It’s all the wonderful wife’s fault.  We went in there “just to see” and came out with a new car radio and an XM Radio unit.  After all these years of marriage who knew she’d go for a second marriage to a radio service, one I’d criticized as total folly from Day One.  I guess she figures anything I criticized so badly can’t be all that bad for me to play with now. 

However, I have also been informed that Christmas, Father’s Day, Birthday, and all other Gift-Appropriate Days have now been accounted for for the next couple of years

The courtship, marriage, and honeymoon with XM Radio has been quick and , uh, interesting, and we’re less than two weeks into it now.

The OEM radio in the 2002 car is of course not “satellite radio ready.”  (Jackie, I figured the payments of a new car versus the payments of the radio setup and the latter won out, hands down.  )  So, to begin with we need a new radio.

After years of flight line work, and not too few just walking on the planet, my audiometric exam graphics are significantly skewed and attenuated, to say the least, so the cheaper line of radios is all I need as long as the one I buy will work with a satellite radio tuner.

Oh, did I skip a minor item here?  Ya, some new cars may have the XM Radio built into the AM/FM/CD/HD/Frisbee/Whatever unit, but apparently at the retail level for satellite radio the name of the game is that you have to have a satellite-radio-ready radio and then buy the “head” or tuner for the satellite reception. 

OK, so show me the cheapest radios you carry that will fit the bill. 

Ahhh, that one may be the cheapest, but it has a couple dozen buttons on it that I can’t press with my fingers while standing here (never mind while driving!), each with minuscule labels that I can’t read with either part of my bifocal lenses.  And don’t try to tell me that 20-year-old eyes can see the labels much better than I can.  Who designs this stuff???  (And the 18-year-old sales person did not in fact try to tell me she could read them, so there!)

For five bucks more I can get a radio with a lot fewer buttons, and labels; the fewer buttons have multiple functions.  Rather than labels the LCD panel shows what’s going on in larger letters, large enough for me to read.  Of course the downside is that I know what’s going on only after I’ve pressed the button, but…

OK, the radio is a done deal.  Five bucks from the bottom.  Things are looking good. 

On to the satellite part.  As far as I was concerned it’s no contest between XM and Sirius.  Heck, any service that has both Howard Stern and Martha Stewart is in my disfavor from the get-go.  XM Radio it will be.

Yes, that’s a cute little “head” (tuner) but it suffers from the same malady as that first radio we looked at — over.miniatur.ization.alism.itis.  The unit at best would be an ornament, functioning only on whatever setting was made during installation because I have no intention of carrying around a toothpick to press the buttons, and I don’t want to have to park that many times as I drive between my origin and my destination.

Hmm, you say that other unit there is a little larger and will let me take it with me?  Use it in the car, in the home, or while I’m, jogging?  Yeah, right, while I’m jogging.  I can barely walk today, but I’m sure jogging is right around the corner.  (I’m sure somebody around the corner is jogging.)

I like the idea of car and home use, figuring if I’m going to pay for a subscription I may as well have it available somewhere other than the car.  The unit is a heck of a lot more expensive than that toothpick target, however.

Approval seems to be coming from the wife, or at least, non-objection, so it’s seize the moment.

Go for it, and I need it installed.  I’ve done a few in-dash installs myself, but in those days I could see and hear better and I was a lot more flexible. 

Expected installation time is 1.5 hours?  Ring it up.  The mag strip on my Visa card will be down to vapor trails by the time it expires.  Installation is two days hence.

It’s 2130 in the evening (OK, for you out of the loop that’s 9:30 P.M.) and I’ve read the radio booklet/manual, but just the English part, foregoing the French and Spanish parts.  My first education is in the fact that it is not a radio.  Ohhh, noooo.  It is a “CD Receiver.”  OK, whatever.

Next, I cut open the XM Radio thingy.  It is just short of requiring an acetylene torch to open, but I finally manage to open it without plunging the cutting device into my leg (Done before — 6 weeks therapy and a lot of crutch work; I can hit the crucial spot without aiming.) and I do it without damaging the merchandise (we’re not going there, but do you think they build in a number of returns based purely on damaged-during-opening scenarios?). 

It’s every bit as neat in my living room as it is in the store, and I’m amazed how light it is.  It must be empty.  Cost per ounce is astronomical. 

The battery shows half-charge when installed, so I set up the in-home base unit and power adapter; I’ll read and learn while the battery goes the rest of the way to full charge.

Oh, yes, I’m reading, but I’ve got the unit in the base and the whole works in my hand.  Just have to play with it learn the buttons/controls.   

It’s now nearing 2300 (you’ve had your hint — do the math) and I see no reason to activate a subscription service so late in the calendar day.  So, I install the software that will allow me to access XM Radio programming from my PC.  That I like very much.  I can play it on my PC and I can connect the tuner to my home entertainment system and play through there, also.  Nice.

0010 hours.  Activation complete.  I am now an official subscriber to XM Radio.

The following day I arrive to find that the lone installer (not sure why — there are three who work in there) has been scheduled for two installations at the same time in the slot before me and neither customer is very happy about the situation.  Not his fault, but as the business world goes,the bottom of the food chain where the real work gets done is the one who catches the crap. 

Not from me — I know better.  To make it worse his New York Yankees cap is on the workbench.  Hasn’t been much of a week for him all around, I’d say.  To make it worse yet, his manager is a Red Sox fan.  Life can be cruel.

Two and a half hours later I’m out of there with radio, er, make that “CD Receiver,” and XM Radio device installed and working nicely.  

• The Inno box (Panasonic) does not in fact include “everything you need.”  The box does not claim such but I was informed of needing nothing else in the store.  It includes what is needed for home and portable use of the Inno for XM Radio, but not installation in a car.  That requires a separate kit.
• The car installation kit borders on rip-off.  Only two items were used from the kit and I still had to buy a 4-buck cable in addition to the kit.
• The car installation kit is grossly overpriced, but necessary, so Panasonic can get away with it.
• Yes, the Inno home kit comes with a USB cable and you can upload your MP3 files to it, and yes you can record (and even schedule in advance to record) music you listen to on the Inno XM Radio device, but music you listened to and recorded cannot be downloaded to your PC unless you have purchased it, the music, via Napster.
• The cost of subscription service to XM Radio varies depending on the length of service you sign up for, ranging from monthly to multi-year.  The longer the period, the cheaper the rate.  The $12.95 quoted on the Inno box is the highest rate.  I award Panasonic and XM Radio points for not showing the lowest rate as most businesses do (”As low as…”).
• You must have your XM Radio device on for at least 8 hours each month in order to keep the subscription active.  Huh?  They have my money but I have to have it on?  Strange.
• The XM-Napster software visually pressures heavily toward registering/buying the paid version that offers only two features in addition to what the free version offers.  The “install only the free version” link is there, but not terribly obvious.  Neat trick, but I now deduct the points awarded for honestly showing the higher subscription rate on the box. 

Nevertheless, the honeymoon goes on.