2005-07-05 23:00:00
You kiddin' me? Nope, I'm SIRIUS!
So my dad got SIRIUS satellite radio for his Jeep. He decided to go with the lifetime membership, which cost around $500. After using his logon to the website and listening to the stations, I decided I wanted it too. Should I get a lifetime membership or should I pay monthly? Which will pay off in the long term? Well, since he already had a subscription, I could buy my own receiver, add it to his account as a secondary receiver, and have to pay $7 a month instead of the normal $14 or whatever it is. Good deal. I did the math, and figured it would take approximately 6 years of $7/month payments before I would hit the $500 mark. In 6 years, SIRIUS might be out of business, or there might be another competitor who I like better and want to switch. So I decided that the monthly payments would be the best bang for the buck. So I go through SIRIUS' website to add my receiver on Saturday, yadda yadda, yadda, and I come to the page where it confirms my credit card, address, etc. In the payment field, it had $4.19! $4.19! That's all I have to pay a month. That's totally awesome! I'm makin' out on this deal. I was all ready to set everything up. The bundle I ordered came with the receiver (BRIX Streamer), the car kit, and the boombox so I can take it anywhere. I chose the BRIX Streamer because of the display. I wanted something easy to read while driving, so I didn't have to strain my eyes and take them off of the road for too long. This receiver has a black background, and bright green text. Awesome! Aside from that, this receiver is a little bigger than most, and because of that the text for artist and song title is about 72pt font each. It's huge. Just what I was looking for.So tonight I decided I would install the car kit. Ok, first, let's find a suitable place to mount the receiver. My Mazda Tribute left me with no option other than above the dash near the driver's side door (using the suction cup kit to stick it to the window). So, I then trial ran the power cable to see if I could make it reach. I ran it smoothly and seamlessly, lifting up panels and hiding the cable everywhere I could. On my second try, I got it to reach perfectly. Next, I mounted the dock above the dash and conencted the power. Then it was time for the antenna. I knew the antenna would go on the roof on the driver's side, near the back. But I had no idea how I would get the cable from the outside of the vehicle to the inside... After a minute or two of playing, I noticed the weather stripping around the trunk door came off, with some pressure. So I pulled it back, enough to fish the antenna line through, then pressed, very hard, it back on to seal it back up again. Now I ran the cable from the back of the vehicle to the front, tucking it under the D, C, B, and A column panels (respectively). While running it down the A column, I noticed I had a ton of wire left over. So I ran it completely down the A column until there was a seam in the plastic and I could sneak the wire underneath the dash. I twist-tied the excess up, hid it behind the break-away panel at the bottom of the A column, and ran the rest back up the A column and connected it to the receiver.
Now it was time to test. On the side of the dock, there are 4 FM stations listed with a switch. I tried the default option, 88.9. I could faintly hear a channel trying to come through the radio, so that won't do. 88.7, eh, there's something there. 88.5, I can't hear anything but statis. 88.3, just like 88.9, something's trying to come through. So 88.5 it is. I set my radio preset 6 to 88.5, and... nothing. Hmmm, the receiver is on, it's got plenty of signal, more than I've ever seen. ACK! I turned off the FM transmitter when I was using this in the house. I went through the menu, turned the FM transmitter back on, and wala, SIRIUS radio. I had succeded. But how good of quality is this FM transmitter? I put it on the Bluegrass station (where I was sure to get highs and lows) and cranked it. It's not as good as CD's, but it's close, very close. Then I put it on my favorite station, Hair Nation. That's right, they have a station that's all Hair Metal! That also sounded great. So, having accomplished what I set out to do, I called it a night and came back inside.
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