laborkei

I recently had a Z2 installed professionally.
I assumed????
They would have utilized the existing factory XM antenna and they did not.

If you remove the center glove box on the dash, they mounted both XM and Nav antenna's underneath close to the front of the windshield, where they are also hidden. XM receive is pretty good, but Navigation sometimes has problems receiving satellite data when I am travelling around the Atlanta area with the buildings, and the hilly burbs.

Should I move the antenna's, or do I get used to this.
I do like not advertising I have a Z2 installed where it may cause a break in.
I have observed when driving on the interstate, it works perfect with no problems.

Comments please...

laborkei

Follow Up...

I made some calls today and found out that the experts I paid to install this system did not install the antenna's correctly.
What happens typically, the small Sat Antenna's are magnetic. The manufacturer suggest to install them at the highest location and on the vehicle's exterior for best performance. An alternative method is to install the antenna's inside the vehicle at a location where there is non-restrictive glass above the antenna's. When this is done, the manufacture provides small metal plates with a double sided tape on them. The metal plates should be attached to the dash, and then the antenna's will magnetically stick on to these plates providing the antenna with a good ground plane for better receive of Sat signals. Well, my installers through away these metal plates, and stuck the antenna's to a convenient place under the dash where the glove box hinges on the HHR putting the double sided tape on the magnets of the antenna's.

Reading this information, I basically manufactured my own version of these metal plates, and installed them to the antenna's at the same hidden location under the dash. The signals are double what they were before.
After doing a test drive in some areas that have some low spots, the Sat signals were never lost. So I am happy I made a few calls this morning and my problem is now solved. I did like the idea of the antenna's being hidden to not advertise the fact that I had an expensive system installed.

I did do a followup call the the installation manager, and he said they should have installed the metal plates. Of course he would say that...
He would make corrective action in his shop.

HHR_ROX_CALI

I don't know where in the sky the GPS satellite is but I do know where the XM satellite is. I'd be surprised if that set-up works for you with XM. What MAY happen is that you will lose the XM signal when you're travelling north in your area. Because even though the HHR has a relatively long sloped front windshield, I don't think the angle is sufficient to have line-of-sight to the satellite directly behind the car so when you are travelling away from the satellite (roughly over the Carribean south of the US), you could lose the signal. I've installed several of those for friends and one friend insisted that she didn't want the antenna on the roof. So I installed it at the most forward spot on the dash (in a Trailblazer) and, sure enough, she had problems when driving northwest (in California). Maybe your location in the South will give you the clearance- will be curious to hear. Good luck!

laborkei

Thanks for your reply...
XM in many area's is sent via "repeater" sites similar to Cell Phone Towers. The reason I know this, I know someone personally who works for XM, and he told me where the "Repeaters" are. I have not had any issues with XM, just the Navigation part of the Z2.

I agree, I may have a problem with the XM Antenna when leaving the metro Atlanta area, but so far... I have not had a problem when travelling to Alabama and Florida. It's hard to know when you are receiving XM via Satellite, or XM Repeaters. You just know it works.

As far as my original post, it looks like I solved the problem by adding the small metal plates under the antenna's. You can go to hardware settings on the Z2, and monitor the signal strength. So I feel real good about my fix.

HHR_ROX_CALI

Oh BTW, just saw your pics. That baby is SWEET.
If I may ask, how much installed?

Navyflyer11

In most metropolitan areas there are XM signal repeaters so you don't have to have line of site to the Sat.

HHR_ROX_CALI

The fact that XM has repeaters was news to me until this thread. Definitely glad to hear it. However, the key words are "in metropolitan areas". Many places in Cali- and all over the West- are outside of metropolitan areas so I wouldn't advise the dash mounted antenna for those folks.

laborkei

My whole intent was to hide the fact that I had an expensive Nav System. From the exterior, I look stock...

Sorry to repeat myself, but since I called Pionneer, correct the antenna's by putting a good ground underneath them, they are working great.
On the AVIC411.com website there is a lot of talk about the need to connect the VSS wire to tell the Z2 how fast you are driving. But I have not found a need as of yet. On some vehicles it's an easy connection, but on older ones there is not VSS. I will post a picture of the antenna's with the glove box removed (2 screws) when I have a good day with some daylight to get a good picture. I am having a real good time with this unit, where being an Atlanta native for 20 years+, it is actually showing me some back streets I didn't know about to save time during traffic.