Reception problem with Sirius radio

[LLigetfa]

The wife bought a Serius radio last Winter and over time I've had to keep moving the antenna around to maintain reception. There are no ground repeaters so I get the signal direct from the satellite. You'd think that with the snow off the roof now it would be improving but it is at its worst now. The wife wanted me to come home yesterday at lunch to tweak it. Antenna is indoors pointing in the same general direction as my Sat TV dish. I moved it about 8 feet to the South wall on top of the kitchen cabinet uppers and the signal now jumps between 3 and 6 bars with no more drops but I don't understand why the sudden reduction in signal. No leaves on the trees yet so the only change is air temperature.

I don't know if the Sirius Echo Home Wireless Signal Repeater System is the way to go or not. The wife hates wires and I'm not about to start drilling holes to hide wires with the hopes the signal doesn't just drop off again as Summer progresses.

She bought the boom box with the intent of taking it wherever she wanted to listen to it but the antenna won't work with it mounted directly on it where she wants it to be most of the time. I needed to snake the antenna wire around, hiding it behind window and door casings. From what I see of the Echo system, it has a transmitter that you place wherever you get good recption and a receiver that connects to the boom box. Anyone know if the receiver fits into the slot on the boom box where the satellite antenna fits?

 

[flyingcow]

I don't have a home system, but I'm in the extreme north East, and I think the satellite is centered over the middle of the US. When in my truck and garage doors open, with a view of the south West, it seems to vary in reception. I'm assuming the tilt of the earth from season to season makes it a little touchy? Sirius offers a web based home system, wireless?

 

[LLigetfa]

The wife didn't like the exposed wire where I had routed it and insisted I put the antenna back where it was. Of course the signal was too weak there so I talked her into moving the boom box to where I could get better reception and no visible wire. Where it is now, if I were to go with the Echo repeater, I could hide it and the wire the same way as I do now with the antenna. It would be nice though if the Echo receiver would fit the built-in antenna mount on the boombox. Somehow though, that just makes too much sense for an engineer to design it that way.

I could get the internet based Serius channels on the wife's multi-media laptop as well but she doesn't trust the internet and refuses to sign up for it. Oh well, her loss...

 

[billb3]

there are three satellites flying in a elliptical figure 8 orbit over the americas.
Sirius recommends pointing the antenna south , but if you are on the extreme west coast pointing it south/south-east might get more bars more often and if you are on the extreme east coast - south/south-west might be a tad better.
Your satellite TV satellite is geostationary and always in the same place at about 35K km over the equator.

Some car antennas require a ground plane (the instructions usually don't tell you why certain places on your cars' sheet metal work better - just that they will)

Some windows have a coating that can inhibit both Sirius and GPS signals. A coating or something in the glass and/or plastic (glass and plexiglas).

 

[gpcollen1]

I bought the home antenna kit and mounted mine on the outside of the house. Sometimes the overhang or other issues arise when it is inside. I would mount it outside for sure.

Another thing, they do go bad too! I had the one in my car crap out.

 

[LLigetfa]

Well... I never could get my hands on the Echo system and so installed their outdoor antenna. Their first gen product used 50 ohm coax but the SIR-HDK2 uses 75 ohm RG6 which I have throughout the house. I ran another RG6 up to the peak where my sat TV dish is and mounted the Sirius antenna at the peak pointing straight up. As billb said, there are three sats flying in a figure 8.

This page has a lot of good info on Sirius.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/docs/sirius.html

So far I've been getting full bars all the time with no sign of any fade. Haven't had any hard rain or heavy cloud cover yet but don't expect to see any weather related fade. When I had the boombox antenna in the house, the microwave oven would knock out the signal but no more.

 

[gpcollen1]

Good for you - I was sold on the RG6 but I still think that the outdoor antennae is just plain old 'better'. I bought the one with the splitter so I can run the other leg of RG6 down into the garage for an antennae down there on the boombox.

 

[velvetfoot]

Could XM have better coverage for you, or do they use the same sats now?