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Don't quote me on any of this, but my understanding..
The satellite orbits are wrong. They orbit to provide coverage to the lower 48 and Sirius over the air is not available in Alaska or Hawaii. Streaming services are, but.. I imagine that leads to the problem of spotty cell service up there as well?
FM11 and FM12 are to be launched in the next few years, and should help with service in southern Alaska, but.. I still don't really know if the signal will get through well there.
I seem to recall, that early generation satellites did offer coverage. I could very well be mistaken. But I was thinking that the original XM1 and XM2 (Roll and Rock) were in an orbit that did provide coverage to Alaska. But post merger, which of course has been at least 15 years now.. They've switched to geostationary orbits and.. There just aren't enough potential customers to justify a satellite, or satellites, to provide coverage.
I'd imagine that the many areas where repeaters would be needed up there also factors into the decision.
From what I understand, part of the problem is that, at least initially, to cover Alaska they would be showering Canada with a signal too and Canada hadn't agreed to that. I suspect that was just an excuse, as it wouldn't make business sense for another satellite to serve less than a million people total.
That coverage map shows coverage in only the very southern part of Alaska. It's a big state (a popular saying up here is that if you divided Alaska in two then Texas would be the 3rd largest state) and I'm at 61* latitude and frequently drive north of that.
But back to the original question, I think small whip antennas out perform any thing hidden in the car for over the air signals. Certain vehicles still come with them.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I currently have a 1974 Nova with the antenna in the windshield. The stereo is modern, from Classic Car Stereos, and has streaming. Where we live the FM signal is pretty weak with that antenna, so I normally will stream Sirius through my phone. On our newer cars with the external antennas the FM comes in just fine. It was a clever idea, but only worked well in areas close to the radio station transmitters.
I currently have a 1974 Nova with the antenna in the windshield. The stereo is modern, from Classic Car Stereos, and has streaming. Where we live the FM signal is pretty weak with that antenna, so I normally will stream Sirius through my phone. On our newer cars with the external antennas the FM comes in just fine. It was a clever idea, but only worked well in areas close to the radio station transmitters.
We had the same experience as I was growing up. My 2014 Toyota Tacoma had a conventional hood-mounted antenna, while my 2019 Buick Encore has a stubby antenna above the rear window. To my surprise, they both have the same FM reception. The optimum FM antenna length is around 30"-31". As FM became more popular, cars started to come with fixed-length antennas, rather than adjustable length antennas more suited to AM.
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