Can A car be tracked thru satelite radio ?

they don't send data, just receive it, the number in the radio lets XM send a signal to tell the radio to work. I'm really surprised no one is hacking the radios. It simply doesn't work until it receives a coded digital signal that matches it's ID number. The XM signal is always on, the radio simply won't let you receive anything but the preview station until it's told otherwise. The reason they can track cell phones, is a cell phone produces 2 way signals, it's always communicating with towers and sending it's exact location. It has to do this in order to function and switch from tower to tower. The system figures out what direction you are heading and prepares the switch ahead of time. Even if you disabled the GPS tracking, they can still tell your point in time from any phone call you have made.

 

I asked my insurance company (State Farm) the question over ON-Star and a reduced rate for theft on my truck as usggested by On-Star. They don't do it because once a subscription could expire w/o them being notified by On-Star. I know the system works via cell phone & GPS technology. I used them to open my truck after the shop pit bull locked my doors when greeting me. I didn't have the code for the truck but I did have their accout credit card. They opened them in seconds. Hey one could alway get a EZ-Pass type unit used to pay your tolls or soem place like McDonals use them to pay for burgers. Yes EZ-pass can be tracked it emits a signal when it hits toll booths.

 

the EZ pass can't be tracked, it's a passive device, it only sends a signal back when it's interrogated by the receiver, the receiver sends out an RF signal, this is what the device also uses for power, they don't produce a strong enough signal to be used for tracking, they only function in the presence of the receiver anyway.

 

my mistake the ez pass tags are battery powered, still can't be tracked though, they only work with special receivers when you pass through toll lanes

 

The unit woulndt need a transmitter , it only has to have the capability to connect with a satelite . Location can be traced to where it terminates
at the unit. Like if your eye sight is the signal and your following them with your eyes, they dont have to shout out or write down where they intend to go, instead you(the satelite) would already be tunned into thier direction.

 

the satellite radios in the cars don't communicate with the satellite, it's all one way. you can't track a receiver. all they do is send a digital signal in with the same signal as the music, the radio hears it and it's ID, it switches on, the satellite has no clue where it is, that digital signal is broadcast all over the country. they use two satellites, well at least they did before they bought serius, the original satellites by the way, one was named rock and the other roll .

 

Has no one else ever heard of brickhouse? take a look at this link, they have tiny GPS transmitters you can stash in your car, and you can track your car anywhere by computer. They have been around for a long time,
http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/gps-car-tracking-vehicle-logging.html
Onstar is junk, half of them failed permanently when analog phone service was shut off, someone please explain why gm was putting in units that used the analog phone network, knowing full well it was long obsolete and was going to be phased out. No upgrade possible either. Lojack is dated too and it's days are probably numbered, with excellent gps tracking, it's really not that good.

 

mount it under the dash and direct wire the cigarette charger to a live circuit

 

Your right ..as soon as you mentioned" digital signal", i realized i was
in the mind set that theses things had a static IP like wyfy.

 

440roadrunner is right,
Boostmobile has a GPS you can track.( Have you seen the old people on tv saying "where you at?") Just hide a phone in the car and turn off the ringer.You can even hook it up to 12 volts to charge it.If the battery is unhooked it will still hold a charge for 2-3 days.Plans are as cheap as $20.00 for 3 months (thats like $80.00 a year) You just need to be sure you buy the phone with the GPS in it as some cheaper models dont have this option....Just a thought.

Steve

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The way they can do is to shut down the signal sent to a certain frequency receiver. Each XM/Sirius is a unique receiver frequency and they have that freq blocked if you don't pay your bill.

 

That used to happen with my work phone in my old tow truck, people would freak out when I would grab the phone and it would ring a second later. They all wanted to know how I knew it was going to ring, I came up with a bunch of crazy stories to explain it.

 

you just have to turn off the ringer and set the auto answer feature on you call the phone it wont make a sound and it will pick up you can hear anything going on

 

well it's the same frequency, but they send out a specific coded activation signal, all the receivers pick it up, but only the radio that matches the radio ID encoded in the signal will respond. They have a database of every single code for every satellite radio ever made, you call them up, sign up, and they send that encoded information in the digital signal that carries the music, they can turn your radio on and off anytime they want. I believe the radio sets a certain time it stays activated unless it receives a signal otherwise. It's always on, but you just can't tune in anything but the preview station without the activation.

 

as to the original question, if sirius xm has the ability to track/find a stolen car--

I'm sure if they did have the ability, it would be used as a selling point. Then, to track stolen cars, I'm sure they would not do it out of the kindness of their heart, because it would take manpower and as you know, time is money. I understand that sirius xm is struggling to turn a profit as it is, so I would say that they would use any selling point they could, if it were a reality.

 

Must be a reason why you live in a place named "Erie" (or is that Eerie?)

 

Does McDonalds still have this program? A few years ago in SoCal, kids would steal the EZ-Pass units out of cars and go to the nearest Mickey D's and buy large quantities of food which was charged to the EZ-Pass owner.

 

Anything that is cellphone-based, GPS-based, or emits its own signal, can be tracked. OnStar CAN be turned on remotely, even if the vehicle is not currently subscribed to the system. Not long ago, there was a case where a drug dealer had an Escalade that had OnStar, but he was not a subscriber. The police were able to get a warrant to make OnStar remotely turn on the system passively, meaning the DD had no idea it was on, while his motions were being continuously monitored.

The early ANALOG OnStar systems are now obsolete, since the FCC ordered communications to go digital. They can not be made operable, nor can they be retrofitted with the new digital OnStar system.

As mentioned earlier, the Sirius/XM system is simply a radio receiver, whose ability to receive was described by a previous poster.

 

Wire a car charger for the phone into the system and you don't have to worry about the battery life of the phone.

 

I hear voices and they don't like you.

 

It was the Nu Tornadoes! If yer gonna be an old fart, get it right!

 

The scariest thing about the OnStar system is when your soon to be X-wife's lawyer gets a hold of those tracking records to prove in open court that you really weren't in the next state on business but actually across town at some chick's house all weekend!!!!

I of course am not speaking from any first hand experience....I love my wife, I love my wife...

 

they were making Onstar systems even five years ago that worked on the analog system, a lot of people were extremely pissed off. it's not just GM, Mercedes used an analog system similar to onstar in it's Maybach Mercedes, until maby 4 years ago, it's now obsolete, and VW was shipping cars with a similar system, analog, almost to the day analog was turned off. It wasn't required to be turned off, the phone companies were forced to keep it on, until the FCC finally let them shut off the old system. They could run analog if they still wanted to, but most people don't want it.

 

It was actually the The Tornados that did Telstar ... also covered by the Ventures. Source: Amazon.com.
Signed, An even older fart.

 

My brother wears a hearing aid, and he can actually use it to hear the cell phone "talking" to the cell phone receiver every couple of minutes even if he's not making a call. He said the same thing - that it sounds like a burst from the fax machine. All that it is doing is pinging the transmitter / receiver so that it "knows" that you are in that cell so if you make or receive a call, that it gets through to your phone. Once you travel into another cell, it pings the next closer tower.

I have a friend who follows all of the "conspiracy theories" and he says that it is old news that the gummint can turn on your home phone, cell phone, OnStar, etc. and listen in any time that they want, whether the phone is in use or not. The only way to stop it on a cell phone is to pull the battery out.

My car has Sirius, but I've been putting boxes of dryer sheets in the trunk and will just follow that "springtime fresh" smell if my car ever gets stolen...

 

One of these wired to an ignition switch might not get your car back, but it INSTANTLY stops theives.

 

Not true. The reallocation of portions of the electromagnetic spectrum by the FCC is what caused the change. This was directly related to the discontinuance of analog television signals. The part of the spectrum that was previously allocated to TV audio/video, analog phone signals, and others, were now permanently reallocated for other uses, including digital TV video/audio signals and digital cell services. There was nothing about "letting" the phone companies switch, it was a mandatory move by the FCC to force it. Same with the digital TV situation. Analog cell, TV, and such are no longer permitted by law. There is no way to receive or transmit the signal these days.

 

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HMMMPH!! Hell, even my own voices don't like me.!

Roger

 

that's a common misconception, I've studied this no modern phone company wanted the expense and bother of the old analog phone system, they were nearly dead anyway, everything is digital which is a different frequency, the old analog stuff could only be used for voice calls to a very few subscribers. No texting, no data, no caller ID, nothing. They have been wanting to turn the old obsolete equipment off for years, but were forced to keep it running until recently. Would you want to keep an old system running that was expensive to maintain, hard to get repair parts for, used a ton of power, and only had a few subscribers left still using it? or use a modern digital system that gave customers what they wanted? Analog had been on life support for years, they were finally given the option to turn it off if they wanted.another way to put it, What if music companies were forced to keep making 8 track tapes today? no one would really want them but a few people, yet they would be forced to maintain production for an obsolete technology. It was the same thing with old analog phones.

 

Well, the future is now apparently here:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/s...cs-services-with-nissan-eyes-other-carmakers/
Despite heartfelt reassurances in this forum, I just don't believe that the XM radio in vehicles can't be used to track our vehicles. My last 2 cars have also had microphones, supposedly to provide hands-free bluetooth cellphone service. Could these be cross/accessed surreptitiously through SiriusXM? How would you know? Everything these days is implicated in the background stealing of data and spying-for-profit on target audiences. We have to assume there is no privacy. It's just how things are. I love XM radio but quit subscribing to XM several years ago because they continued to raise their rates to preposterous levels. I haven't missed it much. For non-subscribers, disconnecting the antenna at the radio might be a way to add a little psychological feeling of security. Regardless, really, are a few XM Radio songs that could just as easily be played in the car via USB or iPod connect, worth the potential total surrender of personal privacy? I think not.