XM Installation

I've mentioned this before, but what the heck...........

I have an XM Delphi Radio with cradles attached to my home entertainment system, a boombox cradle in my office, one in the shop and a car kit installed in my 03 Cobra (before I sold it). The boomboxes have an antenna that folds flat against the back of the radio when not in use and folds out for reception. It works fine in the house, in my shop and anywhere else I carry it. It will sometimes lose signal for a moment if you walk near it or move it quickly, however once it aquires a signal it hangs on pretty well. The car kit's antenna was installed by a professional installer who attached it to the dash at the point it meets the windshield. I never had a reception problem with it mounted in the car. Heck, the antenna for my home system is sitting on top of shelf in my living room and it works just fine.

I installed the antenna on my XLR because I like XM radio and there were no other options. After a week the antenna became part of the car and blends in a whole lot better than the ones on other cars out there.

XM doesn't work

Mine never worked in Westchester Co., NY state--any time I made turns, the B pillars seemed to cut out reception completely.
:confused

I'd listen to the whole joke on the comedy station, and then miss the punch line, because I made a turn (or an 18 wheeler drove by).
:banghead

Not only did I get ripped off for $325.00, but I got a wart that I don't use!
:nopity

Needless to say, I cancelled my XM subscription!
:bs

Would've been nice to get a warning "XM doesn't work on the XLR: when turning, near trees, near hills, near 18 wheelers, during cosmic eclipses...."
:skep

--Bob

Admittedly we have very little in the way of experience thus far (still under 500 miles on the XLR), but we have done interstate highway travel, been around tall buildings, made plenty of turns and cruised along valleys on rural roads here in North Carolina and the XM reception has been absolutely superb. We especially enjoy channel 60 Classic Soul (really, for the most part, old rhythm and blues) and channel 101 Reggae.

We decided to install the XM antenna ourselves since we were concerned the dealership would not be as careful about the matter as we would like. Here are a couple of “tips” for those similarly inclined. We bought new drill bits so the holes would be cut as cleanly as possible and we also bought the special masking tape used just for painting cars (don’t even consider the normal variety of masking tape). The tape is used to prevent tearing of the paint and fiberglass when the final holes are drilled from the topside, after the pilot holes have been drilled from the underside of the trunk lid. We also suggest wrapping a good bit of narrow tape around the base of the drill bit so the drill chuck can’t accidentally come in contact with the trunk lid when the bit bores through it.

The instructions, as usual, leave a little bit to be desired. For example, there’s no warning that when removing the push-in retainers from the “rear compartment trim panel on the rear compartment lid” there’s a need to support the panel more or less in place and when the last retainer has been removed to lower it only enough to reach inside. Why is that important? Because on the top side of the panel are wires on either side which have been hot glued in spots and it’s necessary to reach and disconnect two wiring connectors before the panel can be fully removed without tearing the glue and the wires loose. That was lots of fun (we suggest two sets of hands).

There’s an “arrow” template included in the kit that has to be positioned in a matching recessed area beneath the trunk lid. This template, among other things, is used to mark where the pilot holes are to be drilled. The matching recessed area is noticeably larger than the template. Apart from the obvious need to carefully center the template across the width of the recess there’s the not so obvious need to move it as far forward as possible (arrow tip end) in the recess. Failure to do so can cause the antenna ultimately to be mounted too far to the rear which puts it on the raised center line of the trunk and the base of the antenna will not sit flush against the top of the trunk lid. That half-inch of play in the recess can make a lot of difference. You would think the instructions would address this matter, but they don’t.

So, there are a few tips for the do it yourselfers out there.

Happy listening.

Best regards,
Ed and Sandra