the last few days I've noticed that XM will drop for a second or so for no apparent reason every now and then. This morning it was on one of the comedy channels, last night chrome I think. There's no static when this happens. As you probably know static is heard when the sat. signal is lost. this seems different.

Anyone?

 

I have had a similar problem the last couple days I have noticed - except it will just go quiet, no static.

 

Ok, so we're experiencing the same then

thanks for responding.

 

If you have a large object to your South, or are driving along a tree-lined road, it often will drop. You need a decently clear LOS to the southern horizon to get satellite signal.

I live in a pretty woodsy area, and it will drop frequently if there's a lot of trees between my car and the Southern horizon.

In my experience, you don't get static when it drops signal -- it just mutes. Since it's digital, I don't imagine that it would actually play static. If you're on the "Audio" screen when it happens, it will display "No Signal."

 

Same here. Mines been doing it all day. I thought it was just because it was raining but if others are getting it too then it may be more widespread/bigger.

 

again

 

I know the difference between 'regular' dropouts and the problem I'm describing. There are two overpasses that I go under to/from work. In the morning the XM will hiss for just a second right after I go underneath. On the way home it doesn't do that. To me that means that the XM antenna is not placed very well. If there's a signal somewhere I should be able to receive it, doesn't matter what direction the car is pointing. Anyway, that's a different issue.

I agree there shouldn't be any static when the signal drops so I think they added an artificial white noise generator for these conditions to make XM more like 'regular' radio.

In any case, the drops I was reporting can happen anywhere. If they always happened in the same place I would have reported that you know

 

It IS a possibility that at the time this has happened to you (with the hissing noise) that you were rcv signal from a land based signal transmitter. Many major cities have these because the antenna on the car cannot always get the signal from the sat.

 

Hmm, that could be, yes. Makes it even stranger that the signal would fail though.

 

^ True, dunno