Wireless Home Networking - Index of

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Part IV: Using a Wireless Network
Satellite radio versus digital radio
Your wireless home isn’t always just about 802.11
technologies — other forms of wireless can
enhance your home, and satellite radio is one of
them, particularly for your car. If you’re like us,
you live where there isn’t a whole lot of programming
you want to listen to. Check out satellite
radio, which offers a huge number of stations
(more than 100) beamed to your house or car from
a handful of geostationary satellites hovering
above the equator. We find a ton more diverse
and just plain interesting stuff coming across
these space-based airwaves than we find on our
local radio. Satellite radio services, from startups
such as XM Radio or SIRIUS, require you to
(gasp) pay for your radio (about $12.95 per month).
Check out the Web sites of the two providers (XM
Radio, www.xmradio.com; and SIRIUS, www.
sirius.com) to find the programming you prefer.
Then, get your hands on a satellite radio tuner.
(You can find a bunch of models listed on each
company’s Web page.) The majority of these
satellite tuners are designed for in-car use
(because people tend to listen to the radio most
while they’re driving), but XM Radio offers some
cool tuners (from Sony and Delco) that can do
double duty: You put these tuners in your car,
and when you get home, pull them out and plug
them into your A/V receiver or into a portable
boom box.
We like the Delphi XM SkyFi3 (http://
xmradio.com/shop — click the On the Go menu,
$159) which is an iPod-like portable XM receiver
that can also store as much as 10 hours worth of
XM content, so you can catch up on those car
hack shows you missed! XM Radio has also
launched a version of its service that wirelessly
transmits weather conditions to a specialized
receiver as well, although it’s expensive at $99 per
month. (For that price, you can get a good PDA
with wireless EVDO access from a carrier such
as Sprint, www.sprint.com, and get all the
weather plus Internet access — that’s probably a
better deal.) Within the realm of affordable luxuries,
XM also offers live and up-to-date traffic
reports in many cities (the service works with a
number of built-in and aftermarket GPS navigations
systems) for $3.99 a month on top of your
radio subscription.
Tip: Check out the annual pricing plans. You can
save a good deal of money by paying in advance
for a whole year. Also, each of these two satellite
radio companies offers family plans for multiple
receivers, where the price per extra receiver
subscription can drop to as low as $6.99 per
month — pretty good if you have lots of kids.
However, Sirius and XM Radio are considering
a corporate merger — if this is approved by
legislators, we’re not sure what will happen to
programming and pricing plans.
Now you may not want to spend the extra dollars
needed to get digital satellite radio into your car.
Lucky for you, a free over-the-air (broadcast from
terrestrial antennas) alternative known as HD
Radio (www.hdradio.com) is available. This is a
local broadcast service that allows local AM and
FM stations to broadcast a second channel using
a newer digital radio technology. As a user, you
get free reception and better audio quality (the
HD Radio folks claim that FM broadcasts will
sound as good as a CD, and AM broadcasts will
sound as good as regular FM broadcasts). A
number of car manufacturers are adding HD
Radio to cars at the factory (either as a standard
feature or as an option), and you can easily add
HD Radio to your existing car stereo (a number
of these solutions are listed on the HD Radio
Web site).
HD Radio is still new, but most big cities have a
dozen or more stations up and running. The great
thing about HD Radio (besides the free part) is
that it doesn’t interfere with traditional AM and
FM stations, so having an HD Radio in your car
just opens up the radio band to provide you with