I’m very happy with my decision to get Sirius. The reception has been nearly flawless (I’ve only lost the signal in a big parking structure in the car, and once during a really bad t-storm at home).
It’s a little pricey to get the equipment to start, but so far, I think it’s been worth it. You need to by the receiver. In my case, I bought a “portable” receiver that I can take from my car to my house. Going this route you also need to buy a docking kit for both the car and at home. At home you have an antenna that’s (very) roughly the size of a deck of cards that I just have sitting on top of the hutch in the kitchen where we keep the stereo—so, no, it doesn’t have to be outside (it’s about 2.5 ft. from the ceiling—we have an attic, but no upstairs—and about 6 ft. from a window). The car antenna was installed by the guys who put in my stereo (I had a new deck put in at the same time as Sirius). It’s pretty low profile on the roof just above the windshield. It looks like one of those big tootsie rolls, just a little flatter.
The other option in the car is a Sirius-ready deck—no portability between house and car, though. That’s why I went with the set-up I did.
Aside from the NFL channel, the music channels are great. There also seems to be a lot of other interesting talk radio, but I probably won’t get to those until late January.
Lessee…I’ll just try to address the rest of your Q’s directly….
- A modular tuning/receiving unit that could be hooked up/"docked" either into a car radio, home stereo or Sirius boombox—correct.
- An antenna—right, I think these come with the docking stations…not sure about that, though.
- Subscription for roughly $10/mo.—yup, but that’s a little misleading, too. They charge you the whole thing upfront, or at least they charged me the whole thing at once. Didn’t seem like monthly was an option.
What can you tell us about:
- Reception (Is it good?) –no complaints. There have been times when I’ve lost reception, but it’s never been for long. It’s better than I could have hoped for.
- Antenna location (Do you need a clear line of sight like you do DirecTV?) –No, it doesn’t seem to need a clear line of sight. Which is good, because that might have been a deal-killer for me. My set up described above works great, but if you have a second layer of house to get through, or aren’t as close to a southern window, I’m not sure what would happen. I think they sell repeaters, though.
- Can the antenna be situated inside the house or does it have to be on the roof? Do you have to mount it on the outside of your car? (via magnet or hard mount? Do you need to attach a wire from the antenna to the receiver? –I think the car antenna is mounted with some sort of adhesive, but I’m not certain how it’s stuck to the roof. The wiring comes through the side of the windshield, so it’s not something I would have wanted to try to do myself.
- Whether you need to wire your car radio to get the receiver to work or whether it's one of those gismos where you plug the output cable through an adapter into the cigaret lighter and then tune it to a vacant place on the radio dial. It needs to be wired to your car, and the receiver should probably be mounted with the kit provided. Furthermore, it’s best if your stereo has an AUX input—I think you CAN tune it in through an FM station, but, IMO, that sounds sketchy.
HeavyB3 is a Sirius pimp, I think. He probably knows more than me about this stuff…Hope this helps, though.
