XM Satellite Radio

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gcharte

Well-known member
Joined
May 14, 2006
Posts
283
We have XM and use it in our vehicles we want to use it in our RV 2006 Fleetwood Storm but really have been unable to locate a decent hook up or suggestions for antenna locations. Any one out there have any suggestions, we have seen the antenna hook up for mirror but I don't think it will work with our RV. Has anyone heard of a any custom installations.



Gary & Eileen
 
Gary and Eileen,

We use an XM radio in our coach - the same one I use in my den at home and on our boat. The XM antenna sits on the dash of the RV, although some folks have mounted them on the roof. There are various ways to hook the XM receiver to your audio system, including:

  • RF transmitter, which requires you tune a radio to one of a number of frequencies. This is the least satisfactory in my experience.
  • An adapter that fits into a tape player. Works very well if you have a tape player.
  • Direct connection from the output of the XM receiver to the input of your audio system. This is the one I use for all my applications and it works just fine.
 
Gary,

I mounted mine on the dashboard and routed the antenna and audio coax up through the windshield moulding into the cabinet above the driver. The magnetic antenna sits nicely on top of the DVD player, and the audio goes directly into the home theater system which is up there also. 
 
I've used the XM Direct adapter, both in my old and in my new motorhome.  It interfaces with many different makes of car radio systems and comes complete with an antenna that can either be placed on the dash or mounted on the roof.  The antenna is about 1.5" sqare and .25 in. thick.

The adapter is controlled through the radio and there is no extra equipment showing.

Al
 
Still no solid answer or easy way to install a roof xm radio antenna. We put one on the dash and as long as we were driving north or south it worked. Has anyone used a truckers antenna, I've heard talk of mounting it on the mirror or rear ladder.
Please help.

Gary
 
There is no truly easy way to mount it. Putting it on the front cap is your best bet. Drill a hole near the center for the wire, cut the connector off leaving a few inches of wire attached, mount it with Eternabond, fish the wire down to the receiver, reconnect the wire and the connector by stripping, connecting, soldering, and insulating (heat-shrink tube) the splice, and plug it in. Good luck on your 'fishing' expedition :)
 
If that antenna uses the connector I think it uses you can drill a hole big enough for the connector, Eternabond will cover it.

That said I don't have XM.  There are too many other opitons for me to need XM

Since we all have internet here. why not try this... My Dash radio also plays CD's including ones with MP3's on them, I can easily put 7, 30 or more hours of MP3 files on a single cd

Go to www.live365.com and buy a year's membership, using a program called TOTAL RECORDER, (The pro version was fifty bucks last I checked/ordered, the basic 12 though I heard they upped the prices) you can capture the audio stream as it heads for your sound card and burn to CD,  Using both hotel WI-FI and my Hughes dish I've captured all night long and then in the morning burn a CD with the night's feed.

Hundreds of different stations including Old Time Radio (Fibber McGhee and Molly, The Shadow, The Great Gildersleeves and more than I can list)  CBS Mystery Theater, most of those with E.G. Marshall as the host (That was when it was great).  And all sorts of music.  Even some real radio stations are on there.

Just download burn and pop in the CD slot,, ,
 
gcharte said:
We have XM and use it in our vehicles we want to use it in our RV 2006 Fleetwood Storm but really have been unable to locate a decent hook up or suggestions for antenna locations. Any one out there have any suggestions, we have seen the antenna hook up for mirror but I don't think it will work with our RV. Has anyone heard of a any custom installations.



Gary & Eileen

I purchased the truck antenna and mounted it on side of roof air vent and ran cable in from there to front to the radio. It looked difficult at first but once I spent some time looking at possibilities -it took maybe an hour total time to install.
 
John,

The whole idea of XM Radio is that you can change stations on the fly, and select music, news, old-time radio, sports, or whatever, whenever you want and while driving. No recording or bandwidth usage.

The connector is a right angle connector, would require a hole much larger than the coax itself, and would be a bear to route from the roof to the radio. MUCH easier to cut and splice. 
 
Ok one thing you might like to know is a good electronics supply will have the proper splice fitting for whatever cable is used on that thing.  Even the coax cables that are not much larger than a fountain pen filler have proper splice kits.

However how to find a proper electronics supply... I can not tell you  but the yellow pages help.
 
If you have a 14" roof vent nearby, glue the receiver to the inside of the vent cover.  It will "see" through the plastic perfectly. Make sure the base is down, so you'll glue the plastic part of the antenna to the inside of the vent cover.

Or mount it to the support bracket above the crank, making sure it doesn't interfere with opening or closing the vent.
 
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