I've decided to get my boyfriend Sirius radio for his DD for Christmas and also add it to my car. When he gets his Camaro up and running hopefully by this coming Spring I'll add a unit to it. I'm a little lost on what I should get for now. He just has a Cavalier for the DD and was thinking of a plug -n-play for it and of course mounting the antenna isnt a concern but for mine I am. Someone at work here has it in their truck and says that antenna scratches the roof all to hell and the stuff used for mounting (white stuff) runs from time to time on the paint and has messed it up. He also told me it's cheaper to go the plug-n-play for my car also.

Anyway if someone can help me with what units I should get and what all I need. Right now I only need two units. One for the Cavalier and one for my Formula

Thanks in Advance

 

Your best bet as far as plug-and-play units is to go to sirius.com and check out what's available that has the features you want at a price you're willing to pay. Unfortunately, there aren't any more units that have a red display to match the dash in your Formula. There used to be - the original Starmate had a red display - but now they're either orange or blue. Several people have complained that the new Starmates have displays that are too bright even when dimmed as much as possible. If that's a concern you should have a look at them at Best Buy or Circuit City. The Sportster models are well-liked but they're larger than the others so they can be more difficult to mount.

You'll want to get a wired modulator or an auxiliary input adapter (or a cassette adapter if you have a tape deck) because the built-in wireless FM modulator sucks.

As far as the antenna goes - I don't have any idea what the guy at your work is talking about. You won't be able to use the magnetic mount because there's no metal at the top of your car but the "white stuff" is ordinary 2-sided automotive tape (so how could it run?) The satellite signal isn't affected much by glass or plastic so several people have mounted their antenna inside the rear spoiler. Otherwise, put it on the bar between the t-tops or near the top of the hatch glass so that you don't damage any paint.

 

Thanks for the reply and info. As far as what the guy at work was talking about is an older antenna set up he has so I'm guessing they have improved them. His doesnt look like the ones online...its rather large and bulky. As far as the running I dont know either what he's pertaining to...he's the IT guy here so what should I expect .

They have Sirius here for the office and he showed me the display they have and its red.I just asked him about trading and he said most likely they could do that.I'll also look on ebay for the one with the red display. I see online that Sirius only has the blue and yellow

 

I favor the starmate replay but thats just my opinion. My buddy had his mounted inside his center console so its out of the way, but yet not a hassle to change songs either. Others might see it differently but I think it looks pretty good. His antenna is mounted under the dash and he hasnt had any reception problems so you could consider that. Other than that, Whitebird pretty much covered everything pretty well. The FM wired adapter is a must, it can make a world of difference.

 

well alot of it is going to depend on what kind of stereo you are running, if you are running an aftermarket stereo you can see if it has a line-input in the back for a cd changer/ipod, if it does that you get the line adapter and you can run the sirius through RCA cables directly into the h/u so you dont have to use the FM modulator. Then all you need is 1 sirius receiver and you can switch it from car to car, just get the car adapters and keep one in each car. Otherwise the best Sirius ones out there IMO are the starmate replay. They are small and thin and are easy to mount up. If you run off the FM modulator you will get some static here and there.

As for mounting the antenna youve got a couple of options, one is you can mount it underneath the high rise spoiler, another is wire it through the roof and put it on the ttop center panel. i dont know if this is limited to verts but in my 02 vert there is a space on the back trunk that is covered by that cloth backing that you can stick it on, there is one on eithor side and its about 2" by 2", sits on it perfect and you get awesome reception.

 

Michelle, I put in the Sirius One ($20 from Circuit City on black Friday) in the Camaro this weekend. It kind of looks like a radar detector. I mounted it up at the top of the windshield on the left near the headliner and ran the wires down behind the pillar. I put the antenna on the dash in the left corner and I get perfect reception. No need for it to be outside on the car.

I do recommend you get the FM modulator relay to make it a wired connection, along with the proper antenna adaptor. The wireless FM modulator is pretty weak and it constantly overrun by the stations coming out of DC, even on the channels that don't seem to come in well. I should have my modulator kit in this week and I'll install it this weekend. I can give you a link for it if you want.

And if you want to hide the power cord, go to Radio Shack and buy http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search and tap it into the fuse panel to a switched open slot. The hide the wires under the dash.

 

Thanks for all the replies and helpful information. I'm going to get Tim a Starmate Replay as suggested. On ebay I can get one new for $60 with a $30 rebate. I'll also get the FM Adapter. I do have another question though. Is there a way I can plug it up temporarily to the car so I can activate it? I want to be able to have it activated by Christmas for him.

Thanks for the links and info also Bo

 

Yes, when you get it it will be ready to go using the built-in wireless FM modulator. Just plug in the power cord to your cigarette lighter, plug in the antenna and throw it up on the dash temporarily, then set the FM modulator to an unused FM frequency and tune the car radio to the same frequency. That's it - tune to Sirius channel 184 (the preview channel), call Sirius with the ESN number, and activate the radio.

 

Cool beans...thanks alot

 

I installed the FM modulator tonight. It made a huge difference.

I hope I don't run afoul of the non-sponsor link rule, but these are the parts you'll need for Tim's Cavalier to make it enjoyable.
http://www.tss-radio.com/sirius-wire...lay-p-118.html
http://www.tss-radio.com/antenna-ada...ss-p-4083.html

 

So I need both the FM adapter and modulator for my car? Thanks for the link Bo.

 

No, it's not two devices - it's a matter of terminology. Anything that translates audio output into a signal that can be used by an FM radio is called an FM modulator.

There is a built-in wireless FM modulator in the satellite radio. It broadcasts a weak FM signal that can only be picked up for a few feet. You tune your radio to the frequency that it's broadcasting on and you can listen to the satellite radio through your FM radio. The problem is that the signal is weak so it gets easily overpowered by broadcast FM stations in the area and is subject to static so the sound is usually terrible.

Then you have wired FM modulators. They plug into the headphone (audio out) jack of the satellite radio and are installed inline in the antenna cable. They translate the audio to an FM signal and then push it directly into the antenna cable. This gives you a stronger signal. Since they block off the AM/FM antenna while in use they also eliminate interference from broadcast stations.

Now, a relatively new device that applies only to satellite radios is the FM relay. This is very much like a wired FM modulator in that it is installed inline in the antenna cable and switches from broadcast to satellite when in use. The difference is that it doesn't have the modulator circuitry in it - it has to be connected to a special "FM Out" jack on the satellite radio. The satellite radio creates the FM modulated signal and passes it to the relay which puts it into the antenna cable.

Only one of these setups is required. The wireless setup is only good for temporary connections (no wires to worry about) because the sound is so bad. Both the wired modulator and the FM relay will give you better sound. There are good and bad wired FM modulators on the market so you're taking less of a chance going with the FM relay.

The antenna adapter is necessary because GM doesn't use a standard size plug on the end of its antenna cables. So you need the adapter kit so that you can plug the antenna cable into the wired modulator or relay and then plug the modulator or relay into the back of the radio.

 

Thanks again. No wonder I was confused. I thought they seemed like the same thing.

 

1 thing about the plug n play sirius radios, my 01z28 doesnt have a metal roof, that top tbar is all plastic, so.... my antenna is not grounded via the magnetic antenna thing.

my sound is grainy, sometimes its not all there, only metal i have been able to find on my car to make the magnetic antenna work properly is the hood/doors.

anyone have any ideas on that?? only thing i can think of is to get one of those antenna's that sticks to the windshield on both sides.

btw when you get sirius make sure you put Area 33 (channel 33) on your saved channels, best in trance/progressive house in the world!!!

 

Any reception problems you're having are not related to the magnetic antenna. The magnet is provided merely as a convenience for mounting and is not necessary for reception. Both XM and Sirius use a microwave band that doesn't need a ground plane for reception much like cordless phones. Actually, with a few exceptions, most antennas don't need ground planes for reception - a ground plane is really only important for transmitting.

Most of us have our satellite antennas mounted on the t-top bar, on the hatch glass, or hidden inside the spoiler and suffer no ill effects on reception from not being attached to metal surfaces. You should probably look elsewhere in your system for the sound problems. Besides, since the signal is digital you won't get fading or interference like normal radio - the signal will be either on or off. The strength will vary but the sound is the same until the reception strength gets weak enough to cut off (not fade out). There is a reception strength meter built in to your satellite radio. If you check you should find that the signal strength is adequate regardless of mounting surface.

 

try changing to a different fm frequency and see if that helps your sound. Otherwise id hard wire it into the stereo if possible

 

Well I finally have everything for both our cars now . I will activate it in a couple days. Thanks to everyone for all the help!

 

yeh thats pretty much exactly what the guy @ best buy told me, about being microwave and not necessarily needing to be grounded. thing about it is, when i take that same atenna in my car for the radio, and slap it on the metal pieces of the car, boom the reception is like 100x better the grainyness goes away, but it looks gay having the antenna on the door lol.

try that with yours, get an extra antenna hook it up, and then exchange between the metal surfaces and plastic ones, tell me if you get the same results.

same goes with my friends caddy, he's got his on metal w/ the magna thing working as intended and he gets great sound.

 

I had my Sirius antenna on my dashboard and just last week moved it onto my front left shock-tower (thankfully I have a WS6 w/ the fiberglass hood). The antenna has no problems getting a signal through the plastic. The signal strength is much better then before… now I don’t loose my signal at all on my way to work. I also hooked up the FM direct (from Sirius for $20) and that delivers a much better signal that never gets interrupted… however I was hoping for a much better sound quality… its 80% better then before but not close to CD quality.

 

It will never be CD quality because of the compression used. The best you can hope for is MP3 quality (about 128Kbps).