sat radio antenna?

[2wheeler 10+ year member]

I have my Sirius ant on the roof and hate how it looks, what are my options, and how good of reception can I expect from the various options?

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[Expy2000]

sucks for you man, I have XM and ant. looks factory..

What kind of car do you have?

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[2wheeler 10+ year member]

Toyota Tacoma Pickup. The black lump on my silver roof just doesn't look good. The fact that its so visible to the thieves is also bugging me. I will probably paint it to match and live with it if nothing else is out there. How does an XM ant. look factory? Is it a roof mount?

 

[marley1 10+ year member]

paint it //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

i have a dark gray car so its easier for me.

i say just get some sem paint spray it and be done.

or put it somehwere in teh bed maybe?

 

[Expy2000]

Do you have a hard or soft cover for your truck...

My friend has his in mounted inside his truck bed on one of the inner walls..

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[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

It's a satellite antenna...paint the **** thing and live with it.

As far as antennas go, radome-mounted helix antennas are the smallest out there.

 

[2wheeler 10+ year member]

Does anyone know if plastic would block the reception? The plastic vent at the base of the windshield has room underneath it for the antenna, but its a pain to remove to try this spot, anyone have any constructive thoughts on this.

The bed is open for cargo, so I cant put it there.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

At the frequencies XM is transmitting on, yes, plastic is an obstruction. These things really need unobstructed views of the sky...

 

[2wheeler 10+ year member]

Thanks for the info, that saved me tearing my truck apart.

 

[B@SSAN8OR 10+ year member]

i think somewhere in th MECP book it states to NOT paint an antenna and if you do you will loose about 3 db of reception or something like that.

also its not really a target for theives. depednign on your xm equipment. it is more of a hassle to steal. and once it is stolen you cant ever use it so whats the point in stealing it?

 

[2wheeler 10+ year member]

Thanks for the tip on paint, looks like what ive got is what Im gonna live with. As for the theives around here, tweakers steal anything shiny, they dont care if it works, just so they can trade for a bag.

 

[IRACEMYCOPCAR 10+ year member]

I have mine mounted inside the car because i didnt want some a$$wipe ripping it off or it getting damaged at the car wash. i mounted mine in the middle of the dash up next to the windshield, i ran the wire in the crack between the windshield and dash. looks clean, protected from thieves and works great, the only time i lose reception is in tunnels or under bridges (as expected).

i guess you could also put it in the back window of a car but im too lazy. i dont know how big yours is but mine is the size of a half dollar so its barely noticable.

BTW: DONT paint it.

 

[Jayhawkk 10+ year member]

I tried various places before mounting mine just to see because I didn't want to have to run the wire around my rear window. I noticed huge changes in reception but I live in a hilly.mtn area so I guess if you live and travel in flat unobstructed areas it may not matter as much.

 

[2wheeler 10+ year member]

OK, boredom hit today at work so I tried moving the ant to the spot under the plastic cowl vent. I found that the metal screen mounted to the backside of the plastic was really bad for reception, but when I cut out the screen just above the antenna the reception seemed as good as when the ant was on the roof. I am getting full signal shown on the reciever, but I havent driven around yet to really know if this is where my ant will stay. It can always go back on the roof if I find that the new location is crappy somehow. I'll post an update in a couple of days.

 

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

I dislike the XM Antenna's with great vengence

prolly the worst design I have seen,and IMO it should have been made be wireless