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Another example of how the NAB robs us of our rights...

T

Turntable

Inactive
Inactive User
I'll try to keep this short.

To make a long story a little shorter... My girlfriend recently secured her divorce; checking and credit accounts and such had to be changed. Sirius cut her off, so I took her radio and reinstated the subscription using my credit card. I installed the radio in my car and to my surprise I was elated with it. Her radio is an older model, the Sirius XACT3. No problems in my car, even without the FM extender cable.

Like I said before, I was elated with the service, and so this afternoon I went out and dropped $150 on a new Sportster 4 and put it on our account.. I intend to give the XACT back to her for use in her car. I love the sportster, BUT-- and it's a BIG BUT...

The output level for the FM transmitter has been dropped down so low that I had to run the FM extender cable through the door and literally WRAP IT AROUND the car's antenna just in order to receive a decent signal from the sirius radio, and that's still with a slight hiss on the reception.

Thank you NAB. You make me proud of our industry (NOT)!

-A
 
Do it the way I do; connect the modulator directly to the FM input. Do not go with a wireless connection. Your reception will be perfect and you will not radiate to nearby cars. Anything less should not even be considered.
 
Sure, but that modulator is another 50 bucks. Not only that, but I would have to rip the radio out of the dash in order to put it inline. There must be a way to increase the output of the built-in FM TX... I'm sure there are mods out there by now. They really went from one extreme to the other --- to the point of making the recievers useless in that capacity. I mean if the thing has difficulty transmitting 1/1000th of an inch directly to the car radio's antenna, there's something VERY wrong!

-A
 
$50? Not true! I bought one more than a year ago for around $15 and it's great. I believe the one I bought was from AudioVox but it's been awhile and I may be wrong. A google search will help you.

Take the adice and hard wire your unit, you'll be glad you did!
 
hmmm...

Are we talking about the same thing here? I'm talking about a device that takes the sirius radio's line output and puts it on an FM channel, which is directly wired to the radio's antenna input (motorola jack) with a secondary input (motorola jack) for the car's whip antenna. Presumably it also has switching so that when the sirius radio has been turned off, it switches back to the car's antenna for terrestrial reception.

ShadioRack dealer told me the device is $49.95.

Of course the best option would be to have a line input on the radio itself, second best would be a cassette adaptor. But this is a strip-down model '91 Saturn and there is no cassette deck, no CD player, and of course no inputs of any kind... just a plain 'ol AM/FM radio.

But back to the title of this thread, it is apparent that the FCC and NAB have succeded in rendering the wireless connection function of the newer radios pretty much useless. I'm starting to wonder if I cut and strip the end of the wireless extender cable, and clamp the bare wire onto my whip antenna, if I will actually get a clean signal from the radio's built-in transmitter then? I mean is that what I have to go though? If that's the case, I would consider it false advertising. Either that, or the unit is defective.

Has anyone else experienced this problem with newer Sportsters?

-A
 
Alan Fletcher said:
hmmm...

Are we talking about the same thing here? I'm talking about a device that takes the sirius radio's line output and puts it on an FM channel, which is directly wired to the radio's antenna input (motorola jack) with a secondary input (motorola jack) for the car's whip antenna. Presumably it also has switching so that when the sirius radio has been turned off, it switches back to the car's antenna for terrestrial reception.

ShadioRack dealer told me the device is $49.95.

Of course the best option would be to have a line input on the radio itself, second best would be a cassette adaptor. But this is a strip-down model '91 Saturn and there is no cassette deck, no CD player, and of course no inputs of any kind... just a plain 'ol AM/FM radio.

But back to the title of this thread, it is apparent that the FCC and NAB have succeded in rendering the wireless connection function of the newer radios pretty much useless. I'm starting to wonder if I cut and strip the end of the wireless extender cable, and clamp the bare wire onto my whip antenna, if I will actually get a clean signal from the radio's built-in transmitter then? I mean is that what I have to go though? If that's the case, I would consider it false advertising. Either that, or the unit is defective.

Has anyone else experienced this problem with newer Sportsters?

-A
Click to expand...

The transmit power of the new units is pathetic. I'm hoping like hell my old Sportster Replay doesn't die.
 
Ok, now this is where it gets wierd.

The GM factory radio in my Saturn is very sensitive on both the AM and FM bands. It has no problem pulling in stations even my girlfriend's 2003 Accord has some trouble with. But when I went to warm up both our cars this morning, she got a better signal from my Sirius than I got inside my own car.

My Saturn was parked behind her Accord and just for a lark I tuned up my Sirius frequency in her car and BAM!... crystal clear signal. Then, to make a strange story even stranger, after we left, she was following about 15 car lengths behind me and I called her on her cell. I asked her if she could still hear my Sirius. Her response... "A little...".

So how is it that I get a worse signal in my car than she does 15 feet away? Could it be receiver overload? Maybe I should move the antenna extender cable farther AWAY from the antenna? As it stands now, I get a pretty clear signal, but there's still alot of hiss on it during quiet portions such as during pauses on Stern or other talk...

-A
 
Alan Fletcher said:
Ok, now this is where it gets wierd.

The GM factory radio in my Saturn is very sensitive on both the AM and FM bands. It has no problem pulling in stations even my girlfriend's 2003 Accord has some trouble with. But when I went to warm up both our cars this morning, she got a better signal from my Sirius than I got inside my own car.

My Saturn was parked behind her Accord and just for a lark I tuned up my Sirius frequency in her car and BAM!... crystal clear signal. Then, to make a strange story even stranger, after we left, she was following about 15 car lengths behind me and I called her on her cell. I asked her if she could still hear my Sirius. Her response... "A little...".

So how is it that I get a worse signal in my car than she does 15 feet away? Could it be receiver overload? Maybe I should move the antenna extender cable farther AWAY from the antenna? As it stands now, I get a pretty clear signal, but there's still alot of hiss on it during quiet portions such as during pauses on Stern or other talk...

-A
Click to expand...


my advice is get a cd player with a line in jack. or use a direct fm connection..

http://www.tss-radio.com/direct-adapter-wired-relay-p-4082.html
 
Yeah, I've run that idea up and down, left and right through my head. I could buy the sirius branded one (which looks pretty high quality) for $28 at ShadioRack, but the fact is, the car is a crappy little buzzbox and the trim and molding is very cheap... I'm hesitant to rip the dash apart to get to the back of the radio for fear of cracking any plastic. Almost everything in the trim is held together by those little metal clips that never seem to go back together right once they are pulled out. Yeah, it's kind of a crappy car, but it's in good condition and I'd like to keep it that way.

What I ended up doing is direct-wiring the FM extender cable to the car's antenna as I mentioned above. That works satisfactorily. Only problem with it is that if I want to listen to AM broadcast radio, I have to unplug the FM extender cable from the Sirius dock, or else I end up with a bunch of digital hash, whether the Sirius radio is on or off.

-A
 
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