I’m your man for satellite radio. 
[b]What kind of player do you have? (ecost has a good deal (I think) on a jvc right now.) Do you have one of the ones you can use in the car or take inside? [/b]
I bought my setup early, when there was only one product available for Sirius which was the Audiovox. They have since moved to the “Sportster” version which is similar but just not as bulky. With that particular one, you will need the car dock to listen in your car and an additional home dock to listen at home. However, you can usually find a packaged deal these days. And many of the head units will pop right into a boombox, that you can also buy. This applies to both Sirius and XM. XM is also doing a portable (walkman) version but Sirius has one in the works as well. I’ll clue you in more on the pros/cons of going with a stand-alone unit in a second.
[b]Did you install everything in the car yourself (antenna, tuner, etc.)? [/b]
Yes and it's a breeze. With the stand-alone units, you simply plug the adapter into the cigarette lighter and that covers your power. There is a small, magnetic antenna that you will run from the back of the head unti to a preferred spot on your car. The wire is super thin so it's no problem to run it under your molding. You can't even locate the wire I ran on my vehicle...you just see the antenna magnet. You can go from opening the box to listening to satellite radio in literally like 10 minutes.
[b]What kind of reception do you get indoors? I get tired of listening to the same stuff over and over so I would really like to be able to use it at work. I couldn't put an antenna outside and my office is about 10 ft. from the closest window. I probably couldn't pick anything up, could I? I have heard that indoor reception is pretty bad. [/b]
With Sirius, you get a free password so that you can get all the MUSIC feeds online for free, in perfect reception. I cannot honestly say if they will allow their talk/sports stations to be picked up that way. But personally, I LOVE sitting at my desk at work and listening to all the satellite music stations on my PC. And you can share the password. My wife logs in from her workplace and listens to the music as well. As for the other option, depending on where you place the antenna and structures around your home, you may get decent reception from a home-based unit but it will vary. It’s not bad though.
Now back to the auto. Here’s the thing. With both XM/Sirius, you are listening to the stations via a FM frequency in your car. So you’d bascially turn you CD player to like 88.1FM. Then Sirius/XM transmits their signal through that frequency. This is not the greatest concept simply because the quality of the signal isn’t constant. Sometimes it’s super clear and sometimes you can hear some faint static coming through. This isn’t exactly great when you’re paying for a service like satellite radio. Not to mention, most of the stand-alone units are pretty bulky and just don’t look good mounted. That red JVC one you link is actually designed for truck drivers because it attaches to your windshield with a suction cup. But you can buy a mounting kit (if the one that comes with the unit doesn’t suit you) to help with the mounting but for me, I just couldn’t find a location where I was happy with it.
So…enter FM transmitter but this requires a CD player that is Sirius or XM-Ready. People tend to be mislead on this. They think that if they buy a CD player that says Sirius-Ready on it, that they just install it and can start listening to their satellite radio through it. NOT the case. I recently bought a new CD player that’s Sirius-ready but the only way to utilize that feature was to buy a Kenwood FM transmitter through Crutchfield. (Don’t buy it locally…will run you $79.99 and it’s $20 less on Crutchfield). This is basically a thin, black box that you discreetly mount in your car. I mounted mine under the passenger side dash. This completely emliminates having to listen to satellite radio through your local FM stations. It sends a direct feed straight into your satellite-ready stereo, if it’s equipped for that. Not only does this eliminate the need for the bulky stand-alone satellite tuner but it gives you crystal clear reception for all your satellite stations. And everything is then controlled/displayed directly on the screen of your CD player (or remote control).
Just my opinion, but I would highly suggest getting a deck that’s satellite-ready and getting the transmitter. Just the quality of the reception alone is worth it over using the stand-alone unit.
Which provider you choose is up to you but I really did my homework when trying to decide and I couldn’t be happier that I went with Sirius. Both offer similar packages but I’ve used both and I definitely made the right decision. But either one is better than local radio.
Let me know if you need any help with anything or have any other questions.