Satellite radio reception

Does anyone lose satellite radio reception often? I have owned several different trucks and my 2015 Tundra seems to lose reception way more often than my previous trucks. My wife’s highlander is the same way. Just curious what everyone else is experiencing.

 

Only around narrow roads and tall trees, other than that it’s been flawless.

 

Depends on where you are located on the planet. I drive down to Florida every year (not this year) from Canada and I lose reception here around hills and buildings. In flat Florida, never.

 

Like @Ruggybuggy mentioned, where are you?

Above the 50 parallel there are some problems in the trees and downtown.

 

Western Pennsylvania is where i am located. Just compared to the other trucks i’ve owned this one loses reception a lot more than the others.

 

Mines the same. I loose signal often in NY but seemed to never loose signal when I lived in tx. One weird thing though is it works inside my garage but cuts out when driving though some trees with no leaves or anything.

 

I am far from an expert, just a dangerous Internet armchair critic:

There are three types of satellite radio: Sirius, XM and SiriusXM. Depending on what your radio is listed as, you will receive channels accordingly. Certain receivers can only receive from certain satellites.

A 2015 non-JBL is an XM model. It can only receive from XM satellites (and thus only XM channels).

It is plausible that the reception of an XM only model is not as good as a SiriusXM model as it may be enabled to pull from both XM and Sirius satellites depending on the channel.

 

I don't find that at all. My Camry, previous Tacoma and Silverado all had the signal drop out in the same locations as my Tundra. If you think there is something wrong with it bring it back to the dealer. They have equipment that can test it.

 

There might be different satellites, but I thought it was all the same thing now. I think due to poor sales years ago, Sirius and xm joined in to one company. They used to be 2 different competing companies but merged in 2008.

 

I’ve rented other brands of vehicles that seemed to have better reception than the tundra. I had a Tahoe one time didn’t even cut out in a parking garage. While the gain might be the same, I think some antennas are better than others.

 

I own Audi, Fords, Chevy’s, Jeeps and Toyota’s with satellite radios. The 5 Toyota’s have, by far, had the worse reception.

 

There are 2 types of satellites. Sirius and XM, and they're in different orbits in the sky.

Toyota uses XM. I have an old Sirius radio and I NEVER lose signal, and the antenna isn't even on the roof. I have it hidden in the dash.

Anyway, this guy covers it quite well.

https://www.johnweeks.com/steps/siriusvrsxm12step.html

 

Company is merged by satellite systems are still remain separate. The systems use adjacent frequencies in the S band.

It’s also why channel lineups are different depending on the receiver.

 

I have owned several vehicles from several different manufacturers including aftermarket units and I can say my Tundra loses reception in the exact same spots all the other units lost reception. It is no better and no worse.

 

Same here with the cars I have (Mercedes, Corvette, Grand Cherokee)....The Corvette is the worst one, but I believe the antenna is inside the hatch, not on the outside of the vehicle. Even that isn't much worse...It cuts out in the same spots, just for a few seconds longer.

 

Up here in Canada, I can tell you that my old add on Sirius only receiver had better reception than the built in XM in my Tundra.

Same camping valleys, different reception. XM being worse.