Sirius/XM reception issues???

[techMology]

Although Sirius and XM have merged into one company, the satellite orbital locations and how they work are totally different. XM uses geostationary satellites (3) located above the equator. Sirius has non-stationary satellites that orbit over the United States and their paths converge over the northern Midwest. Therefore, XM works much better in the southern latitudes and Sirius works best in the northern latitudes. If you have a fixed antenna, XM wants you to point it south, Sirius wants you to point it towards Minnesota. East-west roads in northern latitudes are a problem for XM because the elevation of the satellites are very low. Any trees on the side of the road will block the signal---not so bad with Sirius. It's too bad there isn't an option to choose which receiver to have installed in your vehicle when you purchase it.

Not for long. They are dumping the HEO orbit that Sirius used in favour of the geostationary orbit XM (and virtually all other satellite broadcasters) uses.

I've noticed more dropouts on XM versus my old Sirius equipped car, but nothing too horrendous. However, it's winter. Once the leaves appear I may be more cranky.

The audio codec XM uses (AAC) is much better than what Sirius is using (PAC) to my ears - I've always felt that way. When they finally merge the spectrum and they migrate to AAC only I'm hoping they up the quality of the stream rather than cram more content down the pipe.

 

[Mayhemm]

When they finally merge the spectrum and they migrate to AAC only I'm hoping they up the quality of the stream rather than cram more content down the pipe.

Unfortunately, the latter is far more likely. The trend with satellite broadcasting these days (whether radio or television) seems to be cramming the most signals possible into the smallest amount of bandwidth, at the expense of signal quality.

 

[techMology]

Unfortunately, the latter is far more likely. The trend with satellite broadcasting these days (whether radio or television) seems to be cramming the most signals possible into the smallest amount of bandwidth, at the expense of signal quality.

You're probably right. Or they will start jamming (more) video on that spectrum.

 

[billvert]

I've had Sirius for 10y in New Jersey, Illinois and here in Seattle WA where I live now. Without a question my Tesla XM is 10x worse driving on the same exact roads than my Sirius was in my $700 Kenwood deck. It is so bad I am going to cancel it. It drops out at least once a minute. Do I care about who has what satalites, no. I just care that it sucks and it is not worthy of a $100k car. It is simply unusable. It drops out on blue sky sunny days.

 

[Mayhemm]

This has been my experience with XM as well. Really wish Tesla didn't go with them.

 

[gglockner]

I've had Sirius for 10y in New Jersey, Illinois and here in Seattle WA where I live now. Without a question my Tesla XM is 10x worse driving on the same exact roads than my Sirius was in my $700 Kenwood deck. It is so bad I am going to cancel it. It drops out at least once a minute. Do I care about who has what satalites, no. I just care that it sucks and it is not worthy of a $100k car. It is simply unusable. It drops out on blue sky sunny days.

Strange, I'm getting better reception on the Seattle Eastside with Tesla XM than with the Sirius factory radio in my Toyota. I do notice that Sirius reception is better in Seattle proper, probably due to the terrestrial repeaters.

 

[rallaer]

Sadly approaching a year since I started this thread and no improvement and/or solution. Pretty frustrating.

 

[3mp_kwh]

Is anyone able to report reliable Sirius XM in northern Teslas, now at almost 1.5 years since the OP remarked? I was on the fence about the, rather expensive, Sirius XM and am learning something new about these cars almost every hour closer to buying, that I get.

There has to be a receiver somewhere in these cars, that can be swapped out, if necessary?

 

[WentOffGrid]

Sadly approaching a year since I started this thread and no improvement and/or solution. Pretty frustrating.

Interestingly, my Roadster has decent XM reception but my S really sucks. SC stated it was "normal".

Oh well, hope they get it right on the Model X

 

[mknox]

Interestingly, my Roadster has decent XM reception but my S really sucks. SC stated it was "normal".

Probably been reported but Tesla did not want to go with the traditional "shark fin" antenna on the roof and hid the antennae in (I believe) the sideview mirrors. Probably not as good reception from there.

 

[skyman]

Probably been reported but Tesla did not want to go with the traditional "shark fin" antenna on the roof and hid the antennae in (I believe) the sideview mirrors. Probably not as good reception from there.

Yup. Reception is terrible for me too. The other thing I notice is how bad the interface is for SiriusXM on the Model S. Worst I've seen in a car. Very hard to navigate stations.

 

[mknox]

Yup. Reception is terrible for me too. The other thing I notice is how bad the interface is for SiriusXM on the Model S. Worst I've seen in a car. Very hard to navigate stations.

I flipped my XM subscription over to the Model S from my previous car, but just let it lapse. In the 3 months or so I had it, the reception wasn't too bad, but the sound quality was terrible compared to Slacker and TuneIn (could that have been due to poor reception??). In any event, I found that Slacker/TuneIn gave me everything I wanted/needed and didn't see the point in paying for an XM subscription.

 

[vdiv]

XM had quite a few terrestrial repeaters (to the chagrin of the FCC which only licensed the spectrum for satellite broadcast). Not sure if all are still there. I would often get a signal dropout when driving under a bridge.

Do we know if the XM radio in the Model S tunes to all 6 signal carriers and if a bigger stream buffer can fix that as the signal has only so much redundancy?

 

[rxlawdude]

XM had quite a few terrestrial repeaters (to the chagrin of the FCC which only licensed the spectrum for satellite broadcast). Not sure if all are still there. I would often get a signal dropout when driving under a bridge.

Do we know if the XM radio in the Model S tunes to all 6 signal carriers and if a bigger stream buffer can fix that as the signal has only so much redundancy?

Dunno, but it's not significantly worse in my S than it was in my previous two Priuses.