Sirius / XM -- how do you like it?

[Ron in BC]

And those items in Canada add up to even more. It still staggers me when I see what they add up to in a year.

So far my test use of the "free" Sirius has gone OK except that quite close to my house where I'm close to a hill and overhanging trees it looses the satellite. Doesn't last long till it gets the signal again but how common is that?

Ron

[caddoster]

Back in 2008 when we were traveling the north, our XM radio stopped working somewhere around northern BC/southern Yukon, when we were in Tuk our guide told us the story of how during the previous winter XM told him it will work where he is, but when he finally got his radio on the boat in spring time it never worked for him, and now he was in the process of returning the unit..



when I bought my little Jeep it came with one years of free service and every time I go under the underpass it lose satellite signals.. so I stopped using it. We kept service in our tow vehicle for traffic information..

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

I'm not recommending this behavior to others, I just wanted to point out the sneakiness of subscription fees. They suck up a lot of money over time.

There is no doubt that these various fees add up. I have been working to eliminate many of them in the last year or so. Business wise I have reduced monthly fees by over $1k/month, and personally a few hundred. Still a few more to deal with.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by caddoster

Back in 2008 when we were traveling the north, our XM radio stopped working somewhere around northern BC/southern Yukon, when we were in Tuk our guide told us the story of how during the previous winter XM told him it will work where he is, but when he finally got his radio on the boat in spring time it never worked for him, and now he was in the process of returning the unit..

XM always would have been marginal that far north. Sirius would have been good back then, due to the Tundra orbits used by the original three Sirius satellites, but since then even Sirius has switched to satellites with geostationary orbits, so I wouldn't expect any of these satellite radio services to work up there now.

[kfsmith]

We love it the reception is great as is the variety. For news junkies its the best and when I can't handle the politics I can listen to any type of music that I want.

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

Sirius would have been good back then, due to the Tundra orbits used by the original three Sirius satellites

What is a Tundra orbit? Is that the same as a Molniya orbit-- an elliptical orbit with a high inclination so that the satellite spends most of its time over high latitudes?

Also, at what latitude on the ground does a geostationary satellite become useless for broadcast?

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

What is a Tundra orbit? Is that the same as a Molniya orbit-- an elliptical orbit with a high inclination so that the satellite spends most of its time over high latitudes?

It's closely related, with the Tundra better to serve a single area. There's a decent Stackexchange discussion of the difference.

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

Also, at what latitude on the ground does a geostationary satellite become useless for broadcast?

It depends on the satellite power, ground antenna size, and ground antenna type. These audio services use omnidirectional antennas that generally look up so they don't work very well when the satellite is anywhere near the horizon or when the signal is weak; XM/Sirius will have trouble in the north while a service using a directional antenna (DBS TV, or MSAT phone/data) sitting right beside will work fine. Just at a guess, the 60th parallel (boundary between the western provinces and northern territories) might be a rough limit to expect usable service; Sirius XM claims a little further north in their coverage map, but that's a best-case estimate.