Insignia NS-HDTUNE Take Apart/Exploration

  • Thread starter William R. Walsh
  • Start date
"Meat Plow" wrote in message news:3it3q8.g4.17.3@news.alt.net...
On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:34:52 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com>wrote:



"Meat Plow" wrote in message news:3io6jd.23f.17.4@news.alt.net...
On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:49:56 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:

Hi!

So you pay 100 bucks for a receiver and get to listen
to the same commercial broadcast but now in near CD
quality sound?

I guess you could say that, but I'm not sure that a good analog FM
signal wouldn't already qualify as "near CD quality" sound...especially
on a good tuner.

I wanted to see what HD Radio was about (especially the subchannels),
but I wasn't about to pay any $100 to do so! After looking inside, I'm
convinced that someone is doing a pretty good job at inflating the
price!

Being one that listens to music on the road I got really
disgusted with the ever increasing amount of commercials.

Me too. And it's hard to find what I want to hear on the radio anyway.
Stations seem so mercurial in their format changes any more...what
format was on the radio an hour ago might not be there later...

My solution has been to use an iPod, plugged into a cassette shell
adapter or stereo miniplug to RCA connector cable. It's a beautiful
thing to have on a long road trip. Before I had an iPod, I'd stick an
old laptop under the seat and let it rip through the same cassette shell
adapter. The battery held it for most trips, and when it didn't, I
already had a power inverter handy.

I also never hear a bad song that way.

I haven't subscribed to satellite radio mainly because I can't listen to
it on just any old receiver. So far as I know, I'd have to take the same
receiver everywhere, and that's just an invitation for me to
lose/misplace it.

William


I have a receiver permanently mounted in my SUV. It transmits it's
signal over the FM broadcast band into the SUV's radio on whatever
freq I want. On occasion when I travel other stations overpowered the
sat receiver so I just took the FM antenna off the SUV. The sat
receiver has an option to use an external wire antenna so it can
transmit its signal further. When my vehicle is parked in the garage
the signal transmits into my home and FM receivers in my bedroom and
living room. (snip)

So[SLAP]

So wank off, fen-sucked pisswit.
And meatball responds with an insult, but doesn't tell us how he gets
satellite radio while his
vehicle is parked in the garage.
 
On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:36:23 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com> wrote:

http://greyghost.mooo.com/hdtunetakeapart/
Very nice. A photo of the unit before disection might be useful.

This might help with the Atmel tuner:
<http://www.planetanalog.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=172303061>
<http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc4994s.pdf>
TI and Atmel partnered on the design. TI does the screaming media
decoding. Atmel does the analog RF and conventional AM/FM decoding.

So, did it work when you put it back together? How many spare screws?

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
 
On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:34:52 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com> wrote:

So you have the nuclear powered Sirius radio that gets reception in your
garage?
Idiot, satellite radio is line of sight. Wont work in a garage, under a
bridge, or under anything that obstructs line of sight. DOH!
Try again...

Both Sirius and XM have terrestrial repeaters to fill in dead spots in
metropolitan areas, where tall buildings get in the way.
<http://www.dogstarradio.com/sirius_map.php>

XM Repeaters around Washington DC:
<http://www.xm411.com/phpbb/album_pic.php?pic_id=9>

Google Earth map of XM repeaters circa 2007:
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/kml/XM-repeaters.kmz>
(borrowed from Mike of xm411.com)

Some photos of XM terrestrial repeaters.
<http://ednixon.com/pix/2001/harvardownstairs/>
<http://ednixon.com/pix/2001/xmharvard/>
<http://www.telebeans.org/tmp/xm/XM-cabinet.jpg>

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
 
On Sun, 7 Mar 2010 10:31:51 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com> wrote:

And meatball responds with an insult, but doesn't tell us how he gets
satellite radio while his
vehicle is parked in the garage.
It would be quite easy to do even without terrestrial repeaters. Put
a 2.3GHz antenna on the roof of the garage. Install a 2.3GHz RF
amplifier at this antenna. 10-20dB gain should be easy. Run coax
cable into the garage and hang another 2.3GHz antenna somewhere. The
two antennas should be fairly directional and not face each other to
avoid oscillation.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
 
"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in message
news:16o7p5de9a7p5sonsq2bef6o5g6cfl2kvb@4ax.com...
On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:34:52 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com> wrote:

So you have the nuclear powered Sirius radio that gets reception in your
garage?
Idiot, satellite radio is line of sight. Wont work in a garage, under a
bridge, or under anything that obstructs line of sight. DOH!

Try again...

Both Sirius and XM have terrestrial repeaters to fill in dead spots in
metropolitan areas, where tall buildings get in the way.
http://www.dogstarradio.com/sirius_map.php

XM Repeaters around Washington DC:
http://www.xm411.com/phpbb/album_pic.php?pic_id=9

Google Earth map of XM repeaters circa 2007:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/kml/XM-repeaters.kmz
(borrowed from Mike of xm411.com)

Some photos of XM terrestrial repeaters.
http://ednixon.com/pix/2001/harvardownstairs/
http://ednixon.com/pix/2001/xmharvard/
http://www.telebeans.org/tmp/xm/XM-cabinet.jpg

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
I'm well aware of the repeaters, and all meat head has to do is say that's
how he receives his
satellite signal thru solid walls. Instead he resorts to insult and
internet babble.
 
On Sun, 7 Mar 2010 10:31:51 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com> wrote:

"Meat Plow" wrote in message news:3it3q8.g4.17.3@news.alt.net...
On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:34:52 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com>wrote:



So[SLAP]

So wank off, fen-sucked pisswit.

And meatball responds with an insult, but doesn't tell us how he gets
satellite radio while his
vehicle is parked in the garage.
Meathead, a child in a man's body, doesn't have a vheicle, or a radio.
 
On Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:19:59 -0800 Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
wrote in Message id: <gon7p51demcrel1g7utkdeskq72k0rd9ch@4ax.com>:

[...]

How many spare screws?
Those aren't spares, those are inventory for the next job when you come up
short.
 
On Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:13:19 -0500, JW <none@dev.null> wrote:

On Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:19:59 -0800 Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com
wrote in Message id: <gon7p51demcrel1g7utkdeskq72k0rd9ch@4ax.com>:

[...]

How many spare screws?

Those aren't spares, those are inventory for the next job when you come up
short.
I have a office carpet that lives on a diet of small hardware. Drop
anything onto the carpet, and it will immediately be injested by the
carpet, never to be seen again. The carpet is very much a picky eater
as it will ocassionally regurgitate a few of the larger items. I find
it necessary to regularly feed the carpet a ration of screws and
washers in the hope that it will be satiated and not devour anything
important.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
 
On Sun, 7 Mar 2010 10:31:51 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com>wrote:

"Meat Plow" wrote in message news:3it3q8.g4.17.3@news.alt.net...
On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:34:52 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com>wrote:



"Meat Plow" wrote in message news:3io6jd.23f.17.4@news.alt.net...
On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:49:56 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:

Hi!

So you pay 100 bucks for a receiver and get to listen
to the same commercial broadcast but now in near CD
quality sound?

I guess you could say that, but I'm not sure that a good analog FM
signal wouldn't already qualify as "near CD quality" sound...especially
on a good tuner.

I wanted to see what HD Radio was about (especially the subchannels),
but I wasn't about to pay any $100 to do so! After looking inside, I'm
convinced that someone is doing a pretty good job at inflating the
price!

Being one that listens to music on the road I got really
disgusted with the ever increasing amount of commercials.

Me too. And it's hard to find what I want to hear on the radio anyway.
Stations seem so mercurial in their format changes any more...what
format was on the radio an hour ago might not be there later...

My solution has been to use an iPod, plugged into a cassette shell
adapter or stereo miniplug to RCA connector cable. It's a beautiful
thing to have on a long road trip. Before I had an iPod, I'd stick an
old laptop under the seat and let it rip through the same cassette shell
adapter. The battery held it for most trips, and when it didn't, I
already had a power inverter handy.

I also never hear a bad song that way.

I haven't subscribed to satellite radio mainly because I can't listen to
it on just any old receiver. So far as I know, I'd have to take the same
receiver everywhere, and that's just an invitation for me to
lose/misplace it.

William


I have a receiver permanently mounted in my SUV. It transmits it's
signal over the FM broadcast band into the SUV's radio on whatever
freq I want. On occasion when I travel other stations overpowered the
sat receiver so I just took the FM antenna off the SUV. The sat
receiver has an option to use an external wire antenna so it can
transmit its signal further. When my vehicle is parked in the garage
the signal transmits into my home and FM receivers in my bedroom and
living room. (snip)

So[SLAP]

So wank off, fen-sucked pisswit.

And meatball responds with an insult, but doesn't tell us how he gets
satellite radio while his
vehicle is parked in the garage.
Tells us? You mean your multiple personalities?

Now my bitch, tell US all how a sat radio signal WONT go through a
garage roof?

Please cite plenty of proof of that.

On second thought, forget it. You cannot site proof that sat radio
does not penetrate garage roofs.

heh
 
On Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:37:18 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
<jeffl@cruzio.com>wrote:

On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:34:52 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com> wrote:

So you have the nuclear powered Sirius radio that gets reception in your
garage?
Idiot, satellite radio is line of sight. Wont work in a garage, under a
bridge, or under anything that obstructs line of sight. DOH!

Try again...

Both Sirius and XM have terrestrial repeaters to fill in dead spots in
metropolitan areas, where tall buildings get in the way.
http://www.dogstarradio.com/sirius_map.php
Besides that Jeff, Sirius penetrates my gararage roof just fine. And I
can take the radio inside and get decent reception through the ceiling
and roof in certain spots. But there is a time period of a minute or
so that when one sat goes out of range and the other comes in range
that is shaded so the signal drops out where as outside there isn't an
issue.
 
On Sun, 7 Mar 2010 14:26:29 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com>wrote:

I'm well aware of the repeaters, and all meat head has to do is say that's
how he receives his
satellite signal thru solid walls. Instead he resorts to insult and
internet babble.
Bwaaaaaahahah you stupid fucktard. Sirius goes through the garage roof
just fine. I'm sorry that you were insulted but what's really
insulting is your lack of knowledge.
 
On Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:23:46 -0500, PeterD <peter2@hipson.net>wrote:

On Sun, 7 Mar 2010 10:31:51 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com> wrote:


"Meat Plow" wrote in message news:3it3q8.g4.17.3@news.alt.net...
On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:34:52 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com>wrote:



So[SLAP]

So wank off, fen-sucked pisswit.

And meatball responds with an insult, but doesn't tell us how he gets
satellite radio while his
vehicle is parked in the garage.

Meathead, a child in a man's body, doesn't have a vheicle, or a radio.
No I don't have a vheicle. Explain what that is so I can go out and
buy one if it's not too expensive.

heh
 
On Fri, 5 Mar 2010 16:34:59 +0000 (UTC), root <NoEMail@home.org>
wrote:

William R. Walsh <newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com> wrote:

No tuners were harmed in the making of this page or in the exploration.
By the way, I have been completely unimpressed by the performance of
this tuner. (I'm so glad I paid nowhere near the retail price!) I'd
recommend you look at something else if you want to listen to HD radio.

William

My local BB has sold the tuner for $70 compared to the normal $99.
I have been thinking of buying one for some time, what are your
complaints and do you have a recommendation for a better unit?

I bought one of these tuners from Best Buy liquidation. The main
problem I have is, at least once a week, when the unit is first
turned on, it won't receive a signal. Since unplugging it for 10
seconds makes it functional again, I haven't tried to repair it.
Sensitivity on my sample isn't great, but no worse than the average
for modern tuners. Chuck
 
Hi!

Very nice. A photo of the unit before disection might be useful.
Ask and ye shall receive. Okay, it's not a "before" picture, but the unit is
back together and on my stereo shelf.

http://greyghost.mooo.com/nshdt-review/audiostack.jpg (564x446, 52KB)

The "scratch and dent" damage comes mainly from a scrape across the top
cover that disrupts the paint. The case is minorly "kabonged" but that was
easy enough to fix with some careful work in the garage.

The stereo receiver below the tuner is an Insignia HS-R2000 and I find it to
be an excellent piece of equipment.
http://greyghost.mooo.com/nsr2000-review/

TI and Atmel partnered on the design. TI does the screaming media
decoding. Atmel does the analog RF and conventional AM/FM decoding.
Interesting to know. I didn't turn that up in my research (at least not that
I remember). I am surprised by the presence of the Atmel tuner. Atmel is not
the first name that comes to mind when I think "radio tuner IC"...more like
"microcontroller" or "FPGA".

So, did it work when you put it back together? How many spare screws?
No HD Radio tuners were harmed in the making of that teardown. Despite the
obviously less than ideal environment, nothing was harmed, no screws were
lost and none were left over.

William
 
Hi!

I have a office carpet that lives on a diet of small hardware. Drop
anything onto the carpet, and it will immediately be injested by the
carpet, never to be seen again. The carpet is very much a picky eater
as it will ocassionally regurgitate a few of the larger items. I find
it necessary to regularly feed the carpet a ration of screws and
washers in the hope that it will be satiated and not devour anything
important.
May you never have to put a vacuum cleaner across it. The shrapnel may be
terrific.

:-D

William
 
On Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:51:43 -0500, Meat Plow wrote:

On Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:37:18 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
jeffl@cruzio.com>wrote:

On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:34:52 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com> wrote:

So you have the nuclear powered Sirius radio that gets reception in your
garage?
Idiot, satellite radio is line of sight. Wont work in a garage, under a
bridge, or under anything that obstructs line of sight. DOH!

Try again...

Both Sirius and XM have terrestrial repeaters to fill in dead spots in
metropolitan areas, where tall buildings get in the way.
http://www.dogstarradio.com/sirius_map.php

Besides that Jeff, Sirius penetrates my gararage roof just fine. And I
can take the radio inside and get decent reception through the ceiling
and roof in certain spots. But there is a time period of a minute or
so that when one sat goes out of range and the other comes in range
that is shaded so the signal drops out where as outside there isn't an
issue.
Sirius works differently from XM and is generally a better system in
marginal areas. There are 3 RF channels around 2.3GHz. Two come from
each of the two satellites. The 3rd from terrestrial repeaters. The
Sirius receiver decodes all 3 channels simultaneously and
conglomerates the usable data (which creates a 4 second delay). XM
uses 6 carriers but only decodes 2 carriers (to save power and CPU
horsepower).

The satellites also follow a rather odd figure 8 pattern over the
Americas, which results in signal strengths changing over the day:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_Satellite_Radio#Satellite_technology>

If you have a wooden roof on your garage, I'm not surprised that
Sirius works inside. However, if you live in a concrete and steel
apartment building, where the garage is under the building, I suspect
you're hearing a terrestrial repeater.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
 
On Mon, 8 Mar 2010 13:55:34 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com> wrote:

Not high enough.

I have a office carpet that lives on a diet of small hardware. Drop
anything onto the carpet, and it will immediately be injested by the
carpet, never to be seen again. The carpet is very much a picky eater
as it will ocassionally regurgitate a few of the larger items. I find
it necessary to regularly feed the carpet a ration of screws and
washers in the hope that it will be satiated and not devour anything
important.

May you never have to put a vacuum cleaner across it. The shrapnel may be
terrific.
That's the way I usually find the screws. When I run the vacuum
cleaner, I usually hear little pings and clunks as the vacuum cleaner
inhales the screws. It's usually a lost cause trying to fish them out
of the dust bag. I have a magnetized iron bar that I sometime drag
across the carpet. It's made for picking up nails at construction
sites and works fairly well. When that doesn't work, I have a Bissell
150 mechanical floor sweeper:
<http://www.bissell.com/ProductDetail.aspx?id=2981>
where I can easily fish the screws out of the catch bin.

Another trick I use requires a flashlight. I shine the light *across*
the carpet. Anything higher than the carpet surface will cast an
easily visible shadow.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
 
On Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:48:55 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
<jeffl@cruzio.com>wrote:

On Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:51:43 -0500, Meat Plow wrote:

On Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:37:18 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
jeffl@cruzio.com>wrote:

On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:34:52 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com> wrote:

So you have the nuclear powered Sirius radio that gets reception in your
garage?
Idiot, satellite radio is line of sight. Wont work in a garage, under a
bridge, or under anything that obstructs line of sight. DOH!

Try again...

Both Sirius and XM have terrestrial repeaters to fill in dead spots in
metropolitan areas, where tall buildings get in the way.
http://www.dogstarradio.com/sirius_map.php

Besides that Jeff, Sirius penetrates my gararage roof just fine. And I
can take the radio inside and get decent reception through the ceiling
and roof in certain spots. But there is a time period of a minute or
so that when one sat goes out of range and the other comes in range
that is shaded so the signal drops out where as outside there isn't an
issue.

Sirius works differently from XM and is generally a better system in
marginal areas. There are 3 RF channels around 2.3GHz. Two come from
each of the two satellites. The 3rd from terrestrial repeaters. The
Sirius receiver decodes all 3 channels simultaneously and
conglomerates the usable data (which creates a 4 second delay). XM
uses 6 carriers but only decodes 2 carriers (to save power and CPU
horsepower).

The satellites also follow a rather odd figure 8 pattern over the
Americas, which results in signal strengths changing over the day:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_Satellite_Radio#Satellite_technology

If you have a wooden roof on your garage, I'm not surprised that
Sirius works inside. However, if you live in a concrete and steel
apartment building, where the garage is under the building, I suspect
you're hearing a terrestrial repeater.
I wish there was a repeater here. I would probably add a second
receiver for inside the home so I could use a remote control. I've
never had problems with reception in the garage even with 2 feet of
snow on the roof. I'm aware of the figure 8 orbit of the two birds.
Did some research on them and they are made by Loral. Future
birds are going to have something more than an unfolding 36" parabolic
for an antenna. But I think you have XM and Sirius mixed up. From what
I've read Sirius uses the 4ghz spectrum and XM the 2 ghz. But hell I
could be wrong, wont be the first or last.

I ditched XM back in 2005 because the signal was so
bad unless you were out in the open. I couldn't even drive down a road
with tall trees on each side without losing reception.
 
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:44:01 -0500, Meat Plow wrote:

I wish there was a repeater here.
Sorry but your 3 wish limit has been reached. Please find another
genie that grants wishes. Hint: They like their bottles rubbed.

I would probably add a second
receiver for inside the home so I could use a remote control.
See my rant on how to build a repeater. Just a rooftop antenna, 30dB
amplifier, and inside antenna. Since it's one way, it's easy. Wi-Fi
components can be used. I've built two of these for indoor GPS use at
1.575GHz that work fairly well (multipath causes problems). Make sure
the rooftop antenna is LHCP (left hand circular polarization), has
some gain and is pointed in the correct general direction. Straight
up is *NOT* the right way. See instructions at:
<http://www.tss-radio.com/images/sirius_externalAntenna.pdf>
Some Wi-Fi antennas will work, but you'll loose -3dB due to the
differences between LHCP and linear polarization.

The problem with terrestrial repeaters is that they belch plenty of RF
power at 2.3Ghz. That rips up 2.4GHz wi-fi communications near the
repeater. I had to relocate one wi-fi link thanks to the addition of
a new repeater.

I've
never had problems with reception in the garage even with 2 feet of
snow on the roof. I'm aware of the figure 8 orbit of the two birds.
Did some research on them and they are made by Loral. Future
birds are going to have something more than an unfolding 36" parabolic
for an antenna. But I think you have XM and Sirius mixed up. From what
I've read Sirius uses the 4ghz spectrum and XM the 2 ghz. But hell I
could be wrong, wont be the first or last.
Nope. They're both on 2.3GHz. Wikipedia has a mention of 4Ghz
somewhere, but that's wrong. You can buy aftermarket antennas that
claim to work with both, which is an important clue. I could lookup
the assignments on the FCC pages, but not now. Incidentally, the
uplink and downlink to the terrestrial repeaters are on Ku band. The
repeaters do NOT repeat the 2.3GHz transmissions to improve
reliability.

I ditched XM back in 2005 because the signal was so
bad unless you were out in the open. I couldn't even drive down a road
with tall trees on each side without losing reception.
I have portable receivers for both but neither is activated. I don't
need the service for signal checking, coverage checking, and doing
installs. Besides, I only listen to my own music, 1960's acid rock,
New Age and classical, none of which I like when I tried their
programming. An iPod Touch 2G keeps me entertaining.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
 
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:59:52 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
<jeffl@cruzio.com>wrote:

On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:44:01 -0500, Meat Plow wrote:

I wish there was a repeater here.

Sorry but your 3 wish limit has been reached. Please find another
genie that grants wishes. Hint: They like their bottles rubbed.

I would probably add a second
receiver for inside the home so I could use a remote control.

See my rant on how to build a repeater. Just a rooftop antenna, 30dB
amplifier, and inside antenna. Since it's one way, it's easy. Wi-Fi
components can be used. I've built two of these for indoor GPS use at
1.575GHz that work fairly well (multipath causes problems). Make sure
the rooftop antenna is LHCP (left hand circular polarization), has
some gain and is pointed in the correct general direction. Straight
up is *NOT* the right way. See instructions at:
http://www.tss-radio.com/images/sirius_externalAntenna.pdf
Some Wi-Fi antennas will work, but you'll loose -3dB due to the
differences between LHCP and linear polarization.

The problem with terrestrial repeaters is that they belch plenty of RF
power at 2.3Ghz. That rips up 2.4GHz wi-fi communications near the
repeater. I had to relocate one wi-fi link thanks to the addition of
a new repeater.

I've
never had problems with reception in the garage even with 2 feet of
snow on the roof. I'm aware of the figure 8 orbit of the two birds.
Did some research on them and they are made by Loral. Future
birds are going to have something more than an unfolding 36" parabolic
for an antenna. But I think you have XM and Sirius mixed up. From what
I've read Sirius uses the 4ghz spectrum and XM the 2 ghz. But hell I
could be wrong, wont be the first or last.

Nope. They're both on 2.3GHz. Wikipedia has a mention of 4Ghz
somewhere, but that's wrong. You can buy aftermarket antennas that
claim to work with both, which is an important clue. I could lookup
the assignments on the FCC pages, but not now. Incidentally, the
uplink and downlink to the terrestrial repeaters are on Ku band. The
repeaters do NOT repeat the 2.3GHz transmissions to improve
reliability.

I ditched XM back in 2005 because the signal was so
bad unless you were out in the open. I couldn't even drive down a road
with tall trees on each side without losing reception.

I have portable receivers for both but neither is activated. I don't
need the service for signal checking, coverage checking, and doing
installs. Besides, I only listen to my own music, 1960's acid rock,
New Age and classical, none of which I like when I tried their
programming. An iPod Touch 2G keeps me entertaining.
I'll look into the repeater. Shouldn't cost much.

I guess this is where klaatu leaves the thread in shame.
 

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