Satellite Radio

[sseelhoff]

I keep saying that I'm going to get it... The place which I rented the last couple of winters has Dish, including the basic XM stations, the latter is about all I'll tune in. Willie's Roadhouse is about the only country station I'll listen to, plus the various classic rock stations.

When my company trucks came with XM I never found reception to be that good. Mountains, trees, sometimes snowstorms would block the signal. I've been told that the external recievers don't have that problem; any comments?

I had an external antenna on my car's Sirius radio. Never had an issue, even in the worst weather. That includes a huge snowstorm in Dallas many years ago-dumped at least 12 inches. I remember it was near Christmas and I was driving to Northern Tool near Fort Worth listening to old radio shows doing their Christmas episodes.

The only time I recall losing coverage was under a long underpass/bridge, but that's about it.

 

[OKnewguy]

I think I would only mess with Sat radio if I was an over the road trucker. With T-mobile, you get unlimited streaming to pretty much all of internet music streams (pandora, spotify, itunes, google music, etc) I use Pandora, the free version. I get a 30 second comercial 4-5 times an hour. I listen to various stuff pretty much all day at work. This has turned out to be a great option for me, I even installed bluetooth units in all our cars. There are apps, that will start your steam as soon as it connects, Pretty cool!
Food for thought, Dave

 

[Sawyer Rob]

XM6

SR

 

[rtimgray]

I've got a Sirius Stiletto (sp?) that I've had for several years and have a mount for it on my tractor, and have bases for it in my house and in my shop. I've also got another base that I've used in vehicles when we are going on trips.

I really do like it, primarily in the fall to listen to college and pro football while I'm either working outside (tractor is my portable radio) or bush hogging on the tractor.

My only complain is that it appears as though I'm the only person on the planet that they will not cut a deal with. I don't auto renew my subscription, and every year when it runs out, I receive and email or phone call to re-up. When I act disinterested, they just say "sorry to hear that. Have a nice day." No hard sale, no offers, no nothing. I've waited up to two weeks and still nothing, so I end up re-signing up again.

For as much as I use it, I don't think it's a bad deal, but it's all contingent on how much it's used. When I got my setup initially, I think I was out about $250 to $300 for the radio and the first base for it. The other bases I have picked up off ebay or craigslist for cheap, though.

Good luck and take care.

 

[Otto Syracuse]

One other piece of advice.....when you sign up tell them you don't have a credit card and that you will pay by check from an invoice. They will send you one and will not be able to outo renew on your CC. Savces the step of cancelling on your own etc......

 

[MMagis]

Again, just tell them you don't want it to auto-renew. Problem solved.

 

[Oaktree]

I think I would only mess with Sat radio if I was an over the road trucker.

Same here, though I don't listen to streams either. I guess I'm one of those poor unfortunate souls who's perfectly content with FM. I do have a Sandisk mp3 player I use sometimes.

 

[MMagis]

I always said the same, until it came in my wife’s car. I’m still too cheap to pay for it in my truck, but I love when I have to drive her car. I can flip on Willies Roadhouse and hear songs I haven’t heard for years. There’s no longer any classic country stations around here, it’s the only way I can hear the music I like.

 

[DrRod]

For me, the benefit of satellite radio is that you can get it in the country. There's almost no radio signal at my cabin -- except for one AM station that is highly focused on Penn State football -- and there's very little you can pick up for the last hour of the trip. So XM has been a real breakthrough for me. Plus I love about dozen of the stations and like a dozen more. Check out some of the more obscure channels [like Canadian adult alternative] just to see what's out there.

 

[caver]

It was great for the first couple of years. Then the programming became repetitive on my favorite stations. I was about to cancel when overnight they seemed to widen their playlists. After my road trip/vacation in April I dropped it. It slid back into the old ways. On the hard rock stations you would think they only had 50 albums to play songs off of. I dropped it.