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What is the little "box" in the middle of the trunk?
Just learning about my newly purchased 2004 SL500. Have read much on this forum, but still do not know for sure what the little box on the outside in the middle of the trunk. My guess is a satellite radio antenna but not sure. Kind of wish it wasn,t there.
2005 R 230 SL350 (M112 3.7). Sold the 1966 W113 230SL recently
Oh like this one. Never seen one on an SL. Not all that nice, indeed. Is that the best they could come up with... now I’ll google that type of radio, to find out what I’m missing, not having one.
Last edited by Frederick NL; 12-14-2018 at 03:41 AM.
Yes,that is exactly what I was talking about. I wasn't seeing the antenna on pictures of other SL's. The clear coat on mine had deteriorated so in the process of repainting it. Too bad it is there, don't like satellite radio anyway. Thanks for the info and pic.
I love Sirius radio, but I hate that puck. On my CLK, the rear trunk lid was fiberglass, and the antenna was located under the lid. I guess with the SL's being aluminum, it had to be outside the lid in order to get a signal. Of course this is only available on USA and Canadian models as that is the only place you can receive Sirius satellite radio.
2005 R 230 SL350 (M112 3.7). Sold the 1966 W113 230SL recently
My Garmin 3+ gps took ages to lock in on enough satellites to function. My iPhone does that in seconds (for navigation), inside or out. The chip sets must have improved dramatically. Does a modern Sirius set really still need an exterior antenna (is radio heavier traffic than location pinpointing, only one satellite at any time)?
The signal from he GPS satellites is very simple. It's basically a single stream that delivers a timestamp, and while you may have visibility to up to 9 satellites, you only need three to triangulate your position. The signals from the SiriusXM satellites carry much more data. There are over 200 audio channels, plus the do offer video and other data (traffic and weather). It needs a much stronger signal, thus the need for an unobstructed antenna. In fact, clouds, trees and buildings can weaken the signal to the point that the audio drops out briefly. To combat that, the data stream is buffered inside the radio. I have found that the "native Sirius" system that MBZ uses is very good at this and has minimal dropouts. My wife's Cadillac has a "native XM" radio and it's very bad about dropouts.
12-13-2018, 12:46 AM
