Antenna Location

[Tonyholdem]

I just had my Sirius radio 'professional' installed so that all wires and such are neatly hidden inside the dash. I was getting a subwoofer installed in my car and I figured to have the installation guys take care of my Sirius radio as well. They reasured me that there was no need to place the antenna on the top of my car and that it would be just fine on the dash board.

Basically, I have gone from 3 bars to 1 bar (cuts out alot) of reception. I live in Toronto and I am concered that the snow and ice from winter will ruin my antenna if it is on the exterior of my vehicle.

I obviously have to place the antenna somewhere else because it is not getting a great signal on my dash. Has anyone been able to find any alternate places to stick your antenna so that it is both not on the exterior of your vehicle and still providing a clean signal?

[fifties]

Have you thought about putting it on the "package tray", under the rear window?

[superstar221]

1) Snow and ice will not ruin your antenna unless you hack it up with an ice scraper
2) You will in no way ever.....EVER....get the same quality reception by placing your antenna on your dash as compared to your roof..
3) Put the antenna on your roof and don't worry about it. As long as the cable is not run directly outside a door (so the cable gets pinched every time that door is opened and closed), you will be just fine. Last winter my antenna had snow, ice, and rain galore on it and it did not affect it at all.

[Humann]

I have my antenna on the rear package shelf of my car (I didn't like the idea of the magnet scratching my paint) and get excellent reception (3 out of 3 bars on the signal meter). Of course, that would vary from car to car. My car has a big rear window that has at about a 45-degree tilt to it, so the antenna has plenty of vertical exposure to the sky. I would think cars with smaller, more nearly vertical rear windows would (e.g. Chrysler 300, many Volvo and Mercedes models) would not have as good reception, given that sheet metal would be more likely to interfere with the signal than glass.

[superstar221]

The antenna wont scratch your paint unless you press down on it and move it around. Once its in place there is no reason to touch it.

[Humann]

Yeah, but it will definitely leave a mark over time. I remember seeing the damage caused by magnetic CB radio antennas back in the day.

[superstar221]

I suppose the paint under you antenna may not fade at the same rate from the sun as other exposed parts of the vehicle....but I say...who cares? I'm not going to worry about my vehicle so much that I worry about keeping it immaculate for 'the next guy' in case I decide to sell it. Sat radio is the bomb, and if the antenna is the most of your concerns, then you're doing pretty darn well!!!

[east13gene]

My first antenna for Sirius went on the roof of my 96 Chrysler Cirrus three years ago. I think it was a Terk model. After about two years I lost reception. I don't remember how I diagnosed the problem but I finally purchased another Terk on ebay. When I removed the old one I took it apart and it was corroded inside. The rubber base probably leaked. So the roof was not a good place for that model. When I went to install the second one just to experiment I tested it on the shelf under the rear window. It worked fine so I left it there and I never had a problem after that. Not only that, one day a Sirius employee was walking along my street in New York City. He saw my setup and stopped to chat. In the course of the conversation he said the location on the shelf should be perfectly okay. But the rear window of the Cirrus lays pretty flat and so that was a positive for my setup and for exposure to the satellite signal.