The sharkfin is a piece of plastic color-matched to your car. It adheres with a foam rubber gasket. You unscrew the whip from the OE ant., screw in the connecting wire to the sharkfin. Carefully position the sharkfin and push it onto the car. Viola! It hides the sat. ant. becuase if the wire comes from under the OE ant. mount then it's under the sharkfin.

The notch you'd have to cut is so that the wire can clear the toothed nut on the FM antenna mount and not get chewed to pieces. There aren't any problems with line of sight because the satellite signal will go straight through the plastic. I'm not sure on shipping to CA, but go to www.sharkfinantenna.com and they should be able to tell you.

 

icspots is the BEST person across like five Mazda forums to askstereo/audio/communications questions to. If he says it canbe done w/o a problem, itCAN be done.

 

Icspots: They must ship to Canada. I saw what looked like a Sharkfin on a Volvo yesterday. Driving down the highway. Color matched and everything. Looks way better then the fishing pole I have on there now. Thanks as always for the advice.

 

FYI, many volvos come with sharkfins stock.

Thanks for the vote of support virgin1.

 

Well the verdict is in. The window tint blocked out the sat signal completly. (note: had antenna in the rear window lip) So, I ended up routing around the front windshield and outside of the car. Not enough rubber in the rear windshield. Don't like it, but it works. Tint looks good with the blue color.

 

^^ What kind of tint did you go with?

Brand and level if you recall. (3M, pinnacle, etc...)

 

The company that makes the tint is called LLumar. www.llumar.com

Lifetime against fading etc.

One more day then I can roll down my windows again.

 

Hey, Icspots.

I guess my next quest would be the shark fin. Any noticable difference between the fishing pole and the fin as far as reception is concerned. Not that I listen to the radio anyway. Nothing but comercials. But I do run my Sat thru the radio. (remember the keyless remote and aux problems?)

 

sharkfin antenna would have definitly been a good idea for mazda to add to thier vehicles stock...The fishing pole looking thing sticking out the top makes the car look like a bumper car ill definitliy be ordering a sharkfin

 

Most people with the sharkfins have said that while the reception isn't as good as the "fishing pole" whip, it's better than most stubby antennas. Are you using an aftermarket sirius unit with it's built in FM transmitter? don't you have a 2007 model? If so then why not use the ACI?