I recently installed the XM Commander unit in the ashy tray of my "04 Lariat. I found that the antenna had good reception sitting on top of the factory head unit ( under the dash).

The antenna has a magnetic base and adheres well to the radio head unit surface. I did place and additional reinforcement of duct tape over the antenna.

My question is: has anybody else used this location for mounting? Also....will the magnetic base interefere with any of the functions of the Audiophile H/U?

I've had it mounted like this for several weeks and so far so good. The reception has been great and I didn't have to run any wires outside of the truck.

Any expert opinions out there?

 

If you get great signal, then leave it alone. If you have lots of drop outs and get frustrated because of it, then it is time to route your antenna to the top to the roof, where it has a clear line of sight to the satellite and most all times. I have mine mounted on my roof and I have one or two drop outs a year at most, and that is when I am driving alongside a cliff or something like that.

This antenna technology keeps getting better and better too.
THe GPS antennas used to have to be located on the roof to get any sort of decent signal, but the latest sirfstar III+ gps antennas (the new GPS standard) can be mounted inside or even thrown in your glovebox and will maintain good signal.