Reflecting Sirius Signal

[lotoarmy]

I have a Sirius system on my motorhome. It works fine when it is on the road. Of course, it does not work when parked in the storage shed behind my home. The shed is open ended, very tall and the antenna is within a few feet of the south end of the roof. Is there anyway I can set up a piece of aluminum or a mirror to reflect the radio waves onto the antenna on the motorhome roof?

I understand that the Sirius system works off multiple satellites and not just one. I don't want to have to hook and unhook and outside antenna. I would like for it to be hands off operation when I park the motorhome.

 

[Sirius_Rich]

I believe you are out of luck unless you have a repeater in the area. I keep an extra antenna for situations like yours, but if your Sirius is built in your head unit it may be more trouble than it is worth. Did you ever consider a Sportster and a boom box? You could go that way and FM transmit the signal to your motor home radio. Just a thought.

 

[lotoarmy]

I may just do that. Thanks for the reply.

 

[VO1ONE]

Is there anyway I can set up a piece of aluminum or a mirror to reflect the radio waves onto the antenna on the motorhome roof? I understand that the Sirius system works off multiple satellites....

No. Not only does Sirius have multiple satellites, but they are always moving, so your reflector would have to constantly move with it in order to keep the signal aimed towards your antenna. On top of that, you would have to have yet another reflector or modify your Sirius antenna in order for the signal to correctly reach the antenna. The Sirius signal is Left Hand Circularly Polarized. If you reflect this signal, it changes to Right Hand Circular Polarization. Just like looking into a mirror you see a reverse image, circularly polarized radio signals change polarization. On paper, the loss achieved by using an opposite polarization antenna is infinite, but real world loss is around 30db, enough to completely null out the Sirius signal. Rich's suggestion is your best bet.