XM Satellite On Tiger
Radio To The Power Of OS X
07 July 2005 Justin Williams Skip to comments
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If you are an owner of a satellite radio receiver, you might want to listen to it in your home. Justin Williams shows you how to connect an XM radio receiver to any Mac using an iMic and a piece of free software.
One of the problems I face as an avid fan of radio is that most mainstream radio sucks. The local FMs play the same corporate-inspired playlists in an attempt to brainwash listeners into thinking Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne actually have talent. Frustrated with mainstream radio, I switched to talk radio a few years ago because it’s somewhat dynamic. Unfortunately, there are few decent channels in the local area, and finding something on a long car ride can prove to be frustrating.
After a seven-hour car trip a few weekends ago, I decided to take the satellite radio plunge and picked up an XM SkyFi 2 receiver. There were several choices that I had to make. The first was deciding between XM and Sirius. I chose XM because of its Major League Baseball coverage and Opie and Anthony. XM also had better-looking hardware, and as an Apple user, I appreciate aesthetics.
The next decision was about the different types of XM hardware. I have an after-market Pioneer CD deck in my car that has built in XM controls. The benefit of this is that there is no visible extra hardware. Unfortunately, this setup prevents me from listening to the hardware in my apartment. Because of this, I picked up the Delphi SkyFi 2. The receiver fits in the palm of your hand and interfaces with a car or home kit.
Why Satellite?
You may be wondering why I would even want to have XM in my apartment when I have a lot of iTunes music and podcasts. Convenience mainly. I like to work with sports radio in the background and I’d rather not have to keep Windows Media Player open. With my SkyFi this is possible.
My fiscally responsible side argued that if I am going to be paying for a service, I should use it more than in the car. Satellite radio isn’t free (about $12 a month) and I want to make sure I get my money’s worth.
The final reason is choice. My iTunes library mainly consists of a modern rock, but there are times when I want to listen to classic 70s rock such as Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin. I can just tune to XM’s 70s channel and my desires are met. If I want to listen to listen to a baseball game, I can just tune into one of the games that XM is currently broadcasting.
If this sounds appealing to you, I have even better news. We can wire the SkyFi to your Mac so you don’t have to have a second set of speakers. To do this, you will need four things:
If you can find a stereo mini-jack to a RCA female cable, you can eliminate the need for the iPod Home Connect Kit. You can also eliminate the iMic if you have line-in support on your Mac. My G5, for example, doesn’t need the iMic, but my ancient iBook does. I will discuss how to do the setup with the iMic because it is more universal.
Software wise, you only need one piece of software: Rogue Amoeba’s LineIn. LineIn is freeware and allows the audio from the iMic to play through your Mac’s speakers.
The Setup
First, let’s setup the SkyFi 2 Home Kit. Find the location that your antenna gets the best signal. The antenna is used to receive signal from XM’s two satellites, or terrestrial repeaters. The repeaters are in bigger cities. Your antenna needs to be positioned near a south-facing window or outdoors with an unobstructed view of the southeastern sky. I have mine mounted on my deck.
Next, you will need to connect the cables to your receiver deck. This should be self-explanatory. Antenna goes into ANT. Power goes into the power connector. Audio goes into the LINE OUT jack. At the other end of the audio cables are a red and white RCA connectors. Take the stereo mini-jack to RCA female cable and connect it to the red and white connectors. Take the mini-jack end and plug that into your iMic’s microphone port. Finally, plug the iMic into an open USB port.
If you are receiving signal from your SkyFi, let’s move on.
For software, you need to launch LineIn. The interface for the application is extremely simple. Set “Input from” to be the iMic. Set “Output to” to be your speakers. Push the “Pass Thru” button and you should be hearing audio from your SkyFi. When you want the audio to be cut off, click “Pass Thru” again. Simple enough?
What else?
With a little bit more work, you can use an application like Audio Hijack Pro to record your favorite radio shows off your SkyFi receiver. You can then convert the show from WAV or AIFF to MP3 or AAC and sync it with your iPod.
If you are interested in a tutorial on this, leave a comment and let us know.
Justin Williams is founder and chief author for MacZealots. He switched to the Mac almost five years ago hasn't looked back since. When not blogging or coding, you can find him watching copious amounts of TV. Justin can be reached at
Reader Comments (20)
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#1) On July 8, 2005 12:19 AM
excellent.
#2) On July 8, 2005 12:24 PM
Did you know that you can listen to XM over the web? It works fine on all of my Macs, running 10.3 and 10.4. Baseball isn’t available (you can get that over the web from MLB.com for $15/year, including archives of all the games from the past couple of years), but all of the music is, including a few extra channels that aren’t on the air.
#3) On July 8, 2005 12:29 PM
yes, but it doesn’t have the talk channels or the baseball. Plus it requires me to leave a web browser open. This is mostly transparent (save for the tiny LineIn window)
#4) On July 8, 2005 12:44 PM
i should try this out. i got xm mainly for o&a as well. even though anthony has a mac, im so tired of him pimping nothing but dells.
#5) On July 8, 2005 11:03 PM
One could also use the wireless FM transmitter and listen on any radio (clock radio, walkman, home stereo) with a whole lot less trouble and expense.
When I first purchased my Roady 2 I went this route, but soon settled on the transmitter to my home stereo, it was just less hassle and I didn’t need to leave my computer on if I wasn’t using it just to listen to radio.
#6) On July 9, 2005 8:41 PM
I just tried the online sampling…. the sound was really bad (32kbps on windows media player) and the station selection is pretty weak. So I believe the aabove article is the way to go for your satelite subscription.
#7) On July 10, 2005 10:41 PM
There are two options for online listening. The 64kps is pretty good. I’ve enjoyed the internet connection at 64kps.
#8) On July 12, 2005 10:12 AM
I haven’t thought too seriously about satelite radio, but this piece has me interested. Thanks.
#9) On July 20, 2005 1:52 PM
Does anyone know if there is a moderately easy setup to record XM to a Mac?
#10) On July 20, 2005 2:03 PM
There will be when I am done writing the tutorial for it :-)
#11) On July 25, 2005 11:13 AM
Do you have a time when you think the tutorial will be written and available?
#12) On July 25, 2005 8:05 PM
It will be available when it’s done. :-)
#13) On July 26, 2005 7:08 AM
That’s cool. You guys alwasy do an A+ job! One question that you could answer before the tutorial is complete - is it possible to have the songs cut automatically cut into MP3’s and added into iTunes (similar to how Radio Lover works)?
#14) On July 29, 2005 1:36 AM
How can you do this?
#15) On August 5, 2005 9:00 PM
Interesting tutorial. When I’m not in my car, I listen to my XM (also got it purely for O&A) almost exclusively online. The reason is because my SkyFi antennae can’t find a good location around my house because of the way my house is positioned relative to what’s around it. When listening that way, stations constantly get static-y or drop out completely. My online connection works great, though.
#16) On November 16, 2005 5:14 PM
Question: If I buy a satellite radio service in the U.S and take my reciever overseas to Pakistan, will I be able to pickup any signals ? Your help is appreciated
#17) On November 29, 2005 5:16 PM
To #16: No, XM is US and Canada and the major outlaying waterways only.
#18) On December 18, 2005 11:54 PM
Hmm….when XM first came out, I purchased the PC-based XM receiver and used it on my Dell. When I switched to Mac, I found that somebody wrote an OSX interface for it called MacXM. Worked even better on a Mac, even though XM didn’t officially support it.
I don’t know if they still sell the computer-based receiver (basically, a USB box with one wire to an antenna, and a left/right out, but if you can get your hands on one, do - very easy setup.
I just run the XM receiver’s out into my PowerWave in, and I get a line-level signal straight from the XM Radio, and use the MacXM program to change channels, save favorite playlists, etc. From there it’s easy to record the input into any audio program, no Audio Hijack needed. If I wanted to that is, because of course XM’s policy forbids recording their broadcasts.
#19) On January 26, 2006 1:04 AM
how do you do this with a newer g5? I tried it with minijack from receiver into the line-in port but no go.
any ideas?
#20) On February 27, 2006 6:43 PM
Thanks so much. I randomly stumbled upon this page because I was looking to do EXACTLY this — connect my XM via an iMic and playthrough my speakers. The LineIn Utility did the trick!