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Using an MP3 player with FM tuner, I find that the Inno's signal doesn't leak significantly above or below the frequency it's set. Now if I could only find a solution to WFUV's signal (90.7) completely obliterating WFNY (92.3) when I'm within a 10-block radius of their new transmitter. I mean, their interference frequently comes through better (in stereo, no less) than the station that's supposed to be broadcasting two notches up the dial when that happens. It's made WFNY practically unlistenable where I live (and there are several buildings between my place and their transmitter).

---PCJ

Your article was from 2002. At that point, Sirius had only been around three years. Now they've been around seven years, and I'm sure the technology has changed quite a bit.

As for the problems with sound quality in your Jetta, I've heard about major problems with many factory-installed systems from both XM and Sirius(through xmfan.com and siriusbackstage.com). Apparently the factory-installed antennas tend to be poor-quality.

One of my friends and I installed my Sirius car receiver and I installed my Sirius home receiver. The sound quality is just fine in both locations. If you know anyone who might know anything about car audio, I'd recommend having them look at your car to make sure the wiring was done correctly, and if possible, try a different antenna.

IIRC, Clear Channel has so little stake left in XM, they are no longer on the Board of Directors and no longer have any influence in the direction XM takes. To me, that sounds like a very small part. Insignificant really.

For proof... I think this will suffice...

I bought the CCrane transmitter http://www.ccrane.com/fm-transmitter.aspx/ and perfomed the easy mod http://www.xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?t=3257&postdays =0&postorder=asc&start=0/ to increase it's output power.

It works great and covers the entire house. It's cheaper than the original post and includes a case and power supply (problems that the original poster had with the ebay one).

If you are looking at getting either services, here are a few lessons I learned over the last year and a half....

(i) XM seems to be going for the "deep playlist" crowd whilst Sirius is going for the "I would like to hear my favorite song many times a day" crowd. both approaches are valid. Depends if you are the type of person who likes pounding hits all day or, if you are the type of person who likes to listen to the "B" sides of records.

(ii) XM's pricing approach is to have a cheap base price $9.99 but charge for services after that ( premium channels, online streaming is extra ), etc. Sirius has plans for premium channels, but have so far resisted the effort, they trying to have a hefty base package. I use streaming, but I would like for it to be optional, since I may what to go with yahoo launch ( once they start supporting Mozilla ) or real radiocast.

(iii) Do not depend on the FM transmitter. Those things produce horrible sound. If you live in a city, forget it; you're going to be dodging stations on even short commutes.

(iv) They both have less than CD quality sound and expect it to get worse as they try to cram more and more obscure stations in very limited bandwidth.

(v) Do check xmfan.com and siriusbackstage.com to find the problems current users are having.

The DirectPCR is the best solution if you really want something with the power and cool factor of the now-defunct XMPCR (no I don't have any business relationship, I'm just an XMFan regular and have been following developments). As for "hack factor" at least three separate people or groups have separately done the XMDirect protocol translation. If you have the right equipment, it's probably about an afternoon's work - just hook up two serial monitors side by side and dump away. So there isn't that much hack cred to speak of in this. Furthermore, if you're comfortable with a soldering iron, you can trivially build an XMPCR-compatible unit out of a SkyFi with a DB9 header, a MAX232, and an optical adapter board.

It also looks like Slashdot is a little behind on this news, it's been discussed since Tuesday on the XM developer's forum http://www.xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?t=27670.

One interesting post by the developer indicates that he has purged purchaser's personal information from his database:

As there has been some concern about contact information held by me, I have changed my database so that the only information stored is the issued key number. Email addresses and any other identifying information about purchasers is discarded immediately after the credit card validation process has completed.
The key number is derived from a one-way hash using your radio ID and some other internal information. It will work only with your radio, however no information (including the radio ID) can be derived from it.

Check out: http://www.xmfan.com for info on the XMPCR digital mods.

Sure they do! This one works really well.

And you can mod it to boost the power and/or break FCC 15 regulations for private radio transmissions.

I've got it. I use it. I love it!