Sirius antenna question

[chadhgraves]

Has anyone had any trouble with reception when placing a satellite radio antenna on the roof of the vibe? I moved the back bar on my roof rack forward a little but I don't want to have the bars too close together (don't like the look of them close together). I can't move it back any further because of the radio antenna. Any suggestions or should I just stop whining and live with it. The reception is great most of the time but sometimes it drops down to 1 bar and has dropped the signal once or twice. I'm not sure if it's due to the weather (cloudy) or if the rear bar on the roofrack is interfering.

[chadhgraves]

One more thing. I mounted my Sirius reciever next to the glove box and it didn't stay glued to it. I made sure to clean it well and it still didn't stay up, so I screwed it in with the mounting screws. Is this going to come back to haunt me if I ever try to sell the vibe? Will I have to buy a whole new dash or can you fill the small holes with anything?

[nismo]

Well, if you're really concerned about the roof rack cross bars, then just take them off. Honestly, I think the Vibe looks better with those off. And here's the link to the Do-It-Yourself:http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=11484Inder

[ragingfish]

I have my XM antenna directly under my FM antenna and have no reception issues. Maybe your receiver and/or antenna are faulty?As to:Quote »Is this going to come back to haunt me if I ever try to sell the vibe? Will I have to buy a whole new dash or can you fill the small holes with anything?EVERYTHING on a car costs money when it comes to trading. Whether it be a scratch on the paint, a stain on a seat, or holes in the dash, it will cost you.Can you fill them? Not really. Even if there WAS a filler material for the dash, it would never look right.And don't replace the entire dash -- the money you spend replacing it will unlikely be less than you'd lose because of two small holes.Make sure your sirius is nto going to be a problem in the event of an airbag deployment. If it's in the way of that bag, someone will get hurt bigtime.

[chadhgraves]

Ya, I made sure to mount it out of the way of the airbag. I don't really want to take the roof rack cross bars off, I like the look of them. I haven't test the reception out on the highway yet but all the connections are good. What kind of clearence around the antenna is recommended. I know it needs to be on metal parallel to the ground and at least 6 inches from any windows. What about the space in front of the antenna?

[ragingfish]

I don't know jack about Sirius.This "parallel to the ground" crap is new to me...What about the antenna?

[chadhgraves]

I think it means not to mount it on the side of the car or something. The rear cross bar blocks the front part of the antenna and I was wondering if that would degrade the reception that much. Does the whole antenna need to be exposed?

[ragingfish]

For best reception, your antenna should have complete line-of-sight to the sky.The best location for it is on the front part of the car, above the windshield.That being said, mine works fine on the back, but I removed the crossbars, and it has great line-of-sight.The fewer obstructions, the better.

[Jahntassa]

Tsk tsk, I won't get into the technical explanation of Ground Plane for you Mike...Where's the antenna mounted now, exactly? Mine is mounted near where Mike's is, somewhere along the lines as described here: http://www.vidrenlabs.com/vibe.htmlIt's flipped around now, though, the antenna actually sits on the part of the roof attatched to the hatch. I have very few dropouts when mounted there. On the flipside, you could hide the cable in the windshield moulding and have the antenna sit directly above the windshield, in the open space on the roof.Make sure the wire isn't kinked or anything, or getting pinched somewhere.

[ColonelPanic]

I've got a Sirius Sportster in my Vibe... I was going to stick the antenna directly behind the radio antenna, but I got lazy. Didn't feel like fighting with getting the cable routed down through the center of the hatch opening... It was a bit easier to route it from where I have it mounted now...So I just stuck it to the left of the roof rack... Surprisingly, it works very well at that location. I only lose signal on certain occasions - for instance, when going across a bridge, and I'll lose it for a sec when driving in this one certain area on the interstate going to work (many cell phones also lose signal at that location.) Other than that, it's fine - I can certainly live with it. It only drops for a brief moment, then all is well again...Generally I'll have full terrestrial signal around here, and satellite stays up there pretty good as well. When I'm just picking up satellite signals, it usually has full signal, sometimes drops to 3/4 or so...Here's a pic: