bobrxlex

i am constantly losing my signal everytime there are trees around the road, has anyone else had this problem

cmasten

I lose it when the trees are overhead and always under bridges.. other than that its been pretty solid reception in my 07

Synergy

Hmmmm I dont have the tree issue, only bridges.

bob321

When new, my '07 worked everywhere - even in our garage. In the last 6-9 months, it now fades in-and-out on tree lines streets where it always worked before, under bridges, and hardly at all in the garage. When you now start the car, sometimes it works for a second or two, takes about a 5 second pause, then resumes.

During the car's only (no-touch) car wash last summer, XM went away totally for about an hour - seems to me like the antenna connection at the roof is loose/bad. But I can't get the Lexus tech to spend the 8 hours dropping the headliner to check - "No Trouble Found" is always their answer.

jmcraney

You should not assume that the changing performance of your satellite radio is due to problems with your equipment. The XM satellite elevation look angle for many locations in the US is about 30 degrees, making the signal very susceptible to interference by nearby trees and buildings. This susceptibility is mitigated by the use of terrestrial repeaters in urban areas and the number and location of these repeaters is being adjusted to provide the best coverage, so it might seem to be getting worse but that might not be because of your car's radio.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM_Satellite_Radio

stanatl

I have a 2010 LS and the only place I lose reception is in my garage. I am getting good reception on streets with lots of high trees where I used to lose reception in my now departed 550i. All in all, the reception has been great.

WhitBaby

There have to be one hell of a lot of trees for mine to begin fading. I even get reception into the tunnels for a short distance, but suspect that's more of a function of buffering (storage) than weak signal. I do get some fades in the canyons of downtown, but this is understandable.

Seems like there's an RF amplifier back near the antenna. It might be beginning to fail. I think it's still probably connected and still has voltage running to it or you wouldn't be getting anything.

About the only thing you can do to get a recalcitrant dealer off his butt is to find another car, or two, on his lot that will keep a steady signal in the same places yours fades in and out.
If you stick his nose in the fact that those work and yours doesn't he has to admit that something is wrong, or at least you will then have some docs and comparo's to submit to corporate Lexus with your complaint and dissatisfaction with their dealer.

Whit

Nospinzone

My reception has been excellent. I only rarely lose a signal, and that's usually up in Vermont driving in between mountains with overhead trees. Absolutely no trouble in the city and in tunnels and under bridges, but I'm sure there are ground repeaters there.

I have both a Pioneer Inno and a XMp3 which I will use in my Infiniti. They both regularly lose the signal in the same places that my LS receiver comes in uninterupted.

bobrxlex

thanks for the feedback, i was driving today with no trees or anything around and i lost my signal, its frustrating. when i was in for my 5000, the tech said everything seems to be fine. I guess they dont want to be bothered by really checking things out. I will bring it back up when i take it in for my 10000

cmasten

one more thing to try is to just reset the whole thing, I did that about a month after I took delivery of mine and its been fine ever since. I just reset it off the website and then parked it out in the clear on the preview channel for about 15 min and it helped. My symptom was the signal dropping. Its worth a shot.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5903810_reset-xm-radio.html

the refresh link is http://www.xmradio.com/refresh/index.xmc

zeebra

Yeah the trees are blocking the antenna from the satellite(s), which all run more or less around the equator so for most of us in North America, any hwy where trees line the South side of the road, you will get intermittent signal outages. Happens to me all the time when I drive in Oregon where there are MANY tree-lined roads.
I have also seen, quite a few times, that an XM station or even several stations will go off the air for hours at a time.... but some stations still broadcast - so it seems like they must occasionally experience technical difficulties at their studios. In either case, its not your fault so dont get depressed. Just fall back on one of your 6 other methods of playing music in your car...
Z

jmcraney

The XM satellites are in geostationary orbits (about 22,000 miles altitude). Currently there are five of these satellites: XM1,2,3,4 and 5. XM1 and 2 are no longer in service but remain in backup. XM3 and 4 are currently active. The look angles from Dallas, TX for XM 3 are 50 degrees elevation and 159 degrees azimuth and the Dallas look angles for XM4 are 47 degrees elevation and 211 degrees azimuth - the farther North your location is the lower the elevation angle will be. So, you can see that XM4 is much farther West. The operators of these satellites switch between devices due to maintenance and operational considerations. Depending on your location terrestrial objects may interfere with the signal from one satellite and not interfere with the other so when they switch you may have the perception that there is a problem with your receiver especially in areas where there are lots of potential obstructions. XM5 was launched by a Russian rocket about eight months ago and is currently in orbital storage.

Johnny

I'm above the 49th parallel and the reception is excellent except when screened by tall buildings or hills/mountains.

Trees seldom affect reception here.

jmcraney

You probably have several terrestrial repeaters in your area.

jmcraney

John,

You have a repeater in your area. It is not shown in this link but this describes the concept.

http://www.xm411.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=616