Anyone savvy with satelite radio?

I've had an XM Pioneer Inno radio for a year now. I like it very much.

What exactly do you need to know? For me to renew my subscription, it costs $142.45 for the year. Not cheap, so I justify the cost by listening as often as I can.

It's true, XM and Sirius finally merged. Their services were very similar, but I noticed programming differences between the two. (We have Dish Network, which came with Sirius.) For instance, I thought the 80s hits station on Sirius had a better variety of music than the 80s channel on XM. I thought the Big Band Sirius channel played more "big band" variety than the '40s channel on XM, which mixes swing numbers with more slower groups like the Mills Brothers and vocalists like <shudders> Vaughn Monroe.

Sirius had an 80s rap station which I loved. XM had "Rhyme" which was 80s and 90s rap, and I only liked it. Now the combined service has the Eminem channel which is 80s 90s and 00s rap. I don't listen to it very much at all any more.

Overall, though, my Inno gives me great portability. It's about the size of a cell phone and I can use it practically anywhere.

If you're sick of local homogenized radio like I am, satellite radio is a great choice. Note, I very much like the localness of local radio. I just don't like the programming. I like local morning radio shows. I like listening to local air talent. I don't like Howard Stern or other national talk shows.

But for music and other specialty radio like old time radio and comedy, satellite radio is awesome.

They DO have mp3 XM which works with Napster. However, you have to subscribe to napster to get the the inno to talk to napster. That works great IF you download music on a regular basis. If you don't, then it's not worth the subscription to napster.

The inno comes with a usb cable that plugs into your computer. If you don't do the napster thing, when you plug in the inno, the computer sees it as a secondary drive. You can then drag and drop mp3 files into the inno drive and listen to them with the inno, which I have done with success.

You can buy a car adaptor to use with your car, and it comes with a wireless thing to broadcast into a clear FM channel on your radio. I didn't buy it; it's like $75 or something, and I'm too cheap. Instead, I have a linex FM transmitter which plugs into the headphone jack and can broadcast into the car radio. It can also be used in the house and has incredible range.

Otherwise, I use a cord to plug the headphone jack of the inno into the input jack of my car radio (stock 1991 car radio has an input jack, pretty handy) and I can play my XM in my car that way.

I loved my XM radio. I used to do a lot of road trips and such, and it was awesome. Especially the uncensored comedy channel; on one trip, I listened to the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour live for like 2 hours.

My signal was pretty much always clear, except going through a tunnel or under a bridge. Nothing like driving through the mountains of Nowheresville, Tennessee and still having crystal clear signal.

I highly recommend it.

Oh, and I had the "Sportster" radio or whatever. On the cheaper end (it was free with my Bally Total Fitness membership), but it worked great.

I liked XM much more, but now that XM and Sirius merged -- isn't that a monopoly, by the way? Where's the antitrust lawsuit?

Anyway, I'd suggest getting one of those portables, or at least something small enough without a lot of adaptors and cables, so you can take it with you -- to the car, to the office, to the home. I had an adaptor at home so I could just plug it in and play through the stereo; then later take it to the car.

I don't subscribe to XM anymore. I find that I don't really listen to radio that much, even on a long drive. I'm happy with my iPod (Podcasts, etc.), and also I get Internet radio such as Pandora, etc. -- so I'm happy.

We've had XM in our truck for a few years now. It was great when our cassette player still worked; that adapter was lovely. Now we're stuck using one of the FM broadcasters, and it's not nearly as good.

I have a new MINI on order, and I'm getting Sirius built in. While the two companies have merged, their equipment still is separate. I'm looking forward to it being integrated into the car. It'll be much easier, and better sound.

So seriously, look into how you can play the XM in your particular vehicle, especially if it's an older model