XACT Sirius radios SUCK!!!!!!!!

[alarimer]

It has to be within one FOOT of the radio (or actually even closer) or it won't transmit. The sound is still all staticky, even though I have it sitting on top of my stereo. The guy at Xact told me that the FCC required them to reduct the transmitting distance. The radio I had before (same model) worked when it was about four feet away. Fuck you FCC for this. As a result of this I have a useless piece of garbage that barely works in the car and is unlistenable in the house.

[slj0101]

1. Is that the Visor model?

Yeah, I even bought a separate dish for househole use, and it didn't work for squat. Still, I get good reception in the car.

It beats the Delphi Roady for XM. I blazed through two of them before I gave up on XM altogether.

[alarimer]

2. They told me to get an FM relay from Radio Shack

And put it between the FM antenna in my car stereo and where it attaches to the back of the head unit, which would require disassembly. I am not sure I can do it.

For inside, I am using an RCA cable and the Video/auxiliary output selection. It works fine now. But earlier I was getting a horrible humming sound. i figured out that I still had the fm transmitter on. I guess it was causing interference.

The real problem is that the antenna cable is not long enough- when I lose satellite reception, I have fewer places to try and pick it up since I had to move the radio close to my stereo.

Ain't technology fun??

[pstokely]

3. Try a tape adapter

You can also find car CD players with MP3/Aux inputs for less than $100, many new cars don't have tape players or MP3 inputs

[alarimer]

4. My car doesn't have a cassette player

There is a part I can buy that they call an FM relay. It goes between the FM antenna and the head unit and uses the "FM out" on the Sirius radio. It's supposed to eliminate the static. There is a wire that has to come out somewhere and attach to the satellite radio and I can't figure out how to do that. everything is put together to tightly.

[pstokely]

5. It's a fairly new car, isn't it?

Even fancy cars I saw at the auto show did not have an AUX input, while many lower end models had them

[alarimer]

6. I don't have an AUX input either

The next model year after mine does have it, naturally. That would probably solve all my problems with the Sirius radio as well. Oh well.

[pstokely]

7. Try setting the station to a low end like 88.9

[pstokely]

8. What model and year is the car?

[alarimer]

11. It's a Mazda 3

2006. I could have gotten Sirius as an option (for $400!) but instead opted to buy it on my own for a whole lot less. I think a lot of the problem has to do with the FCC requiring them (the manufacturer I presume) to reduce the transmitting distance. The old one was fine (until it broke). There seems to be a lot more static with the new one. But I use RCA jacks inside which eliminates the static problem.

[alarimer]

10. I have finally found one station that seems okay

They have a section on the website that tells which frequencies might work best. I have tried most of those. I think I will install the FM relay thing, if I can figure out how.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

9. Ours is pretty cool.

I haven't used it out of my car, but we're getting the home kit in a few weeks. Skip can pick up his several feet away on his SANSA.
Duckie

[pstokely]

12. Small stations made them do this

People were beginning to think NPR and Fundie stations played uncensored rap

[alarimer]

13. Okay; I guess it must have transmitted more than a couple of feet

But now I think they've reduced it too much when it doesn't transmit sitting right on top of the stereo but at least for indoors I can use the RCA cable.