XM radio questions

[ASTAR]

I have an XM ready stereo in my truck and i bought a skyfi2 reciever to use in my boat, Jeep, and wifes car. For the boat and Jeep I bought the marine kits and they came with a HUGE antenna. Can I just use a regular XM car antenna with these kits? I was told by a kid at Circut City that the bigger antenna is for boats because you will be farther away from power lines!?!? That doesn't make any sense to me, anything to it? Anyways, it's not a big ocean going boat, just a wakeboard boat I use locally. Also, I don't know anything about installing these so I plan to have it done and I noticed that the marine kit has a cigarette lighter thingy. I don't have a cigarette lighter in the jeep or the boat. Can it be cut off and wired into power?

Please help me get this figured out cause I don't have a lot of faith in the local circut city.

Thanks!

Oh, and if anyone can recommend someone in the bay area CA to Sacramento to Stocton area for install, that would be great!

 

[DKarvwnaris]

For the boat and Jeep I bought the marine kits and they came with a HUGE antenna.

The big antenna may be for the terrestrial side of the antenna? You may have bought the ocean install kit, which is not needed for small bodies of inland water



Can I just use a regular XM car antenna with these kits? I was told by a kid at Circut City that the bigger antenna is for boats because you will be farther away from power lines!?!? Sounds like a load of hot air to me, I have an XM Sony radio that I move from our truck, fishing boat, motorhome, and suburban regularly. It plugs in to a cig lighter and I put the car antenna on a small flat topped pole above the drivers seat on my boat. works fine.



Can it be cut off and wired into power? That doesn't make any sense to me, anything to it? I don't have a cigarette lighter in the jeep or the boat. Why not just put a cigaretter lighter outlet in the jeep and boat? You can get them at Wally world or Radio Shack for about $5 each, alot cheaper than cutting up three power cords to hard wire them in to each vehicle.





Please help me get this figured out cause I don't have a lot of faith in the local circut city. I wouldn't trust a retail slug making $6 hr to give me advice on anything. Typically, they have less knowledge than you and are trained to upsell you with a nice story. Read the package for specs and instructions or go to a stereo shop to get the installation completed.

I really can't see that much of problem putting in a few wires and a power port though.

Thanks!

Any small stereo shop can set you up, I haven't been in the Sacto area in a long time. The installers at circuit city will be able to do it, but you'll pay top dollar for their install work. Go find a "mom and pop" shop nearby.

 

[ASTAR]

The other issue is that I didn't want to have exposed cigarette lighter plugs and stuff. Loking for a more clean, more permenant install. I guess I can just have that stuff all hooked up under the dash

Thanks for your time DK

 

[Matt400]

Can I just use a regular XM car antenna with these kits?

I don't see why not.

I noticed that the marine kit has a cigarette lighter thingy. I don't have a cigarette lighter in the jeep or the boat. Can it be cut off and wired into power?

No, because the adapter on those units also has a power reducer built in. They don't run on 12V.



Did you just want a cradle in each vehicle with one single unit to move between them or are you on multiple subscriptions? I have 5 cradles and move a single unit between them. The SkiFi didn't look convenient for that purpose having to mess with wires on each move.

I am not up to date on the latest XM hardware but last I saw they didn't have a true PnP unit where you snap the unit into a wired cradle.



I have Sirius, some of their PnP's can be found here if you are interested.



I do know the SkiFy runs on reduced power though cuz I did an install for a fella and measured the power reduction. For his purpose I hardwired a another power socket under the dash cuz he doesn't move the unit around.

 

[DKarvwnaris]

The other issue is that I didn't want to have exposed cigarette lighter plugs and stuff. Loking for a more clean, more permenant install. I guess I can just have that stuff all hooked up under the dash

Thanks for your time DK

That's why I have additional power outlets installed in my vehicles, either in the console between the seats, or under the dash. My SOny XM unit is a cartridge style unit. It slides into a docking cradle which works well. My biggest drawback is I opted to permanently mount the antenna wires under/inside the trim panels of my dodge, this made me have to buy an additional antenna for the other vehicles (which I rarely use but the dodge daily so I can just move the second antenna around the other vehicles).

I have a fm modulator that plugs into the output on my XM, this eliminates a tape adapter or hardwiring the unit into any specific vehicle. It is small, barely 6" long and takes a single AAA battery to run it for weeks.

 

[tURBOdIEZEl]

the ((xm)) terk commander reciever is a perminate system. thats what im running, and im loving it. very easy to install.

 

[DennyDay]

XM Antenna

The regular small XM automotive antenna requires a ground plane. The bigger antenna does not.



Denny