Dubai Stu

I have a Sirrius Stilleto. I'm going to be out on the road in various rental cars over the next four months and was wondering if anyone has a good way to use a portable satellite radio in car.

Now that tape decks are gone, you are mostly plugging in the hutch, but for satellite service you want a line of site. I have an extra uninstalled car kit with a magnetic antenna, cradle, line in cord, and cigarette lighter adapter which is a lot for a carry on bag.

I could bring a little extra velcro and glue a piece of velcro on to the top of the dashboard, and stick the mag antenna there. I route the antenna out the back passenger door and stick on the roof.

Reminds me of my old days when I use to carry all sorts of equipment to splice (sometimes literally) into hotel phone lines and get an outbound internet connection. Does anyone know of a more elegant solution?

curbcrusher

I take my Sirius receiver with me and don't waste time doing anything elegant. I slap the antenna on the roof somewhere, route its cable into the car in a manner that keeps it free of anything on which it could be caught, and plug everything in (I don't take anything more than the antenna, cigarette lighter adapter and the receiver). I remove everything while I refuel the rental upon return.

CrazyOne

That's the way I do it. I have a bigger clunkier receiver (Sportster Replay) but usually don't have to figure out flying with it. You don't really need to take the mount. Indeed, the last time I used it in a rental I didn't even use the windshield mount, just slap the magnetic antenna, route it vaguely out of the way, plug in the lighter cord and antenna cord, tune radio to 87.9 (which is the frequency I always use, works almost everywhere except other people using sat receivers also use it and create interference sometimes). I would bring an aux cable though just in case the rental has an aux jack; then you won't have to worry about the FM transmitter finding a clear station. Doesn't have to be very long so wouldn't take up much space.

It's never going to get too elegant in the rental. You can spend more time routing the antenna cable if you want, but you still need it. If you're going to be in the rental car enough, it's worth it. If you're not going to be in the car much, then I wouldn't bother bringing it at all. Some of the car-oriented receivers may end up being simpler to cart for car use than the portable, not sure.

Ztras

I've actually had great luck with just sticking the antenna to the passenger side seat belt buckle! Nothing outside the car at all. And many of the cars that I've rented lately (especially intermediate and above) have had Line In/Aux/iPod jacks. Nice and simple.