Satellite Radio

[ckay87]

Do you have satellite radio? Describe your setup/subscription ....whatever....to me. I'm clueless and I want to hook up DS with it as a gift for his 16th birthday. He really doesn't have a need, yet, for a car installation. But something portable is preferable. What kind of device would we look for? How much stuff do you need to buy to get it going? Do you need to mount an antenea somewhere?

Is a family friendly subscription a good idea or is that too limiting? How bad does some of the stuff get? I would really NOT like him listening to Howard Stern every day. And then I saw there was a Playboy channel . Oh, i don't think so!

Anyway, ANY advice or ideas you have I'd appreciate, because really, as you can see, I know nothing.

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

I have XM that came with my car 5 years ago. I didn't think I would keep it, but going back to regular radio after 3 months of XM was painful because of the sound quality and reception. So I've had XM ever since that time.

XM has bought Sirius and the two will eventually be integrated, from what I understand.

As for portable radios, I bought my husband the Pioneer Inno along with his own XM subscription. He's a pilot and uses the Bose QC2 headphones when he's in the cockpit, so he was able to use those along with the radio. The Inno is also an mp3 player, so he can put songs from his computer onto it AND record songs off the XM radio.

When he's home and working in the garage, the Inno hooks into the XM boombox for speakers.

Now, having said that, he has a few problems with this setup.
1) music recorded on the Inno from XM expires if it isn't played ever-so-often.
2) the Inno was not originally designed to be used with the XM Boombox, so he had to buy an adapter to use it...and the Inno doesn't completely fit into the boombox we purchased, making the door not shut on it. It's more of an aesthetic issue than a functional issue...but an issue nonetheless. There are other boombox options available to work with the Inno and other portable radios--I just liked the white boombox because of the price.

Overall, he loves the Inno and takes it with him on every trip. He's in his
40's and loves rap and top 40. If you don't want your son listening to adult-themed music, you can block those channels via your internet connection.

LOL, did I say enough?

 

[DawnCt1]

I have XM radio in my car and I love it. I have called to pay my bill, etc and have been offered a deeply discounted XM radio for the house with half of the monthly cost of my car subscription. I haven't taken the offer because I haven't needed it, however, why not call XM and see if they have a discounted radio if you sign up for a specified period of time. Also, look at Best Buy and see what deals they have.

 

[Papa Deuce]

......

XM has bought Sirius and the two will eventually be integrated, from what I understand.



LOL, did I say enough?

Except that SIRIUS bought XM... so buy Sirius as thier radios may have more shelf life and not get phased out. Technically a merger, but Sirius is the one making the calls.

 

[ckay87]

Yea, I was looking at the Sirius website and as far as I could see, they were just offering a handful of XM stations ("best of")....like, less than 10.

Rafiki...thanks for the tip about the Inno, it's a LOT cheaper than the thing I looked at from Best Buy.

This is too hard!

 

[JR6ooo4]

at sixteen he has heard and seen more than what howard does on the radio.

But satelite is great! I can listen to one channel the whole 3 hour trip[ from chicago to springfield. Before if I was listening to chicago talk radio it wouldbe out of range in one hour. Or If Iwas listening to music, once out of chicago it is just farm reports and country music, hehehehehe.

I have a stilletto II. It can record shows up to 6 hours long and save about 15 or twenty of them. So I record a morning show and listen to it on the way home from work. I can also record a music channel. Then play back at any time, which includes fast-forwarding past songs I do not like. real time listening does have about a 45 minute rewind. If I am driving and run into the store, I just hit pause and the music or talk is waiting right where I left it.

with a standard subscription I can listen with the radio (which is also portable, not much bigger than an I-phone), or I can listen to most of the stations on the internet!

Recently XM and Sirius merged so you can get all the sports with one service.

Mikeeee

 

[lowie]

i have an older stiletto for sirius that i had professionally installed in my car last week after i fried my old sportster. the stiletto can be used as a portable radio, but we found that it was hard to get a signal.

i love my sirius and the few days i was without it last week was awful!!

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

OK, well, since I didn't know much about the merger or takeover, I went and found this information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM/Sirius_merger

It looks like XM's and Sirius' signals are incompatible and that full integration might take some time. Current equipment from either company won't work after the integration is complete--so it makes me wonder what they'll do for people who've bought current systems.

I'm just glad I'm not the one who has to figure it out.

 

[OKW93]

I too got XM with our car and never intended to keep it but then really missed it when it went away. I love the 60s, 70, 80s music and Broadway channel but I'm really looking forward to them starting their all Christmas music stations again. It was great with no commercials!

 

[JEmaryland]

at sixteen he has heard and seen more than what howard does on the radio.

I agree, I don't think there's anything on the Howard channels that could hurt him, and he probably wouldn't be too interested in it anyway. He's not really the demographic.
And as far as the Playboy channel goes, you have to call Sirius to activate it (for free), it doesn't just automatically show up.
The family friendly programs, in my opinion, would be too limiting for a 16 year old and not worth the price of the subscription.

 

[ckay87]

I agree, I don't think there's anything on the Howard channels that could hurt him, and he probably wouldn't be too interested in it anyway. He's not really the demographic.
And as far as the Playboy channel goes, you have to call Sirius to activate it (for free), it doesn't just automatically show up.
The family friendly programs, in my opinion, would be too limiting for a 16 year old and not worth the price of the subscription.

Thanks, that's what I was looking to find out. I censor almost nothing anymore with respect to what he watches or listens to (ask me about our Lewis Black show!).....but I really didn't know what Howard has been up to nowdays. But the Playboy channel might be pushing it, IMO

I'm heading out to Best Buy to see what they have, but you all have provided me with a good start. Thanks somuch.

 

[lttlmc3]

I love my XM radio!

 

[amyhughes]

DH and I have a family plan for XM.

Let me put it this way, I drive quite a bit of miles a year, probably 3 times the amount as the national average. Safe to say we go out of range quite a bit. I had to rent a car a few weeks ago, and I was practically lost without it. I'm spoiled I guess. But, we love being able to listen to all the news stations, comedy (both censored and uncensored), any type of music. Heck even some NPR programs are on there.

 

[petrymom]

I have sirius radio in the car that we bought this spring. When the 6 months free was up, I bought myself a 2 year subscription for $249 (I think) for my birthday. I haven't listened to regular radio since March!!! I LOVE SATELLITE!!!

I especially love that I can drive across the state to see my mom and I don't have to find a station!!!! Oh, it's the simple things in life!!!