DIY Sirius FM Direct Adapter Installation
I've had Sirius satellite radio for a few months, and it's been a great addition to the daily commute and my in-office work environment (via the web). I own the cheapest possible Sirius "plug and play" radio, the Sirius One (I think it was $20 from Circuit City), and it uses a built-in FM transmitter to send the signal to the radio wirelessly. However, in my truck (a 1996 Ford Ranger), I've always found it difficult to find an "unused" station that does not have some type of interference at some time of the day. The antenna is on the passenger side of the vehicle for one thing, and a preset that was clear in the morning always seems to become horrible at night (and vice-versa).
Sirius offers a product to solve this problem: the FM Direct Adapter. Essentially, you pull your radio out, unplug the antenna, plug the antenna into the adapter, then plug the adapter into the radio instead of the antenna. Then you plug the other end of the adapter into your Sirius unit. Done. When the Sirius One is on, the radio only receives what the Sirius One is sending via the adapter. When the Sirius One is off, the radio uses the external car antenna as usual. I picked one up on eBay for less than $20 shipped. Here are a few pics of how I installed it.
In this picture, I've inserted the "DIN tools" into the front of the radio, applied some pressure on the tools toward the doors, and slipped the radio partially out. You can get DIN tools or whatever is required to remove the radio in your vehicle from eBay for under $5 shipped. That's what I did.
Here, the radio is completely out, and you can see the antenna input into the radio on the right side of the radio.
Now I've unplugged the antenna, plugged the adapter into the radio's antenna input, and plugged the antenna into the adapter. At this point, you can test that the adapter works by plugging the adapter cable into your Sirius radio, turning on your Sirius radio, and tuning the car radio to the correct preset. Make note of that support bar in the crevice that the radio slides into for reference in the next picture.
In order to run the adapter cable down to the floor (where I've run the cigarette adapter that powers the Sirius One unit, I found this nice hole just to the left of the support bar in the previous picture. The adapter cable headed to the Sirius One is just to the right of the two red wires. I pulled it down through the hole.
Near the gas pedal underneath the dash, here comes the cable out of the other end of the hole. The adapter cable is the one that runs over the top of the coiled cable at the bottom of the picture (a CB handset cable).
Now that everything is connected and working, I just need to mount the adapter and slide the radio back in. Luckily there is plenty of clearance on top of the radio since the factory radio's face is twice the size of the actual internal unit. I used a piece of the double-sided adhesive strip originally provided with the Sirius One to attach the antenna to the roof (since I never used it for its intended purpose) - the red strip in this picture.
Now I'm ready to slide the radio back in and remove the DIN tools. Total installation time: 5 minutes. Total cost: $25 shipped to my door. No static: priceless.
Sirius offers a product to solve this problem: the FM Direct Adapter. Essentially, you pull your radio out, unplug the antenna, plug the antenna into the adapter, then plug the adapter into the radio instead of the antenna. Then you plug the other end of the adapter into your Sirius unit. Done. When the Sirius One is on, the radio only receives what the Sirius One is sending via the adapter. When the Sirius One is off, the radio uses the external car antenna as usual. I picked one up on eBay for less than $20 shipped. Here are a few pics of how I installed it.
In this picture, I've inserted the "DIN tools" into the front of the radio, applied some pressure on the tools toward the doors, and slipped the radio partially out. You can get DIN tools or whatever is required to remove the radio in your vehicle from eBay for under $5 shipped. That's what I did.
Here, the radio is completely out, and you can see the antenna input into the radio on the right side of the radio.
Now I've unplugged the antenna, plugged the adapter into the radio's antenna input, and plugged the antenna into the adapter. At this point, you can test that the adapter works by plugging the adapter cable into your Sirius radio, turning on your Sirius radio, and tuning the car radio to the correct preset. Make note of that support bar in the crevice that the radio slides into for reference in the next picture.
In order to run the adapter cable down to the floor (where I've run the cigarette adapter that powers the Sirius One unit, I found this nice hole just to the left of the support bar in the previous picture. The adapter cable headed to the Sirius One is just to the right of the two red wires. I pulled it down through the hole.
Near the gas pedal underneath the dash, here comes the cable out of the other end of the hole. The adapter cable is the one that runs over the top of the coiled cable at the bottom of the picture (a CB handset cable).
Now that everything is connected and working, I just need to mount the adapter and slide the radio back in. Luckily there is plenty of clearance on top of the radio since the factory radio's face is twice the size of the actual internal unit. I used a piece of the double-sided adhesive strip originally provided with the Sirius One to attach the antenna to the roof (since I never used it for its intended purpose) - the red strip in this picture.
Now I'm ready to slide the radio back in and remove the DIN tools. Total installation time: 5 minutes. Total cost: $25 shipped to my door. No static: priceless.
