SIRIUS Sportster 5 Satellite Radio Receiver with Vehicle Kit

I have the Sportster5 for nearly a year and it worked fine until it started to indicate antenna not detected just recently for some reason, luckily I kept my starmate which worked without any problems for nearly 2 years, I have to swap back to the Starmate to continue listening, another issue I have with sirius is when I swapped from the Starmate to the Sportster last year(08)it was free to swap but now, they charge an extra $15 to do a swap, buncha rip offs.

Had the Sportster 4 for 3+ yrs. then bought this. Major improvements .... this unit is worth the money.

i bought this as a gift, but I didn't do enough research to see if he would be able to install it into his car. He decided he would not be able to best utalize this model, so I returned it. But the product was shipped ontime, was new in the box and looked great. We did not get a chance to use it.

I'm not sure off the top of my head what my first two models were... Which really isn't important here... What I will do is answer some of the questions, or rather assist some who may experience install issues or customer support issues...

First to install, it's quite basic and should be able to be installed, by someone will little to no electronic experience at all in under 30 minutes...

You have the following wires, Power,antenna and a line out if you go that route. I will say this, I would invest in a 15 dollar item from Crutchfield, that will block all engine noise if you have an issue with it.

The Antenna, isn't as troublesome task as you might think... find where you will place the unit on the windshield... and start from there running it down the left side of the dash... pull the kick panel away just a bit and tuck it in there... with either a phillips or a torx driver, remove the screws holding the piece you see when you open the door... I'm not sure what they are called, but when you do that, there is a spot there for the wire to go, continue to the back seat, and pull it away or out, so the wire will go into the truck... open the trunk lid and place the mouse on the trunk... put everything back the way it was and you are good to go...

Now just power it up and you have some tunes...

Customer support, there is a trick to this, that I figured out along the way... When you call, don't ask for sales... when the prompt for tech support comes up, go that route...( they speak perfect English ) and they can set it all up for you...

Any questions, ask

I purchased this to replace my original Sportster radio. After failing to find a Sportster 4 version (which was selling for $40 -- only no one sold it anymore), I ponied up for the Sportster 5 ($130). I couldn't have been more disappointed. Whereas my old Sportster was crystal clear using the FM transmitter, the Sportster 5 returned static 95% of the time. After doing some research, it looks like the FCC forced Sirius to comply with certain regulations that limit the power of their FM transmitter signal.

The original Sportster has a signal that was very strong (evidently so strong that other people who just happen to be tuning into or by 88.7 or some other random non-station could hear your Sirius radio program). To comply with FCC regulations, the new Sportster radios have a much weaker FM transmitter signal. But it is so weak that it is unsuable! I could only get a signal if I put the radio in my lap -- and even then I only got a halfway clear signal for 5% of the time. And I read and re-read the directions multiple times to make sure I was doing everything I could. I honestly cannot believe the Sportster 5 is a functional radio. I have seen dozens and dozens of similar complaints since then. Maybe if you live in a city with very few competing radio stations, it works fine. I live in Long Beach (near Los Angeles), and we have a large number of radio stations. I have also been told of the tape deck adapter option, but my friends say that it stinks.

I ultimately returned the Sportster 5 and am now looking into spending $400 to install a factory system into my car. But maybe I'll just drop Satellite radio. If they can't make receivers that work, how much longer will they be in business? Especially with internet radio growing by leaps and bounds.