satellite radio
Posted by gardengirl on Aug 05, 2008 · Member since Jun 2006 · 229 posts
Ok, my husband has been talking about XM for alittle while and with his new job he won't be able to work the Ravens games or probably hear them on the radio. :'( for him. So I was thinking about getting him the satellite radio for his birthday in Sept.
Does anyone have it or Sirus? If so, do you like it? Is it worth it? Can I go with a cheap receiver, or should I spend the extra money? Looking online I don't see anything about football, I know the season has started yet, but are the games extra or are they included in the monthly fee? Can you tell I am clueless?
Thanks everyone.
i have sirius radio, on the back of my bro's account...so it costs us like 8$/ month, his is 12$ i think.((you get a discount for every second, third, etc. set that you add)
the boombox, which gets a bit more use, cost 99$...as the cheapest i found...but get it thru the company, b/c its more expensive in stores.
its okay. we got it as a gift and while i love to have amillion channels of 80s and 90s music and howard stern...i really never use it. Its a pain to haul the boombox to a place that gets good reception...b/c the satellite always craps out on us if the sun hits it. so, really, unless u get good reception, its a total PITA.
i think they are going to merge, so things might change.
My bro, on the other hand, is a carpenter and LOVES it...he uses it at work all the time.
so, maybe if DH has a way of trying it out at your place, or where he will mostly be listening, you can check to see how clear and worth it is.
-u could call sirius or XM too, and ask some ques. ...usually there is a deal for a 30 day guarantee...we even had it extended 3 months!
Smooch LOVES it. His car radio was already sirius ready, so I got him the subscription and the work needed to activate his radio for his birthday two years ago. He drives a lot for work so he really likes having the variety to listen to. Howard Stern. No commercials. And football is included. He likes the "faction" station which is for extreme sports. After you have a subscription you can also listen online. I like putting it on the home computer when I'm cooking dinner. I usually listen to the "coffeehouse" then. It's all acoustic.
A guy I work with also subscribes & instead of just the car radio, he has a little portable thingy that he can stick in his car & his boombox here at work.
I got sirius for my husband a few years ago because he liked listening to Stern. We got the cheapest car radio and it worked really well- never had too many problems with it picking stuff up or not working.
At first he really liked the service, and within a few months it went downhill. He said that Stern was constantly on vacation and his shows were repeats or "his friends" were doing the shows and it was awful. He also said the music channels constantly repeated songs- and I found this to be true when I would borrow his vehicle.
We cancelled the subscription when his antenna broke-3 days before our contract was up- and they tried to charge me a freaking early cancellation fee!!!! I had a big argument with them because they never told me there would be a fee- They promised to reimburse the fees and charges-they never did. I had to dispute it on my card.
We have XM and I have to say over the last few years we have had it we have really gotten hooked. I used to have it in my car and thats all I would usually listen to. Unfortunately it didnt come in the mini van I had to change to but Im definately getting it back next time around! I really miss it. What will determine which service you get is what sports you want to listen to. XM has baseball and Sirius has football. Im a baseball fan myself so XM is just right for me. The thing we notice is we do have to be careful about our antenna placement in the house or we get a signal that will fade out now and again during our listening time. We turn it on every night during dinner and we also listen to Prairie Home Companion every Saturday.
-HomeGrown :)
Thanks everyone for your input. My FIL got it in his new vehicle which made the desire to have one come back again, though I don't know if it is Siruis or XM.
Thanks Homegrown for telling me about that Siruis has the football because I would have gotten the XM thinking it would have started having the games once the season started.
Dh drives his whole work schedule when he's not on a call, he's a deputy sherriff in the country. So it sounds like even though the songs/shows repeat, so do all the other radio stations, but you most likely don't have the commericals and you can get the football games.
I'll have to check out Siruis tonight after sweetpea is asleep. Thanks again everyone.
GG- My boyfriend is the same way about absolutely having to listen to Steeler games since we moved from Pittsburgh. Like HomeGrown said, Sirius is the one that has football. It's cool because you can listen to the local broadcast for the town of your choosing. It costs nothing extra to listen to the games- they'll automatically come on in the upper channel numbers when the games start.
We have XM and are totally, unabashedly addicted. I'm listening right now. There are 200+ channels and we listen to a dozen or so regularly. I can't say for sure how many NFL games they carry, but I am a huge baseball fan and every game I've ever wanted to hear has been on and we don't pay extra for a sports package. We pay $12 a month. It totally made our iPod's obsolete. I also understand that XM and Sirrus are merging (when??). (oops edit: just read the bit from homegrown)
What's really cool, is the receiver sends a signal out and you tune in your radio to whatever station you have it programmed to...meaning that I have it on in the living room, can pick it up on my radio in the bedroom (say for folding clothes) and Will has it on in his shop. No extra equipment, just a regular ole radio.
I love it very much.
It totally made our iPod's obsolete. I also understand that XM and Sirrus are merging (when??). (oops edit: just read the bit from homegrown)
I love it very much.
Yeah, I have an ipod and I feel bad because he doesn't and sort of wanted one until he started hearing good things about this.
Ok, so I think we're going with Sirius because of the football, plus I like the fact that it says that the radios are guaranteed to work after the merger. XM didn't say anything about it. So those of you that have Sirius which receiver do you have? http://shop.sirius.com/edealinv/servlet/ExecMacro?nurl=control/StoreDirectory.vm&ctl_nbr=2640&catLevel=1&catParentID=7875&scId=7875&oldParentID=7870
I'm leaning towards Starmate 3 or Sportster 3. The only big advantage I see to Starmate 4 is the pause and rewind, but I am not sure if it is an impt feature. Is it? Though it might be helpful if he has to get out of the car during the game.
Thanks again! :)