“SiriusXM Satellite Radio” sans satellite

[CRinATL]

I piked up a Raven S a few weeks ago, and am very happy for the most part. However, I was surprised to find the SXM coverage failing during a cross-country road trip, in the middle of Kansas with nothing near my car to interfere with the “satellite” signal. Returning home, I talked to Tesla service and was told the SXM radio is merely cellular.

I tried to read all the FAQ I could before buying and saw nothing mentioning the pseudo-satellite SXM in the current hardware. Did I miss one, or can we add a sticky note to this forum to warn people about the issue? Perhaps saving the heated discussion of whether one should prepare a USB drive full of music or not ala <XM or AM?> (found after I knew to look for cellular and SXM). =)

On a related note, is the real satellite radio only present in v1 MCU?

Cheers

 

[cgrubbe]

That would be an interesting development. Do you have channel art/logos? Or just the boring squares with the station names? I'm sure it's technically possible to emulate all the SXM bits and do it all over LTE rather than via SAT, but that sounds like a lot of work. Why not just create an app that could be run in every car and leverage the SXM streaming service using their normal login.

 

[CRinATL]

That would be an interesting development. Do you have channel art/logos? Or just the boring squares with the station names? I'm sure it's technically possible to emulate all the SXM bits and do it all over LTE rather than via SAT, but that sounds like a lot of work. Why not just create an app that could be run in every car and leverage the SXM streaming service using their normal login.

I’d need to double check, but I don’t think there is any art, and sometimes not even song ID (perhaps in poor cellular areas, I’ve not tried to correlate it yet).

Better than nothing, especially for live broadcasts (e.g. news), but slacker is better for music in many ways.

 

[ewoodrick]

SiriusXM has a web based feed

 

[ytwytw]

My 17 X has real SiriusXM
Yes, you are right, the signal is much weaker than other brand car.
Even on clear sunny days, I occasionally have signal disturbing, cloud or rainy day are even worse.

It does not use cellular network, you need to try to refresh signal again on the website

If still not working, service center visit is needed

 

[willw64]

Am I dreaming or isn't the antennae in the glass roof (non sun roof)?

 

[CRinATL]

ytwytw and willw64,

Thanks for following up… I have no idea if there is an actual satellite radio in my car or not. I suppose I need to contact SXM and ask them based on the radio ID I have in my car whether that is a cellular or satellite model.

I assume the antenna in the glass roof is FM at least, but I have no real info on that.

Does anyone else know? Has anyone seen a current MCU torn down and seen an XM radio daughter card or chip or something?

 

[CRinATL]

According to a Sirrus support person, the radio in my Raven S is an OEMX65.

Sadly Google told me “Your search - sxm "oemx65" - did not match any documents.”

Next, the nice support person mentioned that, “There are few areas as well where siriusxm is not available.”
Immediately following up with, “Siriusxm services are available in entire continent.”

So…. YMMV IANAL and make of all that what you will…

I’m still not sure what to expect from SXM service in my Tesla. =(

 

[plumazul]

According to a Sirrus support person, the radio in my Raven S is an OEMX65.

Sadly Google told me “Your search - sxm "oemx65" - did not match any documents.”

Next, the nice support person mentioned that, “There are few areas as well where siriusxm is not available.”
Immediately following up with, “Siriusxm services are available in entire continent.”

So…. YMMV IANAL and make of all that what you will…

I’m still not sure what to expect from SXM service in my Tesla. =(

Is that "OEMX65" what shows up when you tune to channel 0?? When you are listening to SXM do you have signal strength bars under the channel indicator?

 

[CRinATL]

Is that "OEMX65" what shows up when you tune to channel 0?? When you are listening to SXM do you have signal strength bars under the channel indicator?

No, I get the radio ID listed twice once in slightly larger bolder print above the other.

What do others get?

 

[George Jetson]

I'm sure you all know this already, but your "satellite" radio uses a combination of earthbound terrestrial repeaters and satellite RF transmission to deliver the content. A clear "line of sight" to the sky only affects the satellite RF signal. That is why the terrestrial repeaters are located mainly in urban areas. Out in the boonies you are probably in one of the many "dead zones" where the satellite signal doesn't exist and there are no terrestrial repeaters. On a "real" SXM receiver you can see the signal strength of each and know whether you're getting the repeater or direct signal.

It also appears that AT&T's recent purchase of some bandwidth is superseding the SXM signal. "Band 30 LTE is destroying Sirius and XM reception nationwide. It has practically become useless in urban areas thanks to widely deployed WCS Band 30 LTE being a lousy neighbor to SiriusXM on the DARS band wedged smack dab in the middle of the WCS band."

 

[bob_p]

We have had XM in our S P85, S 100D and X 100D.

There is a satellite antenna in the roof. You can verify this easily because you'll lose XM radio service when inside a building/garage, under an overpass or even under heavy tree cover.

Because XM requires line-of-sight with their satellites, you can also have difficulty getting a stable signal when driving in a storm with heavy rain/snow or between many high rise buildings.

We haven't had any unexpected signal problems with any of our 3 XM vehicles - and when we do lose signal, there's an obvious explanation if there's stopping line-of-sight.

We also periodically use the XM app on our smartphones - when we want to listen to our local sports team broadcast (when they are broadcasting the opponent's feed). That app relies an on internet/cell connection for our phone. As long as our phone gets cell/WiFi, the XM app gets a signal - which can happen when line of sight is blocked for accessing the satellite.

XM in the vehicles does not use cellular or WiFi for streaming stations. It also does not appear to use cell/WiFi to get the station list - which is broadcast from the satellite and not over the internet.

It would be very helpful if the XM app had a signal strength meter, that would allow you to quickly determine if you are or are not getting signal from their satellite...