Satellite Radio Poor Reception

[jimmyolsen]

Does anyone else have poor reception with their satellite radio? I have a SE sedan and I lose my satellite reception driving down a heavily wooded road. I've had satellite radio on my other cars but never had this problem. I suspect it's a faulty antenna but I was curious if it was just a common focus problem.

[Sponsor]

[Hivez]

I have an issue with this as well, it happens when I drive under a 2 lane (total) bridge at 70mph or even a wooded area as well.

[jimmyolsen]

My that's me too. Do you know your manufacture date. Mine's 6/12. I wonder if they got a batch of bad antennas.

[Hivez]

How do I get that?

[Timthom62]

Originally Posted by Hivez

How do I get that?

Go to the Ford ETIS site and enter your VIN.

Satellite radio is pretty much a 'line of sight' method of transmission. Since our radios do not 'buffer' the transmission, if you lose the line of sight between the satellite and antenna you lose the transmission. If the interruption is long enough, you get messages to indicate the disconnect.

Mine operates normally until I go under a bridge or there are trees or other obstructions to the east of my car that are tall enough to interfere with the signal.

[TiPilot]

Originally Posted by Timthom62

Go to the Ford ETIS site and enter your VIN.

Satellite radio is pretty much a 'line of sight' method of transmission. Since our radios do not 'buffer' the transmission, if you lose the line of sight between the satellite and antenna you lose the transmission. If the interruption is long enough, you get messages to indicate the disconnect.

Mine operates normally until I go under a bridge or there are trees or other obstructions to the east of my car that are tall enough to interfere with the signal.

They don't? I thought that was native behavior to all satellite receivers.

I had XM from 2002-2012 (let it expire after the trial ended in my Focus; no need for it now that I can stream Podcasts/Pandora/etc. via BT) and even my decade-old Pioneer receiver buffered the audio to some extent. At least I think it did...

[Timthom62]

The SiriusXM in the Focus is the first I've ever seen that didn't buffer the transmission but neither of our vehicles do. Comparing with a friends portable SiriusXM radio that has a variable buffer, ours were both at zero buffer.

[Hivez]

Originally Posted by Timthom62

Go to the Ford ETIS site and enter your VIN.

Satellite radio is pretty much a 'line of sight' method of transmission. Since our radios do not 'buffer' the transmission, if you lose the line of sight between the satellite and antenna you lose the transmission. If the interruption is long enough, you get messages to indicate the disconnect.

Mine operates normally until I go under a bridge or there are trees or other obstructions to the east of my car that are tall enough to interfere with the signal.

Thanks!!
I assumed it had a buffer as my existing car had one.
My build date was 01.08.12 , is this dd/mm/yy ?

[suss6052]

Originally Posted by Hivez

Thanks!!
I assumed it had a buffer as my existing car had one.
My build date was 01.08.12 , is this dd/mm/yy ?

Yeah, that's 8/1/12 but in the European date format of day/month/yr.

[Timthom62]

Originally Posted by Hivez

Thanks!!
I assumed it had a buffer as my existing car had one.
My build date was 01.08.12 , is this dd/mm/yy ?

Yes, ETIS is the Ford Europe site so the date is in European format. My February 27, 2012 build date shows as 27.02.2012.

The first clue that the SiriusXM radio in the Focus has little or no buffer is how quickly the signal is lost when driving under an overpass or other signal obstruction. I've no idea why they would not have one, though, as every other satellite radio I've seen did at least a slight buffer.