Delphi SA10085 Roady2 XM Satellite Radio Receiver with Built-in Wireless FM Modulator Review

I have not before been interested in getting sattelite radio and never thought I would, but after I saw my friend with one of these DELPHI Roady2 units, I had to get one too. My friend had shown me other XM units he had, but this is the one that got me to get XM.

When you look at this tiny shirt pocket sized device, you think it is just a controller or head for a much larger unit somewhere, but EVERYTHING is inside the small device itself, including the FM transmitter. Most FM transmitters on the market have been bigger than this device, but somehow they fit one inside this unit with all the other stuff it needs to do.

This unit is smaller than my radar detector.Much smaller.

And unlike most FM transmitters, this one has a nice strong signal! With my friend outside in his car with the unit, I went into my house and was able to tune the XM station he had tuned to on my radio in the house!

In fact, what I like most about this unit is that it is so easy to take from home to car so that you only need one unit for both.Right now, I have it tuned to a channel in the bedroom, but can listen to a radio here in the office on the other side of the house, or any room in the house, the FM transmitter is that good.You have a choice of several FM frequencies, and unlike those FM transmitters you tune with a screwdriver, this one is digitally PL locked to the frequency you select via the on screen menu, and it will not fade off frequency.

The audio quality is going to be better with the line out jack, but the quality of the FM modulator has been good enough for me so far, plus it means I can use any radio in the house or car without having to connect any wires to them.

OK, now some neat features not mentioned on most reviews and websites....

While listening to a channel, you can use the thumbwheel and read what is playing on all the other channels without leaving the channel you are listening too.If you find a song or program that you like, just push in the thumbwheel and you jump to that channel's audio.

Let's say you are in the car, and a song comes on that you really like but don't have pen or paper to write down the name of song and artist. Just push the button on the front labeled:MEMORY.Now that song and artist info is stored into memory so that at any time later when you are around pen and paper, you can call up that information and write it down! You can store up to 20 songs in this memory, then it starts deleting the oldest song title in memory once you have 20 stored.

You can also put songs into another memory that will have the unit BEEP at you if any of your favorite songs are being played on any channel while you are on another channel. Then one press of a button, and you can jump to your favorite song playing.

Each major city has it's own traffic and weather channel, and the current temperature and forecast is printed on the screen too.

You can program your favorite stocks to constantly show you the stock rate on the screen under song or channel name.

Another reason I never wanted to get sattelite radio in the car, is because of having to mount another antenna on the car, I don't like to put holes in the car.But this one has a magnet mount and is the size of a refridgerator magnet, so you can stick it on the roof while driving, but you don't even have to do that, since just resting it near the front windshield inside the car has been getting me great reception, so why put it outside the car if I don't have to? Some might just stick the tiny magnet antenna to the top of their radar detectors.

Same with indoors.I was told to put it in a window with some sort of direction view, but I have it in the middle of the room now not next to any window and it is working just fine. I ordered the in home kit, which will give me a seperate indoor antenna that is a bit larger and will probably be better yet, plus, then I don't have to take the one antenna in and out of the house, I can leave the one in the car and the other in the house and just take the unit itself in and out.

They give you several mounts for inside the car, and I like the vent mount the best, because I don't have to use any sticky permanent tape, glue, or velcro in my car, it holds on to the air vent real tight, and the unit just slides on and off of it and is nice and visable to read right over the radio. But this mount can be taken off easy and does not ruin the car or leave sticky residue.

I bet most people will not figure out how to use the vent clip, and no instructions explain it, but if you figure it out and do it right, it will never fall off and will stay unless you want to take it off. If it keeps falling off for you, you are not doing it right. You don't just slide it in and out of the vent, once you slide it in, in snaps onto to thin plastic parts of the vent and will not come back out unless you angle each of the clamps the right way.And once you have this snapped in to your vent, you do NOT take it on and off as another reviewer mentioned having problems with, the DELPHI Roady2 slides on and off of the vent mount, so you leave the mount on the vent, you don't keep taking it off, you just slide the Roady2 on and off the mount that stays connected to the vent, unless you are not going to use the Roady2 in the car ever again, then take the vent mount off.

And I figured since I got the unit on a weekend evening, I would not be able to get it activated until Monday morning, but XM had an operator to help me when I called and my unit was activated within 10 minutes just from calling from home with a credit card.

Even though you disconnect the unit from power and take it from the house to the car, or back the other way, it remembers what channel you were on last and all the memories and information you had stored in it.

Oh, and you can order a remote control for the unit too.It even has an infrared remote detector in this tiny thing.

NOW FOR SOME SECRET TRICKS!!

Not mentioned in the manual, and unknown to most Roady2 owners, are secret codes to get extra features out of the unit!

With the unit turned off... Press 2 3 2, and then push in the tuning wheel.

The unit will turn on without the backlight on!

This is great if you don't want to attract attention with the bright lights of the unit in the dark, or to consume less power if you want to operate the unit on a battery pack.

To help aim your antenna at the two satellites...

With the unit turned off... Press 2 0 7, and then push in the tuning wheel.

The unit will turn on, then press the DISPLAY button until the display shows BER%

Now adjust your antenna until you get the lowest reading on one or both of the satellites.

You are shooting for "0" on one of the satellites, as only one is
needed, but if you have a clear shot to both, it is possible to get low number or "0" readings on both.--------------------------------------
UPDATE:HIDE ANTENNA IN THE TRUNK!!!
--------------------------------------I have found out something very interesting that I wanted to share here. I put the tiny magnet mount antenna that comes with the Roady2 under the rear deck of the car under the back window. (The carpeted deck that the rear speakers are usually mounted in.)And as you can open the trunk and get access to and easily SEE the bottom of the rear speakers and see them hanging down from the deck, you can also stick the magnet antenna here!

Be carefull to understand that just putting any radio antenna in a trunk, where metal shields it from seeing the sky will NEVER work.NO METAL OF THE CAR CAN BE BETWEEN THE ANTENNA SO IT CAN NOT SEE THE SKY.(No damage will occur to the radio, you just won't get any reception!)

BUT.. on most rear decks of cars, there are usually lots of cut outs of the metal of the car (especially two big ones for the speakers to go through) and if you wedge this antenna and stick it on TOP of the metal, so that only the cardboard and carpet of the rear deck is between the antenna and the sky view out the rear window, this WILL WORK!!

Do not stick the antenna on the BOTTOM of the metal, but on TOP of it so that it is sandwiched between the metal and the carboard/carpet of the rear deck.

It is OK that the carpet and cardboard block it from seeing out the rear window, as radio waves can go through cardboard and carpet, just not METAL. So now, when you look at the rear deck, all you see are your two rear speakers and third brake light, you can't SEE the XM antenna, but the satellites CAN see it!

I have used it this way now for MONTHS without EVER having any reception problems. No matter which direction I am driving too, because the 2 XM sattelites are at such angles in the sky that they will always see through the windows of the car and reach the antenna under the rear deck.If the sattelites were directly straight above, then this would probably not work, since the metal ROOF of the car would block the antenna depending on which direction you were driving. I bet this trick won't work with Sirrius antennas, since their sattelites are always moving around and many times are straight above you.

But even under the hardest rain storms, I have had full strength reception with this tiny antenna hidden in the trunk!The wire I just sent under the rear seats and to the front of the car.The magnet holds it securely in place. And when the car is parked, no one can SEE the antenna, and the Roady2 goes in my shirt pocket, so no temptation for...Read more›

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Product Description:
Delphi's compact SA10085 Roady2 XM satellite radio is, on average, four times smaller than competing plug-and-play models. While 30 percent thinner and 40 percent lighter than the original Roady, the Roady2 features the smallest satellite-radio antenna available, together with a built-in wireless FM transmitter for easy setup and reception in any vehicle. Just tune your car's radio to any of the unit's 12 FM frequencies and sit back to enjoy XM Radio's 67 commercial-free music channels; 63 channels of sports, talk, comedy, children's, and entertainment programming; and more than 21 channels of advanced traffic and weather information for major U.S. metropolitan areas.
Roady2 offers a convenient scroll wheel, 30 channel presets, and 10 direct-entry buttons. The two-line display offers artist, track, and channel information, and it has seven selectable background colors to achieve the look that suits your style: red, night blue, green, pink, purple, sky blue, and orange. TuneSelect will alert you when a favorite song starts playing on another channel, and the unit's versatile mounting options consist of a vent mount, swivel mount, or Velcro.


Additionally, Roady2 is the first satellite-radio receiver capable of displaying up to 20 customized stock quotes while playing any of XM's 150 digital radio channels. The influential PC Magazine gives the Roady2 five stars, calling it a "brilliant device" and naming it an Editor's Choice. The magazine praises the Roady2 for its small size and rich features.
The ticker keeps track of up to 20 of your favorite stocks while you listen to your favorite music, news, sports, and talk channels. Stock data is provided by Comstock, Inc.; stock and market index information is delayed by approximately 25 minutes.
Broadcasting live daily from studios in Washington, D.C.; New York City; and Nashville, Tennessee, at the Country Music Hall of Fame, XM Satellite Radio's 2004 lineup includes channels offering music from hip-hop to opera, classical to country, and bluegrass to blues.
What's in the Box
A Roady2 receiver with built-in wireless FM modulator (no cassette player required), a mini-micro antenna, mounting accessories, a cigarette-lighter DC power adapter, a vent-mount adapter, a cassette audio adapter (for optional cassette-player connection), three decorative faceplates, an XM channel guide, a quick-start guide, and a user's manual.

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