Nav & Satellite radio antenna placement (Page 2/2)
cyrus88 DEC 30, 09:21 PM
I put the GPS Antenna somewhere high on the windshield in all my cars. In my Fiero it's on the driver's side upper corner.
ragoldsmith DEC 31, 11:27 AM

quote
Originally posted by Chief08:

So I got a new double din head unit with nav & sirius radio. Where have you guys and girls mounted the antennas for these? The sat radio antenna is magnetic and it is supposed to be mounted outside and on top of the car, but obviously that won't work on a Fiero not to mention there isn't a good way to hide the wire. As for the GPS antenna, it comes with a pad that it has to be mounted on, but I don't want that on my dash. I was thinking of mounting it under the hood, but I believe that like the sat radio, it needs line of sight, so I'm not sure how the reception would be. Thanks in advance.

Dave



Please post photos when you figure out where you’re going to mount the antennas. Interested to see what you come up with.
Chief08 DEC 31, 12:02 PM

quote
Originally posted by ragoldsmith:


Please post photos when you figure out where you’re going to mount the antennas. Interested to see what you come up with.



Will do. For now my plan is to mount the GPS antenna on the wheel well as Dremu suggested. I'll mount the sat radio antenna on the defroster grate first and if the reception is bad, I'll have to mount it outside the car.
Chief08 DEC 31, 05:12 PM
Here is the GPS antenna mounted on the wheel well.
theogre JAN 01, 05:29 PM
Not sure about sat "radio" but Many magnet mount antennas use body the magnet uses to mount as part of the antenna often called a "Ground plane."

If antenna doesn't mounted to metal right then get a crap signal.

Mounted to windshield defog screen maybe better then 2 side tape holding on to plastic.
Or maybe metal under roof skin is good enough.

GPS "brick" under hood might work for some and not others. Example: Some paints may act like E-shield and block signal sim to metal under 84-87 rear deck.
This is on top of other problems often blocking GPS.
When outside of cities, Many units see 6 or often way more sat's but in big cities many have a hard time keeping 3 sat's minimum that it needs to work. Mounting the "brick" under "plastic" body panels can degrade the signal more.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

Chief08 JAN 01, 06:28 PM

quote
Originally posted by theogre:

Not sure about sat "radio" but Many magnet mount antennas use body the magnet uses to mount as part of the antenna often called a "Ground plane."

If antenna doesn't mounted to metal right then get a crap signal.

Mounted to windshield defog screen maybe better then 2 side tape holding on to plastic.
Or maybe metal under roof skin is good enough.

GPS "brick" under hood might work for some and not others. Example: Some paints may act like E-shield and block signal sim to metal under 84-87 rear deck.
This is on top of other problems often blocking GPS.
When outside of cities, Many units see 6 or often way more sat's but in big cities many have a hard time keeping 3 sat's minimum that it needs to work. Mounting the "brick" under "plastic" body panels can degrade the signal more.




The GPS antenna that came with my head unit came with a magnetic pad which is what is stuck to the metal wheel well, and the antenna sits on top of that. We'll see how it works once I get everything put back together.