Sirius strongly recommends that the antenna be mounted on the roof (or trunklid if roof is not practical) so as to have the widest possible "view" of the sky. Having said that, Circuit City also installed my antenna inside the vehicle on the rear deck. My car is a 2000 Nissan Maxima which has an especially raked rear window that gives almost as much of a sky view as placing it on the roof. I also have a Kenwood Here2Anywhere unit that I use on business trips in the company vehicle which is a Ford Taurus wagon. I just throw the antenna up on the dash.

In both scenarios, I experience generally fine reception unless I spend more than five seconds under an overpass or I'm driving in an especially wooded area with a thick canopy of trees overhanging the road. I never get any static. Either the signal is there full on or it's not--that's the way it is with digital.

If you are getting static with this installation, there can be only two reasons for this IMHO--(1) the installation itself is faulty; or (2) assuming you are using a unit that plays through an FM frequency on the radio, the frequency you are using has a local or strong signal using it. If (2), you'll need to play through one of the alternate frequencies not so occupied.

Absent that, Circuit City guarantees its work, so I would go back to them and have them correct the problem.

John Figliozzi
Halfmoon, NY


Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 21:45:41 -0400
From: (Blue Rhino)
Subject: [Airwaves] Question about Sirius Satellite Radio Antenna
Install
I got Sirius Satellite Radio installed in my car on Monday at Circuit
City. The guy working in the garage told me that, instead of mounting
the antenna on the roof of the car, he was going to mount it on the
dashboard. He told me that by doing so, he was doing me a favor
because if he mounted the antenna on the roof, it would rip off the
paint if I ever wanted to remove it, and that you get the same
reception with it mounted on the dashboard anyway.

Since Monday, I've noticed that the signal has been less than stellar
in many parts of town. I'm getting a lot of mild static, which is
especially noticable on the talk stations. I've tried playing with
the frequencies to no avail.

I'm wondering if the Circuit City technician was feeding me a line of
BS in order to save himself some work. Can anyone offer any
advice or
information on this? Never having had satellite radio in my car
before, I don't have anything to compare the signal to, in order to
know if this is how it should sound or not.

Thanks.