I've decided my Christmas present this year will be a satellite radio system.

I discovered years ago that if I leave it entirely up to my wife I'll end up with $9 plastic sawhorses...:-(

I've been looking at the differences between the providers, and so far it appears to me that Sirius is cutting their own throats with their programming and customer treatment. Example: Go to the XM Radio website and you'll be able to print out a listing of every station and what type of content it plays. Try that at Sirius.Com and you're invited to sign up and listen to their broadcasts for three days via your computer - which I did.

When I went to their page that displays a 'selection' of their stations, I quickly discovered that only one station is 'live' while the rest are canned voice-only descriptions of that channel's programming. No news, no sports, no music, no audio books. etc.

The 'live' channel - which I didn't bother to listen to, so I really don't know if it was 'live' or not - is "OutQ" the Gay Talk channel. Uh-huh. Hmmm...

I would have thought something more mainstream might appeal to their demographic!

The cost of the actual reciever and various kits (car, home, boombox) seems to vary little between retailers, but I found a couple of XM-authorised dealers on eBay and I can probably save about $50 total when I get the two or three setups I'll need.

I want one for my PV, of course, but the wife wants a home setup so she can listen to old-time radio and audio books at night, and of course she's going to be traveling a lot next month and wants a portable car setup so she can take MY radio across the country with her. *sigh*

Maybe I'll surprise her with her own receiver...

Does anyone here have experiences with either of the providers or comments about whch equipment manufacturer is better? We're thinking of getting the SkyFi series...