tnedator

My wife is trying to decide if we should try and get the dealership to install the antenna centered, or put it on the side/fender like they normally do.

It would be very helpful if she could see some pics of the antenna installed in both locations on a Ruby Red 350. I am bringing it down to the dealer on Friday (2 hours away) and she won't be with me, so i would like to have her see some pics before then.

thanks

kingofire

You'll have a hard time finding a ruby red ES with a XM antenna. I dont think too many people on this board have the ruby red color since they are hard to find.
My es330 came with Sirius with the antenna and i had terrible dropouts. When i called the service to determine why this was happening, they told me it wasnt the antenna but sirius itself. I was told this was not a problem with XM and that the antenna inside the car would suffice.
Are you talking about the huge sigma antenna(triangular) one. They usually install it behind the rear-view mirror. I would get an aftermarket xm antenna from bestbuy and install it on the rear deck near the 3rd brake lights. Sorry i dont have pics.

P.S. I just remembered that "Vandam" has a ruby red ES and he was getting XM installed so try PM'ing him/her and see if he/she has a pic for you.

tnedator

Based on what I have read on this forum, I don't think there is an 'inside' XM antenna, only the GPS antenna is inside. When you get XM they install a small antenna similar to what you get in the plug and play XM radio packages on the right or left rear fender, unless you tell them to install it in the center of the trunk under the third brake light.

nstan20

Picture taken in my garage under poor lighting. The Ruby Red color is much nicer than what this picture is showing. Hope this is of some assistance.





I

dunnojack

that antenna looks like a tumor.

tnedator

Nice name.

onsknht

hey, hey, hey... Interestingly enough, my car came with 3 free months of XM and supposedly a way to get reoccuring for cheap using some gimmick on the sales folks?

Anyway, my wife liked it and she spends some time in the car so I got a portable unit that uses a docking station in her mini-van... The unit I got her has a smaller antenna than the one pictured, it was swallowed by the van!

Anyway... If you can find a place that'll do it well, I'd suggest a shark-fin or else find a way to hide it under the glare-strip on the winshield or install on the 3rd brake light.

kingofire

You can install the XM antenna on the rear deck shelf, next to the 3rd brake light or on the edges of it. The aftermarket xm antenna works with the Sirius kit so it can be installed inside the car too.

osokuko

I'm unsure if your Ruby red has the black interior, if so than you may want to install the cube inside the car, it work very well in Ca.

tnedator

Cashmere. I have a 'home kit' antenna laying back there now with my wife's old plug and play unit for temporary use, but I think I would rather mount it outside, as I think the black on red will look better than the black on tan. I wish this thing had a sharkfin like most modern cars, but I guess it goes with the cassette player.

psp

My Ruby Red ES350 is black. Here is a pic of the antenna.



Closeup



Not very noticible. Good reception. I tried it inside the car and that didn't work very well for me in the SF Bay area. The tan colored stuff around the base is no longer there.

Vandam

Mine looks identical to Osokuku's. I prefer this install to outside on the trunk line. If still interested, I can snap a pic of mine.

PsychDoc

I have a ruby red/black UL car and while I don't have a permanently mounted satellite radio, I do occassionaly use my plug and play Sirius unit in the car for long trips. When I do I simply throw the antenna up under the front windshield right over the small speaker located in the center of the front dashboard (the magent built into the antenna sticks nicely to the metal of the speaker grill!). It can "see" the sky, which is all that's needed for crystal clear satellite reception.

If I was going to get a permanently mounted unit I would NEVER (!!!!) have it mounted anywhere on the trunk. It looks HORRIBLE there. As our car does not come equipped with a shark fin satellite antenna (they look nice) and as all you need to do is mount it somewhere where it can "see" the sky, I'd mount it next to the interior third brake light like others have suggested. Believe me, you will have perfect reception and the beauty of your car will not be marred.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

twister

Satellite antenna location is a trial'n'error task. I posted this before, I had to go from inside (next to the break light, under a high slope of GS window), to outside on the window (to hide that black puck), to outside on top of metal surface of fender/trunk. And, guess what? I still get droppouts everytime I'm close to any trees along the road. Moral of the story, you can have the best and the most expensive Sirius receiver and antenna, but geographic location is EVERYTHING!!!

As I recently learned, just like XM, Sirius also has repeaters with terrestial antennas. So, every new Sirius receiver and antenna is able to lock into either satellite or terrestrial signal. BUT those repeaters are only in big cities or close to big cities. For example, I'm in NJ down by the shore about 1 hour away from Philly and NYC, and I'm only relying on satellite. Therefore, I'm screwed until 2008 when Sirius going to launch their 4th satellite in the sky for a better coverage.

Thanks PsychDoc for bringing up the sharkfin. My GS comes with a sharkfin which houses XM antenna. BUT, I just learned that a lot of people with Honda/Acura that have XM in their "sharkfin" are able to reconnectorize their XM antenna with RA SMB connector and can use that for Sirius. That is what I'm going to try with mine as well.

tnedator

The XM and Sirius antennas are supposed to be slightly different, as their sattelites are in different orbits (height and type).

However, both of my current plug and play units are using antennas from the 'other' company. In my car, I cut the Sirius antenna wire when I was installing it, so since I had an XM antenna laying around, I installed it instead. My wife is currently using her plug and play XM radio in her ES350, and I have the 'home kit' antenna from my Sirius radio tossed up near the 3rd brake light as a temporary fix.

For the plug and plays, the plug is the same for XM and Sirius these days. So, other than plug incompatibility, the antennas seem to work fine between XM and Sirius.