Local FM interference with Sirius?

[nrvsreck]

I bought one of those "Sirius One" kits at the Pilot the other day and got it all hooked up and working. One word of advice: if you can activate it over the 'net do so. The dude I dealt with over the phone was a complete idiot and could barely understand English so I was repeating myself syllable by syllable. I think he still screwed up my name after repeating it and spelling it several times. He finally wound up just calling me "Mr." and I can't log in to my Sirius.com account.

Anyway, I love the service, but when I'm near a city (Dallas/Ft. Worth) it doesn't seem to matter what FM frequency I tune to, I still get interference from the local stations. And when I travel from town to town I'm always having to switch frequencies to eliminate interference. Is there some trick I don't know about to stop this and just find a FM frequency that works?

[WildK9]

i keep it on 107.5 most of the time. if i get interference in a big city, i usually go down to 107.1 or 107.3 and have no problems. BOL

[BigDawg]

I'm like Wild keep my FM tuned to 107.5 for my XM and have had no probs. what so ever works great big cities or small towns,it says in the manual to tune it on the low side but had all kinds od interference down there so high side i went.

[teamster]

if your truck has a tape player, buy one of those tapes that you use to listen to a cd player through a tape player. Plug in the tape to the line out input on back of your sirius and then insert tape into player. You will have no static and your audio level will be much better as well. You will not have to tune to a fm station anymore. If no tape player you can buy a line out cable that plugs into the back of your am/fm.

[Jackrabbit379]

Anyway, I love the service, but when I'm near a city (Dallas/Ft. Worth) it doesn't seem to matter what FM frequency I tune to, I still get interference from the local stations. And when I travel from town to town I'm always having to switch frequencies to eliminate interference. Is there some trick I don't know about to stop this and just find a FM frequency that works?

nrvsreck,I have the same problem myself when I am down there in the Metromess. It's not just your radio. There is a radio station on nearly every frequency in DFW. You have to remember how big that jungle is,and the number of people down there. I have family there,and my fiance's family is there too,so Im there quite often,but I got to where I usually turn off my Sirius when Im in DFW because it's so hard to pick anything up.

You may try 91.7. It may be different other areas,but I usually have my radio on that frequency,and I very seldom have any trouble.

[Snowman7]

I just bought one yesterday and here's why. My brother bought one and he was having reception problems so he called the store (circuit city) and was told by the salesman that sirius and xm were running too strong of a signal on their fm modulator so the fcc made them back off some. In other words you want to by one of the older models because they have more power than the new ones. He had a sportster tpk4 and returned it for a tpk2 and said it works great. So i figured I better get one before they are all gone. If you have a tpk4 see if you can return it and get the tpk2. As a bonus they're cheaper, Circuit city has the old ones for 109 plus a 30 mail in rebate which brings it to $79.

[WildK9]

guess i have an older one, cuz it works fine. BOL

[allan5oh]

Yeah they only put out 1 watt. What type of deck do you have? Do you have one that has aux in? Make use of that, you wont need to use the FM modulator at all!

[nrvsreck]

I wonder if there's a way to "peak and tune" my unit to boost the wattage a bit.

I've only had it a couple of days. Bought it Thursday night at the Pilot in south Dallas. Ran from there Friday morning to Quanah, then to Altus and Duke, then back down 287 to 380 across the northern Metroplex and on to the house in NE Texas. Anytime I was near DFW I couldn't find any good frequencies to use without alot of interference. Outside of the city it wasn't bad, but I still had to change it a couple of times. In the city I just put it on KZPS, Dallas' classic rock station, and that's good enough. That's mostly what I've been listening to on Sirius anyway. I tried changing all my presets to the high channels and I'll see how that goes when I leave out tommorrow.

[Blind Driver]

I've seen a module that plugs in between your antenna and the sirious unit. It gives the sirious a direct route to your radio. I think circuit city had it for about $40.

[marylandkw]

Well I don't know about Sirus but do know about XM

Xm sends the FM signal thru the antenna cable for the satellite antenna. So the closer your satellite antenna is to your am/fm antenna, the better it works.

I had put my antenna on the right side of the truck, got terrible noise and interference, switched it over, inches away from my am/fm antenna on the left side, now I NEVER get interference, no matter where I go.

[ronjon619]

if your truck has a tape player, buy one of those tapes that you use to listen to a cd player through a tape player. Plug in the tape to the line out input on back of your sirius and then insert tape into player. You will have no static and your audio level will be much better as well. You will not have to tune to a fm station anymore. If no tape player you can buy a line out cable that plugs into the back of your am/fm.

If this works........it's a great idea. Nice one.

[teamster]

if your truck has a tape player, buy one of those tapes that you use to listen to a cd player through a tape player. Plug in the tape to the line out input on back of your sirius and then insert tape into player. You will have no static and your audio level will be much better as well. You will not have to tune to a fm station anymore. If no tape player you can buy a line out cable that plugs into the back of your am/fm.

If this works........it's a great idea. Nice one.

It definitely works. That is what I use for mine. Absolutely no static and the audio comes thru much better. When I was using the fm frequency I had to crank the radio to hear it. This is the easiest and cheapest fix. The tape costs about 10 bucks and you can buy them anywhere electronics are sold.

[teamster]

I just bought one yesterday and here's why. My brother bought one and he was having reception problems so he called the store (circuit city) and was told by the salesman that sirius and xm were running too strong of a signal on their fm modulator so the fcc made them back off some. In other words you want to by one of the older models because they have more power than the new ones. He had a sportster tpk4 and returned it for a tpk2 and said it works great. So i figured I better get one before they are all gone. If you have a tpk4 see if you can return it and get the tpk2. As a bonus they're cheaper, Circuit city has the old ones for 109 plus a 30 mail in rebate which brings it to $79.

I have the older sportster as well and mine still had alot of static in it-didnt matter what station I had on. I highly suggest you buy a tape for the tape player or buy the cable that plugs into the back of your am/fm. You will be much happier with the performance.