Mike Isaksen wrote:
"Mike Spera" ...
It appears to be a limitation of the technology that, if you
don't use it enough, the unit needs to be reinitialized.
So, they don't shut you down, you do (by not flying often enough).


How do they (XM) know if you are using their service. Isn't it a XM sat
receiver only. There is no feedback signal transmitted AFAIK. Maybe the
activation code they transmit is time limted by hardware/software coding in
the Receiver?



The problem comes from the issue that while you may have paid for a
month or a year or what ever the system is designed that it takes a new
authorization hit more often than just at the start of the term.

This isn't a problem for cars or home units that see the satellite most
or all of the time. But an airplane that might sit in a hanger for weeks
or even months loose their authorization and require a reauthorization.
In reality if you just pulled it out of the hanger and started it up it
would probably be reauthorized in 20-30 minutes without calling but most
people want it when they want it.

I thought they fixed (probably by increasing the reauthorization
frequency for those with aircraft subscriptions) the problem but that
might not be so.