GPS / Sirius Antenna...?

Where did you stick yours and how did yopu run the wire? I put my 2 antenna's on either side of the front of the roof, but i cant get the wires to stay in the window channel..it has created a really f*ing annoying flapping sound while on the freeway should i stick a small bead of silicone in there or something?

 

I put mine behind the head unit, directly under the plastic dashboard. There are some vent ducts back there so I wedged the GPS antenna between that and the dash cover with some foam tape. Works great. The signals have no problem penetrating plastic or glass, I didn't have to run an antenna wire all over the place, and it looks clean!

 

So the instructions that say it has to be in plain sight of the sky is b/s? damn i should have consulted the almighty TW before install. lol.

 

The Sirius antenna may be more sensitive than GPS to obstructions... I don't have XM/Siruis, just a navi. If a portable Garmin goes on the windshield (under glass) and has a plastic case it seemed reasonable. Maybe someone else can speak to the effectiveness of the Siruis antenna inside the cab.

 

Cool. i think ill be moving it today =) thanks

 

Has anybody put their XM / Sirius antenna inside the cab?

 

I did the exact same thing w/ my GPS and it works perfectly.

 

My Sirius is on my dash up at the glass and I have almost no issues. Once in a while it cuts out for a second. I'm happy with it there.

I also cut a round piece of non-slip material and tapped it under the Sirius antenna to keep if from slidding around my dash.

 

My GPS antenna is sitting on the dash, right in the corner at the base of the driver's side A pillar.

 

So does anybody have any ideas on how I can secure the wires? I figure, i've already ran the wiring to the outside roof i might as well leave the antenna's up there. Would it be bad if i put a little silicone along that outer window channel?

 

can someone elaborate on their gps antenna wire routing a little more. can you really just hid it in the dash? With it in the dash like described above is it right under the defroster vents to get signal

 

The GPS and Sat antennas are patch antennas and typically require a groundplane.. might want to look into aluminum or copper tape to put the antenna on - which will increase reception...

 

i saw in longhorn's install thread he had it just sitting on the dash in the bottom left of the window??? I wanted to run it outside to the rear of the roof on the passenger side because my xm is back there on the driver side but i dont think the 16.5' gps antenna wire will reach that far routing it down the frame rail and back up to the roof hiding the wire in the rear window gasket.

I'm just trying to plan this out for my install monday

 

^^
That's a good spot for it. I would just stick some of the above mentioned tape to the part of the dash where the antenna is going to stick (haven't seen longhorn's writeup) and then put the antenna on top of it.

I stopped routing antenna wires outside... it was hard to keep "clean" if ya know what I mean.

 

definitely know what you mean I wish my xm antenna was not there but when I broke my rear window the dumb ass glass installer sealed the antenna wire in the gasket with whatever kind of epoxy that seals the window in the hole. I was pissed when he told me about it after he was done with the install, when he was telling me what he had done he seemed so proud of that idea. I quickly let him know that was a stupid idea.

 

i put mine like dead center rite above my windsheild, and ran the wire in the crack of the window

 

The ground plane is only required on a 1/4 wave gps antenna. If they use a full wave antennae which is 4 times longer it isn't required. In most cases a full wave antenna would be to long but gps is at 4.3GHZ and it's only a few centimeters so it's not a big deal to design it either way. follow your manual it should say if you need a ground plane if it doesn't it's probably a full wave antennae which won't get stronger signal mounted or not. Yes metallic tape or a strip of metal can work as a ground plane must be twice as long as the antenna.

Remember though that the biggest thing here is that the antennae can see the most satellites possible. There are 24 satellites around the world about 12-14 you can possible receive at one point on the earth. If you block half of the sky you can only get up to 6 now which will reduce your position accuracy assuming it's a 12 channel gps receiver. If it's a 4 or 3 channel it will probably always see 3 or 4 satellites and it won't matter at all where you mount it.

 

I ran mine thru a firewall grommet and stuck it on top of my ARB.