XM radio failing

Yesterday was a special day because Larry King on CNN interviewed the husband of a dear friend.
For two days the excitement was building up to share this event and hear what he had to say.

The Fuso Szulc is equipped with a Delphi XM skyfi2 satellite radio.
Receiving many channels and one of them is the sound of CNN TV.
There is a monthly fee to pay to receive from XM Satellite Radio their channels and usually everything goes well.
Even as far south from the USA as La Paz and its vicinity the signals can be received.

But as if the devil was playing one of its vicious games, the XM signal on Monday weakened and made it hardly possible to listen to any of the more than 140 channels.
Larry King’s program of Monday failed therefore to reach the Fuso Szulc.

Of course an effort was made to see if the reception problem could be fixed on this side of the digital pipeline.
With impressive acrobatic skills, the backside of the Fuso Szulc was climbed.
It looked like a scene from the Cirque du Soleil.
Up there the small XM-antenna was cleaned.


The theory behind this action was that dust or moisture on top of the XM-antenna might block the signals to enter.
But it had no effect.
The XM-signal remained too weak to be able to listen to the programs.

Hence, the Internet was accessed and research was done to find out if there were problems with the XM-satellite.
Maybe their batteries were low?
Or the satellite was out of position?
But no information could be found about the current XM-problems.

Because XM-radio is used a lot while living in the Fuso Szulc, the absence of it is rather dominant.

But the car-radio build into the Fuso Szulc is a Sony XR-CA640X and the only model in the world having short wave.
This makes it possible to receive radio stations from around the world.
Not exactly in HI-FI quality nor receiving CNN, but in a limited way it is possible to listen to the international news.

This brings back the days before satellite radio.
When next to the camper a high antenna was erected to be able to receive short wave radio stations.
And only at particular times the news was heard from the BBC.

Over the last couple of days a plague of flies was experienced.
The flies are gone now.
But now this new XM issue presents itself.

Things come and things go.





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