XM Radio on the Playa?

[XS]

Hey burners,

Been considering XM radio or Sirius or whatever for the long ass drive, but then thought, will it work out on the playa? Theoretically, in my mind that is, it should work.... right? wrong? Educate me.

Many thanks.

XS

[XS]

Ok I feel exceedingly stupid now. Just visited the XM site. Educated my own damn self. Looks pretty cool. No commercials to and from the playa. Worth every penny I'm gonna spend.

Thanks anyway kids.

[HughMungus]

Ok I feel exceedingly stupid now. Just visited the XM site. Educated my own damn self. Looks pretty cool. No commercials to and from the playa. Worth every penny I'm gonna spend.

Thanks anyway kids.

Sympathy reply.

Hey don't feel bad. When I was in the Marines as a radio operator, we had a problem with some satellite radios and some newbie officer must have mis-heard us because he said, "How long are they going to be up there?" "Up where?" we said. "Up there fixing the satellite..."

[Scubapro]

LOL. Stand down Marine. Not everyone is a mental giant.

[MrMullen]

The following devices don't work on the Playa:

Satellite TV
Satellite Radio
Satellite Phones
GPS (Which use Satellites)

As I understand, satellites are not allowed over the Playa. Talk to Larry if you have a problem with it.

[Kinetic IV]

The following devices don't work on the Playa:

Satellite TV
Satellite Radio
Satellite Phones
GPS (Which use Satellites)

As I understand, satellites are not allowed over the Playa. Talk to Larry if you have a problem with it. :D

While Larry has lots of influence, space is not one of his controllable realms. Yet. I can just visualize "Burners in space"..wait a minute we already have "Flight to Mars" so that's been covered. Hmmm...maybe I'm wrong. Anyway..... as for all of the devices listed above I've used 'em all out there.

On the satellite radio front give Sirius a look. XM is cheaper but if you're ever in a place where you can't get the signal but wanted to listen to their streaming audio feeds, XM charges extra for that. Sirius includes it in the base cost. If you add that in the services are dead even on cost. One other thing...Sirius has 3 satellites above the US, XM only has "Rock" and "Roll" up...that third Sirius satellite does help in some areas on getting a signal.

[Mind Scan]

I love Sirius, mostly for channel 17, "Jam On":
The Grateful Dead, Phish, The String Cheese Incident, Widespread Panic, Gov’t Mule, Santana, moe., The Allman Brothers Band, Dave Matthews Band, Robert Randolph and many more.

I'm buying a portable reciever and boombox for the Playa. Around $250 for both.

http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentSe ... 4779639603

[RegRad]

[quote="MrMullen"]The following devices don't work on the Playa:

Satellite TV
Satellite Radio
Satellite Phones
GPS (Which use Satellites)

As I understand, satellites are not allowed over the Playa. Talk to Larry if you have a problem with it. [/quote]

Mr Mullen- I am sorry but you are not correct on this one . If you can "see" the part of the horizon that your Satellite is in then you will get a signal from it..... Also, the satellite does not need to "fly" over you to get a signal. Most Satellites are thousands of miles from you when they send their signal.

[Kinetic IV]

Pssst, RegRad....

He wasn't being serious.

[RegRad]

Oh! Poop!

[Mind Scan]

what I fear is someone setting up a cell phone tower. Wi-Fi is one thing but I'm going to the Playa to escape "civilization"!

[Kinetic IV]

what I fear is someone setting up a cell phone tower. Wi-Fi is one thing but I'm going to the Playa to escape "civilization"!

That can be arranged so easily it's not even funny. But it comes down to cost which is the ONLY reason it hasn't happened yet. I can visualize several scenarios to make that happen for Burning Man such as bringing in a SuperCow (Super Cell site On Wheels) which would let them get setup and operational quickly. (It's the same thing used for events like the Super Bowl to supplement the existing network)

A more permanent answer is a bit more complex. Dealing with the BLM for tower site locations would not be easy, they would likely require co-location for the other carriers so as not to clutter the pristine landscape with a multitude of towers. Then you have an active environmentalist base putting up resistance and not enough traffic at the moment to justify the cost and the hassle. For those reasons Northern Nevada stays as a great white coverage hole on the national carrier's signal maps.

But there are telco execs who look at that coverage map every day...and they wonder about those white spaces. It's a nice claim to have true "nationwide" coverage....I'd say give it 4 years and the Black Rock will see at least partial coverage by a tower.

(The above is my personal view and not that of any company I am affiliated with)

[KathyTM5]

:? Soooo...after reading all these posts...do I understand that my satellite SIRIUS WILL work out there?? Yes, I'm a virgin burner, can you tell by me ignorance and gullibility??? thanks....Kathy

[dig]

You won't have a problem with sat radio out there. However, if you get bored with that programming, be sure to scan your FM dial. There are some great Playa radio stations - especially 106.5 K-Svert


dig

[BigBeare]

[quote="XS"]Hey burners,

Been considering XM radio or Sirius or whatever for the long ass drive, but then thought, will it work out on the playa? Theoretically, in my mind that is, it should work.... right? wrong? Educate me.

XS[/quote]

If you're going to Burning Man for a different kind of experience, why not listen to the local radio stations? Why bring along your big-city entertainment with you? There are some interesting radio stations out there, often with a small town flavor that is totally missing today in the cities. You'll find locally owned stations that run swap shop want ad shows, cover local news, have live programs from the county fair, etc.

My advice is to leave your XM and Sirius at home and listen to local radio if you *really* want to be a part of life, rather than just another tourist.

[gladeye]

I'd recommend Sirius over XM, mainly because my wife and I are buying stock in it. Thanks for the support!

There's another thread about Playa radio stations somewhere and I really recommend them over anything. There's still a lot of confusion (at least in me) about whether or not the fcc will now bust people, other than the official Burning Man station, for broadcasting. As far as I know, no one has tested this.

[chinaski]

I reject your labeling of satellite radio listeners as tourists. It was a valid question. What's next, methods of dress and acceptable behaviour? Go to the Politics and Philosophy thread.

[safetythird]

Interesting (or not) thing I learned about Sirius. I have Dish and listen to the sirius channels all the time. My brother in law has the sirius boom box. One day he was over and we were listening to the boom box in the backyard and the same channel on the stereo in the house. The boombox was a good 2 or 3 seconds delayed from the stereo. About the only thing I can figure out is that Dish has a better sat system or sirius lags on its uplink to their sats. Just kinda weird.

S3

[Kinetic IV]

If you're going to Burning Man for a different kind of experience, why not listen to the local radio stations? Why bring along your big-city entertainment with you?

Obviously you haven't drove across Nebraska or Western Kansas like a few of us have to do in order to get there. Your radio station selections are as follows: Gospel, country, farm report, gospel, Rush Limbaugh and right wing fundies, country, Focus on the Family funded religious nuts, country, country, and gospel. I will NEVER endure that again if I can help it. I subscribed to Sirius and absolutely love it. Commercial radio sucks...listen to satellite for a while and when you flip back you'll realize how bad it was.

[BigBeare]

[quote="chinaski"]I reject your labeling of satellite radio listeners as tourists. It was a valid question. What's next, methods of dress and acceptable behaviour? Go to the Politics and Philosophy thread.[/quote]

Simply said: The Burning Man experience is an experience of life in a rural desert environment. Part of that experience is local radio. You either get with the program or you're a tourist, plain and simple.

[BigBeare]

I reject your labeling of satellite radio listeners as tourists. It was a valid question. What's next, methods of dress and acceptable behaviour? Go to the Politics and Philosophy thread.

Actually, Burning Man has all kinds of standards of acceptable behavior. Any civilized society does.

[AntiM]

Having ridden cross country more than once with trucker hubby, local radio does indeed suck ass in parts of the country. Maybe you've got great programming where you are located, but yep, there's long, long, long stretches of I-80 and I-70 with the most dismal broadcasts ever.

I don't even want to start with I-10 through Texas or I-40 in Arkansas. YIKES.

That said, do tune into BRC stations once you hit 447, hell yeah! As for rural desert radio, Reno puts out a fairly big blast. Hardly rural. If you have specific stations to search for I'd love to know so I can check them out.

[Ranger Genius]

I think the point was that once you get to the playa, you should listen to BRC radio stations. On the way out, if you've got satellite radio, by all means listen to it. Once you're there, put it away and enjoy the FM flavor of the city!

[Kinetic IV]

On the playa this year I don't expect to listen to my satellite radio except for one thing. Overall weather reports from the Weather Channel West. It won't specifically cover BRC but it gives an overview of the big picture so you get an idea of any major problems that could come up. I never found reliable weather from any BRC station. Beyond that...I fully support playa radio!!!! K-svert comes to mind right off the bat.

And AntiM, I-40 is not much better in Eastern Tennessee either. That's another "radio dead zone".

[MrMullen]

Soooo...after reading all these posts...do I understand that my satellite SIRIUS WILL work out there?? Yes, I'm a virgin burner, can you tell by me ignorance and gullibility??? thanks....Kathy

All joking aside, anything based on satellite tech will work on the Playa, and in fact will work very well since there is nothing to block the signal.

Your satellite radio will work, as well as sat phones, GPS, and sat TV.

Plan on listening to hours of cmmerical free music on the Playa.