I was reluctant at first because of worries regarding the antenna not being in a south-facing window. My stereo system is in a built-in entertainment wall and does not allow for the antenna to be pointed at a south facing window. After reading that many others have had success with the antenna in less than ideal areas, I decided I would give it a try. My house is 2 years old, one story brick with a normal pitched roof consisting of plywood decking and dimensional fiberglass shingles. It has 10 foot flat and tray ceilings.

After hooking up the cables to my surround sound receiver and placing the antenna on the top of the stack of stereo components, I pointed the antenna generally to the south and toward the ceiling at about 45 degrees. I plugged the SkyFi in and immediately was getting two bars on the signal strength indicator. I do not have terrestrial repeaters in my area, so I am relying solely on the satellite. After a few quick adjustments I was getting 3 bars or it bounced between 3 and 2 bars.

I was very happy to have it work, and it is not even close to sitting in a south-facing window. After getting a strong signal and hearing the sample channels loud and clear, I activated the subscription online. I timed it and it took 12 minutes before the tuner updated and began receiving all channels. I was pretty impressed it activated that quickly.

I picked XM over Sirius because I had a chance to hear it in the Avis rental car and I trust Delphi equipment. Overall, I am very happy with the SkyFi, the home kit, and the XM service.

=marvelous on long road trips, no need to fear moving out of range just when you've found something engaging
=sound quality generally equal to FM
=wide, wide variety of programming

But, I do have a tip and a concern. The tip: if you plan on using the home stereo adapter, spend the $20 for a Monster cable to connect to your amp or receiver! It took me two trips to the retailer to get this resolved. It's especially disappointing since big bucks have been invested in the technology and programming and in the last few feet the signal quality is degraded to an unlistenable level -- and you've got to believe that the "adapter kit" is a pretty high margin item for Delphi. Had they maintained the quality of the product maybe Mr. Johnson would have been happier.

The concern: I hope XM takes advantage of the opportunity to take radio programming to some new and creative places. There's quite a variety here, but much of it tends to become a choice about preferred "wallpaper" music. It doesn't look like we're ever going to get anything creative from commercial radio, and XM has vastly greater resources than Public Radio if they want to use them.

My system works great (now) and there's a lot of potential here. It's worth getting now and we'll look forward to more from XM.