I am on my 6th day of having Sirius. I have to say that I am not impressed. I have better reception with AM and FM. I have the Nissan receiver and the new sigma antenna. The antenna is mounted on the front glass just to the right of the rear view mirror. This is where Sirius wants it mounted. Onto my problem. The radio constantly looses the signal. On the way to work on 287 in NJ we were creaping along nothing to block my signal and the display reads aquiring for about 15 secs. I was stopped at a light on RT10 again nothing in the way of the signal and its aquiring again. The road that I take to my girlfriends and some trees and yup you got it aquiring. I hope that this is not normal. If it is there is no way in hell that I am going to pay $13.00 a month for crapy service and I am gonna be very pissed that I shelled out the bucks for the receiver, antenna and install.

 

I thought I read about a TSB related to intermittent drops of signal. Found it!!

http://www.infinitihelp.com/Ownershi.../NTB04-119.htm

Dealership time.

 

normally the antenna should be outside the vehicle. i've never heard of sirius wanting it inside beisde the mirror. that could be your problem. especially if it's mounted on the dotted area.

the antenna needs to pick up the signal from the satellites, if the antenna is inside the car it doesn't have a clear 360 degree view of the sky.

try moving the antenna outside the vehicle and see if that helps.

Here are the sirius instructions for mounting a home antenna; i can't believe the car instructions would be any different...

In order to receive the best reception in your home, take these simple steps to ensure a strong signal.

BEST: PLACE YOUR ANTENNA ON THE ROOF
Since the antennas are weatherproof, it's always best to place them outside on your roof. The clearer the view of the sky that your antenna has, the less likely you are to experience signal loss. Placing your antenna on the roof may require the purchase of an antenna extension cable.

BETTER: PLACE YOUR ANTENNA OUTSIDE
Sometimes it's easier to place your antenna outside of a window or to mount it on the side of your house. Either way, you should still try to give your antenna a clear view of the sky.

GOOD: PLACE YOUR ANTENNA IN OR NEAR A WINDOW
In addition to our 3 satellites, we also make use of terrestrial repeaters in major metropolitan areas to boost our signal. In these areas, it may be possible to receive the SIRIUS signal with your antenna placed inside your home. We recommend placing your antenna in or near a window*.

 

here's a message from the sirius forum moderator...

Glad you got it installed the way you want it as that is the main thing. I've never had good luck with installs when I attempted to keep the antenna inside the vehicle. They were just not designed for that type installation and the results though they vary often end up not being very good. The only exception to that rule is if you are in an area with a repeater. It just stands to reason you will experience more drop-outs, but often times with folks that mount the antenna inside the vehicle, don't realize how many more drop-outs they are having, but as long as its acceptable to you, what difference does my opinion make.

 

I have never seen Sirius or XM recc. an antenna inside the vehicle. They want it mounted with 10" radius of metal service around the antenna on the outside of the vehicle.

I mounted my mini on the inside on the rear deck and the only time i get a split second drop if there is heavy tree coverage or an underpass. Yet I have a constant strong signal when inside a parking garage with open sides. The areas i may get one or two "skips" I get mostly static for FM.

Why don't you call Sirius and see what they think about your insisde glass mount.

 

The antenna is made to be inside the vehicle. Check it out

http://www.siriusbackstage.com/forum...ic.php?t=14422

http://www.grubbsperformance.com/Mer...de=MaximaAudio

And it is currently only avail from Nissan.

 

Well, we've got XM, mainly because we drive down to Mexico every winter, and the signal is still good about 1,000 miles below the U.S. border. AND we have a tiny antenna -- about 4" square -- inside the car on the rear deck and never had any reception problems. We've heard the debate about programming preferences of Sirius over XM, but we wound up choosing XM because the signal was stronger in more places. We've also taken the car across country and as far north as Toronto with no signal lproblems.

 

i got my sirius antenna on top of my HU INSIDE the dash, not even on the window, i mean literally inside the dash.

still getting strong signal no problems.

only time i get poor signal is obviously when going underpass or heavy trees blocking, or sometimes tall buildings.

Also when it rains heavily, sometimes it does lose some signal.

Besides that, i'm happy with it.

 

I'm sirius...ha ha. Have the dealer reorder the receiver. I have my antenna on rear deck like nismo and have no problems. Read all the way through the TSB above. A new unit should fix it.

 

Thanks for the help guys. I am calling the dealer now

 

Why is the dotted area an issue? That is where Nissan says to mount the antenna.

 

not to sound like a trouble maker by the dog su*ks becuase the have no terrestrail repeaters thats why XM is kicking their a#s.

 

Actually, subscribers tend to pay more attention to the quality of programming and, unless you like NASCAR, you have no compelling reason to go with XM. Subscription rates have superceeded XM's for a while now, so don't let XM's head start skew the numbers for you.

 

Like NASCAR? What about every major league baseball game that's carried on XM?

 

XM's music programming is crap compared to Sirius. I bought satellite radio for music, not for car racing or baseball games. They have the best music programming by far.