Sirius radio antenna blocked by camper

[Lockport]

Our 2016 Ford F-350 with a slide-in camper certification came with factory installed Sirius and has the Sirius antenna on the roof. So of course the camper blocks it about 50% of the time. Best Buy says antenna coax cannot be spliced or changed out if we got another antenna. They said we would have to buy another radio. Ford says not their problem and Sirius says they don't get involved with antenna placement. Any suggestions?

[mikestock]

OP wrote:
Best Buy says antenna coax cannot be spliced or changed out if we got another antenna.

This is not true. I may have some signal loss I'm not aware of, but my Sirius seems to be working fine. I had to splice two pieces of coax together to bring the signal through my roof down to the radio. Just soldered the center conductors together and soldered the shields together. The only steel I could find on my roof for the magnetic antenna was the air horns. It's stuck there with a generous amount of duct tape helping to hold it. Haven't traveled nationwide with this setup but here in the South, it's fine.

[CincyGus]

I have the Sirius Online All Access plan and can listen from the app on any device. I just stream to my trailer radio through bluetooth or plug in with an cord when I'm inside and not going in and out.

Listen in the truck when driving and everywhere else, I listen on the app.

[Lockport]

Turns out Sirius now supplies a tuner and 25 feet of coax with new antenna for the cost of shipping ($9) only. We never got around to moving existing antenna and had cancelled last year. Before a quick vacation west, I decided to check about a new plan and maybe finally fix the antenna, when Sirius offered us this equipment. Just got the package, will install hopefully this week. This is exactly what we needed. Only downside is figuring out where to mount the tuner. It is pretty small so will find a spot.

[vermilye]

I have been happy with this Marine XM Radio antenna mounted on my fiberglass trailer. 30' of antenna cable & folds down if you want. You probably should check if you have Sirius to be sure it covers the correct frequencies - I have no idea if they are the same...

[Bumpyroad]

wa8yxm wrote:
.

Option 2: Do what I do.. CD's. Why pay for Radio?

why, news, humor channels, NFL, NCAA, etc. oldies 50s&60s.
bumpy

[wa8yxm]

Take a look at the back of the radio.. Look for an SMA connector (This is like a standard TV antenna/coax "F" connector only very small) if you have one that is your Sat-Radio antenna.

Pilot has a Sat Radio antenna on the CB wall (at least the one I visited did)

You can swap 'em easy enough. Just switch back and forth as needed.

Option 2: Do what I do.. CD's. Why pay for Radio?

[Lockport]

Well that is how we think since this is the first new truck we have bought since 1976. And yes, 25000 miles is brand new in my eyes!! So you guys are more brave. We owned about 15 work trucks over the years-- all used. And we owned 7 pickups including this one. Two of those bought new. Can't believe it has been that many. We installed all our own two-way radios in the work trucks but not in-dash.

Thanks for the help and encouragement. I will watch the video about 20 more times and maybe give it a try.

[bob_nestor]

Caysea wrote:
Hi All

I have a 2014 Ford f350. If I remember I contacted sirius radio and had them send me a magnetized antenna that had about a 20 ft cord. The antenna is about the size of a hockey puck. I mounted it on the front of the engine hood and routed the cable back through the engine compartment. Then I just had to unplug the ford roof antenna and plug in the new. Very easy fix and the reception is great with my truck camper on or off.

Early generation Sirius radios used custom connectors for the antenna or the receiver module that plugged into the radio making aftermarket upgrades nearly impossible. Current generation Sirius radios that are found in most new vehicles now use a pretty universal connection for the antenna and the receiver module. The one exception that I recently ran into was Mercedes Benz on my new Sprinter, but with enough Internet searching I finally located an adapter cable that worked.

The OP I think mentioned his reluctance at getting into the dash on his new truck with only 25000 miles. That made me chuckle. When I picked up my new Sprinter based RV and drove it home it had less than 1000 miles on it when I pulled the factory radio and replaced it. The factory radio/GPS was worthless and didn't even have Sirius. I replaced it with a new in-dash HD radio with GPS and SiriusXM.

[Lockport]

Haha on the used car salesman remark!! But I thought they would want to get a labor charge out of us since we already said we were not buying a second receiver!

We will have to take the radio out to get at the back. There is so much crammed in there now there is no way to see or do anything without removing the radio. The video clears things up so maybe it will be easier than we thought.

[Bumpyroad]

Johno02 wrote:
The salesman at Best Buy is a SALESman first last and always! Just an notch below user car and RV salespeople.

that is not true, or at least wasn't last I heard. some may be uninformed but when I checked were not commissioned.
bumpy

[Caysea]

Hi All

I have a 2014 Ford f350. If I remember I contacted sirius radio and had them send me a magnetized antenna that had about a 20 ft cord. The antenna is about the size of a hockey puck. I mounted it on the front of the engine hood and routed the cable back through the engine compartment. Then I just had to unplug the ford roof antenna and plug in the new. Very easy fix and the reception is great with my truck camper on or off.

[Johno02]

The salesman at Best Buy is a SALESman first last and always! Just an notch below user car and RV salespeople.

[Lockport]

Well after I posted today I decided to look again to see if anything is on the internet about this issue. I actually found a you tube video showing the same radio and dash setup that we have. All the others were different from our truck. And I found that the radios DO have a connector for Sirius. So now the question is do we want to dig into the dash on an expensive truck with 25000 miles on it! We just got back from Alaska and had pretty good luck going west, south and southeast. However reception was more spotty at higher latitudes. Since we want Sirius when traveling I guess we will try to fix this or get a radio shop to do it. I don't know why Best Buy told me it wasn't possible. Thanks all for your answers.

[Tom_M1]

Here's a solution posted for a 2014 F350. Don't know if this would work for a 2016:

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27593249/gotomsg/27595213.cfm#27595213