Engine noise through sirius

Yep, new radio. The old Sirius radios won't go above 184 (most won't even get above 145) and the old XM radios won't go past 256, so to get the "Xtra" channels you want a new XM radio like the Onyx PLUS, or The XM Edge - both will give you not only all the regular channels, but an eXtra 20 channels or so that you can only get online or on a new 2.0 radio. Let me know how it works out for you. Regards, Engineer Scott

Sportster units get very hot ! If you use it in the boombox stop ! Take the radio unit out - remove the silver cover from the boombox ( don't overlook the 2 hidden screws under the speaker grills ) take a dremel tool with a cutting wheel - and cut all the shrouding away around the top of the reciever. This will allow the radio to run way cooler ! I also drilled several holes thru the swivel mount to allow better air-flow !

Alternator noise. Use all shielded audio cables. You can also add 'ferrite rings' to the audio calbe and to the power connecotr cable

when you listen to a cd or the normal radio does the drivers side speaker work? if it does then it is most likely the base is the problem. you might have a loose connection in your car. or the speaker is blow.

My wife replaced the car kit.
The sportster itself was fine, what fixed the problem was replacing the cradle.
Now the second one has taken a dump.

Not advised. They have different resistance and are set up for different Sat signals. Chances are you will decrease the life of your radio if you get a signal at all.

Dick,
Did u go to the menu to get the Sirius ID# or ESN# or did u get it from the box or back of the unit itself?? I used to work in activations department for sirius and the most common reason that a plug and play unit would not activate is a mismatch in ID #'s. I have seen units with one ID number, but the box or the back of the radio actually being labeled with a different number. By the way,only one signal can be sent to the radio every 20 minutes or so and most reps you talk to don't even know this. So after sending the first signal, all they are doing is clicking a button on the screen and getting a message back that says "Duplicate Provision" meaning that the signal cannot be sent because it is already sent. If you were hearing audio on channel 184 when the signal was sent and you made no adjustments during this time, and the SID or ESN number is the correct one for your unit, and the radio doesn't activate, I would get a replacement. But this never happens in my experience unless there are other signs of defect.

Hope this helps!!

I work for sirius so I know about all of these different issues and the most common one is the connections. It is imperative that the radios be connected to power with the cig lighter adapter. This adapter had circuitry in it that lowers the cars 12 volts to 5 volts which the sirius unit ooerates on. The old units were 12 volt and could hard wired into the vehicles fuse block, but all of the new radios operate on 5 volts. If this is not the issue with either of you then you have defective units. Being that all warranty replacement are with remanufactured units, your chance of getting a problematic unit increases after the initial return of your new unit.

sell it or so many of the units run into this problem and nobody knows how to fix it.

yes, some sirius radios work on 5 volts, and some work on 12 volts. Your sportster replay is a 5 volt unit. If you trace that wire back, you will find a cigarette lighter plug with a transformer built into it, with either wires soldered to the terminals, or a female cig plug wired up behind the dash. Whatever sirius unit you plan on hooking up, I strongly reccommend using the transformer that it came with......however if you're willing to take a chance, it's most likely 5 volts.