Ian

I have been looking my 430 up and down for the last month trying to find a good place to mount a XM unit. I love how some of you have put the face plate in the Ash tray, but I want to mount the antenna somewhere else....I was thinking of putting it on the black flip-up divider below the back windshield. I don't know if it would interfere with reception or not....What do you think.

ceboyd

somewhere I read a huge discussion about the antenna needing a metal ground plane of 1 square foot.... otherwise you'll loose reception constantly in places where there are no repeaters...

I may have read it HERE in the forums or on www.clubxm.com or elsewhere but a guy who was an engineer explained the whole thing....

...so you'd be taking a risk mounting it there...

Robbo

XM sends its signals via both sattelite and terrestrial repeater. They put the repeaters in cities to provide reception where the satellite might be blocked.

If you live/drive in areas where there are repeaters, it doesn't matter where you put the antenna (plenty of stories about great reception with the antenna under the seat or in the trunk). If you are not in an area with repeaters you will experience frequent "drop-outs" of the sat signal if the antenna is on the rear deck as the signal will be blocked at certain angles by the roof itself.

ceboyd

but with Sirius, their satellites are at a different angle in the sky so you won't have as many dropouts.....

Ian

Thanks for the Info guys!!