huh?

I recently purchased a portable XM radio with the car kit. I am struggling with the antenna. The cord is really long and the actual antenna slides all over the place on my dashboard. I have the unit mounted in a good location, but I can't seem to get the antenna setup down. What does everyone else do? Are there "best practices" for mounting the actual antenna?

Not sure if this is the correct forum, so I apologize if its not.

Thanks

DamingR

The antenna is probably magnetic.

You should be able to place the magnetic antenna on the roof of your car and then fish the wire underneath the weather stripping around your door and then fish it into some cracks between the plastic of your dashboard and over to your unit.

I try to place the antenna on the roof near the top of the winshield as close to the drivers door as possible. It looks pretty good if done right.

If you can't figure it out, you should probably pay someone to install it, otherwise it's going to look really trashy.

Not trying to be mean, but...

cungar

Just to make this thread related to music, I like XMU and XM Cafe because they play a lot of indie stuff.

They want you to cut a hole in your roof and stick it on the top of your car or stick it on your truck hood. Don't do that. It works just fine behind a window. I just ran it under the carpet to the back panel and stuck it near my speakers. Always get three bars. No dropoffs. If you can find a way to put it on your dash without having wires everywhere try that. Use double sided tape.

Y2K Falcon

Also, though it's a tough search, there is an XM hardware thread, which the mods decided was best in the "Other" forum. It was last posted in just last week:

The XM hardware & programming thread

tonyc3742

The antenna is magnetic, very strong magnet too.
I stuck mine on the roof of my car near the edge, opened the passenger door, ran the wire in the rubber sealing gasket thingy, down to front of the door jamb, then under the floor mat and to the radio. Took about ten minutes, and six of those were spent untangling the long antenna cord.
You don't need to cut a hole in your roof or anything, though certainly you can get really fancy installs or really quick [like mine] installs.
A benefit to sticking it to your roof is that your entire car acts like an antenna amplifier, I think.

My favorite channels are Fungus [punk], Fred [classic alternative], the comedy channels, occasionally Cinemagic, and I'm growing to like XMLM more--they are playing lots more "classic" metal than they used too. Yesterday I heard Suicide Solution, Toxic Waltz, something by Nuclear Assault, an old Suicidal Tendencies song, all in addition to the screamcore stuff they focused on before it went away.

I'm very interested in the Inno, supposed to be out very soon--but 400 bucks is a little expensive, and I'm not an early adopter.

huh?

Thanks for the suggestions. I will play around with it when i get home tonight. basically I'm trying to make it look "good" right now, because it's a total mess right now!

milo bloom

I've done the under the gasket thing for the roof, but I've currently got it run under my seat and sitting in the back window.

And I love 84 Chill. Like everyday, a little bit of 121, then 84 to get my blood pressure back down