Went to mount my Sirius radio antenna on front hood

We had an XM portable we used in the cab of our Kodiak and now our E450. The problem was heading north from Florida - no reception with the antenna on the dash as both satellites are well to the south. I'd tried mounting it on the mirror and that helped, but it could disappear when going around a bend. Also ran it up to the roof on one occasion and wrapped it around the radio antenna and that worked well.

We switched to Sirius and the problem is far less and almost non-existent. XM has two satellites around the equator as does Sirius but Sirius also has one farther north in a figure 8 like pattern and is overhead the US 16 hours a day. That makes a huge difference with tall buildings. 2 of the 3 are broadcasting at all times.

In many built up communities they have local repeater units to keep buildings from obliterating the signal.

Our two autos have Sirius now as does our MH with the portable. I doubt we'd ever go back to XM. My guess is that XM will eventually die out. No way they could abandon either system at the time of the merger.

I use one of the Sirius indoor/outdoor antennas on the dash of our B+ which has a fiberglass front cap. Works great. Very seldom do we lose the signal no matter what direction we are heading.

The Satellite is in the southern sky. I have holsters in my daily driver, toad and 'C' as well as the "boom box" and antennas for each. I've lost the signal on I-64 near Williamsburg due to the tall evergreens lining it, and about 100 miles north of the Canadian border all the way to Alaska due to the curvature of the earth. I also bought a lifetime subscription when it was still cheap, so I just move the receiver to whatever vehicle I'm driving.
Its nice to listen to music without babbling DJs.

WA7NDD wrote:
I just upgraded my Class C radio to SiriusXM. I plan on mounting my antenna under the fiberglass vent above the overhead. I ....

I set the antenna above (outside) the screen and use a washer to keep it in place. Works great.

I just upgraded my Class C radio to SiriusXM. I plan on mounting my antenna under the fiberglass vent above the overhead. It has a metal strip in there that should hold the magnetic antenna base. The wire will be easy to hide. I plan on using wire mold to hide two feet of it. My back up camera will also be inside and I plan on using wire mold for it. I've run hundreds of feet of wire mold at work. Very handy, easy to run, and lots of corners and splice connections.

I attached a small piece of iron to the top of the bracket (non-iron) that holds the awning to the edge of the roof. The Sirius antenna is magnetic and strongly holds on this piece of iron, but I zip-tied it to be sure. Then simply ran the antenna wire down a few inches, through the top corner of the side door (it did not interfere at all with closing the door), into and through the false ceiling, down the A-pillar on the passenger side, and finally kind of snaked it under the bottom of the dashboard and attached it to the small Sirius receiver, which I'd already installed with the receiver bracket. It really was very straightforward, very easy, and the wires are totally out of sight inside the coach.

Sirius/XM came in our new 2012 GMC Canyon, with a 3 month trial period. Having the service, we decided to try it out... driving in the great NWet, we encounter plenty of roads with towering firs on either side... and the radio reception would go away. Towering firs on one side of the road, spotty reception. Pull into the garage, yep, no reception. Pass by a tall building, no reception.

Came time to give 'em money for this grand experience, I said no thank you. Basic FREE FM works for us when we want noise, which is about 0.05% of road time.

I had my XM radio installed by a pro. He ran the antenna wire out through a marker light and them glued it to the roof. I tried to mount it inside the fiberglass cap but had no luck with the signal. The signal also got blocked when on the bottom of the windshield when driving North. Once it was mounted on the roof it worked well. I would try each option to see if works. You have to drive around some to really test it. The roof mount was the last option, but you want to receive a good signal all the time.

Fiberglass!!! Really!!! Learn something new everyday... I will have to try the cab over spot to see if that works..

For 7-8 years, my Sirius antenna has lived under the airbed in the cabover sleeping area.

The antenna needs a clear view of the sky at GHz RADIO frequencies, NOT optical light frequencies.

The frequency band that Sirius uses is VERY similar to, and acts about the same as, computer Wi-Fi in that it will penetrate walls and most non-metallic materials.

Try it in your cabover or in a high cabinet. It ought to work fine.

Here are the Sirius flying and XM geostationary satellite locations.

Tim