Long ago, I tried Sirius satellite radio on my Kenwood HU – but it was hopeless on the roads I drive every day, cutting out almost any time I saw a tree somewhere nearby! Eventually I ripped it out and scrapped it.
But thinking of the drive from Florida on The Great Ice Cream Run, I wondered about trying satellite radio again – I saw a good deal on an “add-in” XM radio receiver so decided to try it out.
All last week, it worked well; it didn’t drop out every time a tree showed itself – just once or twice for less than a second during my drive to/from work … and it worked very well on Friday during torrential rain. So I signed up to XM radio …
What happens? Today, it’s been absolutely useless, cutting out for at least 75% of the time – doesn’t seem to be related at all to anything much blocking the sky view (although I don’t really know where the XM satellite is in the sky).
Totally infuriating!
I decided to go to the XM website and complain, maybe demand my money back, but what do I see, in small letters in one corner of the site:
5/21 Service Degradation
You may be experiencing temporary degraded performance with your XM reception at the present time. XM is aware of the issue and working diligently to resolve it as soon as possible. We anticipate full signal strength will be restored by early Tuesday morning.
So is this a special “welcome” for me? I’m definitely satellite cursed 😦
Or maybe, XM radio fails like this every few weeks; I don’t know – anyone with experience out there? Of XM or Sirius?
M&I / GBMINI 