Home Sirius: Ext Ant & Cable

What do I need to run the sirius radio in the house?

How do you do run the cable set-up? I live in zone 3 and have satellite cable. Not sure if I will get an unobstructed signal...so I want to run the exterior antenna via the satellite cable set-up.

Then????

-Does the cable then become the antenna?

-How do I then hook the sirius up to this system?

-Is there a wireless antenna system I can then run throughout the house?

Any insight you have is GREATLY appreciated as this is a whole new magical world of music to me that I can't wait to get going on!

Thanks soooooooo much for the enlightenment!

Running Sirius Satellite radio in the house is really not that much different than running it in your car you need two things, a power source and an antenna that has a view of the sky. Most radio's have a home dock available or you use the universal one.

http://www.tss-radio.com//images/SUP...ersal_Home.jpg

The home dock comes complete with cables, antenna etc. In your house, you have 110 volts instead of a 12 volt car battery. Normally in the home dock you have a power supply that simply plugs into the wall then to the home dock that your radio plugs into. The Home dock usually have a way to plug in a pair of computer speakers or some outputs that allow you to connect it to your existing stereo so that is how you can listen.

Now for the antenna; here is where the problem begins. Depending on where you live, you may not have a view to to sky. If you live in an apartment or condo for example, it may be a long way to the roof of which you don't have access to. In this case, you may be out of luck for your current radio, but in the case of Sirius, they have the Stiletto SL100 and the new SL2 which can utilize a wireless internet network to pick up the signal.

But let's say you do have access to the outside world. You say you are in Zone 3. I'm assuming you are talking about the map that comes in the manual like this.
http://www.pbase.com/mrubin/image/91434885/original.jpg

Which puts you in the Southeast of the US. This will help with the antenna aiming. But in reality, most radios have a menu screen (Antenna Aiming) that enables you to show the signal strength.

http://www.pbase.com/mrubin/image/87162052/medium.jpg

I find you point it to where you get the strongest signal. If you have an un-obstructed view of the sky, normally that is straight up.

So what you get with the home kits is usually some sort of home antenna. This really needs to be outside on the roof. Sometimes you can get away with putting it on the window sill but in my usage, it usually does not work all the time as with Sirius, you are not aiming to just one satellite, there are actually 3 that move around in a figure 8 pattern, so it makes for times when you might not be pointed precise enough to pick up the signal.

The antenna needs to be connected to the home dock. But what if where you want want the radio is not near where you have to put the antenna. This is the problem that many face.

You can buy wire extensions, in 50 foot lengths. In some cases you may have to buy multiple ones which can get expensive. The limit is roughly 400 feet.

You also asked about wireless. There is a wireless option. This just came out the middle of last year and it has proved very effective but has a limit of about 75 feet or less depending on how many walls or floors you need to pass through. The idea here is that enables you to extend the antenna from your roof to your radio dock wirelessly. YOU STILL NEED AN ANTENNA ON THE ROOF. You just don't need to run the wire from the antenna directly to the radio dock. This works when you have the antenna upstairs out the window but you want to connect it to the basement. It is not easy to run the wire down two floors, but the distance is roughly 20 feet straight down. Sirius Backstage has a few good threads on the echo repeater so you might read those.
http://www.siriusbackstage.com/forum...ad.php?t=99267

Since I really don't know your specifics it would be hard to suggest a solution for you. In your post you had links to a splitter and a rooftop home antenna, those work but are specific to utilizing the wire that you may have for a TV DISH antenna wire, where you mount the home antenna on the roof, combine the wire to your existing satellite TV wire then where it comes into the house you split out TV and Radio signal. I'm not sure this is your situation.

I suggest you call someone like TSS Radio http://www.tss-radio.com/ who sell all the parts you may need. Describe your layout, radio, and what you hope to accomplish.

Good luck hope you can make it work out.