XM Radio coming soon!

[mattadams]

My truck will soon be upgraded to include XM Radio! Going to be driven with an XM Commander, so I don't loose my local stations or anything, but it will be great for all my road-trips, etc. when I get sick of searching for a new station every 30-40 miles.
The unit I'm going with is this one: http://www.xmradio.com/commander/

Can't wait to test it out! :).

[UrbanCowboy]

Monthly fee for music? Ick. I think I'll stick to my in-car Mp3 player. With 11 hours of music on one CD, I think it works just fine.

[Tray]

Monthly fee for music? Ick. I think I'll stick to my in-car Mp3 player. With 11 hours of music on one CD, I think it works just fine.

My thoughts exactly. Most of my road trips (NE and WY) don't get XM reception either, so it'd be a waste for me. I'll stick with the MP3 player, and the disc holder on the visor. 12 CDs, at 10+ hours each = enough music for any trip.

[mattadams]

LOL, well true, monthly fees do kinda suck, buit for me, I definately think its worth it. With teh amount of miles I put on my vehicle every year (geez I've had my BUick about a year and put almost 30,000 miles on it already, not counting the trips I took the truck on!) between all my road trips, etc. no matter how much music I"ve got it will get old. I've got an MP3 player and a 6-disk changer already, but I still get tired of the same old music. That and many of the channels are commercial free and stuff I can't get on any standard radio, like comedy channels, old classic radio "show" channel, etc.
I can definately see the advantage myself, though I know it isn't for everyone.

[Walking Eagle]

I've had XM for three years and love it. I don't think I've listened to local stations for more than 10 minutes total in the past three years. I've bought two CD's in the three years. One thing with XM over MP3, is you also get ESPN, Fox News, Weather Channel, CNN, ABC News, Discovery Channel, etc.

[UrbanCowboy]

Discovery Channel, how does that work? Do you just listen to the animals copulating?

[Walking Eagle]

Yes, my girlfriend likes it.

[Tray]

Well, I guess the monthly fee wouldn't be too bad if the reception were guaranteed. I just hate how through Wyoming it doesn't get reception, and then going out to Nebraska the same thing.

Around here, and where the reception is good would be nice, but I think I'll stick to file sharing, and my mp3 player.

[mattadams]

Tray I wasn't aware of reception problems in any of the states... who told you that? I'll have to test it out sometime, I go through Nebraska every now and then for some reason or another.

[Walking Eagle]

The only reception problems I've encountered are in tunnels or parking structures. I've been out in the middle of Kansas, Oklahoma, and western Texas and never lost reception. I get real good reception on Mt. Evans.

[dannan_w]

xm is great best thing ever. giving it to my dad for x mas. What states don't get reception?

[mattadams]

well according to xm's site, all 50 states plus water ways and coastal areas surrounding the u.s. get reception... guess we'll have to see!

[Tray]

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law live up in Sheridan Wyo, and it only works at the tops of the hills on the way there. Any time you drop down into a valley of any sort, it loses reception.

Through NE isn't as bad as long as you stay on I-80. The same thing though, once you aren't on flat land any more, you lose it.

I never tried up in the Mountains, but I'd guess the same situation would occur there.

[mattadams]

well I'll just have to test it and see :). I have never heard anything like that before though. Satelite doesn't just cover big cities, it covers everywhere. I know Heath has had XM for quite a while and we drove through Wyoming to get to his new place in Idaho and I didn't hear him complaining about it. I know he also never reported any problems any of the times we went into the mountains... I'd imagine its the same as my GPS, it gets coverage in pretty much anywhere, but as you get into deeper valleys etc. where you have less of a shot at the sky, its coverage goes down, but I think the only time I've lost GPS coverage is in long tunnels, etc. as mentioned before. Guess we'll just have to see once I get it :).

[Walking Eagle]

I've never lost reception in the mountain valleys while four wheeling. Like I said before, I've only lost reception in concrete structures.

[Glass]

Matt, ive heard that the top of Saxon doesnt get reception from the XM sattelites.....Looks like youll have to take your truck up there next summer, and find out..lol (okay, not really, but hopefully the truck will still see the trail next year...BTW, did you name the truck yet?). Is the changer and MP3 in your truck, and youre replacing it? If it is , and yous gonna be sellin it..I could use it for my 53'

--John

[Walking Eagle]

It does work on Saxon Mt.

[mattadams]

Glass, no the truck still doesn't have a name. And I'm keeping the exiting MP3 player and 6-disk changer, the XM Commander is just an "add-on" to that.

[Heath]

Yup, I've got XM too and love it!!! My reception is great... Like Jeff I only lose it in tunnels, some parking structures and sometimes when I'm to close to a tall building...

[mattadams]

Well the XM is installed! Still waiting for it to be activated, but at least the emergency channel comes in fine! LOL :).
Don't really like where they mounted it but they didn't have much of a choice... will see what else I can come up with.

[Warrlord]

Well the XM is installed! Still waiting for it to be activated, but at least the emergency channel comes in fine! LOL :).
Don't really like where they mounted it but they didn't have much of a choice... will see what else I can come up with.

Okaaaaaaaaay, so how do you like it so far? Would you go back to listening to local stations infested with more commercials than music? Not me.

I got Sirius in December & love the hell out of it. I got sooooooo tired of hearing 17 minutes worth of commercials between 4 minutes worth of music. It finally drove me nuts. Listening to my same ol cd's got old too. I like a wide variety of music so this fits the bill. Another plus.........I got rid of the old Sony head unit in favor of a nice Alpine that's Sirius ready. I'm lovin' it! Paid for a full year so no worries until this December.

[mattadams]

I absolutely LOVE the XM. Unfortunately, because I do about 2/3 of my driving in my Buick, I'm forced to listen to local stations while in the buick (unless I can talk XM into giving me another setup... LOL) but I love it in the truck. Theres such a good variety of channels to listen to, and thats it... if you want music, listen to music, if you want talk, listen to talk, either way you won't be bothered my commercials.
LOVE it!

[Warrlord]

Theres such a good variety of channels to listen to, and thats it... if you want music, listen to music, if you want talk, listen to talk, either way you won't be bothered my commercials.
LOVE it!

You said it Man! :thumbup:

[Mind_Boggler]

I'm wonderin' about other peoples opinions, here. Better to go with an add-on XM unit, or a whole new head unit that's XM ready?? I'm wanting to get XM, just curious who has what and what they prefer. Also, which XM provider would y'all recommend?

[Walking Eagle]

I don't know if there is a sound difference in quality between the commander and a XM ready unit, etc. I have an XM ready unit (Alpine deck) mainly because I did not want to have another display added to the dash for XM programming. Some units are removable and can be used between different cars and the house. There are many different options and I would recommend going to a store to check out the different types of models.

[Mind_Boggler]

Well, I've tried that, but I seem to have bad luck at the stores, I either get salespeople that are trying to sell me on the most expensive, or they are just stupid. lol I'll keep trying, but I'm trying to also get personal opinions. Thanks, though!

[mattadams]

If I could've gotten an XM-ready deck I would've preferred to do that, just less clutter, less wires, etc. but I couldn't replace my whole deck so went with the add-on unit.

[Walking Eagle]

I like the XM ready unit I have and would do it that way again.

[RockyMtnRanger]

Just some more info for people that may be undecide....my wifes QX4 has XM installed. She has family that lives up in Sheridan, Wy and on the trips that we've taken up there, we have never experienced any drop outs. Wondering if there was something wrong with that guys unit or something. Anyhow worked great for us.