my hack for Sirius ugly antennas
08-12-2004, 06:36 PM
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2004 E500 4Matic Wagon
my hack for Sirius ugly antennas
Bah on the Mercedes Sirius crap antenna! Who POSSIBLY designs this type of thing ? Here's the elegant solution...
Go get a Kenwood CX-SR40 antenna, it's tiny and is magnetically mounted on any flat surface. No holes. I mounted it 5.5in from the rear edge of of the roof of my E500 Wagon. It holds like a leech, believe me. Even repositioning it is a wrestling match.
Now,run the cable down the rubbber hatch/trunk drip seal (pull them off, they are easy to push back on).
Next, cut a _small_ semicircular notch, using a file, in the metal rim which the seal pushes on to , this in the area of the trunk lid, so as to not pinch the cable when going in the car. Feed cable in to car via the notch. I cut a grommmet to fit, to protect the cable.
Lead the cable to Sirius receiver, now use a Terk SIR-SP splitter to split the single lead cable to two cables (Sat + Terrestrial). NOTE, the Blue female connector on the Sirius receiver has a PROPRIETARY( thank you Mercedes!) extra plastic notch key on it, preventing the connector from the SIR-SP second cable from sliding on. Shave this off with an X-Acto knife.
Done ! Works beautifully. I installed the whole system myself in about an hour and my kind dealer (wonderful guys) slid the car in to a bay for 30 sec to hit it with the DAS to reprogram the MOST ring to recognize the unit. Be advised, if you are not comfortable physically reconfiguring the MOST fiber ring too, don't do this install yourself :-) The SDARS (Sirius) unit I/O connector is not in the ring, as delivered, you have to go to the Gateway/ Compensator/Booster area (under rear seat/ or trunk depending on model) and connect its two fibers in to 2 fiber connectors to bring it in to the ring.
For you SERIOUS fanatics, hide the antenna under the hood grill where the wiper nozzles are, then strap it up underneath with black wire ties. It does not perform as well as out in the open, but is acceptable. For those of you with spoilers, the smaller TERK antennas fit quite nicely inside the spoiler support arms.
Regards, happy hacking, feel free to contact me if you have questions
geoff
gbaehr@pacbell.net
Go get a Kenwood CX-SR40 antenna, it's tiny and is magnetically mounted on any flat surface. No holes. I mounted it 5.5in from the rear edge of of the roof of my E500 Wagon. It holds like a leech, believe me. Even repositioning it is a wrestling match.
Now,run the cable down the rubbber hatch/trunk drip seal (pull them off, they are easy to push back on).
Next, cut a _small_ semicircular notch, using a file, in the metal rim which the seal pushes on to , this in the area of the trunk lid, so as to not pinch the cable when going in the car. Feed cable in to car via the notch. I cut a grommmet to fit, to protect the cable.
Lead the cable to Sirius receiver, now use a Terk SIR-SP splitter to split the single lead cable to two cables (Sat + Terrestrial). NOTE, the Blue female connector on the Sirius receiver has a PROPRIETARY( thank you Mercedes!) extra plastic notch key on it, preventing the connector from the SIR-SP second cable from sliding on. Shave this off with an X-Acto knife.
Done ! Works beautifully. I installed the whole system myself in about an hour and my kind dealer (wonderful guys) slid the car in to a bay for 30 sec to hit it with the DAS to reprogram the MOST ring to recognize the unit. Be advised, if you are not comfortable physically reconfiguring the MOST fiber ring too, don't do this install yourself :-) The SDARS (Sirius) unit I/O connector is not in the ring, as delivered, you have to go to the Gateway/ Compensator/Booster area (under rear seat/ or trunk depending on model) and connect its two fibers in to 2 fiber connectors to bring it in to the ring.
For you SERIOUS fanatics, hide the antenna under the hood grill where the wiper nozzles are, then strap it up underneath with black wire ties. It does not perform as well as out in the open, but is acceptable. For those of you with spoilers, the smaller TERK antennas fit quite nicely inside the spoiler support arms.
Regards, happy hacking, feel free to contact me if you have questions
geoff
gbaehr@pacbell.net
08-12-2004, 06:42 PM
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GL320CDI / C63 Edition 507 Coupe (EDP) / E63 S (on order) / G500 / Smart Brabus
Originally Posted by smcs1723
Lead the cable to Sirius receiver, now use a Terk SIR-SP splitter to split the single lead cable to two cables (Sat + Terrestrial). NOTE, the Blue female connector on the Sirius receiver has a PROPRIETARY( thank you Mercedes!) extra plastic notch key on it, preventing the connector from the SIR-SP second cable from sliding on. Shave this off with an X-Acto knife.
The SIR-SP has connectors on it that plug into an ALC. The ALC has blue/white connectors on it.
It's all been covered here before, and also why I don't like this setup, so anyone who wants to read it can search on it.
Thanks for your write up though!
-s-
