Sirius Stiletto SL10 Portable Satellite Radio Receiver

Radio works great. Had a little bit of trouble getting signal initiated, but after that I use it every day.

I live in a relatively flat rural area of Pennsylvania and purchased the SIRIUS Stiletto SL100 Portable Satellite Radio Receiver almost two years ago to use when working outside. It has been a major disappointment primarily because of the poor reception. The headphone antenna is mandatory to obtain any signal, but even with the headset I am only able to get intermitent reception. It is lost as soon as you walk under a tree, behind a telephone pole or God forbid a butterfly flys overhead. It is primarily designed for the creative listener that likes to hear every 10th measure of a song or intermitent pieces of a game and mentally fill in the rest. It doesn't sound like the new Stiletto 2 is much better.

I had sirius built into my car stereo, and an old portable sportster I used in my other vehicle with a car kit. I had 2 home docking stations in the house, but I could turn on any radio in the house or listen with a portable FM radio outside up to 50 yards away(cutting the lawn). The stiletto barely sends a signal 5 feet. My clock radio doesn't have input jacks so I mounted a car kit stand on top of it and used the transformer plug from the home kit to power it. Outside It worked great on the beach in northern Wisconsin and in the virgin islands. I wear it walking and the signal is great unless the canopy of trees is very close on both sides. The headphones are a pain, but I got used to it.

I'm not the type to generally review products, but the Sirius S10 was so remarkably bad, that I thought the least I could do was add my two cents here for other potential buyers. What the other reviewers say about the earphones and signal issues is absolutely correct---I cannot conceive what value a "portable" satellite receiver has that is virtually incapable of receiving any signal, and then when it does, loses it if you happen to move the wrong way. Unless you plan on installing an outside antenna and using the device for stationary listening, you're much better off with a standard MP3 player that includes an FM receiver.

I LOVE Sirius radio, and I paid well for this because I thought it was supposed to be a high-speed, low-drag way to get it. It is not. The antenna headphones are pretty good at getting signal, much better than the antennas that come with the Sportster, but they are bulky and uncomfortable. If you want to use it in the car, or as anything but a Walkman, you have to buy seperate kits (another $100 after the $195 I'd already paid). And the car kit is, well...See my review there. For here, lets just say don't plan to use it in the car. So, to sum up, Sirius satellite radio...Excellent content in terms of music, talk and news. Getting satellite radio signal? A pain in the behind.