dug1967

Does anybody know the longitude and latitude locations for the XM Radio Satellites?

I ask because I was to keep the antenna of the XM-PCR on the dash and have heard that really screws up reception, which makes sense in that depending on the location of the satellites you might have the roof betwen the antenna and the sat....

But I live in Houston TX and my car is a Corvette....

Houston = far south, satellite should be higher in the sky
Corvette = steep slope windshield, so better angle of view....

I am hoping the satellites will always be withing the view of the windshield. Plus being it is a Corvette, I don't have the 3 ft. square piece of body metal to mount the antenna on that XM says...

FAmonmouth

well with a corvette you could mount it almost anywhere. I have sirius in my vette and the antenna is in the cargo compartment under the trim in the rear. I have a C4 so i dont know if you have the same cargo trim. The signal can pass through the fiber glass. I have heard or people mounting it in the quarter panels.

e_z_street

Dug,

I live further north and did not have any luck mounting inside of my car. I would suggest experimenting with a laptop and move the antenna to different locations within the vehicle to verify. I tried this but got a lot of dropouts wherever I put it. Since you have a Vette and live in Texas, you might have better luck.

dug1967

Wow!!! Great news FAmonmouth..... I didn't know the signal could pass through fiberglass, that is so cool.... I too have a C4 (the best of all the C's, well atleast that I can afford)...

So you are running Sirrus with your carputer? Or is it one of the normal head unit types.... If you don't mind I would love to know more about your setup.... I just finished ripping out Vetteputer 1.0 and am working on Vetteputer 2.0, which I am determined will be totally In-Dash..... got to get the vise grips out a do some squishing

FAmonmouth

No carputer in the vette anymore it has been moved to the truck http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=23523

I am running a plug and play unit in the vette. Since i dont drive it much i take the unit out and use it inside my house. I just had the antenna sitting on the passenger seat for the longest time since there is no place to mount it to. magenets and fiberglass dont mix haha.

now it is under the rear trim in the cargo area. works perfect.

Vladig

I Live in Chicago and have my Xm antena sitting on my dash and I dont have any problems with sat signal, like others sad experiment with it see if it works

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dug1967

Thanks much for the info.... I am really glad to hear that the fiberglass does appear to be invisable to the XM signals.... I mean sitting on the passenger seat, that is about a hidden from the sky as you can be... that makes my life a lot easier....

stevewm

XM's signal is indeed transparent to many things.

Fiberglass, wood, glass, insulation, etc....

XM recommends putting the antenna on the roof for one reason. The metal you set the antenna on acts as a "dish" of sorts. It helps to reflect the satellite signal towards the antenna element. The home antenna (the antenna supplied with the XMPCR) doesn't have this problem because its actually a antenna element sitting in the middle of a large metal plate. But of course the home antenna is somewhat directional and not suited for use in a car.

Now if you live in a area where some repeaters are located then you should have no problem putting the antenna on your dash. However without repeaters you are likely to have dropouts as long as the antenna is inside the car.


Vladig: The Chicago area has about 20+ repeaters of varying broadcast strength. More then likely your receiver is using a repeater signal most of the time.

dug1967

Good info stevewm... thanks... and I have been wondering about repeaters..... I live in Metro Houston TX..... I would think Houston would have repeaters also... Is there a site that tells where they are and what kind of area they cover????

And as for antenna I plan to use one of the Blitzsafe XM Micro Antenna from MyRadioStore..... I hope it works.....

Tibby93

On the topic... I have Sirius in my 01 Tiburon. It's.. meh... alright... Nonetheless, reception is great. I mounted the antenna on the roof, in the middle, between the trunk lid and the sunroof. I live in Ottawa, Ontario, and when I open the sunroof, since it slides over the car and sits on the roof (you get it?), it covers the antenna. HARDLY do I ever have cut out reception, but when I travel north to Sudbury (where I'm from and my family is), it doesn't like the sunroof being opened, and cuts out constantly, so I can't open the sunroof. Aside to changing it spots, which is hard to do since there isn't really a "good spot" to put it, what can I do? I failed to mention Sudbury is a mining town, probably has alot of radio interference, and is in a giant hole (claims to be a city built inside a giant crater hole).

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Jahntassa

The XM satellites are in geosyncronous orbit around the equator. One taking care of east / central US, and two taking care of West / Central US. You will get very high signal in Texas as that's where the majority of the signal strength is.

Sirius uses three satellites in orbit over the US, with two in view of the continental US at any given time.