The Terk XM Commander is distributed by Terk. The unit offers a clean dedicated car solution with the option of either FM modulation or CD input for listening to XM Satellite Radio. This is a great solution for cars without XM-ready radios. It is inexpensive compared to some other solutions that do not install as cleanly. The drawback to this unit is that it is not portable and so if you want XM Satellite Radio in your home and your car you will have to pay for two radios and two subscriptions. This unit does offer a very small tuner unit that will easily fit beneath your seat and, if you are so inclined, the instructions will assist you with the installation. If you are not so inclined or do not have the proper skills, a qualified installer can complete the installation in most cars with an hour and a half.

Price: $159.95
Use: Car
System: XM Satellite Radio

Features

* Two line display
* Car remote
* Browse by category (remote only), channel, or presets
* Receiver stores up to 30 channel presets
* TuneSelect? allows notification when any of 15 saved songs is playing
* Small all-in-one tuner and FM modulator
* Micro Antenna - the smallest XM Satellite Radio antenna available

In the Box

Receiver, head unit, cradle for head unit, remote control, relay assembly, power/ground harness, antenna, installation kit, cable extensions, 2 ‘AAA’ batteries for the remote, and manuals.

Overview

The Terk XM Commander is in direct competition with the Delphi XM Roady and other car tuner/XM-ready car stereo combinations. It is slightly more expensive than the Delphi XM Roady but significantly less expensive than tuner/XM-ready car stereo combinations assuming you purchase a tuner, antenna, and XM-ready car stereo.

The head control unit is best described as large. It is basically the size of a standard car stereo face. In cars with room it looks nice especially if mounted properly. The head control unit comes with a base for mounting and you can get pretty creative with mounting options. The head control unit has a dialer with button, numeric keys for direct channel entry, a preset/direct button for station preset banks, and a menu/display button. Overall, everything you would expect with the notable absence of category buttons. The category buttons are available on the remote. The display key offers three display modes:

* channel name, channel number, artist name
* channel name, channel number, song title
* song title, artist name

The display is adequate, certainly conveys the essentials but is not advanced as other displays such as the Delphi family or the more advanced XM-ready car stereos. Of course, in the case of the more advanced XM-ready car stereos, you definitely pay for the premium displays.

As noted in the In The Box section, this unit ships with everything you will need to install successfully in your car using either the FM modulation feature or by taking advantage of the CD input method.

TuneSelect? is a notable addition to the XM family. By saving as many as 15 songs using the save feature, the radio will notify you when one of your saved songs is playing. Pretty neat.

The Remote

All necessary functions on the head unit are available on the remote and the remote includes a handy jump and a scan function. The jump button allows you to immediately jump to the previously tuned stream. The Scan function allows scanning within a bank of preset channels, scanning within a musical category, or scanning of all channels. Each scanned channel is displayed for five seconds. The remote also comes with a clip so that it can be mounted.

This is Part 8 in a continuing series where I look at the current state of satellite radio technology, satellite radio services, and satellite radio hardware.