SiriusXM Installation - Lakes Region
 

Satellite Radio.
Car/truck.
Portable.

Looking for business in Lakes Region that can install antenna and such for an older vehicle.

Anyone have any recommendations for shops that deal with installation of XM satellite radio receivers in older vehicles - in the Lakes Region.

Thanks.

Can't speak to a "business" but with our older car we used the magnetic mount on the trunk. It was about 2 inches by 2 inches with a thin black wire, which in our case, was easy to install and hide. It may be an option.

yes you can buy a XM "car kit" either online or a place like Best Buy. Comes with the power outlet, mag mount antenna, even some mounting brackets for the radio. So easy somebody in Kindergarten could do it.

They run about 50 bucks.

XM boat radio
 

I have a car XM that I used in my boat in summer and in my pickup truck. Bought an extra antenna and leave it on the boat. My antenna on the truck is on the roof by the windshield (right front) and I ran the wire under the door weather stripping, across the glove compartment and to the radio. The radio mounts on a bracket (included with the radio) that attaches to the vent louvers on the dash. Select a station on your car radio that is blank (ie. no reception) and set the XM to the same station. Easy Peazzie!

Thanks for all of the great suggestions for Do it Yourself.

But I am seeking a store/shop/facility - that actually does this installation in the Lakes Region or further if none here.

Thanks.

Vanworks
 

Im sure these guys can help you out. They are in Gilford. They have done a lot of work on my boats for me and I recommend them... http://www.vanworkscaraudio.com

Good luck!

Dan

They do excellent work!

Sirius/XM blows. JK, sorta, but as one of the first 100 subscribers to Sirius I've long been disappointed by the cutting out--dreams of repeaters at bridges in America were obviously never realized--rain fade, and what seems to be lower-than-FM quality these days. Certainly something going on in terms of bandwidth and compression.

In any case, just a suggestion to consider Pandora or similar on a smartphone. Good luck!

Radio Installation
 

Best Buy Geek Squad

Geek Squad® - Advanced Satellite Radio Installation (Hardware Not Included) for $79.99

More like the hatchet squad. I wouldn't let those clowns touch anything I own, never mind pay them 80 bucks for 30 minutes worth of work which they would no doubt screw up. If you are going to pay to have this done at least take it some where reputable, not the "jiffy lube" of technology.

Maybe someone should tell Sirius about Best Buy, their website sends you to Best Buy for installation. Put in your ZIP code and see who Sirius recommends: http://www.siriusxm.com/installerlocator

Really?
 

Interesting commentary. I've had them for a number of years in several cars....presently have it in my car, my wife's car, and our daughter's car....never had an issue with losing signal, and we do a lot of driving all over New England.

Some head units have a small buffer to prevent cutting out, but none of my friends or I could make it through Boston, Lowell, or any other decent metro area without dropping signal next to high rises or expansive bridges.

It obviously probably isn't much of an issue in the lakes region, and I think I might--might--have been able to deal with it if the sound just wasn't so terrible. The promise was greater than the delivery.

Quite simply, there's a reason almost nobody pays more than $25/6 months these days.

WE lose ours in places where there are tree or bankings. Between Alton and Gilford for quite a while we get nothing. Going to Rochester in a certain area, going to Maine from Sanbornville right after you cross the border, any place like that.

That's the only time I subscribe always do it on their "come back" specials then I call and cancel, the hell with them. All they do is place the same songs over and over and over again anyway.

And you never know what day or week the talk shows are replayed from…..

I wouldn't trade my Satellite Radio for anything. I spend a lot of time in the car and travel between markets - having consistent new/music and talk is the best thing for the car ride.

As for cutting out and such - it happens to me infrequently - certainly not enough to even consider a negative aspect. I do NOT drive in cities so cannot speak to that aspect of it.

My impression of Sirius/XM is that they probably could care less about the quality of the radio installation, so long as they get a subscriber that's all that seems to make them happy.

They are a total pain to work with, I have been a subscriber for several years and every year I call to cancel and every year I get transferred several times before I finally talk to the last person in line that typically will offer the best price. I suppose there are enough people that buy a subscription and don't care it's costing them twice as much to let it just auto renew versus calling them up and saying hey I want a better price. Last year I re-upped for another year at a cost of 59 bucks for their select package. I was happy with that, usually it's more like 100 bucks but I was offered a promotional deal supposedly only available to new subscribers... maybe they took offense to my comment about how new customers are treated better than long time loyal ones such as myself. :rolleye2:

It is nice to have it, I spend a lot of time in the car commuting and quite frankly I find the morning shows on broadcast radio to be repulsive and crude to say the least and most of the programming music wise not to my taste. I understand HD radio is pretty good but have never tried it. Streaming via busybox (cell phone) is great if you have enough data to do it and happen to frequent areas that have 3 or 4G coverage. I just have one portable XM radio I use in the car, boat and camp.

Exactly why I dropped them. With leaves on the trees it never worked on smaller back roads. For the $180 they wanted it wasn't worth it and my car had the pro instal from the factory. The $20 for six months wasn't bad and I gave it a try. But after the test period is over they want the normal $20 or so a month per car.

Depends on the vehicle
 

I have a 2007 Tahoe that has never had great reception on Sirius. It is really poor when there are a lot of trees, clouds. or I am in the shadow of a mountain. But, I also have 2013 Chrysler 300 and the reception is great. I very seldom lose signal and the sound quality is just fine. I really enjoy Sirius.

The difference in reception quality may have something to do with the age of the vehicle, and maybe the technology has improved, but I don't know enough about those things to say so.

All about the amount of buffer the SAT radio has, the more it has the less sensitive it is to momentary signal loss.

True for streaming on the internet with two way communication, not true for one way reception, unless the "packet" is retransmitted many times on its own, which is a total waste of bandwidth.

We never had an after market radio.

Buffer is only part of it. Satellite radio is one-way, the radio can't request lost parts. They use a forward error correction scheme, along with basically dual-broadcast of all streams on two frequencies with a 4 second delay. This gives you about 10-12 seconds of overall buffer ability. If your radio loses a signal for more than 10 seconds, or is only able to lock onto one of the streams, you risk the dropouts.

Overall a better antenna and receiver, and better antenna placement is the best solution to poor signals.

We have Sirius/XM in all our vehicles and on the boat. I've been a subscriber since about 2004, and have tried all combinations of portable units, OEM installs, aftermarket HU's and so on. The boat gets the best coverage, since it is generally out in the open water and have the standard Sirius/XM marine antenna, but even there we've gotten random dropouts for no explainable reason.

I agree that Sirius hasn't lived up to its initial hype, but I find FM radio grating these days. Censored content, tons of commercials, and absolutely asinine DJs on every major station. These days we listen to Pandora or similar streams in the vehicles, but Sirius still gets played regularly enough that I can't give up our subscriptions yet.

A couple of the vehicles also have HD Radio. In the end, HD Radio is really just FM radio, but more channels. Same basic music. Same censorship, same commercials.

All is a matter of taste and probably a generational thing.
I don't do music. Just the news/talk stations. And there are enough for all from Fox News to MSNBC to BBC.

The business model of both Sirius and XM was good in the beginning. But my guess was that not enough car manufacturers geared up early on to place satellite radio in cars.
Ford was later then GM to offer this in most vehicles.
My opinion was that these two manufacturers should have used same technology for both so that any customer could choose one or the other.

But not enough revenue streaming in the beginning hurt both.
The FCC then allowed a merger - a monopoly.

Finances being what they are - advertisements have to enter.

I did like the iHeart stations as iHeart owned a stake in SiriusXM - but they sold out and some interesting stations/personalities were dropped.

There is nothing more entertaining listening to Alex Jones - telling the audience that the world is collapsing - and that all should buy silver - and then an advertisement from a company that sells silver. But Alex is gone when iHeart sold out. Oh . . . Alex is still out there - just not on SiriusXM.
So tempting to stock up on silver when it was $35.00 an ounce. Ah . . . but I missed that opportunity.

People actually still use XM/Sirius? I thought they went out of business, especially now in the age of smartphones, where you can just use Pandora or Spotify,for a fraction of the price of you get the premium version, or like I do, use an iPod, where I only have to hear the songs I like. I used to have XM and it to me was a waste of money, all the songs they played were on my iPod! LOL anyways, go to Vanworks if you think you must have XM

We also rarely listen to music, Professor. We have it for the talk.

Well, good for you. Maybe I used the term incorrectly.

I don't have an aftermarket radio either. I have a factory installed radio.
Factory installed radio.

But in 1999, none of the manufacturers offered satellite radio in any factory radio.
So therefore, the satellite radio is "portable". And there are kits that can be used to use this portable satellite radio in the car and in the home.

I am seeking the name of a garage/store/facility that will professionally install my radio/antenna. And I don't wish to do this myself.

My car radio is factory radio. My Sirius/XM radio is a factory portable radio.

I've been real happy with Sirius since they started online streaming. I'm now able to listen to XM/Sirius on my motorcycle, boat, at the gym, etc. by streaming on my iPhone. For eight dollars a month it's worth every penny. Amazon Prime now offers similar radio stations that I can stream anywhere.
I enjoy falling asleep to the old time radio shows. The Shadow, Escape, Dragnet, etc. They also play the commercials and ads (war time effort to sell bonds or rationing tips) that were played back in the days. Cigarette commercials, which sponsored much of the old radio shows, are hilarious.
"More doctors, from every branch of medicine, smoke Camels than any other cigarette.”

After one year of free Sirius with a new car I wasn't impressed and decided to drop the service. then the marketing began.....mailings and quite a few phone calls. they finally offered it to me at half price. that kinda ticked me off - especially if I had re-upped for full price. the woman on the phone said to me "Isn't there even one station that you like?"....when I said no she actually started yelling at me!!

I love the river....wxrv / 92.5....and you get fine reception from south of Boston to Alton. http://theriverboston.com/ (actually located in Haverhill/Andover). When I lose reception my ipod works just fine.

When cruising around NH they also broadcast from 102.5 (Concord, NH) and 105.7 (NH Lakes and Mountains) ...check them out!

Bluetooth
 

Slacker, Pandora et al apps are available for smartphones. Pair the smartphone to the radio and wah laa! Free wireless radio. Far better reception than Sirius and no special installation! The sound quality is superb over my Infinity system!

Don't have Bluetooth? Radio Shack has an adaptor to 'bluetooth' your old radio. 60% off at the nearest store closing!

Vanworks in Gilford did not work out. I tried. They do not have and can't get the parts for a 2003 Ford to put satellite radio in vehicle.

Is it parts you could find on EBay?? Some of the older satellite tuners are no longer available and the only place to find them is on eBay. I just went through this myself...

If you could find the parts, I'm sure they would install....

Dan