Sirius Signal Drop Out

[tucker_bmd]

... "Top End" of the Perimeter (I-285) between I-75 and I-85. There are about 10 miles in there between Chamblee and Smyrna where the radio loses signal. ...

One possible reason is your radio is becoming saturated by the ground station repeater that is right in the area. I'm thinking that stretch of road is in a sweet spot and your radio (along with MFT) is getting too much signal power. Go to dogstarradio.com and you can find a map of the Sirius's ground station repeaters.

 

[vfral1]

One possible reason is your radio is becoming saturated by the ground station repeater that is right in the area. I'm thinking that stretch of road is in a sweet spot and your radio (along with MFT) is getting too much signal power. Go to dogstarradio.com and you can find a map of the Sirius's ground station repeaters.

This is fascinating. There is a repeater right next to the interstate where I am having trouble. So, having too much signal is a bad thing? It makes no sense.

 

[tucker_bmd]

This is fascinating. There is a repeater right next to the interstate where I am having trouble. So, having too much signal is a bad thing? It makes no sense.

Hey, I've been accused before of spouting malarky so you will have to take that into account. I would call Sirius and ask for tech support and see what they say. Too much of a coincidence not to ask.

 

[vfral1]

Hey, I've been accused before of spouting malarky so you will have to take that into account. I would call Sirius and ask for tech support and see what they say. Too much of a coincidence not to ask.

Please dont misunderstand; I appreciate the response and info. I was just wondering where you learned that good coverage=no radio.

 

[tucker_bmd]

Science experiment

Please dont misunderstand; I appreciate the response and info. I was just wondering where you learned that good coverage=no radio.

Here is something you can try, mount a Faraday cage over the base of your antenna. I believe the antenna for Sirius (and GPS) is at the base of the regular radio antenna on your roof near the back of the vehicle. A Faraday cage will attenuate the signal (hopefully) before it reaches the receiver. A Faraday cage is basically a metal screen with the holes sized appropriately to the wavelength of interest. Sirius is transmitting at around 2.34 GHz, which is about 13 centimeters in wavelength. So, you could start by making a small metal screen that will cover the antenna base on your roof with the openings of the screen say 50%, or 6.5 cm. You could hold this down to your roof with some magnets and a thin cotton sheet to protect your paint.

It would be best to find a side road near the highway where your dropout occurs where the radio also drops out. Then pull over safely and put this on the roof and see if your radio starts working. But if you feel like your magnets are strong enough for highway speeds then try it driving.

Good luck.

 

[vfral1]

Here is something you can try, mount a Faraday cage over the base of your antenna. I believe the antenna for Sirius (and GPS) is at the base of the regular radio antenna on your roof near the back of the vehicle. A Faraday cage will attenuate the signal (hopefully) before it reaches the receiver. A Faraday cage is basically a metal screen with the holes sized appropriately to the wavelength of interest. Sirius is transmitting at around 2.34 GHz, which is about 13 centimeters in wavelength. So, you could start by making a small metal screen that will cover the antenna base on your roof with the openings of the screen say 50%, or 6.5 cm. You could hold this down to your roof with some magnets and a thin cotton sheet to protect your paint.

It would be best to find a side road near the highway where your dropout occurs where the radio also drops out. Then pull over safely and put this on the roof and see if your radio starts working. But if you feel like your magnets are strong enough for highway speeds then try it driving.

Good luck.

So to clarify, the signal I would be blocking is the repeater signal (FM), so that the satellite would presumably get through? Or is it the reverse?

 

[SXM_Help]

SiriusXM Help

Hi everyone-

Would you please send us an email with your contact information (name, phone number, and if you have it, your account number) and also where specifically you're having reception issues, either major highways, or names of roads, to SXM_Help@siriusxm.com, so we can look into this and help.

Thanks,
SiriusXM Digital Care Team

 

[tucker_bmd]

So to clarify, the signal I would be blocking is the repeater signal (FM), so that the satellite would presumably get through? Or is it the reverse?

Sounds like Sirius has joined the conversation so hopefully they will be able to resolve this.

But to answer your question above, the suggestion I made was to attenuate (reduce) the amount of received signal power coming from the ground repeater in hopes that when it made it from the antenna on the roof through the cable connecting the antenna to the radio in the dash that the signal was weaker and would not saturate the RF (radio frequency) circuitry causing the radio to stop working properly. That is all assuming my hypothesis is correct to begin with. I really don't know, you could be getting too much multipath signals (same signal but received many times from reflections off near by buildings etc) and multiple versions of the same signals. It looks like some of the ground station repeaters in the area overlap their coverage, plus you have the signal coming down from the satellites all adding together and it just might be confusing the decoding circuitry in the radio.

I would suggest to Sirius that they turn down the power of one the repeaters in the area. Start by a factor of 10 (reduce output transmit power by 10 dB) or if they won't do that then ask for 3 dB (factor of 2). It will be a good test, you can be on your cell phone right at a location where the radio stops working, they can keep dropping the power and if your radio starts working then we have the answer, if not then they will eventually figure it out.

 

[LukerDooker]

...its possible also in that area is a cellular repeater/tower, or a "telecom hotel",
a building which has a room, floor, or more dedicated to active mobile phone
equipment, and that is affecting reception.
But 10 miles thats a lot.
A facility is listed at 56 Marietta, Atlanta, Georgia.

Generally when driving by a high signal area such as this, your mobile phone can cut out or drop all comm, and pick up again after moving a block or so.

There are a few areas like this where I am, and when driving by, everything except AM/FM will cut out at the same moment, until passing the building or
turning the corner.

 

[baws22489]

Source Not Available when using Sirius

I'm new to the forum and this is my first post so sorry if i missed a previous post about this error message.

2 times in the past month, while listening to Sirius radio, the music will stop and i get a Source not available message. The first time I turned off the radio but that didn't do anything. Regular radio and usb still works, just not Sirius. I called Sirius to make them send a refresh signal but that didn't help. While at a stop light, i turned off the vehicle and back on and that didn't help. I turned it off again while running into Pizza hut, when i came back out it worked.

Now today sitting in the car wash, it did the same thing but came back after a minute. i figured today was from the signal being out from inside a car wash and or the water. but the first time the weather was fine.

Any ideas or anyone else seen this?

Thanks,
Steven

 

[peterk9]

I'm new to the forum and this is my first post so sorry if i missed a previous post about this error message.

2 times in the past month, while listening to Sirius radio, the music will stop and i get a Source not available message. The first time I turned off the radio but that didn't do anything. Regular radio and usb still works, just not Sirius. I called Sirius to make them send a refresh signal but that didn't help. While at a stop light, i turned off the vehicle and back on and that didn't help. I turned it off again while running into Pizza hut, when i came back out it worked.

Now today sitting in the car wash, it did the same thing but came back after a minute. i figured today was from the signal being out from inside a car wash and or the water. but the first time the weather was fine.

Any ideas or anyone else seen this?

Thanks,
Steven

Welcome to the Forum baws22489.:wavey:
As indicated in my PM, I have moved your post to this existing one on the same topic. Read through it and it may help. FYI, I haven't experienced a regular drop out of the signal. It has happened perhaps twice in 2 1/2+ years and my radio is on SIRIUS/XM 95% of the time.

Peter