XMRadio Satellite Weather Has Arrived

"Morgans" post/the/group.here.net wrote in message
...
Even a smaller battery without the
charger included costs $50 or so as far as I can see:

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXE559&P=7

--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com

Try this. For the charger, walmart has a peak sensing 1.5 amp maintainer
charger for under 15 bucks.
http:towerhobbies//www2..com/cgi-bin/wti0095p?FVPROFIL=++&FVSEARCH=TG3388

Try again
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...VSEARCH=TG3388

--
---Jim in NC---

"Morgans" post/the/group.here.net wrote in message
...

Looook again. 33 bucks for TWO 7 amp/hr batteries. :-)

Fair enough... my mistake.

However the Hobbico website indicates the battery weighs 5.25 pounds and the
one I bought weighs 3 pounds and is smaller than the dimensions listed on
the Hobbico site... the goal at least for me is to fit this all into a
reasonable portable briefcase or carrying case.

Nonetheless, I agree with the idea that a hobby shop can be a relatively
cheap place to get portable battery supplies.. Thanks.

--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com

When can we buy the XM unit? I have sent email and used the web based
form on their site, and no response... Any ideas???

Lenny Sawyer

Richard Kaplan wrote:
"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.




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"Lenny Sawyer" wrote in message
...

When can we buy the XM unit? I have sent email and used the web based
form on their site, and no response... Any ideas???

Call Baron Services/WxWorx at 256-881-8811 or 321-751-9202
--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com

"Richard Kaplan" writes:


However the Hobbico website indicates the battery weighs 5.25 pounds and the
one I bought weighs 3 pounds and is smaller than the dimensions listed on
the Hobbico site... the goal at least for me is to fit this all into a
reasonable portable briefcase or carrying case.

Nonetheless, I agree with the idea that a hobby shop can be a relatively
cheap place to get portable battery supplies.. Thanks.

A) Brand X Gel-Cells [tm] battery is going to weigh the same as
Brand Y, iffen they have the same Ah-H capacity. Same with size.
[But there are different form factors.] In short, they are going to
be more alike than different.

B) There are lots of places to buy Gel-Cells [tm] and some are going
to be far better than others. I don't buy enough to have scoped out
the best deals, but some locales have speciality battery dealers.
An alarm company WILL pay very little themselves, but have a big
markeup.

You can find many suppliers on-line, including Digi-Key; but watch
out for shipping; lead is heavy.


--
A host is a host from coast to
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

This may be a dumb question (it sounds like all of the replies to this
thread have been far more tech-savvy than I) but is the antenna that the xm
radio system uses specific? Why couldn't you wire their receiver into an
existing gps antenna (fixed or portable)?
Are different satellite receivers able to share an antenna? If I understand
their ad, the premium service uses the same antenna but adds a gps module to
give specific mapping data. It sounds like this is a sharing arrangement
since the gps satellites and "rock" and "roll" are obviously distinct. What
if you already have a gps (portable or panel mounted) Is the premium service
able to use the signal from that? Frank
"Jeff Doran" wrote in message
m...
Richard, thank you for posting the info on the xmradio weatherworx. I,
like many, have been searching for reliable in-cockpit weather
solutions. The closest thing to affordibility so far has been anywhere
wx from control vision, but even that is a bit pricey, and a rats nest
of wires. I use the Palm i705, and you just can't beat it for
portability and cost. However, as reliable as it is, even in flight,
there are too many times, when I just didnt get a signal or reply when
making an inflight weather request from CBAV or TurboWX.
For that past month, I have been using a poormans version of the
control vision solution...
Globalstar SAT phone, $595 list/$495 with rebate/$395 reconditioned
Ipaq H3635 pocket pc, on ebay for $100 (or any pocket pc), you can
even hook to your i705 and switch back and forth between the wireless
palm network and the SAT connection. I prefer the higher resolution
and color on the Ipaq for maps.
Globalstar data cable, $69;
IPAQ Serial Cable (not a hotsync cable, they are not the same) $20;
SAT phone is $35/month and .99/minute with 30 included min/month, or
$50/month with 120 minutes/month, .75/minute after that.
Control Visions deal is $25/month, first 100 mins free, then .99/min
after that.
A wide range of service plans to fit both budget and use.

(I do not work for any SAT phone company or aviation product company)

Data comes down at 9.6Kbps,plus I can make reliable, consistant voice
calls in flight.
I have not had any problem aquiring and holding a SAT signal in
flight, as long as the antenna is held reasonbly close to a window.
The glare shield is fine.
Admittedly, this is a request/reply setup, and I typically use
weathertap.com and flighbrief.com for inflight weather. Not that it is
very useful or fast, I can browse the web in flight, including pop3
email, etc etc...

The result is, I am juggling only a PDA, a short cable, and the sat
phone. Not Bad.

Did you ever notice how big and cumbersome even the smallest laptops
are when in the cockpit? Screen visibility in sunlight is another
concern.

About the only thing I see that XMradio has to offer is its
"broadcast" technology, and (I assume) greater bandwidth...not that
these are bad things.

BTW, I have a Delco Xmradio mounted on the pedestal of my mooney, with
the low profile antenna hiding on the glare shield...works great...but
I can't listen to Limbaugh.


Jeff Doran
Mooney N1159P ACY

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.

wrote in message
...

This may be a dumb question (it sounds like all of the replies to this
thread have been far more tech-savvy than I) but is the antenna that the
xm
radio system uses specific? Why couldn't you wire their receiver into an
existing gps antenna (fixed or portable)?

The XM Radio antenna is looking for one geosynchronous satellite; it is not
looking for the 12 GPS satellites. Perhaps it would work with a GPS
antenna, perhaps not; at the very least that would require modifying the
antenna connectors since the XM Radio antenna has a connection different
from any GPS antennas I have seen.

As far as GPS inputs for moving map navigation, you can use any GPS with an
NMEA output; that includes a lot of handheld GPS units.

--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com

Richard Kaplan wrote:

The XM Radio antenna is looking for one geosynchronous satellite; it is not
looking for the 12 GPS satellites.

The antenna isn't "looking" for anything. It merely sits there and
catches what flies by. The receiver is what is looking for specific
things. If the frequencies are close a gps antenna might work.