On 1/25/06, Jason Bleazard <dml@bleazard.net> wrote:
>
> On Wed, December 28, 2005 9:57 am, Andy Levy said:
> >
> > If given a choice...I'd rather have Sirius built in when I
> > get a car.
>
> Hey Andy,
>
> I've been meaning to ask you how you like the Sirius, now that you've had it
> for a while. Do you just use it to listen to Stern, or do you listen to it
> the rest of the time as well?
I'm not even sure the stereo receives FM and AM :) Stern's getting
better every day, Bubba The Love Sponge is just gratuitous swearing
and nasty stuff (basically, take what people *say* about Stern, that's
what this guy is), the music, comedy and talk channels so far are
great too. Marci wants one for her car already. I think she was wary
of it at first but now that we've spent some quality time with it
she's hooked.
Seriously, since I put it in, I've only listened to regular radio a
total of maybe an hour. There's just *so much* to listen to - it's
almost too much, really. Hard to find just one thing at a time I want
to listen to.
My only real issue is that I've had a couple instances of dropped
signal for 5-15 seconds. I think this is more due to my poor antenna
placement than a deficiency of the system itself.
> We got an XM radio from my dad when we were back in Utah. For some reason, he
> had a spare sitting around, and told me if I signed up for an account I could
> have the radio. He and most of his airplane group use XM in their planes.
> I'm not sure why they went with XM instead of Sirius, it seems to be that one
> of them started the trend and the rest of them decided they'd all like to be
> on the same system or something.
It could be the programming - both XM and Sirius have exclusive
programming. XM has a lock on MLB, while Sirius has the NFL all to
itself, for example. Also, XM uses geostationary satellites, while
Sirius's birds are in a very odd orbit that results in the very
occasional signal drop.
> Norah and I decided that satellite radio is the best thing ever invented for
> road trips (next to gas stations).
Absolutely! Just making the trek from home to my parents' place out
near Albany required a half-dozen radio station changes. Now we
change stations because we *want to*, not because we *have to*. I can
listen to football games without Marci having to suffer the snap
crackle & pop of AM radio over long distances.
> Our in-dash CD player had apparently
> overheated at one point on the trip there, I'm guessing due to a combination
> of constant use plus the amount of heat we were pumping through the defroster
> vents.
Wow, never heard of that happening.
> Having the XM for the trip home was fantastic. My favorite feature
> has to be the song display.
That display can be dangerous. Scrolling stock ticker when you're on
the financial news channel, for example.
My father's still trying to get Sirius hooked up w/ his Ram. With its
primary use being cross-country RVing, they'll get heavy use out of
it. Getting it hooked up w/ his RB1 isn't as easy/cheap as it may
seem, and the dealer wants a ridiculous amount of money to do it (and
they want to drill through his roof!).
One thing to be aware of (but it doesn't affect you as you're on XM)
is Sirius isn't allowed to offer certain programming (Stern) to
Canadian customers. So subscribers are having to give Sirius a fake
south of the border address to get the full programming.
-- Andy http://home.rochester.rr.com/alevy/ --- Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. -George S. Patton
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