# Did Sirius radios move to XM Sats?



## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

The reason I ask this is because in my old GM Truck, I had XM and I knew there were spots along side mountains where the signal would fade out. On my wife's Sirius equipped vehicle we never lost signal in the same places. Figured it was because of the original Sirius Sats weird Figure 8 orbits vs. the Geostationary XM Sats.

Now in my Sirius equipped Ford Truck I am losing signal in the same places I lost it in my XM truck.

Did they move all programming to the XM Geo Sats?


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## sswheeler (Aug 27, 2008)

I would like to know also. I have a Sirius equipped Dodge and all of a sudden I am losing service all over the place now. For example, I never used to lose service in downtown Des Moines, IA, now I am always losing it. I would like to know what is going on also.


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

Herdfan said:


> Figured it was because of the original Sirius Sats weird Figure 8 orbits vs. the Geostationary XM Sats.


Sirius orbits aren't a figure 8, the ground track is a figure 8 (caused by the earth spinning 'under' the satellite).


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Sirius uses 2.3200 to 2.3325 GHz, XM uses 2.3325 to 2.3450 GHz. Unless one has a combination radio that picks up both Sirius and XM the Sirius radio would not be receiving XM satellite transmissions.

There may be some weather related issues or a satellite issue. I noticed a few signal drops on Sunday when out for a drive but they were in areas where my Sirius radio may not have had LOS to a satellite. The normal areas where I get interference do not seem to be worse than usual and I can still listen inside my garage on my car radio.


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

As I recall Sirius has ground repeaters and it's possible some of them are down in your area? Just a thought...


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## PCampbell (Nov 18, 2006)

I am getting the same thing in Michigan. Odd.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

James Long said:


> Sirius uses 2.3200 to 2.3325 GHz, XM uses 2.3325 to 2.3450 GHz. Unless one has a combination radio that picks up both Sirius and XM the Sirius radio would not be receiving XM satellite transmissions.
> 
> There may be some weather related issues or a satellite issue. I noticed a few signal drops on Sunday when out for a drive but they were in areas where my Sirius radio may not have had LOS to a satellite.


Nothing is weather related.



inkahauts said:


> As I recall Sirius has ground repeaters and it's possible some of them are down in your area? Just a thought...


We have no repeaters where I live.

Here are a couple of examples. At my local McDonald's when I pulled around to the pay window I would lose signal in my XM vehicle, but never my Sirius vehicle. Now I lose it in my Sirius as well.

Coming into Charleston, WV on I-64 there is a mountain on the south side of the Interstate. I always lost XM signal there as the Sats (XM 2 & 3) are SW of this location and thereby blocked.

It seems the newest Sirius Sats are in GEO in similar locations to the XM birds. So if the original Sirius SATs are now offline and all programming is on the new ones, then that explains the issue.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Herdfan said:


> Nothing is weather related.


Nothing ever? I understand that if you're not driving in a severe thunderstorm or under heavy cloud cover one does not expect interference with satellite reception. But heat inversions and other anomalies are part of weather.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

James Long said:


> Nothing ever? I understand that if you're not driving in a severe thunderstorm or under heavy cloud cover one does not expect interference with satellite reception. But heat inversions and other anomalies are part of weather.


Ok, to my knowledge it is not weather related as it is a very repeatable issue. Always at the same places that never had an issue before.

As a side note, I have never lost Sirius/XM signal in a heavy rain like you can with DirecTV.


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## John79605 (Feb 10, 2007)

Sirius now uses two satellites over the equator. Instead of overhead, they are to the south.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

And as a result, reception is the same as XM.


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