Ok - I'm going to preface this by stating that I am not a professional stereo installer, and I am even worse with a rotozip.

I put in my Alpine XM receiver this weekend to go with the CDA-7894 I put in a couple weeks ago. I love the HU and when the XM receiver went on sale, I just had to do it.

I think I found a creative location for the antenna, which is mounted to the underside of the trunk. I've mounted it there temporarily to see how it works out and if it does work fine, I'll do something more permanent. The funny thing is that it works fine so far. Now, I've only had in in for a day so my plan to hold off judgement until I can get out way out of town and into some hills.





More pictures and installation notes here: http://www.rabidturtle.com/s2000/xm/xm.htm

 

can i borrow your rotozip sometime? i need to cut out my fake vents....

 

Very interesting!!! I recently had an Alpine 7894 installed and I am thinking about XM.
When they installed the amp in the space next to the spare tire, I had them run the
XM cable from the head unit to the trunk where the amp is. This way I could install
the XM receiver myself fairly easily.

Anyway, looking at your pictures, you might want to turn the antenna over so it's
top is pointing up and move it (if you can find a way to attach it) so it's under the
single thickness of just the trunk lid skin not the support. These may or may not
make any difference on the reception. I heard that antenna position can make a
big difference in XM reception!

My 2 cents. Let us know how this works out.

 

I put mine in the top section of the secret compartment. It works fine there except when passing tall trees (and we have alot in WA State). The instructions do state that it needs to be placed on metal
because it acts as a ground plane. I placed a sheet of aluminum foil
underneath it and I don't know if it helps of not. Does anyone else have trouble with trees?

 

Ok, I gave it a shot for a couple weeks and I can report that I do not recommend it. The mounting location seemed to work fine every day except for one day when it cut out every couple seconds. I decided that I should just do it right and mount it on the outside. And I did manage to make a doorstop out of the antenna when prepping it to be mounted. Doh!

http://www.rabidturtle.com/s2000/xm/doorstop.htm

 

Here's the final resting spot for the XM antenna: http://www.rabidturtle.com/s2000/xm/antenn.../XM_antenna.htm

 

DaveZ,

Did you think about mounting it on the top of
the secret compartment lid behind the wind blocker?
How do you think the reception would be?

How do you like the programming on XM? That is the
only thing holding me back from installing it !

Thanks!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MajorHavoc
[B]DaveZ,

 

DaveZ,

I have my antenna mounted in the same spot and my reception is perfect. The only time I lose the signal is when I'm in a parking deck. So I really can't complain. As far as the stations, it takes a while to get used to all of them. If any XM owners are wondering if they made the correct choice not to get Sirius Satellite Radio, check out this article.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020605/dcw014_1.html

 

below is a photo of my XM antenna. I love XM!




I also went with the Alpine 7893 HU and Alpine R component speakers.


more photos can be found here