[John DeLuca]

My wife has had XM for about a year now and she has me completely hooked. At first, there were a few things I didn't like about the service but it seems like they have really improved things (commercial free) and I'm ready to take the plunge for myself.

The difference with me is I want to use it only in my office. I work in New York City and take the train to work every day so I am looking to buy either the Skyfi or the Roady to hook up at my desk and possibly at home for the weekends. The big question is, does it work if I'm not near a window? I work in a closed room with no windows and it's near a data center so is there any possible way I can get a signal in there? I figured I may have some luck being in New York and possible being close to an antenna. My building is one 26th street between 11th and the West Side Highway so it's not like I'm in the congested building area of Midtown if that matters at all. If this is at all possible, I will go out tomorrow and buy it....crosses fingers.

[Dave Bennett]

I'd say buy it from a place like Circuit City or Best Buy (in your case I think the skyfi is the way to go) and if it works awesome, and if it doesn't just hang on to your reciept and tell them the honest truth that it didn't work where you intended to use it.

[John DeLuca]

Thanks for the reply Dave. I actually picked up an XM PCR for home which arrived yesterday. I think I am going to bring it to work one day and see if I can get a signal. If so, I will either pick up another one of those or a Skyfi. I was going to do like you said and pick one up from Circuit City but didn't want to go through the hassle of activating another unit if it's not going to work for me. With the PCR, I can just install it on my PC at work and see if I get anything. Supposedly it uses the same antenna as the Skyfi so my assumption would be that a Skyfi would work as well if the PCR does.

I plan on trying it out on Monday since my wife is off from work today and wouldn't let me take it today

[John DeLuca]

Just to give an update, I plugged my XM PCR in at my desk this morning and I am now listening to XM Radio at my desk. This is just simply amazing. The difference is, I have only 1 bar as a signal for the satellite but I have full strength for Terrestrial. I guess that means I am hitting one of the repeaters in NYC or something but to be next to a data center and getting a full strength is pretty amazing. Strange thing is, at home the situation is reversed....I have a full signal for satelite but zero for terrestrial. I guess that's because I live in the country though.

I just ordered another PCR to replinish the one I took from home to try. Gott love how PC Connection has it to you in 2 days. I am completely adicted to XM.

[Ronald Epstein]

John,

Welcome to XM!

You will love it! It's truly the best
service out there. Always fresh!

[John DeLuca]

Thanks Ron. I had to keep a notebook and pen at my desk to keep writing down the songs I liked. I couldn't believe all of the songs I had written down by the end of the day. I am going to be broke because now I want to buy all of these great songs on cd.

[Ziggy Szymczyk]

There's a little "save" button at the bottom - its faster and easier than taking notes.

[John DeLuca]

Thanks Ziggy. I guess I should pay more attention Is there a way to print that out? I see it can be exported to a bin file but I'm just curious if there's a quick and easy way to print it out. My PCR is at my desk at work and it would be great to print out my favorites list and walk right to the cd/record store. Thanks.

Edit: My bad. I see that it exports to an Excel file. This is perfect. Thanks.

[Ziggy Szymczyk]

OK... looks like my job here is done!

[Ronald Epstein]

Ziggy,

Thanks for stopping by.

Go check out XM411.COM guys! It's a
terrific resource for everything XM.