R29 - Sirius Radio Antenna wire routing

[dante3756]

I am trying to figure out the best location for a Sirius Radio Marine Antenna and how to best route the antenna wire to the Fusion radio in the V-Berth of an R29. It seems to me that a good location would be atop the smoke stack. To route the wire would apparently require dismantling some interior trim and the headliner, for which I have little idea how to accomplish it. Even then, I can't see how to further route the antenna wire into the V-berth. My last boat had "fishing lines" to pull other wires thru established runs. Am open for any thoughts and suggestions. Dante

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

Dante: This sounds like a great project we could all learn something from. I might suggest calling Andrew or Kenny at the factory in Kent for there impute. Whatever you find and decide on report back and let us know what you did and how it went. Good luck,

Jim F

 

[DBBRanger]

I have an R25 that I wanted to install Sirius in. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I would get the antenna wires through the cabin. It wasn't going to be easy. Then I happened to try leaving the antenna inside thinking that maybe peaking through the window was good enough. I found not only does it work peaking through the window, but it also works INSIDE THE MAP BOX. Further, it works UNDER the radio. I have no idea why it works, but it does. There have been just a few times when I didn't get reception, but it was immediately resolved. That's where it sits now. Maybe I have Sirius Angels rerouting the signals, but I'm not questioning it.

You might just try it!

Doug

 

[Nellie Too]

Bob installed a TV antenna from the smoke stack and routed the wire down through the smoke stack,

I do know he loosened the headliner close to where the wire would go through.

Give Bob at call at 360-293-0003.

Hi Doug,

This is Bob. We also have a R-29 and I installed a TV antenna in the stack and routed to antenna wire to the TV in the forward birth. Give me a call and I will give you the details, it wasn't too bad a job. Connecting it to the radio may be much more difficult because of the space behind it. I have been trying to reconnect a cable from it to the TV and find it to be very difficult.

Bob

 

[daviduphoff]

I thought I remembered reading something about a Garmin combination GPS and Sirius/XM antenna. Perhaps I am nuts. If this is the case and it uses the same wire and you already have an external GPS antenna and I am not nuts perhaps simply swapping the antenna and using the wire that is already run would work. Then again, I may be nuts.

And in another direction.... We have 4 Scion XBs that we use for delivery at work. We added Sirius to all of them when they were new. We dreaded running the wire per the instructions from the dash all the way to the rear of the car and then out the hatch to be mounted on the rear upper corner of the car. We decided that perhaps we would just test it with the antenna on the dash. It worked great. We used double sided tape and ran the wire through a crack between the dash and trim. We dropped the down to the radio and none of these have failed us since they were installed six years ago. The little antenna is only about two inches around and the wire run is about half an inch. I think it took about 15 minutes per car.

Like Doug said. "You might just try it!"

 

[Irish Mist]

I haven't dug into the wire running from outside yet, but all the wires have to get from the radar etc to home base somehow. I was going to remove the piece that runs along the top of the roof that all the wires connect into, as I would think the wires somehow get to the post where the remote for the radio, and the light are mounted behind the helm seat. I know that there are a ton of wires come down there Just pull out the drawers and you will see them all. Once you get down that post getting to the closet in the bedroom is really easy. As far as accessing the radio there is a panel in the closet that can be removed so you can access better. You will need to remove it to fish a wire from the post I mentioned. I just climb in there. Is awkward but hopefully you only need in there a couple times.
As far as XM radio I do the same with the antenna, just put it somewhere and it works. I have had it in my house on the main floor and it worked through two floors and a roof. I have seen a tug with the Garmin XM and they add another puck which I think would be the xm antenna. I have a portable xm and just connect through the aux input. What I did do, was hook up a 4 channel switching board to the aux input of the radio and mounted it under the shelf in the closet and ran anything to that I want to hear over the radio. saves climbing into the closet anymore 🙂 Just think ahead when you are running wires.. if you think you may add something later run all the wires at once.

 

[Barry Cohen]

The Garmin GXM 51 antennae is NMEA 2000 compliant and will get you both satellite weather and radio.

 

[Bruce Moore]

We had the GXM 51 on our R29 Moondance. We found the weather service redundant at best. I cancelled our subscription to the weather portion after the first season. The radio reception was excellent, but coming in through the chart plotter was inconvenient. The chart plotter connected to the Fusion via the Aux input, and only the music was available - no meta data. And, the chart plotter had to be running to select/change channels - bothersome, especially at anchor.

We plan to install a Sirius/XM radio kit, and have been told the antenna can be mounted internally. This will give us full control and meta data at the Fusion headset and remotes. And, because the Fusion is NMEA compliant, we'll be able to control it from the chart plotter if we choose.

Cheers,

Bruce

 

[dante3756]

This is a follow-up to my earlier request as captioned. After reading all the great suggestions and talking to Bob, who was very knowledgeable about routing wires from the pretend smoke stack, I decided to take the path of least resistance and heeded the advice of some others. I merely placed and secured the Sirius radio antenna in the cubby hole above the helm and windshield on my R29, routing the wire across, then down under the door frame and then through the seam between the dash and starboard wall. Only about an inch of antenna wire is visible. A glitch was that my Fusion CD 600 was not compatible with the typical Sirius radio antenna connection. I bought a Marine grade antenna and compatible hookup directly from Fusion (about $115). Reception has been unwavering. Dante

 

[Bruce Moore]

Cool. What's the difference between the Sirius Radio Marine Antenna you mention in the first post, and the marine grade antenna mentioned in the last post?

Thanks,

Bruce