Re: Satellite Radio

I've had Sirius, first in my 08 Town and Country OE radio. No problems except under overpasses. On rare occasion I'll lose the signal briefly out in the open. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for it though. We drive to northern Minnesota frequently with no problems. When I sold the van the replacement vehicle did not have satellite so I was going to cancel my subscription. They offered to send me a stand alone unit to install in the new vehicle. I was a little skeptical but went ahead.

The installation instructions said to mount the antenna on the outside of the vehicle. On most modern cars trying to get an antenna lead from inside to outside in a clean fashion is a lot of work. So I experimented with just placing it in different locations on the dash. This turned out to be quite acceptable. I get just as good reception as I did with the factory installation.

No experience with XM sorry.

Paul L.

On Monday, February 24, 2014 8:44:15 AM UTC-6, bobsbelvedere wrote:

Hi – I apologize in advance for bringing up a non-Mopar but this is something that has been bothering me so I thought I would ask the group for some feedback. Over the past half-dozen years I have owned or driven three cars with Sirius satellite radios (Fords and Dodge) and three with XM satellite radios (Chevy and Toyotas). I have found that the reception with the XM radios has been consistently poor with even modest tree growth along roads blocking reception. In-town with buildings of only modest height also blocks reception. On these same roads with the exactly the same tree cover and driving conditions and in-town on the same streets reception with the Sirius radios is always excellent with little or no interference. The XM reception in Maine is so bad in some places that I don’t bother with the satellite radio.

Even though Sirius-XM is now one company I believe they have different satellites. I live in Maine and my theory is that the Sirius satellite is higher in the sky (at least in Maine) while the XM satellite is closer to the horizon, allowing reception to be more easily block by trees and buildings. I would like to know if folks who live elsewhere have experienced similar problems with either XM or Sirius reception. Thanks, Bob from Maine