Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 10:23:17 EDT
Reply-To: RAlanen@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Frank Condelli <RAlanen@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Sirius radio antenna for Westfalia
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
In a message dated 08/03/2008 11:06:00 P.M. Central Standard Time,
LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:
Re: Sirius radio antenna for Westfalia
OK, time for some comments from a long time Westy SIRIUS user. If
you search the archives you will find all of my previous posts on this
subject. Under the Fiberglas luggage rack is not ideal for a few reasons. When the
luggage rack is full of stuff it will limped good reception especially in
fringe areas. I learned this rather quickly long ago. The Fiberglas also
itself impedes the reception, a lot of you don't seem to notice this as your in
very good reception areas. Wait until you get in the fringe areas. Then
another very important consideration is when camping. You may find a suitable,
ideal campsite with heavy tree coverage as we did in the La Manzanilla VW Bus
Camp under the Coconut Palm trees or other antenna blockage and you may find
it beneficial to move the antenna while camped to a location that allows it
to work for you. If it's under the luggage rack then you will have a lot of
work to do to get it out. Since there is such a long cable on the antenna
you can most likely move it to a location that will work. So, where do I have
mine now ? Well, it now glued with GOOP to the top edge of the luggage rack
just left of the RH front luggage rack cleat. I can pull it off rather
quickly and put it elsewhere then glue it back. I had it previously mounted on
the front leading edge of the luggage rack with double sided tape but found
that the more South we got here in Mexico it would loose it's signal often due
to this angle. Moving it to the top of the rack solved this problem. I still
get intermittent signal lose here in Mexico due to the large amount of stuff
on the luggage rack which blocks the signal from certain angles and also the
heavy tree coverage along the MEX 200 which can only be resolved with a
major tree cutting campaign. I'm now thinking to mount it temporarily to the
top of the luggage with a small bungee or other similar device. BTW, I am
currently in La Manzanilla on the West coast and further South of Acapulco it
stops working altogether. I have been as far North as Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec
without any signal loss when it was attached to the front edge of the rack.
Please note that I will be away from my business travelling in Mexico from
November 19, 2007 until April 30, 2008. Parts orders will be processed
although not as quickly as usual. I will always be available for contact by E-mail.
If you phone your call will be addressed by Greg T. Brown here and he will
either call you back or advise you to contact me directly by E-mail. Details
of this adventure are at _Buses in Zamora_
(http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/Busesinzamora/) . A Travel Blog is at: _Zamora Blog_
(http://poolio.net/zamorablog/)
Cheers,
Frank Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
'87 Westy & Lionel Trains (_Collection for sale_
(http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/trainsal.htm) )
_Frank Condelli & Associates_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html)
- Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
_Vanagon Stainless Steel Exhaust Systems_
(http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/exhaust.htm)
_BusFusion_ (http://members.aol.com/BusFusion/bfhome.htm) a VW Camper
camping event, Almonte, ON, June, 2008
| 
