Anyone else having problems with Sirius radio reception? I recently installed the 9980Hd and put the antenna inside vent where the XM antenna is installed. Believe it or not it happens mostly when i'm driving South. I live in Texas, any advice?

 

For all models of the C6, except '05, I believe that the factory XM antenna is installed in both outside rearview mirrors. For the '05, it was a "wart" installed on top of the halo. The factory navagation antenna is installed on top of the center air vent.

 

You can call them and they can resend a signal to your radio. You can also do it yourself on their website.

 

When I first got my F150 Supercrew I had XM installed. The tech mounted the antenna on the left side of the dash. It worked well and was inside but anytime I was traveling North I lost reception. I ended up moving the antenna to the top of the cab right above the cargo light (above back window) and it's worked perfectly ever since. It sounds like you need to find a different antenna location.

 

I had exactely the same problem.

I installed the same 9980 unit and Sirius radio and located the antenna on top of the center dash speaker under the grid (speaker is unpluged).

I got very poor reception.

I did not want to mount it on the roof for obvious reasons.

I did lots of web searches and reading and some seemed to suggest that having the magnetic antenna base on metal on some kind improves the reception.

My solution was to remove the center speaker and make a 1/2" deep basket out of a left over metal perforated speaker grill mesh. I made this very quickly by using a 3.5" hole saw in a piece of 2X6 wood.

I placed the piece of speaker grill over the hole and used the center piece of wood as a punch to pound the mesh approximately 1/2" deep into the hole, then pounded the edges flat to form a shallow cup.

I trimmed the flanged edge to the size of the speaker od and made a few snips for the hold down screws.

I installed the "basket" where the speaker used to be with the same screws and put both the GPS and the Sirius antenna in it.

I've had good reception ever since.

I'm not trying to explain why, just saying that it worked for me.

P.S.
I also had very poor FM radio reception compared to the stock radio even making sure the antenna was properly powered.

I installed a $7 antennal amplifier (from ebay) and now the reception is as good as the stock radio, not overly great, but just as good as stock

Hope this helps

 

I had a new Pioneer sound system installed only a few weeks ago that included Sirius radio. The NAV antenna was placed inside the dash, out of sight and works great. The Sirius radio antenna was placed on top of the dash in the center against the windshield (flat on the dashboard). No unusual reception problems. The only reception issue is when I drive in a heavy treed area. That location of the antenna is small enough to be acceptable and not an eye sore.

Reposition your antenna to the top of your dash center against the windshield.

Hope this helps.

 

When my Kenwood DNX6960 was first installed, the recpetion for satellite radio was terrible; it kept dropping the signal and the outages would last for several seconds before it reaquired the signal (the antenna was at first placed under the dash pad on top of the HVAC center outlet, next to the nav antenna. We then tried moving it to on top of the rear bumper steel impact bar behind the rear bumper fascia - that was no good, either). I then found, after a lot of experimentation, that the best place for my Sirius antenna was at the base of the passenger side "A" pillar.

The installer and I drove all over town with me moving the antenna around inside of the car until we found the "sweet spot" for my car which proved to be at the base of the pssenger side "A" pillar. I pulled the "A" pillar trim off that side, mounted the antenna in the corner on top of the dash pad at the base of the windshield, then re-installed the "A" pillar trim. The antenna is completely hidden behind the trim piece, the trim piece fits just fine and my reception is good enough that it will even pick up all the Sirius stations while the car is in the garage. I hardly ever lose the signal (it only drops when blocked by a close tall building or close dense tree line and that is very infrequent). You might try a similar test with a family member or friend driving while you experiment with different locations inside your vehicle.