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My XM radio is in my house. And I placed the antenna on the South side of the house pointed toward two of the XM radio geosynchronous satellites located at 85.1 and 115 degrees West over the equator. My maybe 2 inch by three inch antenna is elevated to about 55 degrees elevation. Now you know that you do not have to point the antenna very accurately. Mine is pointed in between the two satellites I mentioned and close to the correct elevation.  Note if the antenna which has a hinge on it, drops to almost 0 elevation rather than pointed up in the sky, I loose my signal.

Yes the signal is a little weaker than up North, but most of us users get acceptable signal strength be the unit in the car or placed somewhere else like on the beech with your portable unit or in your house 

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What you will notice at the Lakeside latitude is that the signal will 'cut out' frequently while one is driving around..... when you go under a tree, an underpass, next to a taller building etc.  In other words the signal is not strong enough to find you in those circumstances. For example, driving down the careterra in La Floresta, under the trees, you will not get a signal but you will 'out in  the open in front of Walmart'. 

I assume that you XM is built in and that you have no control over the antenna size. I have an older 'home unit' where the antenna is probably 3" x 3" and if I use it in my car at Lakeside the radio performance is much better. 

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A question for you Tom. Are the Sirius Channels on the DISH satellite located at 119 W?  And about how many channels are there?  There are way too many on my portable XMsirius unit, literally several hundred including the audio channels from CNN, Fox news, Fox Radio news, NPR, etc. However, most of them are music channels.

One great advantage is that with this large flat satellite antenna (not Dish) measuring about 2 by 3 inches I have never lost my signal during inclement weather, I would with Dish and possibly the small car XMsirius antenna. The one bad thing about playing music on the portable unit is that the sound quality is closer to AM than FM

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I am not sure about your dish question I don't have dish. But I have all the xm stations. I can listen on my phone car computer. It's called all access I paid $119 per year. There starting price is like $199.00 dollars but if you call them they have specials. I visit chapala about twice a year and I love being able to access CNN Fox News etc when I am there. 

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My portable unit is maybe 10 years old and I do have an output plug that I could run to the stereo. But it would mean running a cable from my headboard to the stereo on the other side of the room. When you say transmit what do you mean, an FM signal, blue tooth or what? Thanks in Advance for your answer Ricks

Oh and Tom Bien my question was for tomgates.

I love this forum. We can learn so much from each other. :)

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Yes, Pete, the XM unit transmits on any one of several available FM frequencies. You tune your (car or home) radio to that frequency and, voila, there is your XM radio playing on a better fidelity unit. 

Since one is potentially moving from location to location in a car (cross country?) sometimes the FM frequency you chose has now got a legitimate FM station in that town/area and there is interference... one is stepping on the other. So one just changes the XM module to another FM frequency that appears to not being used in that area. On a very long trip one might have to do this several times.

   In your home one would obviously not have this 'problem' so can just leave it on the FM frequency that has no local interference. 

 

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I remember that this is one way the car unit linked to the car FM radio. I didn't know or think that the portable unit does  or might do the same. What a simple and ideal solution. Once I get back to Ajijic from up north, I shall read the directions and discover my options

Thanks Ricks and Tomgates for your input. Oh It's 50+ F and raining in Seattle but next week they are saying the high seventies and sun. See you all in about 5 weeks once it starts raining down there.

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