XM and the 396

Some posters have written that XM goes inactive if you haven't used it
in so many days.
How do they know when you use it? It is a one-way system!!!
You call to activate it and your receiver unlock code it included in the
downlink stream, correct?
Why would XM delete your unlock code from the downlink stream if you are
paying your subscription?

"john smith" wrote:
Some posters have written that XM goes inactive if you haven't used it
in so many days.

It does.

How do they know when you use it? It is a one-way system!!!

It happens in the receiver.

You call to activate it and your receiver unlock code it included in
the downlink stream, correct?

Yes.

Why would XM delete your unlock code from the downlink stream if you
are paying your subscription?

They don't. The activation is normally a one-time thing.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

Dan Luke wrote:
How do they know when you use it? It is a one-way system!!!

It happens in the receiver.

Dan, are you saying it "times out"?

In article ,
john smith wrote:

Some posters have written that XM goes inactive if you haven't used it
in so many days.
How do they know when you use it? It is a one-way system!!!
You call to activate it and your receiver unlock code it included in the
downlink stream, correct?
Why would XM delete your unlock code from the downlink stream if you are
paying your subscription?

Alt.radio.satellite is another place you could raise these questions.

It's unfortunately a pretty dumb group overall; you'll want to create a
filter that only allows XM-related messages through, and even then a
fair proportion of the messages will be junk.

But I don't know of any other group that's helpful for XM-related
technical questions (except maybe comp.dcom.telecom, which just
generally has a lot of technically savvy electronics types).

In article ,
john smith wrote:

Some posters have written that XM goes inactive if you haven't used it
in so many days.
How do they know when you use it? It is a one-way system!!!
You call to activate it and your receiver unlock code it included in the
downlink stream, correct?
Why would XM delete your unlock code from the downlink stream if you are
paying your subscription?


I'm not sure about the "inactivity timer," but why would you want to
continue to pay if you're not using it?

There have been activation issues unrelated to any inactivity timer, at
least when using the WxWorx receiver (which most portable XM weather
systems use.) The WxWorx receiver apparently "loses" the activation at
random, and you must re-activate. I haven't had a problem with mine,
and I haven't heard about it from others as much lately, so perhaps
WxWorx has fixed the problem. I understand that the real problem was
XM's method for the activation itself, and the receiver's ability to
retain that activation.



JKG

"john smith" wrote:
How do they know when you use it? It is a one-way system!!!

It happens in the receiver.

Dan, are you saying it "times out"?

Yes. It happened to mine once only a week after a previous use, but
usually it takes more than a month of disuse before the service
authorizations are lost.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 13:34:32 -0500, "Dan Luke"
wrote:


"john smith" wrote:
How do they know when you use it? It is a one-way system!!!

It happens in the receiver.

Dan, are you saying it "times out"?

Yes. It happened to mine once only a week after a previous use, but
usually it takes more than a month of disuse before the service
authorizations are lost.

My experience as well...

-Nathan

Jonathan Goodish wrote:

I'm not sure about the "inactivity timer," but why would you want to
continue to pay if you're not using it?

So it's ready for use when you do decide to use it.

In article ,
Maule Driver wrote:
I'm not sure about the "inactivity timer," but why would you want to
continue to pay if you're not using it?

So it's ready for use when you do decide to use it.


You can call XM and have it re-activated over the phone. This isn't a
$10-$12/month subscription, in many cases folks are paying $50 for the
full weather service.



JKG

Jonathan Goodish wrote:
In article ,
Maule Driver wrote:

I'm not sure about the "inactivity timer," but why would you want to
continue to pay if you're not using it?

So it's ready for use when you do decide to use it.


You can call XM and have it re-activated over the phone. This isn't a
$10-$12/month subscription, in many cases folks are paying $50 for the
full weather service.

The implication is that when they de-activate your account for non-use,
they stop charging you for it? A wonderful policy if that's the case
but surprising to this observer of corporate policies and practices.