I have the xm radio and antenna mounted on mounting plate to a Ram ball mounted to the handlebar. No reception problem and a easy disconnect to take the radio to the car.
Mr_Bill

 

Hey Scott, what happened to your Suzuki?

 

Fiberglass doesn't block the signal very much. I have mounted antennas under the trunk lid of Corvettes and under boat decks and the reception is great. I have my antenna under my fairing on the metal bracket that's made to mount it on and I can get 2 bars in my garage parked against the south wall. Not the ideal place to get a signal. I alway mount my antennas on a piece of metal [like the hd bracket] and the fiberglass then has little effect on reception.

 

I had trouble with a lack of signal on my HK radio with the factory XM option. I called XM and they told me they needed to resend or reboot their signal to the receiver. I had to be parked outside with a clear view to the sky for about 15 minutes but after that my XM radio has worked assume.

 

You can do that with your computer also. I think you can google xm refresh and find the page to do it. You will need your radio ID #. type it in and hit refresh.

 

She served her useful life...28,000 miles on her, she's did me well! I figured after 10 yrs. it was time to step up to the HD world now that all the yuppies have stopped buyin them!

 

The main problem is that the newer recievers made (probably last 3 yrs) had to comply with new FCC reg. they reduced the output on the recievers and therefore made the reception awful. I have 3 of the older sirius recievers and have no problems. I had one of the newer units and it was junk so i returned it and bought an older reciever on ebay with the higher output.

 

Your talking about the FM modulator that the FCC made them power down. FM modulation will never be as good as direct connecting. I had a older XM that when we tied our boats together 3-4 boats down could listen on their radios from my xm. Before I got the factory unit on my bike my friend could listen to my portable on his radio while riding behind me. The FCC got all excited because some cars were hearing the uncensored channels coming thru peoples radios while drive down the freeway. But none of that had anything to do with reception from the sat.

 

There is a reason that the XM antenna on cars is always placed on the roof or in the upper right inside windshield. Just as weather can impact the signal so too can any "solid" material placed between antenna and signal source.

I actually sometimes lose the signal when I pull the bike into the back of my garage.

Thus, my XM connection on the Zumo 550 includes the RAM bracket that holds the Garmin antenna itself. Had it for a month now with no problems and 1,500 miles of riding

Previously, I had a Delphi XM and used the same mounting arrangement

 

Under the fairing on top of the radio on my Road Glide gave me the worst recection of any of the places I tried it, might be because the radio is at a angle to the ground, any one seen a connector that would let you hook up 2 ant. (2 ant to the connector then one cable going to the Sat rec.) one ant. in front one ant. in back, I think that would solve a bunch of the rec problems!