XM radio users: any trouble putting antanna on dash? - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

sig2269mm · 03-23-2007, 05:30 PM

I'm looking to put XM in a new corolla, and would rather slip the XM antanna on the dash, in the corner, just below the glass. One installer says it will work without problems, another says reception will be iffy. I'm the San Francisco bay area. Can anyone be of help?

gideon1331 · 03-23-2007, 08:31 PM

With XM, you must have a direct line of sight to the equater for the service to work. If your car is turned in such a way that the antenna cannot have an uninterrupted line to the satellites in orbit above the equater, you will lose signal.

Sirius on the other hand will always work on the dash as well as it does on the roof because the satellites orbit in an actual pattern to get increased coverage with less satellites..

kpopple · 04-16-2007, 10:12 PM

I have XM and I have noticed that most of the time, it receives a decent enough signal on the dash, but then again, I live in a more rural area.

Tommy · 04-18-2007, 07:33 AM

with mine, the antenna was held down magnetically, and if i didnt have it on a magnetic surface without an obstructed view of the sky, i got terrible recieption.

why dont you want to mount it outside the car?

Tommy · 04-18-2007, 09:28 AM

with mine, the antenna was held down magnetically, and if i didnt have it on a magnetic surface without an obstructed view of the sky, i got terrible recieption.

why dont you want to mount it outside the car?

[SMAN] · 04-18-2007, 05:18 PM

The reason the antenna works best on the roof is becuase it needs to be above the ground plane. With normal sedans and SUVS, the car's entire frame is grounded, Putting the antenna below a part that is ground will cause the frame to block a large part of the signal. Also, putting it on the dash instead of a large metal surface will also cause issues with the fact that the grounded area for reception is too small. You'll find a lot of this info if you read up about mounting CB antenna's and stuff but the same still aplies here, you may be able to get away with it, but it will work a lot better if it's on the roof. Convertables get awya with this becuase their roof isn't grounded.