Hybrid News

Some of you, for one reason or another (mine’s NPR and Howard Stern), may wish Honda had forged a deal with Sirius rather than XM, or that there was no deal at all so you could choose either.

I do realize that if the merger goes through, it could render the need for this modification moot. But for now, it’s a nice solution.

Well, the long awaited Directed HON-SC1 converter is finally out, and I had an opportunity to test it. Note that the HON-SC1 only allows a Sirius tuner to communicate with the Honda stereo, so you still need a tuner like the SC-C1 or the SCVDOC1, which allows you to use a plug and play unit that you can remove for use in the home or whatever.

Anyway, I did a quick test. It’s not fully installed because I’m still waiting on an adapter to allow me to use the stock XM antenna as a Sirius antenna (rather than installing an unsightly second antenna).

Anyway, once you remove the trunk lining on the right side of the trunk, you see the XM tuner mounted on a piece of sheet metal:

Here′s the tuner unbolted from the body with the cables unplugged:

Test setup with the combined HON-SC1/SC-C1 hooked up the way the old XM tuner was connected:

Woo! Sirius! The tuner isn′t activated, so all I can get right now is 184.

There you have it. Nice and easy. After this I reinstalled the XM tuner which only took a few minutes. Once the antenna adapter comes in, I′ll install the Sirius tuner more permanently. I intend on mounting the equipment to a board so I can use the existing mounting holes that the XM tuner uses.