Not sure how many of you are running satellite radio, but here is my experience.
About 3 months ago, I decided to look into satellite radio to help pass the 2 hour commute I have to and from work each day. I went with XM because I liked the Delphi Skyfi receiver that can be moved to different vehicles. I purchased the Skyfi & car kit from Best Buy for $200. I installed this in my 2000 F350 which had the stock cd/cassette/radio in it. The car kit comes with the Car cradle, Small magnetic roof mount antenna, Audio cassette adapter, Cigarette lighter power adapter, Universal swivel mounting bracket. With this setup, it is a very easy install with hiding the roof antenna wire the most difficult depending on how picky you are about it. (I am freak) Monthly subscription fee for XM is 9.99 per month I believe.
So on the first morning with the XM I was not impressed. The sound quality was terrible which made listening to music channels not as pleasing. There are over 100 channels so lots to choose from which also made it confusing. I was ready to box it up and take it back, but decided to upgrade my vehicles sound system first. (It needed it anyway) So first I added new speakers to see what that did. Well that made it worse, the tuner just did not do the upgraded speakers any justice. I ran it this way for a while I figured out what kind of tuner I would get. XM grew on me during this time, they have great comedy channels, CNN, Fox news, Blomberg, Discovery and ton's of music which still sounded pretty poor. So I decide to update the tuner to a pioneer XM ready unit (which did not have a cassette player), thinking I could plug my Skyfi into the accessories port in the back of that tuner. Wrong! That did not work I spent a few hours after work installing the new tuner only to find this was not going to work, so I ran to work without XM the following day. I found I really liked XM now so I yanked the new tuner and put the old stuff back in. I did some research on the net and found out I needed to get a FM module to get the Skyfi to work with a tuner without a cassette player. At this point I decided to install a car cradle in the motorhome so I bought a car kit for that which also would require a FM module and thinking ahead this time, I also bought a Terk XM trucker antenna know the small antenna for cars was not going to work for my application. So yesterday was install day, I started on the F350, and the most difficult part is running wires from the FM module to a power source, Skyfi unit and tuner. The FM module eliminates the cigarette lighter power source and utilizes the FM antenna input to deliver the signal. I really like this setup, because all of the wires are now behind the dash and makes for a clean install. All I can say is WoW! what a difference in sound quality. Alot of this comes from the upgraded tuner, but the FM input really makes a difference. I will say it still is not CD quality, but it is pretty good. If you really have to have CD quality, you need to purchase a XM receiver which then plugs into that accessory port on a XM radio (this will only work with a XM ready radio) The problem with this is it cannot be moved from vehicle to vehicle, so you would need to purchase additional subscriptions. The install in my Freightliner cab was a little more difficult. I have so much crap in there already, so finding a place for the cradle was my first issue and then the FM module was even worse. Both are set low and out of the way, which makes seeing the Skyfi screen tough, but with the remote comes with the unit (which my wife can operate that), my presets all setup, I can move to my favorite channels and keep it from being a additional distraction.
I usually listen to the CB while we are running in the Show Hauler, but this weeks 16 hour trip to Florida will be a little nicer with XM as a break from the CB chatter.
I will take a couple of pic's today and post them tonight of my FL setup.
BTW here is a great place to get everything XM -->
http://www.xm-radio-satellite.com
Bill
2003 28' Show Hauler Motorhome on a 1995 FL 120
www.showhauler.com
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