triplenickel

So right now I have the antenna for my roady up on the roof, but in the summer I carry a cab over camper. Where would be the best place to mount it then? Down in front of the wiper cowl on the hood, or would that get blocked by the cab easily? Maybe down the fron of the hood above the bug deflector.

Ramasaur

How far over the cab does it go?

If your cab lights are not covered by the cab, you can mount the it between the 1st cab light and the drivers door(I'm assuming its magnetic?) , then run the wire down between the winshield and the rubber windshield trim. It's not visible, and is very secure, then run it through the firewall. I've got my Sirius mounted there.

Hawkeye 04

I've got mine mounted on the passenger side right beside the first cab light and the door. Works great. I recently saw a picture of a truck that had drilled a hole through the hood and mounted his antenna front center! It probably works great but it's not for me!

txhawg

I have been considering sattelite radio myself, but the antenna location is the issue. Why don't they make a sattelite antenna that just replaces your radio antenna? After you get the sattelite, the regular antenna is useless, isn't it?

Commatoze

It has to do with the polarization of the radio wave. Typically, there are 2 polarities, vertical and horizontal. For instance, if you look at a roof-top TV antenna, the elements are horizontal to favor the horizontal polarity of the transmission; Citizens Band the polarity is vertical. The polarity of terrestrial FM radio transmissions are neither vertical or horizontal but actually 45 degrees, so if you bent your antenna at an angle on your fender, it would actually receive better. They do this to accomodate both automotive radio antenna, and home based roof-top antennas. AM transmissions are vertically polarized, so the whip on the fender is oriented ideally to receive these transmissions. Also, the length of the whip is cut for the FM radio band. Satellite transmissions are much higher in frequency and are circularly polarized due to the spin of the satellite. The radio wave rotates at the spin rate of the satellite. If you took a stick antenna cut to the satellite's frequency it would only "hear" the signal as the wave rotated past vertical, then would drop off in strength. So, the ability of the antenna to gather enough RF energy to decode the bit stream is greatly reduced. Satellite antennas are designed to receive the extremely weak rotating radio wave, but aren't compatible with AM or FM broadcasts. I understand that combination antennas are in the works, but I don't believe there are any out there presently, so you'll need the whip to receive AM and FM bands on your radio.

triplenickel

It's a smaller unit and only comes up to the back of the front doors, maybe a little farther forward. I pretty much have it dead center right at the front of the roof now, I was just worried about the camper shading it, I'll give it a try where it is. Thanks.

bulabula

triplenickle, if you do have some blockage, you might want to mount it on top of the camper while she's onboard.

BTW, Xm has circular polarization from the birds and linear (vertical) polarization from the terrestrial stations.

triplenickel

I would but it's aluminum, and a pop up. I bought a nice light one when I was using the 1500, thinking about upgrading next year we'll see.....



Good info, thanks.

t-15 firefighter

i have mine mounted on the passenger side cowl right above the windshield wiper. there is a flat spot on the plastic cowl. i mounted it with 3M tape and it works perfect. it just blends into the truck and you really don't even notice it. i will try to take some pictures of it tomorrow if it isn't raining.



britt

triplenickel

That may work, I'll have to give it some thought. Thanks

azjeff

Mine is sitting centered on the dash & against the windshield and works great. There has been a few occassions when I have had a slight signal interruption when going under street lights. It happens about 2-3 seconds after passing and is only for less than a second and only in one noticable spot in the city, but it has happened. It may have happened if the antenna was outside also. Not a big concern to me since it is basically not noticable from outside the truck. Jeff

propinc

I have a Regular cab and a large Lance Camper I ended up putting a small L bracket where the Camper molding is on the front. I un-screwed one of the phillips on each side and use 1 for the XM and the other for the GPS, it's real easy and works great. If i think I will be in high winds I will use a plastic electrical zip tie down ... so far the magnet alone has worked just fine. When the Camper is off it easily can move to the roof

Try it you will like it

Palmtree

Hey triplenickel !!! what did you hook up your XM to.., the factory radio? I just bought a 2005 dually here in Red Deer and the factory stereo Infinity and stuff is really nice but I have a Pioneer XM receiver that I took out of my car when I sold it to install it in the truck, trouble is, it's not going to look very good in the dash. Dodge tells me Sirius is set up to hook up in it in Canada, when it is available..So ..I'm wondering what you did..put in an after market stereo or what?

PCarnathan

On my '03 SLT there's a circular grate in the center of the top of the dashboard. If you pop off the plastic dashboard, you'll see a metal well underneath that grate. That's where I put the XM antenna and the GPS antenna. Works just fine; no drop-outs except under real long underpasses or tunnels. No need to put that magnetic antenna on your roof, hood. etc.

triplenickel

Hi Palmtree, I just went with a stand alone unit that plays through a built in FM modulator or cassette adapter (better sound) as i'm fairly happy with my Infinity system. It was $240 and the unit is quite small. Well worth the $10 per month.

http://www.xmradio.com/roady/

When I called to set up my subscription I just gave them my Visa and used their own address off the box the unit came in. I really don't think they care as long as they get th CC #.


Now that is an awesome idea, I'll have to check it out. My understanding is that due to the orbital path (or whatever you call it ) the father north you go the easier it becomes to lose the signal. Still so easy it's worth a try!