XMRadio Satellite Weather Has Arrived

I have had the opportunity to test out the new XMRadio Satellite
Weather system (www.wxworx.com) enroute to Oshkosh... The unit is a
demo unit which has been somewhat delayed from the initial planned
production date of July 1 -- I am planning a Forums talk Wednesday
7/30 at Oshkosh on portable weather datalink and I wanted to include
the XMRadio system in the discussion. Due to the production delay, I
have been able to review the unit "cross-country" in a motorhome
enroute to Oshkosh although not yet in the airplane (yes, I know, it
should be illegal to arrive at OSH other than in an airplane, but the
motorhome turns out to be a lot more "family friendly" for camping).

Anyway, as a brief initial reaction I would say I am favorably
impressed. The final price is $629 for the hardware (plus a laptop
computer or PDA) and $49/month for unlimited weather datalink, which
is much cheaper than Echoflight or Controlvision. There is a bit of
"wire clutter" but much less than satellite phone systems I have seen
(i.e. Echoflight or Controlvision) and the portable nature of the
system is a big plus to renters.

The biggest plus of all is that weather download is automated -- no
need to keep requesting weather updates or fiddle with the computer...
while it takes a bit of hardware and software setup, once it is
configured you can let it do its thing automatically.

The digital signal processing produces images which have similar
resolution to Intellicast but seem less "sensitive" -- that is, the
location of storms well matches that on Intellicast but a lot of the
light areas on Intellicast which turn out to be virgia or minimal
precip aloft do not show up on the WxWorx system. I am not sure yet
which graphical presentation of weather I prefer (Intellicast vs.
WxWorx) but in the end they both give the critical information. The
WxWorx system also displays lightning strikes, graphical cloud tops,
and some text weather.

These are basically initial impressions...I will play with the system
a bit more over the coming weeks. For those who are attending Oshkosh
and want to get a look at the physical hardware and some screen
snapshots, my Forums presentation will be Wednesday 7/30 and a link to
the scheduling details of the presentation is on my web page at
www.flyimc.com


--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com

Richard Kaplan wrote:

snip
These are basically initial impressions...I will play with the system
a bit more over the coming weeks.

Thank you very much, Richard, for continually taking the time to post
about uplinked weather options. As a recently instrument rated pilot
(March '03), I have been pulling my hair out over the last several weeks
trying to decide which uplink weather solution is right for me.

I have a Bendix/King MFD, but the only weather solution now or in the
near future that displays on this MFD is, naturally, Bendix/King's
product. Two major disadvantages with their product is cost and the
fact that it is a ground-based solution.

IMO, a satellite based weather product, such as WSI or XMRadio, seems to
be the superior choice except for the display option, which is either a
laptop or PDA that adds loose wires and equipment to a cramped cockpit.

At some point I am going to need to jump off the fence and make a hard
choice. Your reviews go a long way to educate me on some of the
alternate choices.

--
Peter

"Peter R." wrote in message
ds.com...

IMO, a satellite based weather product, such as WSI or XMRadio, seems to
be the superior choice except for the display option, which is either a
laptop or PDA that adds loose wires and equipment to a cramped cockpit.

I agree the "clutter factor" is an issue with a laptop or PDA in the
cockpit.

On the other hand, the fact that the XMRadio product has a portable antenna
and thus will work in your car, on the hotel porch, etc. when out of town is
an attractive option. And of course for renters portability is the only
option. And for instructors like me who teach in multiple airplanes besides
my own, portability is a nice option even if it does mean dealing with
"laptop clutter."

But better than all this, realize that both WSI and XMRadio plan to "soon"
release panel-mount versions of their hardware to work with certified
MFDs... considering the cost of that type of installation, it might very
well be worth it to experiment with both these systems in their portable
form to figure out which one you want as the installed panel-mount version
later on. You could probably later sell the portable versions on Ebay and
recover a good deal of the money.

--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com

Richard Kaplan wrote:

But better than all this, realize that both WSI and XMRadio plan to "soon"
release panel-mount versions of their hardware to work with certified
MFDs...

Sadly, I have had a few WSI sales people tell me that their weather
product will probably never interface with the B/K MFD, as B/K is not
releasing their MFD specs to WSI. These folks speculated that the
reason for this is that B/K is purposely reducing the number of uplinked
weather solutions on their MFD to one; their own package.

When it's your ball and your field, you are allowed to make up your own
rules.

--
Peter

What are you using to display the weather? Laptop? PDA? If PDA, which
one?

This would be a compelling reason for me to upgrade to a full-featured new
color PDA if it works well. My Palm VIIx is still pumping out the budget
wx, though.

-Ryan

Richard Kaplan wrote:

I have had the opportunity to test out the new XMRadio Satellite
Weather system (www.wxworx.com) enroute to Oshkosh... The unit is a
demo unit which has been somewhat delayed from the initial planned
production date of July 1 -- I am planning a Forums talk Wednesday
7/30 at Oshkosh on portable weather datalink and I wanted to include
the XMRadio system in the discussion. Due to the production delay, I
have been able to review the unit "cross-country" in a motorhome
enroute to Oshkosh although not yet in the airplane (yes, I know, it
should be illegal to arrive at OSH other than in an airplane, but the
motorhome turns out to be a lot more "family friendly" for camping).

Anyway, as a brief initial reaction I would say I am favorably
impressed. The final price is $629 for the hardware (plus a laptop
computer or PDA) and $49/month for unlimited weather datalink, which
is much cheaper than Echoflight or Controlvision. There is a bit of
"wire clutter" but much less than satellite phone systems I have seen
(i.e. Echoflight or Controlvision) and the portable nature of the
system is a big plus to renters.

The biggest plus of all is that weather download is automated -- no
need to keep requesting weather updates or fiddle with the computer...
while it takes a bit of hardware and software setup, once it is
configured you can let it do its thing automatically.

The digital signal processing produces images which have similar
resolution to Intellicast but seem less "sensitive" -- that is, the
location of storms well matches that on Intellicast but a lot of the
light areas on Intellicast which turn out to be virgia or minimal
precip aloft do not show up on the WxWorx system. I am not sure yet
which graphical presentation of weather I prefer (Intellicast vs.
WxWorx) but in the end they both give the critical information. The
WxWorx system also displays lightning strikes, graphical cloud tops,
and some text weather.

These are basically initial impressions...I will play with the system
a bit more over the coming weeks. For those who are attending Oshkosh
and want to get a look at the physical hardware and some screen
snapshots, my Forums presentation will be Wednesday 7/30 and a link to
the scheduling details of the presentation is on my web page at
www.flyimc.com

--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com

"Peter R." wrote:
Sadly, I have had a few WSI sales people tell me that their weather
product will probably never interface with the B/K MFD, as B/K is not
releasing their MFD specs to WSI. These folks speculated that the
reason for this is that B/K is purposely reducing the number of uplinked
weather solutions on their MFD to one; their own package.

When it's your ball and your field, you are allowed to make up your own
rules.

Might be sad for aircraft owners, but BK would be foolish to do otherwise.
BK is investing in ground uplink stations all over the US - why should they
help owners go to the competition?
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

Dan Luke wrote:

BK is investing in ground uplink stations all over the US.

Sounds like a bad decision to me. The satellite services are going to
kill them; unless they can keep third parties from cracking their MFD
interface. BK is on the Apple Computer road (for GA anyway).

"Doug Carter" wrote in message ...
BK is investing in ground uplink stations all over the US.

Sounds like a bad decision to me. The satellite services are going to
kill them; unless they can keep third parties from cracking their MFD
interface. BK is on the Apple Computer road (for GA anyway).

Yes, I agree.

BK keeps making bad decisions - consider their stubborn refusal to develop
an all-in-one GPS/NAV/COM, which the market has proven to be a great idea.
In light of Garmin's buying UPSAT, the future for light GA avionics looks
grim right now.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...


Might be sad for aircraft owners, but BK would be foolish to do otherwise.
BK is investing in ground uplink stations all over the US - why should
they
help owners go to the competition?

They should help owners go to the competition in order to sell MFDs.

This is exactly analogous to the situation years ago when personal computers
were evolving and open platform systems prospered due to 3rd party software
and hardware, while proprietary computer systems eventually became extinct.

Or to put it another way, BK is on a path to become the avionics equivalent
of Macintosh computers.

The whole idea of investing in an MFD should be to have confidence that
future avionics devices will interface with it. If BK treats its MFD as
proprietary and useful only with other BK products, then they have given
aircraft owners a major reason to be fearful of buying their MFD and
becoming locked into only BK produ]\

--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com

"Ryan Ferguson" wrote in message
...

What are you using to display the weather? Laptop? PDA? If PDA, which
one?

I am using an XP-based laptop. I have not gotten to try it on a PDA yet
(that would be another version of the program), although I was told verbally
that the PDA version will not be able to support all of the features -- no
surprise, since the laptop-based software requires 350MB free hard drive
space and they recommend at least an 850 MHz Pentium.

As far as WeatherWorx vs. Palm VIIx, I think the people who will pay
$49/month for WeatherWorx and deal with the wiring clutter are people who
use their airplanes fairly often for practical IFR travel. I think other
people will stick with the simplicity, compactness, and economic advantages
of the Palm VIIx. They each have their advantage. To hook up Weatherworx,
you need to set up the computer, satellite receiver, and XMRadio box,
certainly not something you could/would do on the fly in the air. The
advantage of WeatherWorx is that once this is all set up, it updates
automatically during the flight so it is a lot less distracting. The
advantage of the Palm VIIx is that it can just sit in the side pocket of
your airplane and you can turn it on basically on a whim if you see
unexpected weather. On top of that, the Palm VIIx runs on just 2 AAA
batteries, vs. WeatherWorx which requires either a freshly charged
laptop/PDA battery or else a connection to the airplane's cigarette lighter
power source.


--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com