I had the opportunity recently to listen to some satellite radio in a public venue, and I rather liked it. No commercials, infrequently-interrupting hosts, and plenty of good music. So I thought about getting it. I realize one has to get the radio receiver itself, and a subscription plan. But looking into them, both on the Internet and at my local electronics store, I have a few questions:
Can one just plug headphones into the receiver, or does one also have to get the “boombox mount,” the “car adaptor,” or the “home stereo adaptor” in order to hear anything? I do a lot of intercity bus travel; headphones are needed on the bus.
Can I plug just speakers (for example, my computer speakers) into the receiver for when I do not want to use headphones? Or am I back to needing the boombox mount and/or home stereo adaptor?
Unless you get a fully integrated reciever which are very expensive ( not the $50 or so ones ) you need something to put the reciever in as you mentioned. That said, get Sirius if you have a choice - less commercials and much better programming. Once you get sat radio though, regular radio will be absolutely intolerable for even a few minutes!
What Tia said said, I haven’t listened to regular radio in years. Both XM and Sirrus have excellant portables now that can even record up to 50 hours of tunes. You may need this because you can’t always get a good signal indoors unless you are near a window facing south or if the building has a SAT repeater. I plug my iPod into my powered computer speakers thru the head phone jack, no problems. Portable SAT’s should be no different.
I have one of these (probably one of the cheapest XM receivers you could buy now). Its audio out jack is just a standard audio out jack.
I keep it in my car and have a regular stereo cable running from it to the AUX input of my car stereo. I frequently switch this cable from the XM receiver to my iPod with no problems.
What you’re going to need, though, is something with an integrated antenna, and that’ll be more expensive. The antennas for mine are separate, and meant to be stuck near (or outside) a window if you’re at home, or on the roof of the car (it’s magnetic). Obviously that’s not going to work for you.
You need something like this. The antenna is integrated into the unit itself (though I think you can boost it with an external one when you’re stationary), so it’ll work just like an iPod or something.
NOTE: I’ve never actually used one of the portables, so I can’t vouch for how good they are. I’ve also never had the SIRIUS service, so I can’t tell you how good that would be.
So you want to listen to satellite radio while riding the bus? I don’t think that would be practical. The satellite signal is line-of-sight, and will not penetrate the metal roof of a bus. You need the antenna outside the vehicle, or next to a south-facing window. Also satellite receivers consume a lot of power, so I think battery life would be very poor. (Though I haven’t looked at portable receivers recently, so things may have changed.)
It doesn’t seem practical for me at this time. I own neither a car, nor any south-facing windows. Given that, and the fact that I can’t use it on the bus, then it won’t meet my needs at this time. Maybe in the future.
The Stiletto 100 seems pretty cool, but a basic iPod or other regular MP3 player should meet your needs without the monthly subscription costs. Mrs.Flex’s car has Sirius radio installed and she loves it, but my iPod Mini serves me just fine.
