Finally got back from Brazil and got the Alpine XM tuner kit with the Blitzsafe adapter.

Thanks to Egilsrud for all the help!

I got the system at Circuit City. They had a sale going on the system for $149, plus $50 for install, so I got it and got the Blitzsafe from Ron at Streeteffectz.com.

Pros:

The antenna is the new Terk, which looks like someone stepped on the pregnant mouse antenna (flatter, but wider). It is mounted on my trunk towards the brakelight. Pics will be posted later. The control unit is mounted above the change holder and below the stock radio preset buttons.

As for the programming...I find myself constantly flipping through channels. That's not a bad thing though, I'm just having so much fun finding songs I haven't heard in a long time.

There is no service contract, just the activation fee and monthly fee, which is convenient for me because I often travel overseas for long durations, and sometimes I don't take my car on domestic travel either.

Cons:

There are 2 problems I have with the system. The first is that there are only 12 presets for over 100 channels, so I started presetting stations and ran out of spots by channel 40.

The other problem is the placement of the control knob. When changing the station with the knob, my hand blocks the display, unless I lower my wrist and bend my hand up to the knob, but the control is mounted low so this is not ergonomically-comfortable. But this is all alleviated by the wireless remote control that supposedly "needs" line of site to the control unit...IT DOESN'T!

As for the programming, I haven't had a chance to really listen to it, but there is much more variety than the regular radio.

 

Welcome to the XM club! I have the Skyfi setup and had a similar problem with too few presets. What I found was that after a couple of months I knew my favorite ten stations and pretty much just listened to them. In addition, if there are two good stations located near one another, I will preset one, then just flip the dial one or two to the other.

Chris

 

bad news though...i gotta cancel the service 'cuz i'm going to Missouri for several months for work and not taking my car because they need me there asap.

but i talked to the service people and they said i probably will get a full refund because it was within 30 days.

 

Did alpine have a XM where the controller is wireless? What exactly does the blitzsafe connection do? Thanks