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#1
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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 |
#2
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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 |
#3
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"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 |
#4
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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 |
#5
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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 |
#6
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"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 |
#7
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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). |
#8
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"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 |
#9
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"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 |
#10
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"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 |
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