Does anyone know the recommended installation placement for the XM satellite antenna. Just had mine installed and Toyota placed it on the dash passenger side and I get spotty reception. I would think it would get better all around reception on the roof above the hatchback.
Mine is also on the dash, passenger side. I've had it about three weeks and reception is great...no noticeable difference compared to my roof mounted XM antenna on my Infiniti G35. Now that it is warming up here in the desert, I will be using my front sunshade (obtained very easily on the BT site here on PriusChat) regularly and I am a bit concerned about knocking the antenna around a bit as I place/remove this shade a few times a day.
Mine's on the dash too, on the driver's side. Besides reception dropping in the usual places like tunnels and parking decks, it also drops out in the summer when there's a thick overhead canopy from large trees lining both sides of the road. Mine is self-installed, and the dropouts aren't frequent enough or long enough on my typical routes to justify taking the time to route the wire through the car. But having said that, if reception is unsatisfactory, I would ask your dealer to move it to the roof. It likely will be better there. You presumably paid good money for the radio and the install, and it's not unreasonable to expect consistent performance.
Mine is on the roof above the hatch between the hatch gutter and the normal radio antenna. Dealer installed there.
+1 more on the roof for my XM Roadie I mounted it myself and also mounted the Gillson external antenna for the Garmin Quest GPS on the roof. No problems so far but I have not run it through the car wash yet. The reception has been flawless on both the XM and the GPS. Prior to mounting them here, there were a lot of dropouts on both. Both units work fine on the interior of other vehicles so there is something about the Prius windshield (either the slope or tint or something) that does not like satellite antenni. Roof mount was the fix for me although I haven't yet measured the reduction in MPG now that I've increased the air flow resistance!
Ditto... My mag mount has been there for a year, gone through many car washes with no problem. Be aware, if you are in a large urban area you are probably receiving XM from a terrestrial repeater, not a satellite. Go to antenna aiming on your receiver and see which has greater signal. I used to have a link to a map of the repeaters, think it's in a previous thread on PC. Here's a list... Akron Albany Albuquerque Atlanta Austin Birmingham Boston Buffalo Charlotte Chicago Cincinnati Clevland Columbus Dayton Denver Detroit Dallas/Ft. Worth Greensboro Greenville, SC Harrisburg Hartford Houston Indianapolis Jacksonville Kansas City Knoxville Los Angeles Louisville Las Vegas Memphis Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis Monterey Nashville Norfolk New Orleans New York City Oklahoma City Orlando Philidelphia/Wilmington Phoenix/Tucson Pittsburgh Portland Providence Raleigh Richmond Rochester Sacramento San Antonio San Diego Seattle San Francisco Salt Lake City Springfield, MA St. Louis Syracuse Tampa Toledo Washington DC/Baltimore
