I have always had Sirius with the small receiver and the small antenna, and it always work great. Trying to clean up my dash, I removed the receiver and the small antenna. I'm going to use my Zumo for XM. Here's where the problem started.
I had the XM antenna stuck with the magnet on top of the radio, and it worked great. Even better than I thought it would. The problem was the volume was not enough going thru the Zumo 550. So, today I installed a Alpine amp to boost the volume. It also worked out great. But now, there is not enough room for the amp and the antenna to set on top the radio and the outer fair go on. I have it zipped tied inside the fairing to clear everything now, but not sure how good the reception will be. It's kinda facing forward, instead of up. I can't put the fairing on now because while looking it over, I found the bottom two brass inserts housings were cracked. I've cleaned them up and applied JB weld to fix them. Waiting for it to cure now.

Would like to know if anyone else has had a problem with antenna placement, and how they fixed it without setting it on top of the fairing.

 

I guess I should have ask what color do ya'll think I should paint my antenna?

 

Mine sits on the side of the fairing support bracket under fairing.

 

Sent you link to part number.

 

1.) use an inline amplifier for the audio from the 550 to the stereo, something like a boostaroo, there are all kinds of options

2.) i had great results with xm antenna on top of my tourpak...i was using an automobile set, so it came with a long cable. worked great even with bag of clothing on the rack covering it.
Guys using the fairing mount sometimes have problems riding North

mike