Just wondering if anyone has any experience with either SIRIUS or XM reception in Newfoundland on the east coast (St. John's area). How's the signal strength, good/fair/poor? What about in foggy conditions/snow...etc, any drop outs? etc.
Just wondering if anyone has any experience with either SIRIUS or XM reception in Newfoundland on the east coast (St. John's area). How's the signal strength, good/fair/poor? What about in foggy conditions/snow...etc, any drop outs? etc.
I can't answer your question regarding how well satellite radio works in your province but I have heard that Sirius does work much better than XM in Newfoundland because of the configuration of the satellites. This is especially true with the eastern half of the island. I will see if I can find the link to the satellite path maps and post it for you.
I live in an area with lots of snow and both XM and Sirius do not appear to suffer much in the way of signal loss. I have had many cms of snow on my antenna and still get a solid signal. Today is a very foggy day in the Ottawa Valley and I was listening to Sirius on the drive in with no signal loss.
There has been some discussion on DHC regarding XM:
OK...thanks for the info....I guess the best thing for me to do is to contact both providers directly and ask them. Hovever they do sell the receivers here locally so what would be the point if the service wasn't available....
I was in NF last summer (Drove from Ottawa) using XM all over the island (Port aux Basques to St. John's and in between) with a few fade ins and outs. But this was before you could buy XM in Canada, so it may have failed a bit due to the fact I was using the US feed and not Canadian before it was available. I would think it would work much better now since offering it north or the border.
I was in NF last summer (Drove from Ottawa) using XM all over the island (Port aux Basques to St. John's and in between) with a few fade ins and outs. But this was before you could buy XM in Canada, so it may have failed a bit due to the fact I was using the US feed and not Canadian before it was available. I would think it would work much better now since offering it north or the border.
The satellite signal/feed from XM/Sirius to Canada is exactly the same as the USA so the signal you would have received last year and this year would be the same. Signals have improved in urban areas when XM Canada and Sirius Canada added repeaters.
I live in St. John's and I bought XM this past Friday and i've never been happier. The reception here in St. John's is excellent. I use it at work in a tall building dontown and at home up by the Avalon Mall and both places have no problems. According to a sales rep I talked to XM has a repeater here in the city and under my antenna aiming options it shows full terrestrial and and no Satellite. Also from talkign to a couple of people Sirius does not have a repeater and there is a very bad signal here.
Sirius covers 200 miles offshore on both coasts - from BC to Newfoundland. So St. Johns should be fine!! If there is a reception problem, let Sirius know and they will put a repeater up within 60 days.
So if the reception is pretty good in St. John's because of the repeater what about when you leave the city... How far out does that work?
What about the rest of the Avalon/& island?
If St. john's is the only repeater location, how reliable is the direct satellite signal in otheer areas. (Feedback on Either XM OR Sirius would be appreciated here.)
The XM satellite signal while driving in St. John's isn't great, it's there, but drops out a lot.. it's fine for home use however. As you leave St. John's the satellite signal gets better, so nothing to worry about. But yes, XM does have a repeater in the St. John's area that makes the signal great, works fine under lots of bridges and even inside buildings without even having the antenna outside or aimed to the satellites.
Sirius is supposed to be not bad while driving, but their signal is weak and it's hard to aim the home antenna because their satellites are moving.
I live in Mount Pearl, NL. How good is the reception for other folks now that that Sirius and XM have merged here? I subbed yesterday and had to put the antenna on my roof to get a good reception from home. Works great ! But where does the merged company drop out here in the Province? In cars and at home is my question? I have a Sirius XM Radio for home use.
till today. I get in my car, it takes an update and suddenly, sitting in my driveway having not moved, I have no signal.
I hadn't moved an inch. I got in car, listened for 30 seconds, update comes down and boom, no signal.
Driving to work, a route I know well, I used to have ZERO dropouts. ZERO. Never. Not even in the ****tiest of weather with gigantic chunks of ice falling from the sky.
Now? Since this update today? It drops out oh, I dunno, 10-15 times in areas that I have exceptional views of the sky.
They either changed something or there's a bug, but something, for certain, is broken.
Lots of dropouts as of Wednesday morning (yesterday). Same symptoms. Drive a well travelled route where we knew what to expect. Now constant dropouts.
Ed
I just went on with support chat. Talk about useless. Nothing they can offer except to send refresh signal. States there are no known issues.
I informed them that there is some issue!
I'm in Nova Scotia and have experienced the same thing as the folks in Newfoundland, today. Exactly the same situation. I suspect one of the Sirius satellites may be down or damaged in some way. I had dropouts all along Highway 10 and I never have dropouts in these locations.
I'm in Newfoundland and having the same problems. When I started my car this morning it updated Sirius and it seemed to take a lot longer to update than previous times. Then when I was driving around it kept losing the signal in places I've never lost it before.
Just checked SiriusXM on facebook and people from all across the country are experiencing the same issues. Sirius now knows about the problem, and even think it may be repaired, but I just checked my radio seconds ago, and it is still dropping out, regularly.
The XM repeaters are located on the top of Elizabeth towers on Elizabeth ave and on the CBC tower on kenmount road.
XM is solid in the city but rocky when in residential areas and rural routes with heavy tree lines, but it is solid on the TCH.
Sirius is solid on the TCH and is usually reliable on the rural routes and residential areas. There is there spots on Torbay road on the intersection of Elizabeth and at the intersection of MacDonald. It is also spotty towards stavanger. Kenmount road towards Elizabeth ave is scratchy.
I've gone around the city with a spectrum analyzer just to decide which service I liked better. I have an XM radio in the house simply because their stationary satellites provide a better signal when stationary and I've got Sirius in the truck as sirius's satellites are non-stationary which yields better results while I'm driving. Needless to say I'm a bit of a nerd.
My service was still droppy on the way home last night. Good for a few minutes at a time and then the Signal drops in what I consider pretty clear/open areas.
I live in Torbay and drive Torbay Rd to work downtown, everyday I switch from Sat to Radio just after the Torbay Rd and McDonald Dr intersection as signal becomes too annoying to continue, however today I was pulling into the Atlantic Place parking garage and realized I was still on Sat and it hadn't dropped out, actually had a fair bit of reception while driving through the parking garage.
I was very surprised when I realized I was still on Sat, while pulling into the parking garage.
So... Vo1ei, the dark zones along torbay rd between shoppers and elizabeth is no longer a deadspot for Sirius. I recall you saying on the old, old, old sirius forums that the dark spot was caused by the XM Repeater just drowning out the sirius ka signal.
I just drove through, parked at Prince Charles Building, at a friends work, a place I know well, and know that I NEVER EVER got signal in their parking lot...
and guess, what, not even a frigging hitch. Not even a blip of disruption in the lot. 100% crystal clear signal, in an area where I couldn't even get a hint of it before. When I drive up and down that area, not one drop out.
I'm guessing something is up with the repeater, perhaps Sirius installed one for Sirius (and not XM only as had been the case, I believe) and the update was to add the provisioning for the terrestrial repeater. Radios used to default to the Terrestrial repeater, even if it was weak, before falling back to the satellite's feed. This would explain why the update we all took on Thursday the 7th, broke our once great signal (unless you drove a ford edge, jeep or chrysler lol)
Also... you guys have to remember that Sirius's satellites move. So if the issue isn't related to the ground repeater at Elizabeth drive, its related to the satellites in the sky.... which all move...
this is why you can be sitting still downtown blocked by a building then suddenly get signal, the satellite has moved.
This is ALSO why you can have major problems driving to work one day and then absolutely none on the way home when the birds are higher in the sky.
Take this into account when considering if your issues are resolved or not. You have to compared apples to apples.
I've had XM now for 5yrs and I noticed that 2 weeks in early spring and fall ( Apr and Sept ) the signal drops off even in town. But then after a couple weeks its ok. Its been a pattern, I've called them but they don't give me a straight answer. I think its where the satellite and sun are basically lined up with each other for a short time. Plus it doesn't help that the XM satellite is just above the horizon whereas Sirius satellite are much higher up. Hope this helps.
Sirius broke something. There's a legitimate issue that was instigated by the update that came down on April 7th 2016.
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