Thanks, very interesting. When I made that specific call to the Onstar operator (which was to check on traffic conditions) , I was near the beach on highway 1 at San Gregorio. Cell phone signal is spotty around there but not non-existent. It could be that the higher power transmitter made things work. Same reason our alarm panel at home with cell signal works indoor, but smartphones mostly don't.Despite the explanation given to you by an OnStar operator, I believe that OnStar does not use satellite telephony for voice calls. Your experience could be attributed to the following:
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?274218-Bolt-EV-OnStar-Service-Emergency-Calls
hellsop post #8:
“Every reference I can find says the OnStar module uses a 3-watt transmitter. Every reference I can find of similar credibility says a handheld cellphone runs at about 0.5 watts. So other things being equal, the OnStar should be able to make towers hear it from twice as far as a typical cell phone. [closer to 2.4 times as far by my calculation – a quibble]
That does presuppose, however, that your barrier is just distance, not (for example) a big honkin' mountain in the way or something.”
…and:
https://www.onstar.com/us/en/services/coveragemaps.html
“As illustrated by this map, OnStar service can’t work unless your car is in a place where we have an agreement with a wireless service provider for service in that area. OnStar service also can’t work unless you’re in a place where the wireless service provider we’ve hired for that area has coverage, network capacity, and reception when the service is needed, and technology that’s compatible with the OnStar service. OnStar service that involves location information about your car cannot work unless GPS satellite signals are unobstructed and available in that place as well.”
The cell phone signal around highway 84 is completely non-existent, for miles around, though. Maybe I will try again there next time.
He said he listens to a different one every day mostly. I don't think having more than one is critical.Unless I’ve missed it, you don’t say how many CDs your husband will take with him to listen to while driving. Would it be sufficient to be able to play only one CD at a time, or is a CD changer more ideal? Judging from what you have written, I would think a single CD player is what is wanted.
When we are on road trips, we would want to take more than one. As long as we can change the disc while driving, it would be fine.
I know from experience that the mechanisms on car CD changers is much less reliable than single disc CD players.
I am paying $5-6/month for SiriusXM in my Volt which I find acceptable. I did $25 for 5 months trial before and recently $30 for 6 months I think plus taxes. I put the subscription on a one-time virtual credit card number generated from Citibank, with a short expiration date. When Sirius tries to auto-renew, it fails. Then I get to call them again to bargain for the right price. I have never even been cut off yet, just get bombarded with emails about impeding disconnection.When I make my cross-country vacation trips in my 2014, I find that the dynamic range of the recorded music in a lot of my classical music CDs requires me to manually adjust the volume to prevent blasting the sound on suddenly loud passages, something that is less than ideal (Mahler quickly comes to mind). Having a subscription to SeriusXM would be an answer to that problem, at least it seemed to be when I was fortunate enough to make a trip during the time that I had a complementary subscription. I’ll not pay their exorbitant fees on general principles, but I do support my local station, WMNR, with an annual donation.
Thanks, hoping we will find a solution - have not yet.Although I plan to keep my 2014 for many more years, one-day I will be faced with your problem. So, I am keenly interested in how you resolve your problem. Good luck!