Magnetic XM antenna performance

[elc32955]

Hey all,

Quick question for those of you that have done the MyLink forklift upgrade to a SS radio in your 14-17 cars. What have you done for your XM radio antenna as far as placement (if you're using the small mag mount antenna)? I installed my upgrade radio recently and had the idea to use the front dash speaker hole for placement of both the GPS and the XM antennas, the speaker grille hides the antennas and acts basically as a radome. I put the antennas in there along with some cavity stuffing (to elevate the antennas to the top of the hole) and.... PRESTO! The GPS antenna works fine with hits on 10 satellites. However... the XM option on the radio tells me "No XM signal" when XM is selected. I remember seeing a thread here from a few years back saying the hockey-puck style antenna didn't work worth beans with these radios, so was wondering if it was just a placement issue or perhaps something more. The radio came out of a 16 SS and was working fine on the bench, I'm also secure on the antenna jack on the back of the radio.

Thanks
Eric

[s/c'd cav]

both my XM and GPS antennas are on top of the dash coming out of the center speaker grill , the GPS doesnt seem to have any issues , but my XM hates it when going north and under freeway underpasses , ive had 2 different antennas , and first 1 i had that belonged to a friend , worked better than my current one , but it still had issues

my daily is a 06 rainier with factory XM , and while i still have a issue with it dropping out from time to time , its far less than than caprice in the same areas

[rcg530]

I tried mounting the XM magnetic base antenna in the center speaker hole area of the dash and it did not work well. I ended up placing it on the outside of the roof near the AM/FM antenna. That worked well for reception. I didn't like the long single wire since I had hoped I would have enough money to paint my Caprice and it would require cutting the wire. I found a modular XM receiver and replaced the magnetic mount with the long cord with a module unit with a couple of different cables. I have two videos on the topic. The first one discusses the center hole placement problems and the second one shows (plus a few other things) the modular XM antenna. I have the part info in the video description section.

https://youtu.be/OlpnwMzyoMs

https://youtu.be/zPWym8-XEnc

[elc32955]

Thanks very much! I did verify without moving my XM antenna (yet!) that the radio does work in XM mode, on those cool Florida nights by a body of water ducting does wonders for signal strength!

Eric

[Pursuit]

I had a standalone XM radio in the car, way back when. I mounted the small magnetic antenna on the leading edge of the trunk, centered, at the base of the rear window. Worked pretty good for reception.

Maurice

[Beve1532]

I just installed my antenna yesterday..I used a GM roof mount but put it on the dash near the light sensor..it works great...very clear and looks like it almost belongs there..

[ejf2461]

I have ran into this when upgrading police cars to XM the included antenna doesn't have good reception. If you wanna upgrade your reception put a Chevy SS Shark Fin Antenna. It has AM/FM Radio & XM & Navigation Antenna built into the same antenna. What everyone forgets is the 2014-2017 Chevy SS has a factory Antenna Amplifier up in the roof. Its a $40 part and makes the signal 3x stronger. It requires a ground wire that is still available from GM Parts. I had this same issue with out 2015-2017 Police Tahoe with the GM i04 Radio which with bought the i08 kit from a company that upgraded to a Tahoe LTZ setup with Navigation & Sirius/Xm the kit came with a small xm antenna and didnt work that well so the dealer installed the factory Shark Fin Antenna on the roof and it solved all of the reception problems. Best of luck!

[Lord Vader]

I'd like more information on changing to the shark fin antenna from an SS to our cars... I've looked at the wiring schematic and I still can't figure out what wire from the antenna goes to what on the radio. I've looked at pictures of the rf amp you are talking about, do wires connect to the 9V battery looking thing on that amp?

Thanks!

[ejf2461]

The 9v battery plugs into the amp and the wiring harness with the ground strap wires into the two terminals on the end of the amp. Your PPV should have everything else except a extended xm wire with farka connectors on both ends.