I put in sirius into my car using NavTv over a year ago. They mounted the antenna under the front cowling near the windshield wiper. It has been fantastic since I got it. Reception has been fantastic.

All of the sudden out of the blue reception got terrible. I looked under the hood, removed the battery cover and I could see that the antenna had fallen off from the cowling. I got new tape, and put it back in the exact same spot...I could feel the old tape. The reception is still bad and very choppy.

So what could it be? I'm kind of stumped. I can only come up with 2 ideas.

1) The antenna got damaged after it feel from bouncing around. Could this happen?

2) I needed to remove sub woofer. When doing so I could see all the excess antenna wire. I shoved the wire back in when I put the sub back on. Only thing about this is A) The reception was fine for a week or so after I did this. B) The antenna did fall off which seems more likely. Can damage be done to the antenna wire...maybe it was bent?

It's so odd to be since it was working perfect and the antenna was placed perfectly back?

Any help would be great.

 

Make sure the antenna connector is tight, starting in the cowl area and then near the sub. The wire itself is usually made of fairly robust mini-coax. It would take a severe bend to cause damage. Also check for cuts in the shielding near your sub, possibly caused when reinstalling the sub.

 

Sometimes an update on the Sirrus side disrupts satellite connectivity. Call Sirrus and have them send you a fresh initialization signal. It has helped with my radio in the past.

 

When you say cuts in the shielding do you mean the rubber around then antenna wire?

I will also have a new signal sent.

Thanks.

 

If the connectors are properly engaged, I would check the whole length of the antenna wire to ensure it hasn't been pinched or skinned somewhere.

 

So I looked over the antenna wire and found a place where it was sliced down to the metal. I'm guessesing it happened when I was messing with the subwoofer. Is there a way to repair it or just needs to be a new one?

See the pics below.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

I'm not aware of any way to repair that small cable. You may need to find a new antenna with cable attached, since they are usually hardwired at the antenna end. You can often find them on eBay quite cheap, assuming yours is a standard one like the ones used on "Roady" XM radios etc. Good luck.

 

That's the mini-coax cable. It's just like the cable for TV, only smaller diameter. Inside is a solid core single wire. Around that some insulation, usually white plastic. Then braided ground "mesh" all around the plastic. Finally the black plastic outer wrapper.

I can't tell by the photo if only the ground braid is showing or if its deeper. If it's just ground a quick repair should work. I'd start with black electrical tape, make sure the overall wire is straight in that area, and reinstall.

If all else fails, then replacing the wire would be next. Sometimes its connected to the antenna, which means a complete antenna replacement. Usually around $20 or less for parts.

http://www.tss-radio.com/satellite-r...-antennas.html