Tussin_Wolf

Oh and in case anyone is wondering, the XM and Sirius antennas are completely interchangable. I find the small square XM antenna looks much cleaner and their wiring is way more durable than the Sirius model especially if you're constantly moving the unit from vehicle to vehicle. I have a second dock that I use in my work vehicle so I was always yanking the antenna off the roof or hood and the wires were always getting trashed.

Lately I've found that I don't have to put the antenna outside the vehicle anymore. I have a metal bracket on the dash of my work vehicle for some other equipment so I usually just stick the antenna to that. It seems to get a clear shot through the windshield and it eliminates any leakage or wind noise from weather stripping when its mounted inside.

MPETE

iTrader: (1)

I currently have my antennna velcroed to the dash in my mustang as well. works perfect.
I have a dilema though, my sportster 4 reciever is on it's last legs (can only turn it on/off or change stations with the remote) and my new truck will most likely have factory sirius. I am having trouble deciding after the free factory subscription runs out should I buy a new portable unit, or just change my subscription over to the factory. I really like the rewind/pause/record option of the portable units, but it sure is much easier and cleaner to have the OEM setup.

Wyo11Scab

iTrader: (1)

Aftermarket antenna works fine mounted next to the light sensor by windshield. The factory antenna plug will be too short to reach your portable unit.

Tussin_Wolf

No brainer for me; I use the record feature for 4 hours at a time every day and after that, the Stiletto is basically an iPod with satellite radio built in; way more functional than the built-in unit.

I will say that it looks like there are going to be some changes to their line up soon. The Stiletto II is probably on its way out and it looks like their new smartphone app might be the replacement. The new app lets you pause, rewind and record as well as use an On-Demand feature and there will probably be a dock coming out for your phone so you can plug it in and use it just like a traditional satellite as well. The only problem for me is that its not available for the Blackberry Torch...every other BB, yes, the Torch, no. Ridiculous, haha.

TheRevJosh

I already had a portable unit that we use in my wife's car, so I refused to pay for a second second subscription when my free trial ended since we only drive one vehicle or the other. I opened up the glove box and saw the factory sat antennae was a two wire setup with one wire from the antennae and a second wire from the radio, so here's what I did:

I went on Amazon and ordered a 3ft extension cable with a SMB connector on one end to plug into my radio and an RF connector on the other end, an SMB(f) to RF adaptor, and an SMB(m) to RF adaptor.
I made up a couple of RG6 pig tails, put the adaptors on the pig tails, connected the extension cable and pig tails w/adaptors to an old splitter I had laying around. I then inserted my splitter setup between the two factory sat antennae cables behind the glove box and ran the extension up and out of the dash under the tray in the to of the dash. I connect my portable unit to the stereo with a line-in cable and it works great!
Now I can listen to my portable unit when we go camping or take the truck out, and when Sirius runs their free weekends I can still use the receiver built into the factory head unit.

TheRevJosh

Here are the links to all the parts I used:

The splitter and coax pieces were from a friend who used to install satellite dishes, and any generic tv type splitter and cables will work.

If you don't want to split the signal to the two radios like I did, you can just use the connectors and extension cable to plug into the line from the antenna and divert the signal from the stock radio and route it to your portable radio.
You can expand your mounting options by getting a longer cable like these:

ViolentG

Thanks RevJosh! My ordered parts just came in and am going to attempt this weekend. Did you have to do any soldering or was it all crimping?

TheRevJosh

Good luck, it should be a fairly simple mod. All crimping, I didn't need to solder anything. I was glad I split the cable this weekend; my wife was upset she forgot to grab the portable unit out of her cart so she couldn't listen to the new, temporary Dave Mathews station. Luckily Sirius must have been doing a free weekend for the holiday because I got music when I hit the Sirius button on my factory head unit. Unfortunately for her the Dave station wasn't part of the free weekend, but I still got to listen to Alt Nation...

ViolentG

Thanks to RevJosh for figuring out this ingenious coaxial splitter solution to share the built in Sirius antenna with your portable receiver. The only issue (which isn't really an issue) is that the built in Sirius unit reports an antenna fault when it senses the portable unit but works just fine when the portable receiver's power is turned off. Just in case it wasn't clear the Sirius antenna connections in RevJosh's pictures are right behind the glove compartment so there is no need to pull out the stereo (big relief).

I employed the same antenna splitter solution but mounted my portable receiver low in front of the center console on top of the transmission tunnel and added in two extra 12V DC sockets that turn off when the ignition goes off. The other is for my gps which I ran up through the dashboard tray so I can remove the gps easily and shove its plug down enough to be inconspicuous.

Portable Sirius Receiver


GPS Plug run up to dashboard tray


GPS with friction mount

TheRevJosh

You're welcome. Glad it worked out for you!