Bad Reception

[Bulldog]

I have a Sirius starmate that I am trying to rig up for home use. [It works fine in the car.]
From my NE location I have tried connecting the antenna from outside the top in the South and in the West facing top story windows. The receptions is poor with frequent cut-outs making it unusable. I appreciate I do not have fully unobstructed sky, but I tried an experiment - I stood outside, 1 yard from the house and moved the antena around and got 100% qualtiy reception. As soon as I moved into that one yard perimeter - the reception again fell to three bars and frequent cut-outs.
I have had some issues before setting up wireless connections within the house, but did not think I would have a problem with the antenna outside. The house is pretty normal, about 30 years old. Anyone ever hear of anything similar - I am starting to think it is the aluminum siding????

[RiseStar]

Sirius @ home installs can be a little tricky at times as their satellites are in inclined orbit, so they are not stationary unlike most others. This has pros and cons, however one of the cons can be more dead zones at certain times than others.

It sounds like you are having an obstruction to the satellite. Although buildings can interfere, the more likely culprit will be trees or vegetation in the way. YOu also may have better luck with a larger antenna that has more gain than the one you are using.

[rob13572468]

also keep in mind that sirius does not use nearly as many terrestrial repeaters as does xm so the coverage will appear to be much more dependant on having a good view of the sky. by and far, the single most important part of the sirius antenna install is having a good ground plane: the antenna should always rest on a metal plane to provide the proper reference point. if possible you want to ground the metal back of the antenna to a good ground point. this will be easier and more effective on some antennas than others. with vehicle antennas it is critical to have a good ground plane but all antennas will benefit and see a gain improvement anywhere up to 9 db.

a simple test is to take a piece of metal, around 12" x 12" or bigger and set the antenna on it. if the antenna does not have a metal bottom you will want to run a lead from the antenna shield to the metal plate for best results. if you see marked improvement then rig up something more permanant.

[RiseStar]

Hey Rob,

Long time no see. Good to see ya :)

[Sea Beagle]

"also keep in mind that sirius does not use nearly as many terrestrial repeaters as does xm so the coverage will appear to be much more dependant on having a good view of the sky. by and far, the single most important part of the sirius antenna install is having a good ground plane: the antenna should always rest on a metal plane to provide the proper reference point."

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Why doesn't Sirius chage this to the way XM has their signal delivered. On XM I had great reception in my car, even when driving on roads that have big trees along the way. With Sirius every 30 seconds I lose the signal.

[Richardnie]

"also keep in mind that sirius does not use nearly as many terrestrial repeaters as does xm so the coverage will appear to be much more dependant on having a good view of the sky. by and far, the single most important part of the sirius antenna install is having a good ground plane: the antenna should always rest on a metal plane to provide the proper reference point."

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Why doesn't Sirius chage this to the way XM has their signal delivered. On XM I had great reception in my car, even when driving on roads that have big trees along the way. With Sirius every 30 seconds I lose the signal.

yea, me too, add going under overpasses to the list of how i lose my signal