A way to listen to XM/Sirius radio for free!

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pandaboyy

Senior Member
Dec 10, 2006
708
0
Montreal
If you think this is a fraud, please don't read any further. If you're an admin and think this is inappropriate, please delete this post. I just want to share my finding.

This may help you guys to get free trial for Sirius and XM radio for a while.
1- use this legally link to create a new email path for your real email.
2- Then use this new email address to register for your free account (3 days on Sirius and 7 days on XM radio).
3- You shouldn't abuse it too much, according to the rule, you can only create 1 account per email address

I don't think this is illegal, or considering as crack or hack... since they offered it to people who has an email address :p

So that you know, I did subscribe for a full year package on Sirius, but it's just damn too expensive it's like getting another cellphone plan.

Why XM radio so expensive? more than $17/month. I paid $150/year.

PS: get your Sirius and XM radio player here
 

pandaboyy

Senior Member
Dec 10, 2006
708
0
Montreal

Bishop942

Member
Apr 15, 2008
5
0
I use audio scrobbler/lastfm windows mobile client. Crappy interface but nice Pandora like song selection
 

mchaos

Senior Member
Apr 2, 2011
163
42
This is pure silliness. You can get Free sirius radio on an actual sirius radio pretty easy if you are patient. Here is how to do it.

First some background.

The way the sirius, and xm for that matter work is, a signal is sent from the satellites telling it to activate, and what channels it can have. There is no way for the radio to communicate to the satellites, or to sirius or xm at all. The providers have to send a signal which turns if off after deactivation. If the radio never gets this signal, it will not deactivate.

Now, how long will they keep sending the deactivate signal. I'm not sure. Some say 3 months. but there is no way to actually know for sure without talking to them. It takes months. I also have a trick that will make sure you will get this to work.


  1. Get sirius, and pay for service. You have to be out of trial. Or if you have sirius already...
  2. Turn off the radio, disconnect the antenna.
  3. Do not trun it on or connect antenna at ALL!
  4. Call sirius and tell them your radio Broke. This is improtant, If the radio is broke, why keep sending a signal to it?
  5. You will either have to purchase a new radio, or talk them into a free one. Most cases you will get a discount if you tell them you will cancel your subscription.
  6. Once the new radio comes, Put it in your car, and activate it.
  7. Take the old radio, keep it in the base and keep power to it, so it does not loose memory. The memory will keep for some time, but it will die at some point requiring reactivation.
  8. No listen to your sirius, and keep paying for a bit.
  9. wait 6 months, a year is safer.
  10. Hook your disconnected radio back up to antenna and turn it on.
  11. HOLY SMOKES ITS STILL ACTIVATED!!!!
  12. Yes, this works. If you don't believe me, I don't care. Will just rock out for free and you wont.

How did I find this out? I had a radio where the antenna broke while active. I called up sirius and told them my radio didn't work any more and I wanted to cancel because I was not gonna spend any money on a new radio. They sold me one for $15 and credited me a few months, which took care of the cost of the radio and then some. I didn't think anything of this. Had that radio sitting on the shelf for a long time. Almost 2 years. Yes the memory held, but I wouldn't take a chance doing it a second time. About 6 months ago I put the radio in a base to see if it sill worked and to my surprise it was still activated. I did the math and figured how it worked. Still going free.

Do I feel bad about this? NO. Why? Because I still pay for sirius. I have 2 other vehicles I pay for. I use the free on in the house. I used to just take the receiver in every day because I have a base hooked to my stereo.

I can only listen to one at a time. So if I switch from one to the other, whats the difference. Anyway, whatever.:silly:


If you think this is a fraud, please don't read any further. If you're an admin and think this is inappropriate, please delete this post. I just want to share my finding.

This may help you guys to get free trial for Sirius and XM radio for a while.
1- use this legally link to create a new email path for your real email.
2- Then use this new email address to register for your free account (3 days on Sirius and 7 days on XM radio).
3- You shouldn't abuse it too much, according to the rule, you can only create 1 account per email address

I don't think this is illegal, or considering as crack or hack... since they offered it to people who has an email address :p

So that you know, I did subscribe for a full year package on Sirius, but it's just damn too expensive it's like getting another cellphone plan.

Why XM radio so expensive? more than $17/month. I paid $150/year.

PS: get your Sirius and XM radio player here
 

Dreadhawk177

New member
Feb 26, 2014
3
0
Free Sirius Lifetime 2.0

This is pure silliness. You can get Free sirius radio on an actual sirius radio pretty easy if you are patient. Here is how to do it.

First some background.

The way the sirius, and xm for that matter work is, a signal is sent from the satellites telling it to activate, and what channels it can have. There is no way for the radio to communicate to the satellites, or to sirius or xm at all. The providers have to send a signal which turns if off after deactivation. If the radio never gets this signal, it will not deactivate.

Now, how long will they keep sending the deactivate signal. I'm not sure. Some say 3 months. but there is no way to actually know for sure without talking to them. It takes months. I also have a trick that will make sure you will get this to work.


  1. Get sirius, and pay for service. You have to be out of trial. Or if you have sirius already...
  2. Turn off the radio, disconnect the antenna.
  3. Do not trun it on or connect antenna at ALL!
  4. Call sirius and tell them your radio Broke. This is improtant, If the radio is broke, why keep sending a signal to it?
  5. You will either have to purchase a new radio, or talk them into a free one. Most cases you will get a discount if you tell them you will cancel your subscription.
  6. Once the new radio comes, Put it in your car, and activate it.
  7. Take the old radio, keep it in the base and keep power to it, so it does not loose memory. The memory will keep for some time, but it will die at some point requiring reactivation.
  8. No listen to your sirius, and keep paying for a bit.
  9. wait 6 months, a year is safer.
  10. Hook your disconnected radio back up to antenna and turn it on.
  11. HOLY SMOKES ITS STILL ACTIVATED!!!!
  12. Yes, this works. If you don't believe me, I don't care. Will just rock out for free and you wont.

How did I find this out? I had a radio where the antenna broke while active. I called up sirius and told them my radio didn't work any more and I wanted to cancel because I was not gonna spend any money on a new radio. They sold me one for $15 and credited me a few months, which took care of the cost of the radio and then some. I didn't think anything of this. Had that radio sitting on the shelf for a long time. Almost 2 years. Yes the memory held, but I wouldn't take a chance doing it a second time. About 6 months ago I put the radio in a base to see if it sill worked and to my surprise it was still activated. I did the math and figured how it worked. Still going free.

Do I feel bad about this? NO. Why? Because I still pay for sirius. I have 2 other vehicles I pay for. I use the free on in the house. I used to just take the receiver in every day because I have a base hooked to my stereo.

I can only listen to one at a time. So if I switch from one to the other, whats the difference. Anyway, whatever.:silly:

There is an even better way.

1. Get a Radio (I got one cheap at a garage sale)
2. Pay for the ongoing monthly plan (approx. $15 per month + $15 activation)
3. Activate and listen for awhile
4. Once you know your radio is activated and working, turn it off and disconnect the antenna
5. Cancel the subscription, act as if the radio was broken AND/OR you are moving to an area with NO SERVICE. This will keep them from constantly annoying you with offers..
6. Wait approx. 3 months. I personally waited exactly 4 months + 1 day to be safe, but many other people have waited less.
7. Finally, turn on the radio and enjoy free (super-cheap) lifetime subscription

For those worried about wasting ~$40, Sirius regularly will try to give you discounted plans once you "quit". For example, I could have gotten 6 legitimate months for $20 AND free activation. In other words, if it doesn't work for you, you still have a good plan to go off of. For those trying this out, please post success stories regarding the time waited and other factors. Thanks and good luck!
 

Taboltini

Member
Jul 27, 2013
18
5
San Francisco
There is an even better way.
For those worried about wasting ~$40, Sirius regularly will try to give you discounted plans once you "quit". For example, I could have gotten 6 legitimate months for $20 AND free activation. In other words, if it doesn't work for you, you still have a good plan to go off of. For those trying this out, please post success stories regarding the time waited and other factors. Thanks and good luck!
Does this also work for traffic subscription? Does this method keep this active? :eek:
 

Dreadhawk177

New member
Feb 26, 2014
3
0
On Cars and Traffic

Does this also work for traffic subscription? Does this method keep this active? :eek:

As far as I know, yes. Essentially, all the data is being sent everywhere by 3-4 satellites. Everyone gets these signals, but your sirius device must be activated via code sent in through the satellites. Once you cancel your subscription or it otherwise runs out, the satellites send a "kill signal" along with the music and other data. If your particular radio is listening, it will read that signal and deactivate. I'm not 100% sure how doing this method with in-car devices would be different, but I'd imagine that you'd need to just cut the antenna and/or keep your actual radio powered off. I know that somebody put their motorcycle in a big garage over the winter and their subscription was canceled, and when he turned it on next spring everything worked. In short, unless the traffic costs extra or is something entirely separate, you would be fine. Good luck!

As far as I know, the method hasn't been extensively tested on in-car radios and such. I am not 100% sure cutting power to the radio would be enough to prevent the signal from killing your radio's subscription. Cutting the antenna should work, though. Please test in the future.:fingers-crossed:
 

Stephen304

Senior Member
Nov 2, 2012
82
10
But... is it possible to record and to emulate SXM activation signal?

Technically, yes. You would probably need a software defined radio though, and there might be a problem if they cryptographically secure the activation using something time sensitive or one-time as to prevent replay attacks. What I would be interested in is a way to open the device and make it ignore all activation signals and think it's activated no matter what.

By the way, I'm gonna try this with the OnyX EZ that came free with our car subscription. I know there used to be XM and Sirius, so I'm not entirely sure if it will work with mine because most posts are like 2010, but I'll report back. Mine is SiriusXM. I will get the all access for a couple weeks, make sure it all works, unplug power and antenna, cancel saying it broke, wait ~5-6 months to be safe, and hopefully remember to report back here.

My only concern is that by now they broadcast a max length with activation, and the devices handle their own deactivation as well.
 
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xdm9mm

Senior Member
Dec 11, 2013
621
135
I have a 3 month all access to sirius xm that came qith my new vehicle. I like it but the monthly subscription is a killer. I only ever laiten to radio when Im in my car, which is only about 30 minutes a day. I also want to keep the subscription but they charge you arm and leg. Is the signal specific to the antenna. Can I change the antenna and just use normal radio sstations for a few months and reconnect the antenna after maybe 3 months? Has anyone tried this?
 

gendarky

Member
Jun 16, 2012
10
0
This is pure silliness. You can get Free sirius radio on an actual sirius radio pretty easy if you are patient. Here is how to do it.

First some background.

The way the sirius, and xm for that matter work is, a signal is sent from the satellites telling it to activate, and what channels it can have. There is no way for the radio to communicate to the satellites, or to sirius or xm at all. The providers have to send a signal which turns if off after deactivation. If the radio never gets this signal, it will not deactivate.

Now, how long will they keep sending the deactivate signal. I'm not sure. Some say 3 months. but there is no way to actually know for sure without talking to them. It takes months. I also have a trick that will make sure you will get this to work.


  1. Get sirius, and pay for service. You have to be out of trial. Or if you have sirius already...
  2. Turn off the radio, disconnect the antenna.
  3. Do not trun it on or connect antenna at ALL!
  4. Call sirius and tell them your radio Broke. This is improtant, If the radio is broke, why keep sending a signal to it?
  5. You will either have to purchase a new radio, or talk them into a free one. Most cases you will get a discount if you tell them you will cancel your subscription.
  6. Once the new radio comes, Put it in your car, and activate it.
  7. Take the old radio, keep it in the base and keep power to it, so it does not loose memory. The memory will keep for some time, but it will die at some point requiring reactivation.
  8. No listen to your sirius, and keep paying for a bit.
  9. wait 6 months, a year is safer.
  10. Hook your disconnected radio back up to antenna and turn it on.
  11. HOLY SMOKES ITS STILL ACTIVATED!!!!
  12. Yes, this works. If you don't believe me, I don't care. Will just rock out for free and you wont.

How did I find this out? I had a radio where the antenna broke while active. I called up sirius and told them my radio didn't work any more and I wanted to cancel because I was not gonna spend any money on a new radio. They sold me one for $15 and credited me a few months, which took care of the cost of the radio and then some. I didn't think anything of this. Had that radio sitting on the shelf for a long time. Almost 2 years. Yes the memory held, but I wouldn't take a chance doing it a second time. About 6 months ago I put the radio in a base to see if it sill worked and to my surprise it was still activated. I did the math and figured how it worked. Still going free.

Do I feel bad about this? NO. Why? Because I still pay for sirius. I have 2 other vehicles I pay for. I use the free on in the house. I used to just take the receiver in every day because I have a base hooked to my stereo.

I can only listen to one at a time. So if I switch from one to the other, whats the difference. Anyway, whatever.:silly:

This trick works ?
 

peterpanpixyland

New member
Sep 16, 2016
2
0
wonder about the "never turn it off" theory?

First, I'm glad to see all these confirmations. I've been following threads like this for a while and hope it works, because I may need it soon. I'm on a fixed income now and can't afford the monthly charge, but like some of you i discovered that if you call and persist in requesting cancellation, they do offer some reasonable and affordable packages, around $20 for 5 or 6 months depending on whether you want sports packages or something. Especially if you've been a customer for a while. But last time I did this was around April of this year (2016) and they warned me that all their rates are going up around October, which is right around the time my 6 months expire. So if they have no more good final offers, I'll have to try turning the radio off for several months and cancelling.

I have a question though. I had also heard that these radios only "listen" for the authorization signals when they first power up. I guess that's possible, but I've never seen a confirmation. If its true, it wouldn't be a big deal for me to hook up my home base unit to an UPS, and leave it on all the time, or even wire it into an 'always on" power source in the car (doubt it would run the battery down). But I've never seen this theory confirmed. Any thoughts?
 

linuxglobal

New member
May 25, 2008
3
1
First, I'm glad to see all these confirmations. I've been following threads like this for a while and hope it works, because I may need it soon. I'm on a fixed income now and can't afford the monthly charge, but like some of you i discovered that if you call and persist in requesting cancellation, they do offer some reasonable and affordable packages, around $20 for 5 or 6 months depending on whether you want sports packages or something. Especially if you've been a customer for a while. But last time I did this was around April of this year (2016) and they warned me that all their rates are going up around October, which is right around the time my 6 months expire. So if they have no more good final offers, I'll have to try turning the radio off for several months and cancelling.

I have a question though. I had also heard that these radios only "listen" for the authorization signals when they first power up. I guess that's possible, but I've never seen a confirmation. If its true, it wouldn't be a big deal for me to hook up my home base unit to an UPS, and leave it on all the time, or even wire it into an 'always on" power source in the car (doubt it would run the battery down). But I've never seen this theory confirmed. Any thoughts?

I doubt it works reliably long term, I had a receiver last a few months after being disconnected (it was my summer car off the road, so it was a combination of events).
But sirius runs free trials a few times during the year where they activate ALL deactivated receivers as bait for old customers and off trial new vehicles. A week after the trial is over they shut down the entire list of inactive receivers (including your disconnected esn). So you would have to know when these trials occur because once they end your esn will be on the black list to get shut down.

The only theory that should work is to go after the onboard memory chip within the receiver, basically prevent it from erasing its channel lineup. A guy mentioned it on a different forum but no one has been able to confirm which pins on the sdrom chip needs to be grounded to prevent channel list erasing (its receiver specific). In principle this method would work flawlessly and the only downside would be being stuck with the same channels even if siriusxm updates their channel line up, you would still get the old channel lists but at least they would work. Each esn has an encryption key that gets renewed every so often and if that does not match up, it will once again fail to receive channels so its a shot in the dark but may be neat to look into as a mod hobby.

Personally I wouldnt bother with the disconnect trick, hunt for trials and enjoy the discounted rates, then ask them for another 6 months, or disconnect it for a while and try again for a trial. But they have the system pretty well figured out, after all its their business to ensure non paying radios are cut off. The worst part of it is having to pay for multiple vehicles, I can only drive one car at a time yet each one needs a separate unit, kind of silly on their part not to have a reduced rate for a 2nd/3rd receiver on the same account.

Maybe some experts can chime on how a 54 pin synchronous DRAM chip works.
 
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peterpanpixyland

New member
Sep 16, 2016
2
0
I doubt it works reliably long term, I had a receiver last a few months after being disconnected (it was my summer car off the road, so it was a combination of events).
But sirius runs free trials a few times during the year where they activate ALL deactivated receivers as bait for old customers and off trial new vehicles. A week after the trial is over they shut down the entire list of inactive receivers (including your disconnected esn). So you would have to know when these trials occur because once they end your esn will be on the black list to get shut down.

The only theory that should work is to go after the onboard memory chip within the receiver, basically prevent it from erasing its channel lineup. A guy mentioned it on a different forum but no one has been able to confirm which pins on the sdrom chip needs to be grounded to prevent channel list erasing (its receiver specific). In principle this method would work flawlessly and the only downside would be being stuck with the same channels even if siriusxm updates their channel line up, you would still get the old channel lists but at least they would work. Each esn has an encryption key that gets renewed every so often and if that does not match up, it will once again fail to receive channels so its a shot in the dark but may be neat to look into as a mod hobby.

Personally I wouldnt bother with the disconnect trick, hunt for trials and enjoy the discounted rates, then ask them for another 6 months, or disconnect it for a while and try again for a trial. But they have the system pretty well figured out, after all its their business to ensure non paying radios are cut off. The worst part of it is having to pay for multiple vehicles, I can only drive one car at a time yet each one needs a separate unit, kind of silly on their part not to have a reduced rate for a 2nd/3rd receiver on the same account.

Maybe some experts can chime on how a 54 pin synchronous DRAM chip works.

Hmmm... everything you're saying makes sense, but so many have verified that they had continuous use after leaving the radio disconnected for a good while, I can't help wondering if your theory is missing something. Interesting idea about the memory though. I'm pretty proficient in electronics, and it sounds like an interesting "rainy day" project. I'd imagine though that a unless an XM-Radio receiver is a standard module, distributed only by Serius and incorporated into everything from ONYX dash mount radios to all inclusive GPS and Radio systems supplied by auto manufactures, every implementation will be different. In fact, based on a lot of system on chip (SOIC) packages I've dealt with, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of radios don't even have a separate memory chip. Lots of these ICs have Ram and flash storage sufficient for a lot of programming tasks built right into the same chip with the CPU, so you couldn't get to it. Besides, if anything authorization parameters would be stored in a FLASH rather than DRAM memory, or they would all be lost when power is dropped.

I do agree... and I have in fact had little trouble requesting a more affordable package from Sirius, at least so far. But if they ever stop offering it, I might as well be equipped to give my best shot to finding a way around it. Its true, as you say, that they have to try to prevent freeloaders to make money. But like everything else, there is an 80/20 rule in place. In this case it means that 80% of the freeloaders can be eliminated with 20% of the work, but blocking that last 20% will require 80% more effort on their part. for most companies, the payoff for stopping that minority is not worth the effort. In fact, their offer of reduced fees is probably a major reason you don't see much a black market for permanently "enabled" radios.
 

GTE520

New member
Oct 31, 2016
1
0
Just tried this and it works, couldn't believe it. Unsubscribed about 3 months ago and it fully updated all of my channels upon power on, plus the trial is only so many channels and with the trial it will flash there subscription number on the screen.
 
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nope nope nope

New member
Jun 9, 2018
1
0
New radios do not do this. Modern XM radios need a reactivation signal once in a while. MY older Sirius radios are still active and running, but the 2 years old XM radio that was activated but not on when the kill signal was sent...... 2 years later I powered it up and it went to update the channel list and popped up "No activation" after it was playing howard stern for 3 minutes. I was expecting them to fix this hole and it looks like the more modern radios do.