XM Antenna

[SteveF]

Where are the factory satellite antennas mounted. I have a Kenwood head unit that will accept a satellite receiver, but I'm not sure where to mount the antenna.

 

[JerryD]

It's located on the passenger side of the roll bar, on the triangular attachment plate. If you pull back the roll bar padding, you will see where it mounts.

Quadratec has installation instructions on their site. Below is a screenshot of the pdf.

 

[SteveF]

It's located on the passenger side of the roll bar, on the triangular attachment plate. If you pull back the roll bar padding, you will see where it mounts.

Quadratec has installation instructions on their site. Below is a screenshot of the pdf.

View attachment 118927

Do you know if that location will be acceptable for aftermarket antennas. Won't the roof obstruct the satellite signals?

 

[JerryD]

With the stock radio, I used to get buffering but haven't had satellite in years. The hardtop was fine but the bows of the softop could cause issues. Like with any antenna mounted on a Jeep, there's always a compromise.

 

[hydiseka]

With the stock radio, I used to get buffering but haven't had satellite in years. The hardtop was fine but the bows of the softop could cause issues. Like with any antenna mounted on a Jeep, there's always a compromise.

So is it worth switching to satellite? My stock radio is very weak with a lot of static and was going to add the jeep to my account, but it sounds like it would be a waste of money if reception is spotty at best

 

[JerryD]

It worked as good as satellite normally does, occasionally a bit of buffering but it wasn't bad.

What got me to drop it was switching to an Android-based radio, tethering it to my phone and running iheart & Spotify apps on the radio.

 

[Anybodyhome]

I've had Sirius/XM for over 15 years in multiple vehicles, including my JKU, and there's no way I'm going back to terrestrial radio. I never had buffering issues in any vehicle. But, I will tell you I get better sound quality using my Galaxy S10+ tethered with the Sirius/XM app. It sounds a lot brighter than what my stock head unit delivers.
And, I guess of I did away with satellite, I'd probably use my Spotify and Pandora accounts a lot more.

 

[JerryD]

I've had Sirius/XM for over 15 years in multiple vehicles, including my JKU, and there's no way I'm going back to terrestrial radio. But, I will tell you I get better sound quality using my Galaxy S10+ using aux connection with bluetooth.

Yeah, satellite sound compression does a number on the fidelity, but in my Jeep I barely noticed because of the noisy environment