Satellite Radio

[Leiby]

Anybody out there who gets XM reception south of 22 lat. What antenna and how is the reception. I am in DM and lost in a haze of trumpets and wacky beats on terrestrial radio. I don't speak Spanish yet but when I do I will ask them to lighten up on the horns and throw in some reeds. Mike

[BojanglesIV]

We've been able to get Sirius as far out as Martinique but lost it for good in St. Lucia and beyond. We just have the basic car unit with magnetic antenna that connects to tye stereo through the Aux input.

I understand the marine radio antennas are more powerful, but i havent tried them. We simply tried to keep the antenna where it had a clear view of the sky to the northwest. I don't know this for sure, but I assume the satellites are focused over the US so we kept the antenna on the US side of the boat and got pretty good results.

Good luck.

Colin

[David M]

You are pretty much correct Bojangles.

There are three Sirius satellites. They move in a figure eight pattern with the middle of the eight being centered over Iowa, the top of the eight in Canada and the bottom over South America. Two of them pass over the center of the eight at the same time with one traveling mostly north and the other mostly south. When they reach the center of the eight the one traveling north turns on while the one traveling south turns off at the same time.

You can see their views of Earth here...
Earth View
Go to Sirius-1, Sirius-2 and Sirius-3

If you click on the thumbnail the satellites move. You can also see the old geostationary XM-1 and XM-2 satellites and see where it is local apparent noon on Earth, which gives you a sense of the satellites speed.