$1.879

I had previously seen no need for satellite radio in my world. Obviously, I hadn’t looked real hard at it.

At work this week, someone was selling a Roady2 — a little XM radio, with no real frills — for $50. One of my co-workers has been yelling and screaming about how good XM was, and I have to admit I was intrigued. I quickly ran out to the XM site, found that I could go month by month until I decided I liked it, found a ton of programming that I liked, and discovered that I could become a junkie of this technology.

So, I traded a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant for an XM receiver today. I plugged it in to the truck, using the FM modulator built in to the Roady2, and instantly could hear the sampler channel. I listened to this on the way home, with only a few dropouts as I went up the ridge near our home. Of course, I just had the antenna sitting on the dash, and I know that’s not optimal, but I was still amazed at how clear it all sounded, even using the FM modulator.

When I got home, I dashed inside, signed up, activated the little thing, and let the Satellite in the Sky tell the unit in the truck what to do with itself. One grass mowing later, I went back to the truck and found a ton of content waiting for me! I can already tell that just sifting through the content will be a challenge. However, as a side benefit of signing up, I can also listen to XM’s streaming audio version of many of their channels, and that’ll help me to find my favorites. My problem is that I like so many kinds of music…. I’m sure I will outpace the presets on the unit!

Hello XM — I’m here, and listening! 😉