Sirius Echo Home Repeater System now available

Sirius's Echo Home Repeater System, which boosts the quality of Sirius satellite radios by redirecting a signal from an external antenna to units based inside the house, has gone on sale. For $100, you get the transmitter and one receiver module, with extra receiver modules (for extra cash) also available. At the very least, this kit means you don't have to have a bunch of antenna extension cables running all over your house, and at its best it will probably increase the quality of the signal. If you've got multiple radios in your house, then we're sure you'll agree that this is pretty much a must buy: for single Sirius radio owners, notsomuch.

[George Creedle @ Jun 16th 2007 7:47PM]

Most will stream off of internet rather than the expense of this device. Drawback: not all sirius channels are available via the internet and sound quality is worse than satellite (compression-wise).

[murray @ Jun 17th 2007 2:44AM]

What a laughable band-aid fix for an embarrassingly bad implementation of satellite radio.

I've got a better solution: it's called broadcast radio and it's free. And thanks to the internet, you don't even need a frigging receiver!

Sirius is a joke.

[Undertaker @ Jul 1st 2007 8:09PM]

You must be a DJ or individual who works for broadcast radio. You are greatly outnumbered by those who are very satisfied with Sirius!

[murray @ Jul 1st 2007 9:10PM]

Yes, I'm sure I am outnumbered. Even my wife is happy with it. I just find it unacceptable that we can't get a reliable signal 24 hours a day. Sure, if I throw some more money at the system and somehow get an antenna all the way up on the very top of my 2-story home, maybe it would work. But you shouldn't need to spend any more money to make a system work as advertised.

Instead, I've set up an old laptop as a dedicated music player, and we use that to stream sirius online. But even this solution has its problems: sirius disconnects you after some time if you don't respond to a "are you still there?" prompt.

This home repeater system with as far as I can tell will only help IF you can get a decent signal to hit the external antenna 24/7, is $100 accomplish what is expected of the existing radio+external antenna.

All in all, I find Sirius NOT worth paying for.

[Undertaker @ Jul 2nd 2007 3:17PM]

I'm outside of Louisville, Kentucky and my signal is fine here. Guess I'm lucky I don't have any trouble.

[FrankTheCrank @ Jun 17th 2007 8:34AM]

Wow, 2 posts? Now 3.

Nobody cares about Satellite radio, seriously. I have an XM in my coupe and it's useless, sounds compressed as hell and at $13 a month per radio, they can screw.

TG4 iPod.

[strider_mt2k @ Jun 17th 2007 10:36AM]

I'm love Sirius personally.
I don't really watch TV anymore because it's great in the background and in the car the only thing that can supplement it is my mp3 player.

Not to mention Les Davis on Pure Jazz 72!
He's like your cool uncle who's jacket smells funny and tells you cool stuff about Jazz.

On my Sirius radios or streaming, it's all good.

That being said, I have to give Sirius credit for also breaking me out of my old school thinking about radio and the kind of entertainment it brings.

For that reason I must also give hearty props to slacker radio ( www.slacker.com )
When I stream and want just music it's all about the Slacker.

Using either one at home with multiple radios is as simple as plugging an FM modulator into my headphone jack and turning the volume up to 7 or 8 on a scale of 10. (11 is right out!)

My next project is likely a hack that puts the guts of an FM modulator in an ever-lovin' Altiods tin with some other enhancements (like USB power) for doing just this very thing.

If you like it then it's great.
If you don't, or if you just want to keep abreast of this stuff then seek alternatives.

It's part of this whole "living the future" stuff we signed up for when we were kids, remember?

[strider_mt2k @ Jun 17th 2007 10:37AM]

There...are...FOUR POSTS!!

[Ken @ Jun 17th 2007 10:58AM]

This is a almost a good idea. Why not just make a personal repeater. Then you could just use the the standard Sirius antenna on all you radios.

[blake @ Jun 17th 2007 6:59PM]

I have an XM signal repeater same thing as this but it was out like a year ago,just like all XM tech.has been.Works great I have 2 radios running off of it (mifi& inno) works all over my huge home (7,100 sq. ft.) and even outside also.Hope you sirius people have the same luck as I.

[Chuck @ Jun 19th 2007 9:47PM]

Actually the XM version has been out far longer than a year ago; a press release dated 08/09/2005 mentions it as being released a few months ago. So XM once again leads on hardware and Sirius is always catching up... except for the limited video signal option that I haven't seen in the real world yet.