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Satellite Radio in Florida

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I e-mailed Will (Tesla - FL) this morning with a brief message (see below) about XM vs Sirius. The Tesla website now states:

Perfect for the music lover. Gives you the exhilaration of a front row concert seat with a 580 watt, 12 speaker Dolby ProLogic 7.1 system, storage space for over 3,000 songs, and XM Satellite Radio preparation.

Having spoken to a number of people, I haven't found anyone round here who didn't have a problem with XM reception. Please let Will know if you want satellite radio, that it needs to be Sirius.



My mail:
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Hi Will,

Please pass back to Tesla that XM satellite for Florida is bad news, but Sirius works just fine! The Toyota I had with XM was a disaster and I lost the signal regularly around the city even here in Sarasota. That problem will be worse in places south of here (Miami!) and in places with more high rises (Tampa!).

Here is the map showing XM coverage and you can see how the EIRP is much lower across 95% of Florida. This is due to XM using 2 geostationary satellites:

8612_1067755132.jpg


Sirius on the other hand, has 3 elliptical satellites which provide much better coverage:

sirius.jpg


Having spoken with others who have tried XM, believe me you will likely face many complaints in Florida if XM is the satellite radio of choice in the Model S.

Best regards,

Nigel
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BTW, the Florida problem is not purely down to XM using geostationary satellites (this should actually favour more southerly latitudes), but more because they have these shaped reflectors producing EIRP hotspots over the North West and North East. Geo loses out to Sirius' tundra orbit for getting into urban canyons though.
 
Totally different receiver standard and populations. I'm sure it will start to happen once the systems come up for renewal and they have sufficient dual-mode receivers out there. What was killing them as seperate companies was the cost of content and presenters.
 
Totally different receiver standard and populations. I'm sure it will start to happen once the systems come up for renewal and they have sufficient dual-mode receivers out there. What was killing them as seperate companies was the cost of content and presenters.

I guess then what I wonder is why not go with a dual receiver vs strictly XM? I was just wondering at first if there was some "deal" Tesla got for serving up XM only.