The 15-minute installation
When I finished playing with the thing, I took it out to my van and had it installed in about fifteen minutes. The Starmate comes with a handy suction cup mounting arm for mounting on the windshield. I attached the suction cup just below and to the right of the rear-view mirror. The Starmate snaps into a mounting plate which attaches to the mounting arm via screws. I can see it with a quick glance and it doesn't block my view of the road.
Next to my rear view mirror, the Starmate is unobtrusive and easy to see at a glance.
The package also includes a Velcro strip for mounting on the dashboard or console. Another low-profile option would be attaching the mounting plate to a custom bracket, like those from Pro.Fit. The Starmate is so easy to reach and see up high on my windshield that I'm happy with it there.
As for the antenna, I placed it on the front right corner of the van's roof. I trailed the wire under the weather stripping along the front pillar (next to the windshield). At the bottom of the pillar, I looped it around to the inside piece of weather stripping and followed the pillar back up to the top (above the passenger's door). From there I simply ran the wire inside the van, above the sun visor, over to the rear view mirror and down to the Starmate. The elapsed time for mounting the antenna was less than five minutes.
The antenna cable runs under the weather stripping.
A small jump to the vehicle's interior. I was careful to make sure the cable does not get pinched by the door.
I couldn't devise any such out-of-sight way to run the power cable. It just hangs down to the electrical plug near the bottom of my dashboard — obviously, this isn't going to be the best mounting option for someone looking for a stealthy installation. Now it was time to power up.
Black on blue display
The Starmate's display is backlit in blue. Brightness and contrast settings offer enough adjustment variability so that you should be able to find a setting that is visible during the day, yet not too bright at night. But if you're one of those people who don't like the blue color or have trouble seeing it — and I've met plenty of both — then this may not be the satellite radio for you. And that would be a shame because this is a great little radio.
Once I settled on the lighting, I noticed that the large size of the letters would be easy to see just about anywhere, even if the radio was beyond arm's reach.
