Sirius/XM
 

On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 09:58:37 -0400, John H
wrote:

Yesterday I came back from Gettysburg, about 100 miles. It wasn't until I got within about 80 miles
that I could pick up the FM news station I listen to regularly broadcasting from DC. It's for damn
sure I couldn't get any Boston FM stations, like, I'm sure, Harry does.

FM is pretty much line of sight. I know that even here in Florida
where there are no real hills FM is tough. On a clear night I can get
the FM station out of Marathon (Fl Keys) but that is across the water
about 100 miles. I start losing the Tampa stations and FT Myers
stations about 70 miles away. There is a dead zone around Venice where
I don't get either of them.
Now if you are talking AM, the clear channel 50KW stations can be
heard 1000 miles away at night. There used to only be a handful of
them but the last time I looked there are a **** load of them. I guess
as AM popularity faded, they started allowing more big ones.
Unfortunately it seems most AM is either sports, news or Spanish.

Sirius/XM
 

On Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 7:24:01 AM UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 8/16/2017 6:52 AM, John H wrote:
On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 06:46:59 -0400, Keyser Soze wrote:

On 8/16/17 5:17 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 8/15/2017 11:12 PM, RGrew176 wrote:
On Tuesday, August 15, 2017 at 5:31:55 PM UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 8/15/2017 5:16 PM, RGrew176 wrote:
Whatever you do do not give them a credit card number or they will
renew your service at the full going rate.

When I first got the service I told them I did not have any credit
cards and they would have to invoice me. Has worked well since.



Good advice. Some of these services are almost impossible to cancel. I
noticed on the last email they sent me to sign up there was an option
for credit card or invoice for the payment. I'll opt for the invoice.
That way, if I don't want to renew in a year, I'll just ignore it.

One other thing you need to know if you go the invoice route. Sirius
will not stop service when the contract is up. They will let it go on
as you accrue costs to them. In my case I marked on the calendar when
my current subscription ends. Mine ends on November 16th. I will be
calling them about a week prior to either extend if I get a price I
like or end the service.



I noted on the latest offer that you have to call them to cancel. I
suppose you are put on hold for an hour and then have to listen to a
sales pitch to keep your account.


Are you out of range of all the great FM stations in the Boston area,
including the non-commercial ones? I'm really at a loss to figure out
why SIRIUS is popular, especially since you have to pay for it and FM
radio is free to the listener. And I'm sure you have a iPod or iPhone or
similar device on which you can store the music you like. I have 20GB of
music on mine, about 4000 "songs," including all nine of Beethoven's
symphonies in orchestral and piano versions, a lot of Mozart, Schubert,
all sorts of folk and rock, even a little (forgive me) bluegrass. So,
what's the deal with SIRIUS?

If you had it, you'd understand.

We understand you have more and better than anyone else. We're just willing to settle for a bit less
than the absolute finest of anything available, which you already possess.

How're those twin Volvo diesels running, eh Krause?


I am out of range of any HD FM stations unless I am traveling somewhere
which isn't very often. I have little or no interest in spending the
time to copy and store gigs upon gigs of music on any kind of drive,
including my cell phone. In the past I've learned that I only listen to
my favorites most of the time anyway.

I have a USB powered hard drive that some friends put together for my
birthday that has just about every group, band and song ever recorded. I
think it's a 200 Gig drive and it's just about full. I listen to it
once in a great while.

I like Sirius mainly due to the variety of programing it offers. I can
listen to music from just about any decade or style of interest, talk
shows, baseball games, football and some comedy channels. It even has
the audio of MSNBC, CNN and FoxNews if you get the itch to tune in.

It offers variety which is what I like.

It does offer variety, but we found that we primarily listened to 2 channels. To me, the advantages are that it's commercial-free, and when travelling you don't eventually lose the station like you do with FM.

When you've had an account and you shut it down, they certainly do bug the crap out of you, and offer some really cheap deals. If they had priced it more realistically, I probably would have kept it for occasional use.

Sirius/XM
 

On 8/16/17 11:54 AM, Its Me wrote:
On Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 7:24:01 AM UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 8/16/2017 6:52 AM, John H wrote:
On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 06:46:59 -0400, Keyser Soze wrote:

On 8/16/17 5:17 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 8/15/2017 11:12 PM, RGrew176 wrote:
On Tuesday, August 15, 2017 at 5:31:55 PM UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 8/15/2017 5:16 PM, RGrew176 wrote:
Whatever you do do not give them a credit card number or they will
renew your service at the full going rate.

When I first got the service I told them I did not have any credit
cards and they would have to invoice me. Has worked well since.



Good advice. Some of these services are almost impossible to cancel. I
noticed on the last email they sent me to sign up there was an option
for credit card or invoice for the payment. I'll opt for the invoice.
That way, if I don't want to renew in a year, I'll just ignore it.

One other thing you need to know if you go the invoice route. Sirius
will not stop service when the contract is up. They will let it go on
as you accrue costs to them. In my case I marked on the calendar when
my current subscription ends. Mine ends on November 16th. I will be
calling them about a week prior to either extend if I get a price I
like or end the service.



I noted on the latest offer that you have to call them to cancel. I
suppose you are put on hold for an hour and then have to listen to a
sales pitch to keep your account.


Are you out of range of all the great FM stations in the Boston area,
including the non-commercial ones? I'm really at a loss to figure out
why SIRIUS is popular, especially since you have to pay for it and FM
radio is free to the listener. And I'm sure you have a iPod or iPhone or
similar device on which you can store the music you like. I have 20GB of
music on mine, about 4000 "songs," including all nine of Beethoven's
symphonies in orchestral and piano versions, a lot of Mozart, Schubert,
all sorts of folk and rock, even a little (forgive me) bluegrass. So,
what's the deal with SIRIUS?

If you had it, you'd understand.

We understand you have more and better than anyone else. We're just willing to settle for a bit less
than the absolute finest of anything available, which you already possess.

How're those twin Volvo diesels running, eh Krause?


I am out of range of any HD FM stations unless I am traveling somewhere
which isn't very often. I have little or no interest in spending the
time to copy and store gigs upon gigs of music on any kind of drive,
including my cell phone. In the past I've learned that I only listen to
my favorites most of the time anyway.

I have a USB powered hard drive that some friends put together for my
birthday that has just about every group, band and song ever recorded. I
think it's a 200 Gig drive and it's just about full. I listen to it
once in a great while.

I like Sirius mainly due to the variety of programing it offers. I can
listen to music from just about any decade or style of interest, talk
shows, baseball games, football and some comedy channels. It even has
the audio of MSNBC, CNN and FoxNews if you get the itch to tune in.

It offers variety which is what I like.

It does offer variety, but we found that we primarily listened to 2 channels. To me, the advantages are that it's commercial-free, and when travelling you don't eventually lose the station like you do with FM.

When you've had an account and you shut it down, they certainly do bug the crap out of you, and offer some really cheap deals. If they had priced it more realistically, I probably would have kept it for occasional use.


I've found some long stretches on I-95 on the way to or back from
Florida where for long stretches, there are no FM stations we want to
listen to, so if we want music, it'll be bluetooth from our "i" devices.

Sirius/XM
 

On 8/16/2017 11:24 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 09:58:37 -0400, John H
wrote:

Yesterday I came back from Gettysburg, about 100 miles. It wasn't until I got within about 80 miles
that I could pick up the FM news station I listen to regularly broadcasting from DC. It's for damn
sure I couldn't get any Boston FM stations, like, I'm sure, Harry does.

FM is pretty much line of sight. I know that even here in Florida
where there are no real hills FM is tough. On a clear night I can get
the FM station out of Marathon (Fl Keys) but that is across the water
about 100 miles. I start losing the Tampa stations and FT Myers
stations about 70 miles away. There is a dead zone around Venice where
I don't get either of them.
Now if you are talking AM, the clear channel 50KW stations can be
heard 1000 miles away at night. There used to only be a handful of
them but the last time I looked there are a **** load of them. I guess
as AM popularity faded, they started allowing more big ones.
Unfortunately it seems most AM is either sports, news or Spanish.


HD FM range is much less than regular FM.

WBZ in Boston is one of the original clear channel stations. I picked
it up in Denver Colorado at night. Obviously skip.

Sirius/XM
 

On 8/16/17 12:45 PM, justan wrote:
Keyser Soze Wrote in message:
On 8/16/17 10:47 AM, justan wrote:
John H Wrote in message:
On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 07:23:55 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 8/16/2017 6:52 AM, John H wrote:
On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 06:46:59 -0400, Keyser Soze wrote:

On 8/16/17 5:17 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 8/15/2017 11:12 PM, RGrew176 wrote:
On Tuesday, August 15, 2017 at 5:31:55 PM UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 8/15/2017 5:16 PM, RGrew176 wrote:
Whatever you do do not give them a credit card number or they will
renew your service at the full going rate.

When I first got the service I told them I did not have any credit
cards and they would have to invoice me. Has worked well since.



Good advice. Some of these services are almost impossible to cancel. I
noticed on the last email they sent me to sign up there was an option
for credit card or invoice for the payment. I'll opt for the invoice.
That way, if I don't want to renew in a year, I'll just ignore it.

One other thing you need to know if you go the invoice route. Sirius
will not stop service when the contract is up. They will let it go on
as you accrue costs to them. In my case I marked on the calendar when
my current subscription ends. Mine ends on November 16th. I will be
calling them about a week prior to either extend if I get a price I
like or end the service.



I noted on the latest offer that you have to call them to cancel. I
suppose you are put on hold for an hour and then have to listen to a
sales pitch to keep your account.


Are you out of range of all the great FM stations in the Boston area,
including the non-commercial ones? I'm really at a loss to figure out
why SIRIUS is popular, especially since you have to pay for it and FM
radio is free to the listener. And I'm sure you have a iPod or iPhone or
similar device on which you can store the music you like. I have 20GB of
music on mine, about 4000 "songs," including all nine of Beethoven's
symphonies in orchestral and piano versions, a lot of Mozart, Schubert,
all sorts of folk and rock, even a little (forgive me) bluegrass. So,
what's the deal with SIRIUS?

If you had it, you'd understand.

We understand you have more and better than anyone else. We're just willing to settle for a bit less
than the absolute finest of anything available, which you already possess.

How're those twin Volvo diesels running, eh Krause?


I am out of range of any HD FM stations unless I am traveling somewhere
which isn't very often. I have little or no interest in spending the
time to copy and store gigs upon gigs of music on any kind of drive,
including my cell phone. In the past I've learned that I only listen to
my favorites most of the time anyway.

I have a USB powered hard drive that some friends put together for my
birthday that has just about every group, band and song ever recorded. I
think it's a 200 Gig drive and it's just about full. I listen to it
once in a great while.

I like Sirius mainly due to the variety of programing it offers. I can
listen to music from just about any decade or style of interest, talk
shows, baseball games, football and some comedy channels. It even has
the audio of MSNBC, CNN and FoxNews if you get the itch to tune in.

It offers variety which is what I like.


Yesterday I came back from Gettysburg, about 100 miles. It wasn't until I got within about 80 miles
that I could pick up the FM news station I listen to regularly broadcasting from DC. It's for damn
sure I couldn't get any Boston FM stations, like, I'm sure, Harry does.


I am almost convinced that Baldy has, is, does, knows, the best of
everything except he's missing a thing or two or three; a full
head of hair, and probably some strong bones and healthy teeth,
and a sound mind. Other than that he's perrrrrfect.


My hair is thinner on top than I'd like, but it's not bothersome. I
certainly have more natural teeth than Herring has, and my hearing is
pretty good...no hearing aids needed. Plus, I have 20/20 distance vision
in each eye, though I do need reading glasses. No bone problems, either.
But, hey, we know what you look like, from this snapshot of you:

http://tinyurl.com/y9swug9j


How do you know so much about Herring? You been cyber stalking him?


No, dummy...I've seen Herring a few times, though not since about 2003.
Back then he was HIV positive thin, had false teeth, thick glasses and
since he has stated here he wears hearing aids.

Sirius/XM
 

On 8/16/2017 11:11 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 07:23:55 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


I have a USB powered hard drive that some friends put together for my
birthday that has just about every group, band and song ever recorded. I
think it's a 200 Gig drive and it's just about full. I listen to it
once in a great while.
I really have a hard time wrapping my head around this. I have a
little over 30 gig of music and that is more than 6000 songs. That
includes some I have never and probably never will hear. I can't
imagine what you could have that gets you up to 200 gig and that you
have actually listened to 40,000 songs. That is about 200,000 minutes
of music. (3300 hours). If you started playing that list it would take
4 1/2 months going 24/7.
I hope you have clipped out much smaller subsets of this catalog to
make it useful.
How do you manage a list like this?
It does make you and Harry much more prolific pirates than me and I
thought I was Black Beard. (mostly gray now) ;-)



The songs on the hard drive is a collection that my luthier/lawyer
friend has been putting together all his mature life. He played in a
garage band in the mid-sixties and his group had a "hit" that made it to
number 80 on the charts. Name of the band was "The Nightcrawlers" from
Daytona Beach, FL.

He has them all arranged in folders by band/group with at least one
album ... often several for each. Starts with 40's Big Band stuff, the
50's, 60's and 70's where it sorta dies off although there are some from
the 80's. I don't think I've listened to 10 or 20 percent of what's on
the disk. It's fun to browse through it though and find songs I haven't
heard in years. Some are fairly rare recordings that never made the charts.

Once in a while I'll hook it up to my computer (used to use the little
XP machine I've mentioned) and create a playlist from the drive.

Sirius/XM
 

On 8/16/2017 11:54 AM, Its Me wrote:
On Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 7:24:01 AM UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 8/16/2017 6:52 AM, John H wrote:
On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 06:46:59 -0400, Keyser Soze wrote:

On 8/16/17 5:17 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 8/15/2017 11:12 PM, RGrew176 wrote:
On Tuesday, August 15, 2017 at 5:31:55 PM UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 8/15/2017 5:16 PM, RGrew176 wrote:
Whatever you do do not give them a credit card number or they will
renew your service at the full going rate.

When I first got the service I told them I did not have any credit
cards and they would have to invoice me. Has worked well since.



Good advice. Some of these services are almost impossible to cancel. I
noticed on the last email they sent me to sign up there was an option
for credit card or invoice for the payment. I'll opt for the invoice.
That way, if I don't want to renew in a year, I'll just ignore it.

One other thing you need to know if you go the invoice route. Sirius
will not stop service when the contract is up. They will let it go on
as you accrue costs to them. In my case I marked on the calendar when
my current subscription ends. Mine ends on November 16th. I will be
calling them about a week prior to either extend if I get a price I
like or end the service.



I noted on the latest offer that you have to call them to cancel. I
suppose you are put on hold for an hour and then have to listen to a
sales pitch to keep your account.


Are you out of range of all the great FM stations in the Boston area,
including the non-commercial ones? I'm really at a loss to figure out
why SIRIUS is popular, especially since you have to pay for it and FM
radio is free to the listener. And I'm sure you have a iPod or iPhone or
similar device on which you can store the music you like. I have 20GB of
music on mine, about 4000 "songs," including all nine of Beethoven's
symphonies in orchestral and piano versions, a lot of Mozart, Schubert,
all sorts of folk and rock, even a little (forgive me) bluegrass. So,
what's the deal with SIRIUS?

If you had it, you'd understand.

We understand you have more and better than anyone else. We're just willing to settle for a bit less
than the absolute finest of anything available, which you already possess.

How're those twin Volvo diesels running, eh Krause?


I am out of range of any HD FM stations unless I am traveling somewhere
which isn't very often. I have little or no interest in spending the
time to copy and store gigs upon gigs of music on any kind of drive,
including my cell phone. In the past I've learned that I only listen to
my favorites most of the time anyway.

I have a USB powered hard drive that some friends put together for my
birthday that has just about every group, band and song ever recorded. I
think it's a 200 Gig drive and it's just about full. I listen to it
once in a great while.

I like Sirius mainly due to the variety of programing it offers. I can
listen to music from just about any decade or style of interest, talk
shows, baseball games, football and some comedy channels. It even has
the audio of MSNBC, CNN and FoxNews if you get the itch to tune in.

It offers variety which is what I like.

It does offer variety, but we found that we primarily listened to 2 channels. To me, the advantages are that it's commercial-free, and when travelling you don't eventually lose the station like you do with FM.

When you've had an account and you shut it down, they certainly do bug the crap out of you, and offer some really cheap deals. If they had priced it more realistically, I probably would have kept it for occasional use.


I had Sirius (before they merged with XM) years ago when I was doing a
lot of driving between MA and FL. You're right ... seems you would find
a decent FM station but a half hour later it would be fading. I used to
listen to some of the talk shows on the trips. Kept me awake.

Sirius/XM
 

On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 10:52:11 -0400, Keyser Soze
wrote:

I don't mind the commercials if I am listening to a commercial radio or
TV station...the commercials pay the bills. Without advertising, every
piece of 20-year-old stuff you own would have been more expensive.

Bull****.
If you compare the price of heavily advertised products to products
that seldom advertise, the advertised product is always more. Someone
needs to pay for those ads and it is not like we would stop using
toilet paper if they did't have that bear on TV telling us to.
Another example is beer. Most people could not tell the difference
between Budweiser and Busch if it was served in a glass. Both come
from the same brewery, using essentially the same ingredients but the
Bud is a couple bucks more expensive, because of that frog.

Sirius/XM
 

wrote:
On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 10:52:11 -0400, Keyser Soze
wrote:

I don't mind the commercials if I am listening to a commercial radio or
TV station...the commercials pay the bills. Without advertising, every
piece of 20-year-old stuff you own would have been more expensive.

Bull****.
If you compare the price of heavily advertised products to products
that seldom advertise, the advertised product is always more. Someone
needs to pay for those ads and it is not like we would stop using
toilet paper if they did't have that bear on TV telling us to.
Another example is beer. Most people could not tell the difference
between Budweiser and Busch if it was served in a glass. Both come
from the same brewery, using essentially the same ingredients but the
Bud is a couple bucks more expensive, because of that frog.


Sell that to your libertarian buddies. I know better.

--
Posted with my iPhone 7+.

Sirius/XM
 

On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 11:12:51 -0400, Keyser Soze
wrote:

On 8/16/17 11:11 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 07:23:55 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


I have a USB powered hard drive that some friends put together for my
birthday that has just about every group, band and song ever recorded. I
think it's a 200 Gig drive and it's just about full. I listen to it
once in a great while.
I really have a hard time wrapping my head around this. I have a
little over 30 gig of music and that is more than 6000 songs. That
includes some I have never and probably never will hear. I can't
imagine what you could have that gets you up to 200 gig and that you
have actually listened to 40,000 songs. That is about 200,000 minutes
of music. (3300 hours). If you started playing that list it would take
4 1/2 months going 24/7.
I hope you have clipped out much smaller subsets of this catalog to
make it useful.
How do you manage a list like this?
It does make you and Harry much more prolific pirates than me and I
thought I was Black Beard. (mostly gray now) ;-)


Sorry, bub, I don't have any "pirated" music or videos. None. Zip.

When copied a movie onto your server, you are a pirate. (even if you
bought the DVD or stream)
I also doubt you bought all of those thousands of songs you are
supposed to have on that server.