Satellite antennae?

[TxGearhead]

What kind of satellite radio reception can I expect with a Bigfoot cabover on a 2016 Ram crewcab with the antennae at the front edge of the truck roof?

[towpro]

TxGearhead wrote:

edit....on further reading I may be closer to understanding.

the cable comes down from roof antenna, and has a connector behind the windshield pillar, than this cable continues under dash to the radio. This wire is very thin, but still coax.

What I did was unplug this connector. i pulled cable that goes to radio down to under dash. than I plugged an extension cable into the wire still behind the windshield pillar plastic. This extension cable has a male, and female end on it.

I also put a magnet antenna on hood, and routed that into the same area behind the glove box.

you can also pull the carpet piece that is under passenger dash to get to these antenna wires.

I notice its not a perfect fix as even with magnetic antenna in middle of hood I was having a couple issues loosing signal for a couple seconds at times as I was going east bound Sunday morning.

[TxGearhead]

I may have to start buying CD's to play when I'm northbound.
I've had XM/Sirius too long I guess. Love it.

[deltabravo]

Southbound I have great reception. Northbound, bad reception - mostly no reception. After the 1 year free trial of XM on my truck, I didn't renew it.

People have added aux antennas to GM trucks, but I haven't gotten around to doing it 5 years later.

[TxGearhead]

The cable comes down from the roof on PS pillar, under cover. Here I dissembled the connector, and installed a 1' or so extension cable. This factory connector IS a coax type round connector but it also has a plastic square outer layer that snaps. It plugs in perfect to the Sirius size antenna connectors used in the last couple years, but I think I had to remove the factory plastic connector cover.
^^^This is what I'm not following clearly. It sounds like you disconnected the OEM antennae. Did you install a "Y" connection? How did you install the 1ft extension without unplugging the OEM antennae?
Thanks for the great info.
edit....on further reading I may be closer to understanding. So, you have the 2 different antennae leads terminated at the same place and switch between the 2. When you say you drop the glove box, do you mean you remove the interior/back of the glove box, or you just open the front door and the cables are terminated inside the glove box?
A 1 foot extension is long enough for this? The cable connection in the A pillar must be at the very bottom? What diameter are the antennae cables? .125", .250", etc? Are the connections like .125" DIN?
Thanks again for the info...

[fpoole]

Ok, I like the idea of being able to switch.

Apologies, I'mm still having problems on just how you connected to the Sirius box... did you pop out the glove box or??

Good idea on the center of hood, I was wondering about that myself.. which side and what happens when blocked...

thanks much.. appreciate the info..

[towpro]

edit: I switched to PC so I could type this for you.

The cable comes down from the roof on PS pillar, under cover. Here I dissembled the connector, and installed a 1' or so extension cable. This factory connector IS a coax type round connector but it also has a plastic square outer layer that snaps. It plugs in perfect to the Sirius size antenna connectors used in the last couple years, but I think I had to remove the factory plastic connector cover.

Than I dropped this extension down under the dash, along with the end of cable that came up from radio

I have a magnet antenna that I Hide under hood when not being used. when it is being used, I find it really needs to be in center of hood to work perfect. I routed the end of this magnet antenna connector into the RF fender well, than through a rubber grommet that come out under RS kick panel and isolated it with some plastic wire loom I have. Route this also to under the glove box areas.

now I have 3 cables under dash. one goes to radio, one goes to magnet antenna and one goes to factory antenna.

All I do is pull magnet antenna out from under hood, put it on center of hood, drop glove box, and switch the radio pig tail to plug into which ever antenna I need.

All I listen to is satellite radio so its kind of important to me that it works all the time.

[fpoole]

So my question is how do you connect to the box, like Sirus..

Last I heard you had to tear out the glove box and the xm is located behind it, unplug, or I guess a better solution would be to get a "Y", dual plug, to keep the normal one, run it through the fire wall and then hook up the front bumper/fender one.

[towpro]

On your dodge the antenna connection is behind the front window piller cover. If you have both Sirius and navigation you hopefully will find 2 coax cables in that same connector. I don't have navigation.

I put a smaller magnetic antenna out in center of hood, ran cable into truck through PS door opening and using short extension cable I can switch between factory and mag antenna behind glove box.

[goreds2]

On my Class B, the XM antenna is on the old CB antenna mount.

[Lockport]

We got reception mostly when traveling south and that was pretty constant. Almost nothing when heading north. I was wondering about relocating the antenna, great info about those-thanks.

[cubbear]

won't work buy another antenna and mount drivers side on plastic valance by wipers unplug old antenna and plug new one in

[TxGearhead]

Ok...I was over complicating it, as usual. I've got one that is hooked up to my XM boombox out in the garage. Antennae wire goes out the window and the little antennae puck sits on the window ledge. I've been closing the window on the wire everyday for 7 years. Keep thinking I'll break it one of these days.
I'll see how the stock one works with the camper before I tear the dash apart.

[fpoole]

Yah, just do a search for the brand you have, ex: Amazon.com
"Sirius RV Antenna"

I just got the simple one,

but I'm sure you can find them at any RV store or Radio/Electronic store...

(sorry, PM sent, I'm having a real problem trying to get this posted, forum keeps timing out or unavailable... so not sure what's going to show up...)

[fpoole]

Yah, just do a search for the brand you have, ex:

I just got the simple one,


Amazon..

but I'm sure you can find them at any RV store or Radio/Electronic store...