Delphi Roady2 SA10085 XM Radio Receiver with Car Kit

I hate to drive. That's why I work only 4 miles from home or actually work at home. That was until I made the huge mistake of volunteering to fill in for a friend for one day down at our customer's site about 20 miles away. Well apparently they either like me or I walked right into a trap because that one day turned into a two-month assignment that I'm sure will soon be extended to a six-month torture session and the drive is killing me. Twenty miles doesn't seem like much but when everyone, their brother, and their blue-haired gramma is heading to downtown Detroit at 8am, it takes me about an hour and I arrive at work very unhappy. Nothing to do while stuck in traffic except listen to the same old morning banter and BS on the radio. I've lived here most of my life and I'm tired of the same old, tired local morning DJs and shows comprised of mindless conversation, no music, and seemingly endless commercials. And what's the good in hearing about local traffic snags every 10 minutes when I'm already stuck in them???

During depressing, stressful times such as these I normally console myself with a serious retail therapy trip but that was getting expensive so I had to think of another option. I thought and thought and thought until smoke came out of my ears and then.... I'VE GOT IT!..... I'll get XM Radio! A few months ago I visited an out of state friend and the car I rented had XM Radio. I fell in love with the variety, no commercials, and traffic and weather every 30 seconds. It was interesting to hear the Fox News and CNN coverage of the 5 year anniversary of the September 11th attacks during the 2 hour drive to the airport. Even better to hear the local Washington DC traffic every 30 seconds so I could attempt to avoid any traffic snags. Not that traffic reports really helped as I was completely lost, but it was nice to have it anyway.

So I started to look into it and realized that my car is a 1999 model and not equipped to receive satellite radio thru it's radio due to its age. Dammit! Trying to look at this as a glass half full situation, I looked into completely upgrading the stereo in my car with a satellite system and new speakers. Prices started at $1000. AUGHHHHHHH. I just can't win. Then two days later I was wandering around Sears looking at TVs and happened upon the satellite radio display and found the Delphi Roady 2 Radio Receiver with Car Kit that says it wirelessly transmits XM to any FM stereo and thought that it could work for me. Normal retail price for the Roady 2 is about $50 but the newer model, the Roady XT, is now available and I think the Roady 2 is being phased out. As a result, the Roady 2 was marked down to $25. I checked with the helpful saleswoman who assured me that everything needed to receive XM Radio was included in that $25 package and it was fully returnable and refundable if, for some reason, it didn't work out or wasn't right for me. In addition to the great price, there was also a $20 rebate attached so it was practically free. If it didn't work out, I woudln't have much to lose except the activation fee so I grabbed the last one and went home to try it out.

From the user guide: The Delphi XM Roady 2 Satellite Radio Receiver gives you access to over 120 XM Satellite Radio channels of music, news, and information from coast to coast.


Experience the thrill of satellite radio with the Delphi XM Roady 2 satellite radio receiver. This ultra-small unit is easily transportable, and works with all types of stereos with its built-in wireless FM modulator. The smallest, lightest satellite radio receiver currently available, Roady 2 is always ready to go with you. Just plug it in and go! Roady 2 now contains an integrated wireless FM modulator that lets you play XM through an empty frequency on the FM dial or your car or home for the ultimate in convenience, and a stock ticker that will let you track up to 20 of your favorite stocks while listening to any XM channel.

Plus, it features 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 get the look that suits your style.


Roady 2 gets its power from the car's cigarette lighter. Just plug the power cord into the Roady and the other end into the cigarette lighter. Plug one end of the antenna into the Roady and the magnetic end onto the outside of the car. At first I stuck the magnetic end out the sunroof but realized that it would be better to thread the super long antenna cord down under the driver's seat, along the bottom of the door, into the trunk via the fold down seats and then out the top of the trunk and that's worked out well for me. The antenna is super small and very unobtrusive stuck there on top of my trunk. It's only about a half inch thick and about 1 inch tall and wide.

There are a few different mounting options from which to choose - vent mount, swivel mount or Velcro. You can mount it on your dashboard or any other somewhat flat place using the pieces of Velcro provided in the package with the option of just having a flat, flush mount or using the swivel mount, but that involved sticky Velcro that I was not willing to put on my car. Luckily a handy vent mount is also included which is easy to pop onto the back of the Roady and clip onto a vent. The clip is very secure and it's worked out well for me even on horrible Michigan roads. I've hit huge potholes that hurt me but my Roady stayed put. The Roady 2 is only 3.9 x 2.4 x .7 inches in size so it takes up little space on the dashboard, vent, or whereever you decided to mount it.


Set up and operation
The Roady 2 is fairly easy to set up once I understood the purpose of all the parts. At first I was frustrated because I couldn't get the Roady tuned into my stereo using the FM modulator on an open frequency. But then I realized that I wasn't pushing the right button to set the antenna to the station I wanted to use so I tried to use the . Once I figured out how to do that, I had it up and running within 5 minutes. I didn't realize that 12 frequencies were already pre-programmed into the Roady and all I needed to do was select one and then tune my radio to that channel. For a while there I thought I was going to have to use the cassette adaptor method which involved another wire floating around my console area and an annoying clicking sound coming from the cassette deck. As the user guide states, the sound quality is better using the cassette adaptor method but I am just unwilling to have another cheesy wire hooked up and that godawful clicking sound.

Operating the Roady 2 is pretty basic. You either use the number pad to enter the number of the station you want to turn to or use the tuning wheel to scroll to it. There are also presets that you can set up so your favorite channels are just a few button touches away. While the presets are easy to set up, I personally find them a bit cumbersome to use so I don't really bother. There are three sets of presets – A, B, and C - that can be configured, each holding 10 stations. So, for example, you can organize your favorites into categories. A could store music channels, B news channels, and C some other category. Adding them is simple but tuning to the presets is annoying, in my opinion. I set up a few channels into bank A last week and was happily listening for a while but then wanted to change to channel 20 which is not in the preset bank so I tried to type 20 in but an error displayed. You can't just tune to a channel outside of the preset bank without first pushing the preset button 4 times to display banks A, B, and C and then finally the setting called "Direct Entry". I find that annoying and more distracting while driving than just typing in the number or using the tuning wheel so I no longer use the presets. There is a button titled "Categories" which I find more useful. XM has arranged the stations sort of like the Dewey Decimal system in libraries. For example, comedy channels are the 150s, traffic/weather channels are all 200s, and music channels by decade are all under 10 so by pushing the category button you can easily get to the category of channels you want quickly without having to punch in the number or scroll endlessly and thus be in the general vicinity of the channel you want.

Speaking of the number pad and the buttons, they're a bit on the small side so it's hard to read if you're more than a foot or so away. After a few weeks of using the Roady I've gotten used to locations of the buttons I use a lot but sometimes I'm wrong and end up doing something unwanted. I would imagine that it would be difficult to push the buttons while wearing gloves. I'll find that out in the months to come as winter is quickly approaching.

The display screen can be configured to display various information, but it only displays 2 lines so you can't see all of the information all at once. For example, you can see only artist and song, or song name and station but you cannot see artist, song, and station all at one time. This doesn't really bother me though as it's still more information than is seen on regular radio or CDs or tapes so I figure I'm already a step ahead. Besides, I'm just here for the good variety and no commercials, I don't care much about the display info.


Other Features
My favorite thing is the TuneSelect feature which allows Roady2 to alert you when a favorite song starts playing on another channel. Again, it's really easy to set up. You just push a button to mark the song as a favorite and when it's playing on another channel Roady 2 beeps, displays the song and the channel it's on for a few seconds. To flip to that channel simply push the tuning wheel button to change directly to that channel. I also really like the fact that I can listen to one station while browsing other channels to see what's on without first committing to the new channel. If something interesting displays on the readout I can simply push the tuning wheel button to change from the channel currently in play to the new channel.

Personalized Stock Ticker
Scroll up to 20 stock symbols while listening to your favorite channel – I don't use this. Don't really care to see my stocks scrolling around distracting me while I'm trying to drive. I just want music, comedy, traffic and other programming. But it's easy to set up using the Tuning Wheel to scroll thru and select each letter of the stock symbol.


Back-Lit Display Colors
Roady 2 has seven different backlighting display colors - Red, Night Blue, Green, Pink, Purple, Sky Blue, or Orange. This is kind of a fun option. I chose green because it's my favorite color and, IMHO, the most soothing of the options. But there is a color option for any taste and it's very easy to set up and change at any time.

Reception and sound quality
Reception is pretty good, but it's not perfect. For about 5 minutes on my way home from work every day I get a bit of static for some reason. Whether it's the satellite changing position or some oddity in the area, I do not know. But it's only minor and only slightly annoying for about 5 minutes. I've only listened locallly so I haven't had the chance to drive into other areas where I've had to change the frequency, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I don't typically take car trips though so I'm not anticipating any issues. Setting a new frequency isn't difficult though so if it happens I'll just change it on the fly.

Sound quality isn't as crisp and clear as with regular radio or CDs but it's not horrible either. It may be partly due to the fact that the front left speaker in my car is totally blown so I have the balance turned almost all to the back speakers. But I can definitely tell the difference between XM and regular radio or CDs. There are ways to tweak the sound a bit but it's not so annoying that I've felt the need to do so. Music and sound purists, however, may be disappointed in the sound quality and will want to tweak the settings, use the cassette adaptor, or just not use the Roady 2 at all.

While the Roady 2 is not perfect, I feel that it was a good value and an excellent choice for my first foray into the world of satellite radio. I'm quite happy with it.