Bought XM Radio Today

[Rick]

I bought the Pioneer FM modulated XM Radio reciever today. This is for our Dodge pickup which we use for our camping trips.

I am really impressed! Since we have the big camper on the Dodge which hangs over the cab of the pickup, antenna location is limited. I bought the magnet mount antenna and it's on the hood just in front of the windshield on the same side as the FM antenna.

After driving all day we have yet to lose signal even with that massive camper blocking the "view" of the sky from the back of the truck.

Audio quality through the FM modulater is excellent. I have used those with CD changers before and wasn't thrilled with their quality, but this unit actually sounds better than CDs with the factory HU.

The Dodge has the Infinity sound system which isn't the best, but it sounds pretty good for a stock system.

Interesting note... My friend has XM in his Nissan, we had both our trucks side by side listening to the same station and you could hear that the two systems were out of sync with each other! That was bizarre. My radio was about 1sec behind his.

These recievers have buffers built in just like the CD players. So if you happen to hit a dead spot while driving, chances are you won't even notice it.

I have yet to try this, but a my friend drove through the mile long tunnel in Phoenix and never lost signal.

Pretty cool stuff!

 

[88vert]

Hi Rick,How much does the reciever run?Is there a monthley fee?

 

[Rick]

$249 for the reciever, $79 for the antenna and $9.95 for setup fee if you do it over the net $15 if you do it on the phone. $9.95 a month for service.

 

[Rick]

One other bit of info...

You can start with the FM modulated reciever if your HU isn't XM ready. When you get an XM ready HU the same reciever already has the I-P output so you get the full capabilites of the digital signal.

I had wondered about that. Because with the FM modulated version you are converting the digital signal to analog when it feeds into the antenna jack of your stock HU. Obviously eliminating the conversion is the best way to go.

 

[espnfreak]

Rick I thought Infinity sounds systems were pretty nice sounding? A friend of mine dad has it in his '01 Jeep Cherokee LTD with an amp and everything and it sounded pretty good. At least its not fords crappy "Ford" line that i believe they put in my truck, lol
-Jason

 

['96explorereddiebauer]

My mom's Town & Country and both my totaled '98 JGC 5.9Limited and POS '00 JGC Limited come/came with the Infinity system and they sound excellent. In fact, I think they sound better than my Ford/JBL system. I'm not trying to diss Ford or anything but even Chrysler's low-end sounds systems sound better than Ford's Premium Sound.

Back to the subject. Thanks for the info Rick. I'm thinking of adding an XM radio myself. But I'm still weighing if I really need it. Oh well...I'll keep on thinking...