I am close to buying a Sirius Satellite Radio system. One of the major downsides (other than being forced to use an FM modulator) is "having" to place the antenna on the outside of the car.

Has anyone had any luck in placing a satellite radio antenna on the rear panel (inside the car) of a W203 Sedan (or coupe)?

I have my Terk centered on the modesty panel of the C-coupe. Sometimes there are no dropouts all day. Other days they are so bad I'm ready to go back to commercial(ized) FM. Must be where the satellites are for the day.

I've been tempted to try it at the top of the hatchback on the outside to see if it is any better on those bad days.

Search the Audio Electronics forum for pictures of my recent installation.

Dode

Have you considered putting it at the far aft end of the window to avoid the shadow effect of the metal roof? I have decided to try my Terk antenna (Sirius) at the very aft end of my shelf.

After some research, it is clear to me that the big risk here is the roof blocking the signal. It seems that it would be best to move as far away from that blockage as possible.

Would it be better to get the through the glass type of antenna and stick in near or at the location where the GPS antena is for TeleAid?

Also the Satalites are in the same spot 24/7. They follow the earths rotation. The only thing the changes location is you.

buellwinkle. We have been talking about the Sirius system. This consists of three satellites in elliptical orbits, not geostationary, like the XM. Thus, they satellites don't stay in the same place overhead.

One of the advantages cited for the elliptical orbits is that the satellites can be higher in the sky than for the geostationary.

I don't believe Sirius has a thru-the-glass for sale at this time. Since the antennas were marked by system I don't think they are compatible but could be wrong about that.

yea the satellites are in geostationary orbit. any higher and they would drift off into space and any lower they would actaully fall to the ground. this is the way it has to be.

Hey Nov, did you install the antena and the radio ?? Look nice!

The Sirius satellites are not in geosychronous orbit. They are in a highly elliptical orbit. This type of orbit is/was used by the Russian Molniya communications satellites. Most of Russia is too far north to use geosynchronous comm satellites unless they are very high power.

The moon is roughly 10 times the distance of geosynchronous orbit. While it is moving away from the earth at a few centimeters per year, it is in no danger of flying off into space. Items in very low earth orbit have short lives due to atmospheric drag. Items in higher orbits can stay there for hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of years.

The geosynchronous orbital slots are rapidly filling up. Elliptical orbits will be used a lot more in the future.

Sheeezus Lynn!

Update:

I did it! I installed my Terk antenna (Sirius) at the far aft end of my rear deck (between the speakers and aft of the the rear sunshade) on my C240.

Reception since I installed yesterday, has only been interupted by my garage () and going under some very wide bridges (dropped out for 1/2 sec. or so) on the freeway (at 65mph). Other than that, it seems flawless.

Does this level of dropout seem normal to those of you with externally installed antennas?

My wife has one on her Saturn. It drops out for 1/2 second when going under wide underpasses, and once in a while while going under heavy foliage on trees, especially when they are wet. As for the Garage, yep it loses it there of course and sometimes when getting gas, depending on where the car is under the cover. Her's is on the back of the roof. I wish MB would hurry up and add this as options, they have a deal with Sirius. And since I will not be ordering for 2 more months I was hoping they would have it.