Good way to get into satellite radio

I bought my receiver from Costco in a bundled package that included both car and home kits. I have not yet tried the car kit. I use this receiver only in my home.

The receiver is pretty easy to set up. It has a stereo audio-out port that lets you connect it to an audio-in port of a stereo receiver or amplifier. It also has a built-in FM modulator to let you hear your satellite programming on any nearby FM radio. The FM signal goes pretty far and plays on any radio at least 40 feet away in my house.

Activating the receiver is easy. Just go to Sirius' website, enter in the reciever's serial number and your credit card number and you're up within seconds. Before you activate, there are some audio channels that come through so that you know that you've connected everything up and aimed the antenna aimed properly. To aim the antenna, look at the included chart. Depending on where you live depends on what direction to point the antenna. Mobile installations don't require antenna aiming. You just put the included magnetic antenna on the roof and route the cable to the receiver.

The hardest part about setting up this reciever in a house is aiming the antenna. Satellite signals are very weak inside a house. Most likely, you'll have to put your antenna outside. The antenna has about 20 feet of very thin wire. You can place the antenna outside on a window sill and close the window on the antenna wire. If 20 feet is not long enough a 50 foot antenna extension cable is available. The home antenna that came with my receiver is weather-proof. It comes with mounting holes and small rubber feet that let you place it almost anywhere a good signal can be achieved.

The receiver has signal strength bars that let you monitor the signal strength of the satellite signal, as well the ground repeater signal if one is present in your area. Eventually, you'll find that sweet spot where the signal always remains strong enough to avoid any audio dropouts. Because Sirius' satellites are always moving, your signal strength may vary throughout the day. When you first aim the antenna, don't mount it permenantly for the first couple of days. I've found that the signal would vary from full stregnth to almost none at certain times of the day. After placing the antenna in several different places, I found that sweet spot that works well all the time. Again, you may have to play with the antenna a few days to find that sweet spot. Once you do, you can permentantly mount it. I just leave mine outside on the window sill. I have not noticed weather or heavy clouds effecting reception.

The receiver lets you pause up to 45 minutes of audio. All the channels are grouped by category. You use the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the categories. Then, you use the up and down arrow buttons to move within the category. Press SELECT to listen to the channel. There are 30 presets divided into three bands, A,B, and C. The display constantly shows the author and title of the song, the channel number, the current time. Talk radio stations show the title of the show. There are many functions built-in to this receiver, like an alarm clock and parental lockout features. My receiver also included a remote control.

Audio quality is awsome! I use the built-in FM modulator to play the receiver through my stereo on the other side of our house and it works very well. There is no static or interference. If you do hear audio problems, you may need to reorient your antenna. You can tell that talk radio channels are allocated less bandwidth than music channels. However, they still sound clear and there are many of them to choose from. Music channels have no commercials other than an announcer telling you that you are listening to Sirius. The talk shows are pretty good.

Customer service is very good. I called Sirius because I had questions about aiming my antenna. The person I spoke to was knowledgable and friendly.

I have looked into both XM and Sirius receivers. I chose Sirius because they carry Christian programming and talk radio that my wife and I like to listen to. I chose this receiver because it was at Costco and came with everything all in one package.

So far, I am happy with this receiver and Sirius radio service. Sirius also streams most of their channels over the internet at no extra cost. I recommend it.