yet another Sirius reception question

Mine is the same way. I get it in heavily wooded areas also. I think it is just the nature of the beast. Not a clear enough signal.

Oh also you don't HAVE to use the big nice person antenna they give you either. I got a regular silver dollar sized one. I have it mounted on my dash near the windshield.

 

Those cheep-o's have one big advantage - they can use more power since they're pulling from the Cig lighter or from the fuse box. The back of the headunit isn't as powerful.

 

Those cheep-o's have one big advantage - they can use more power since they're pulling from the Cig lighter or from the fuse box. The back of the headunit isn't as powerful.

 

I have the same problem. But it is not because of power. I talked to the Toyota and Sirius Audio reps. They said that there is no buffer with the built in units. With the older and newer non built in units, they have buffers. When you go under trees or bridges it receives the signal and stores it for few seconds, so if you clear those areas pretty fast, the buffer will continue the play. I hope I am explaining this right from what I was told. For the built in units, which don't have buffers, as soon as you go under a bridge or heavy trees it cuts out. Again I am just repeating what the reps told me.

 

Glad you explained it, I have the same issue. Pioneer unit in my 4runner and the one from Siriusprius in my car, the Pioneer never loses the signal and the one in the prius sucks in comparison.... pretty bad design if you ask me, they should have also put a buffer in it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BethlehemPrius @ Jul 5 2007, 09:03 PM) [snapback]473756[/snapback]</div>

I just last week got my sirius radio fixed in my prius. I had to be very persistant with the local toyota dealership to fix it. I had them move the antenna because I read about having it 6" from anything on your roof, which when they did that the put 2 dents and a scratch because they glued the antenna on, and once it was moved the reception still sucked, so i insisted that they fix my roof, which they pulled the dents out and re painted the roof, and I had them put a magnetic antenna from my old plug and play model, wich is a high gain antenna. After i got it back, I hardly ever lose reception unless its extreamly wooded, and usually never under a short bridge. My reception improved 100% from the standard antenna that came with the dealership installed radio. I mean it was to the point where i didn't konw what song was playing because it was always cutting in and out. Which it still cuts out once in a while when its densley wooded, but i live in a rural area so its bound to happen. but i can say my situation was 100% the antenna. I baught my own anteanna and had them install it for free.
Good luck

Rich

 

The Toyota Sirius receiver has a buffer, but it's only about 1-2 seconds, which is typically not enough to recover seamlessly from dropouts from trees and bridges.

One thing to keep in mind is that the longer the buffer, the longer the lag between channels as you scan, since it has to refill the new channel's buffer as you change. If you scan much, the longer delay will drive you nuts even more than the dropouts.