Any use for an XM Satellite Radio antenna?

[br0adband]

Found this in a junk bin earlier today, it appears to be powered through the line - I disassembled it and noted some circuitry inside the housing so I'm guessing it's an LNA to boost the rather low power signals from satellites as well as make up for the nearly 25 feet of cable attached to it). Perhaps the LNA might be re-purposed for something else, not sure if I can find any detailed information about it but I'm looking.

The actual radio unit connector is proprietary and not one I've ever seen before (apparently known as an SMB) so that's of no use but I could always just snip that off and add something else I suppose. Just noted with a Google search that adapters are available to convert it to more traditional connectors like F-type or others so that's a possibility as well.

Never been into satellite comms of any kind and my current hardware setup probably would be of much use either (simple RTL-based tuner sticks) but in the future I may be stepping up to something that could handle frequencies well above and beyond what these sticks are capable of.

I'll keep the antenna unless someone else asks me about it, can't really see much use but I figured if there was anyplace here at RR to ask about it this would be it. If it can be re-used for something else I'm game to modifying it but, as stated I'm not that much into the satellite side of things. Apparently XM worked in the 2.3 GHz range so I can't expect this will be of much use anywhere else.

Image of the particular one I have (as there seem to be quite a few variants):

Doesn't have a model or part number on the sticker, just says "XM Satellite Radio Antenna" with DELPHI and XM SKYFi logos.

Any hints or suggestions are most welcome, thanks.

 

[thundermedic]

You can use it for Sirus Radio if you want, and based on this website Sirius XM is 2.320 GHz so you could try to use it as a Wi-Fi Antenna...

 

[br0adband]

Yeah, it's understood that it can be used for Sirius/XM satellite radio since that's what it was designed for, and yes it might be somewhat capable of use as a Wi-Fi gain antenna as well (just a bit off the frequency range but close enough to perhaps work), I was just leaning to some other purpose since I don't have any use for Sirius/XM radio at all. I tried their web service a few years ago (free trial) and it proved basically worthless for my purposes but I'm sure there are people that do find it worthwhile to have.

 

[mmckenna]

Yeah, it's understood that it can be used for Sirius/XM satellite radio since that's what it was designed for, and yes it might be somewhat capable of use as a Wi-Fi gain antenna as well (just a bit off the frequency range but close enough to perhaps work), I was just leaning to some other purpose since I don't have any use for Sirius/XM radio at all. I tried their web service a few years ago (free trial) and it proved basically worthless for my purposes but I'm sure there are people that do find it worthwhile to have.

Won't work as a WiFi antenna. First off, the LNA requires power be fed up the coax to power it. You WiFi access point won't supply that.
Also, this is a receive antenna. The LNA probably won't take kindly to RF being pushed into it.

 

[RFS]

If the LNA is removed/jumpered then it might work for wifi, but it's still circularly polarized
One sirius xm antenna I measured on a VNA after removing the LNA and adding better coax was quite usable on 2.4GHz when looking at the SWR.
I have no idea about the radiation pattern there.

 

[RayAir]

Cut the cord off and use the antenna as a paperweight


Or,


Hook it up to a Sirius receiver and listen to the free activation channel.



Those are about your only options. There used to be a free emergency channel but that went away.

 

[fleef]

Every once in a blue moon (Christmas time? etc) Sirius airs some subscription channels for free- at least they USED to- not sure if they still do? that antx you have is from the old Delphi system which I own and for some reason refuse to toss. They still work as Sirius receivers and I have seen the receivers sell for as little as $5. at second hand stores. The subscription service is nothing as good as they used to since they narrowed the bandwidth to miniscule levels so badly it is practically unlistenable now, so unfortunately I cannot recommend them any longer.

Regarding any satellite stuff, they are almost all limited to the service they were originally intended to receive, except for those Ku-band dishes are great, along with the FTA receivers, so if you find one of those cheap get it.

 

[mitreffahcs]

many uses

Its an SBand antenna so in theory usefull for pretty much anything here UHF-Satcom.com - S-band reception although no telling how tight the filters are, more than likely it will only cover a small portion.

You need a dc injector to power the LNA, they're pretty cheap from miniciruits.com. You would need to find out the proper voltage though which could be anything from 1.5 to 5 volts. Easiest way to find out if you cant google it would be to take a multimeter and measure the voltage of the antenna port on your xm radio if you have one.

Sounds like an interesting idea though. I recently bought a few Inmarsat phones off ebay for the antennas to basically do exactly what you are asking. They work great with my Airspy, might even be able to power your antenna directly with the Airspy, but not sure off the top of my head the max current Airspy can provide. I just realized the Airspy itself doesnt cover sband, so you will need a downconverter of some sorts.

Let me know if you need any help with your sband efforts.