On the sedan, where does everybody put the XM Radio antenna? I was thinking on the trunk lid instead of the roof. I have the rear spoiler but I don't think that will interfere with reception since it is so low.

Anyone have any experience with any other XM Antenna's other than Terk? I think some other manufacturers make a more slim antenna. My idea was to hide as much as possible so as not to draw too much attention to my car. I don't want thieves to see the XM Antenna from across the parking lot and move in for a little more investigation.

Larry

of course the preferred method is to put it on the roof, and it doesn't look too bad there, but yes, you can also put it on the trunk lid. i know several people did this about a year ago during the great XM debates around here. someone was saying something about it being almost completely unnoticeable due to the spoiler. but, alas, there were no pics, so i still don't know what he meant.

just make sure you don't actually cover it with the spoiler.

I assume reception would be fine. I often use a GPS on my dash and the reception is fine. The trunk lid would offer even more visivbility of the sky, however there are only 2 Satellites vs. the 12 for GPS.

Larry

I have my antenna on the dash and the reception is great, I rarely lose reception. The only time I lose it is in the garage or under dense tree cover. I have the pioneer antenna (not the shark fin one.) and it does not have the XM logos on it so it is hardly even noticed.

Brian

I have a wagon -- so location doesn't help you. I used the Sony antenna; it seemed a bit more stealth than the Terk. I just noticed on the XM site a new antenna that I would probably prefer. It is the Antenna Specialists XM20. See all the options here: http://www.xmradio.com/catalog/product_category.jsp?type=Antenna

Michael

I actually went with the Terk window mount antenna because I was uncomfortable going through the weather stripping. The window mount was definitely easy to mount, and on the rear window, it's out of sight :)

-Mike

Originally posted by mhbrown
I have a wagon -- so location doesn't help you. I used the Sony antenna; it seemed a bit more stealth than the Terk. I just noticed on the XM site a new antenna that I would probably prefer. It is the Antenna Specialists XM20. See all the options here: http://www.xmradio.com/catalog/product_category.jsp?type=Antenna

Michael

Turns out this is the antenna that I bought. There is a local place that sells them. They are very low profile. I will mount it on the trunk lid and take some pics for future reference when this question comes up again.

Larry

I have the Antenna Specialists roof-mount on my Forester. It is lower profile but larger. The cabling is thinner than that of the Terk, which made routing a bit easier. I had a Terk Glass-mount on my truck. I get a bit better reception with the AS roof-mount. Its been through a dozen high-pressure car washes without any sign of coming off.

ymmv depending on the installation.

i've got the terk roof mount antena on my car

put it on the roof as indicated, reception is very good

Remember, you can always paint the antenna to match your car color if you want to maximize stealth.

here in canada almost no one knows about XM so my antena is pretty stealth or meaning nothing to most people

Remember, you can always paint the antenna to match your car color if you want to maximize stealth.

Yep, just as long as that paint is non-metallic.

f that.
mine sits on the back shelf. no mounting anything. never have a signal problem

Mine is on the rear deck, no reception problems

cnstman

Yep, rear deck is fine, but what about us wagoneers? We've got to live dangerously and roofmount it...

You folks that have put yours on the rear deck, have you tried comparing it to reception with the antenna on the roof? I'm just wondering if the reception would be significantly better if it's actually mounted outside the car. Avoiding the ugliness on the roof would be cool but I wouldn't want to comprimise signal quality.(just me overthinking again)

Brock

Brock: Good suggestion. I currently have mine mounted on the roof but if it sounds the same I'd rather bring it inside the car. Currently the only time I don't get a signal is when I am next to a steep mountain wall and it blocks the signal or when I go into a parking garage.

I guess I could give it a try but I need to get some double sided tape to remount it.

Cool, that would be sweet if you posted the results of your little experiment. I'm still waiting on my Sirius stuff in the mail, but hopefully I'll have a plan of install by the time it gets here.

Knowing that the antenna can be painted to match the car. Does the WRB have metal in the paint? Also, since I have already mounted the antenna, would touch up paint work for the painting? I think if I mask off the antenna and were careful I could probably do a pretty good job.

Larry

Originally posted by LWG
Knowing that the antenna can be painted to match the car. Does the WRB have metal in the paint? Also, since I have already mounted the antenna, would touch up paint work for the painting? I think if I mask off the antenna and were careful I could probably do a pretty good job.

Larry

I would like to know that too. I have a bottle of touch up paint, but I don't know how much that would cover though.

Actually, a bottle of touch up paint would probably be plenty of paint. The antenna is only a small surface area. Get one of those little paint brushes you use for models and use blue masking tape around the antenna. WRB shouldn't have metallic, I think it's a pearl color.

You can always try painting with the touch-up and see how it works in place; if you don't like it, you can take it off and spray paint it.
I spray painted mine off the car with a base coat/clear coat system: 3-4 light coats of Aspen white and 3 coats of clear coat. Looks pretty white!

Anyone have any pics of their antenna painted? Curious to see how much difference it makes. I'm sure it's a lot.

Larry

Well, I tried using the touch-up paint on it leaving it in place. It didn't do that good of a job for me. The paint kind've peeled off. I should've taken it off the car and used primer and spray paint.

My GF said she actually prefered it being black. She said now it looks like my car has a tumor.

I think I will pull it off and see how well it works inside the rear deck of the car. I will let you know if the sound quality suffers when I get this done.

on a long drive to vegas, i temp mounted a setup with the pioneer shark fin mag mounted antenna on the rear trunk lid.

no problems.

I finally got my Sirius stuff in the mail!! woohoo! I know, I'm the only one who's excited.
Anyway, I'm getting ready to install the tuner and the antenna(I already have a kenwood deck,) and I'm trying to figure out the power and ground wire. I'm thinking of putting the tuner under the passenger seat so I'll probably run the wires up to the head unit. My question is, would there be enough juice if I tapped into the adapter harness? The tuner doesn't specify a power requirement or even a wire size. I'm thinking the draw is pretty minimal. I should be able to tap into the constant power and ground going to the head unit, right? If anybody who's done this has any info it would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Brock

Alright I know some of were curious as to whether the antenna would work mounted inside the rear window of the sedan. Well the answer is that it doesn't get as good of reception when mounted on the roof. When I do get a signal it sounds just fine, but it looses the signal alot. It lost the signal driving next to trees and buildings that I never had problems with before.

When I have time (maybe tomorrow) I am going to try mounting it on the trunk behind the spoiler. I hope this work work better.

I repainted the antenna using spray paint this time. I think it looks 100% better now, then when I used touchup paint. I also mounted the antenna on the trunk lid. It is in front of my spoiler so you don't even notice its there if you were driving behind my car. So far the reception is just as good as when I had it mounted on the roof of my car. It hasn't cut out yet, like when I had the antenna inside my car. I'll try taking a picture so you can see what it looks like for your future reference.

here's a few pics of my Sirius antenna:
http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/13097/p/236853_4418661397157037570_vl.jpg http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/13097/p/236854_8364007214683723879_vl.jpg

Another idea that I might just try (I currently have the SR2 on the roof of my silver wagon)

Get a XM20 and mount it INSIDE the rear spoiler! Would be a lotta work (with the risk that I'll ruin the stock rear spoiler), but the idea that it would be 100% stealth is enticing indeed!

To see how some folks did it on a Camaro, click on THIS LINK (http://66.246.14.172/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=4086) to the ClubXM forum.

Rear deck. No one can steal it and the stations come in fine. Plus, if you feel it's not doing it's job, you can always mount it on the roof or trunk later.

~JB