Add a second Sirius XM Satellite antenna ?

[Wandering Pinto]

I do a lot of traveling and enjoy having Sirius XM Satellite radio, but, when traveling a usually have a cargo box mounted to the roof. This , depending on which direction we are traveling, blocks the signal. Is there a way to wire in a second antenna and mount in in the front of the Bronco so I can receive a signal when the back one is blocked?

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[Arcee]

You would need to use a SiriusXM signal combiner to accomplish this [and figure out how to wire it in correctly to the satellite radio receiver.] It is kind of hit or miss with these types of installs. Some people report they work just fine. Others report a lot of noise or it simply doesn't work as intended.

 

[Dude]

I do a lot of traveling and enjoy having Sirius XM Satellite radio, but, when traveling a usually have a cargo box mounted to the roof. This , depending on which direction we are traveling, blocks the signal. Is there a way to wire in a second antenna and mount in in the front of the Bronco so I can receive a signal when the back one is blocked?

You can buy just the SiriusXM antenna (see pic top right), mount that in an open area possibly on the roof above windshield and run the antenna cable down the drivers side pillar and into interior of vehicle under/behind the dash over to behind the 8” Display. I’m 90% sure the SiriusXM vehicle tuner (receiver) is located close to the APIM which is behind the 8” Display but others might know for sure.

If you wanted to avoid issues with a SiriusXM signal combiner, you can unplug the SiriusXM rooftop antenna and plug in your new SiriusXM antenna (this plug in occurs behind the 8” Display).

See the link for the SiriusXM parts and possible that company will sell you just the SiriusXM antenna. If not you can Google search to locate one at a reasonable price or snag one from a wrecked vehicle.

You can find Ford’s PDF showing how to run a cable down the drivers side pillar.

You can find a YouTube video showing how to add Ford Navigation which shows you how to disassemble the center area to gain access behind the 8” Display.

I do not know how much signal interference or satellite signal degradation you will experience by mounting a new SiriusXM antenna in a different location - Ford has done the RF engineering when the location for the shark fin antenna was chosen but I assume also knew that location would interfere with satellite reception when cargo is placed above the shark fin antenna (the shark fin antenna provides AM/FM/HD and contains the SiriusXM antenna).

https://www.xm-radio-satellite.com/products/ford-siriusxm-radio-oem-factory-radio-kit

 

[Slingy]

Do you have the SiriusXM phone app? You can use that through CarPlay and it has additional channels that you can't get on the car radio. If you're already paying for Sirius you should be able to download the app and use it at no additional cost.

 

[Wandering Pinto]

Do you have the SiriusXM phone app? You can use that through CarPlay and it has additional channels that you can't get on the car radio. If you're already paying for Sirius you should be able to download the app and use it at no additional cost.

Yes, we have done that. It works mostly, but we tend to travel the road less traveled and don't always have cell service.

 

[Tigger]

My initial thought is that antennas easily are interchangeable, so why not just add a very long antenna for these trips? Is that possible?

Anyway, a google search lead me to this, and not sure if it could somehow meet your needs.

https://sellommk.life/product_details/17887518.html

 

[Wandering Pinto]

My initial thought is that antennas easily are interchangeable, so why not just add a very long antenna for these trips? Is that possible?

Anyway, a google search lead me to this, and not sure if it could somehow meet your needs.
Possibly , if the satellite antenna uses the whip or is in the base.

https://sellommk.life/product_details/17887518.html

 

[Dude]

In your pic it’s pretty clear why the roof mounted cargo box interferes with satellite radio at least some of the time.

When parked you can orient the vehicle for best reception (the online siriusXM satellite coverage maps are handy but that can be a pain - I think links are posted in this thread:
https://www.broncosportforum.com/forum/threads/siriusxm-satellite-radio-reception.4368/)

It occurred to me that adding a 2nd SiriusXM antenna shown in Post #3 doesn’t have to be on the roof. You can probably keep it coiled up inside the vehicle and place it near the windshield but how to plug in the antenna could be troublesome unless the SiriusXM signal combiner (Post #2) works or maybe there is an RF Antenna switch that can be installed to have both the added antenna and the shark fin SiriusXM antenna plugged into the SiriusXM vehicle tuner (receiver) all the time via a RF Antenna switch. There will be some signal degradation if a switch could be used.

 

[MJE]

I bought the factory kit many moons ago for an F150 that didn’t have it (but did have the nav option). The antenna it came with was just a standard Sirius/xm black flat puck with 3M tape. I mounted it at the base of the windshield on the black plastic cowl so it was well hidden, ran the cord through a rubber grommet in the firewall & into the back of the sirius module. This setup worked fine for a decade & 150k miles or so.

TL;DR heck you may be able to just unplug the shark fin forever & use a different antenna altogether with your factory setup without any degradation or loss in performance, no signal splitting needed.

 

[kshaw]

I put a Tour 360 SXM tuner in my plane and placed an XM antenna on the glare shield (dash) and it works fine. I did position the antenna away from the compass because the antenna had a built in magnet. I used a motorcycle version of the antenna which has a four feet antenna cable instead of the 30 foot variety that come with the car installations.

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