be able to mount one outside and use an extender cable to run it into the office; there are even kits where you can "piggyback" the signal onto a coax cable the may run from a satellite dish to a wall outlet. I have one of these setups at my home but did it myself.

 

[mraudit]

Thanks Charper

Thanks for the help!!!

One other question, why does it say I have 2-3 bars, and then 10 minutes later, it is searching for a signal??? I didn't even move the antenna!!!

 

[digiblur]

Thanks for the help!!!

One other question, why does it say I have 2-3 bars, and then 10 minutes later, it is searching for a signal??? I didn't even move the antenna!!!

The satellites are not in a geo-stationary orbit....in other words. They "move".

Google around and you'll find several articles about it, I remember even seeing a animated graphic showing the orbits and another that showed you a picture of where the satellites were at in realtime.

http://satelliteradio.digitalinsurrection.com/siriusradio/sirius_radio.php

 

[kluken]

I read the articel on the 3 satellites and how then hand off, and I know it says their incline shoudl make it better in regards to obstructons, by my expieirence has been the opposite, I find I get dropouts on Sirus all the time, even when in the fairly wide open, something my XM never did. I love the Sirous content, but the reception sucks, XM was better from a consitency tsnad point!

 

[charper1]

I have had both and now am Sirius only for near 3 years or so and have never experienced these dropouts except under normal events such as under overpasses heavy tree overhangs over the roads, etc. If you are having issues in wide open spaces my guess is leaning toward some malfunction of sorts in your hardware or even possibly some sort of nterference.

 

[digiblur]

I have had both and now am Sirius only for near 3 years or so and have never experienced these dropouts except under normal events such as under overpasses heavy tree overhangs over the roads, etc. If you are having issues in wide open spaces my guess is leaning toward some malfunction of sorts in your hardware or even possibly some sort of nterference.

Yep... I'd have to agree with this. I just returned from a 4 hour drive and never had one single drop out, and some of this was during very heavy tree coverage over the highway.

 

[stone phillips420]

ive read sirius antennas should be pointed towards MN

 

[digiblur]

ive read sirius antennas should be pointed towards MN

Huh? Towards Minnesota? I just point mine up and forget about it.

 

[charper1]

The "home antenna window" aiming map is attached in post #2 and a car antenna or "home antenna roof mount", as said, point it straight up and for get it.

 

[stone phillips420]

Huh? Towards Minnesota? I just point mine up and forget about it.

yup i read that somewhere cant remember where that people in south ie you in la, texas and such forth dould point towards Mn, seems right to me as charper1's diagram seems to say same thing if in south point north well mn is directly north of tx

 

[kluken]

I have had both and now am Sirius only for near 3 years or so and have never experienced these dropouts except under normal events such as under overpasses heavy tree overhangs over the roads, etc. If you are having issues in wide open spaces my guess is leaning toward some malfunction of sorts in your hardware or even possibly some sort of nterference.

Well I have had the receiver repalced and I just replaced the antennea, Toyota uses a Winshield mounted antennea and I ditched it for a puck on the roof. IT did improve a bit, but I still find that Sirius drops under any type of minor tree cover at times and most over passes. XM seemed to buffer stuff so over passes were never an issue unless I was stopped under it. The puck has allowed it to be more tolerable, the original antennea woudl drop signal under almost any tree cover. I also find it varies, maybe due to the postions of the birds in the sky whihc is why it is random and unpredictable.

 

[skidog]

Also remember when comparing reception between Sirius and XM that XM has many more repeaters than Sirius. I have Sirius and I tried to use the boombox at work and I have a 6X9 foot window facing north and the reception from the window sill was intermittent. One of the engineers has XM and has an inside office with no window and his worked fine.

 

[digiblur]

I'd say you still have some sort of problem. As I have zero repeaters in my area and do not any have any dropouts unless I'm sitting underneath a gas station canopy or overpass for more than 4 seconds. At 25-35mph when going under an overpass I don't have any dropouts at all.

I'm still amazed when a go to a good friends house out in the country the satellites never drop the signal. The road is covered with trees, almost like a tunnel effect. The signal bar jumps up and down like crazy but it never drops, you couldn't get an E* or D* signal through that mess but the Sirius signal still manages to hit the antenna with all the curves and hills at 50-55mph. It's magic!