First I converted most of the area on my front deck access panels to fiberglass. I chopped away most of the aluminum and laid up six plies of 3-oz glass, overlapping the aluminum on the inside. Should have made these entirely from fiberglass from the get-go, 20:20 hindsight and all. Could have made new panels now, but the aluminum mates up perfectly and what not. This'll do. Anyway, I fab'd up some "trays" that rivet right to the fiberglass.
Disassembled the Roady2 XM antenna. Peel off the bottom sticker, the magnet comes right off. Then toss the plastic cover, base plate, and rubber seat/seal as well...no need for those.
RTV'd the tiny Roady2 antenna to a piece of .025" with a couple of nutplates. This allows it to be removable from the cover panels...you'll see in a sec.
Same with the Garmin 396's GPS antenna. This was a bitch to remove from its plastic housing. Band saw did the trick...
The Garmin 396's XM antenna is a friggin' hockey puck. Garmin told me NOT to remove the antenna circuit from the metal base, since it's an integral heat sink. Ok, ok, I left it fully intact -- although I did remove the magnets from the base! They had been glued into place, so I just sliced around the edges with a razor blade and pried 'em right out. A couple of UHMW spacers elevate it a bit so it's as close to the fiberglass as possible without touching.
Here's the cover panel setup, with the trays and stuff. Each antenna or "antenna plate" is removable from the tray with two screws -- so everything including the cover panels can be separated and removed completely.
See what I mean?
It works great!! This photo was taken at 8500', heading about 310, somewhere around Bakersfield, I think.
The 396's XM signal reception is nothing short of perfect. It doesn't distinguish between satellite and terrestrial signal (that I know of). It has never dipped below three bars.
Flush, invisible, and once I filler-prime over the rivets you'll never know the difference. Out of sight, out of mind!
