WSI/avidyne/sirius XM ending their service

[peevee]

we have a sirius weather receiver, but it's stamped WSI and avidyne but it's a WSI AV300, looks like this

 

SiriusXM doesn't provide the service for it, it goes through WSI. WSI recently was purchased by IBM and at the end of 2017 they're discontinuing service for the system. That sucks because siriusXM can't load it in their system, and is more expensive so we'll have to go with something else for weather.

[Oldguy]

I have the same system and have been questioning whether to yank it out or not, now that I have ADS-B Weather.

Guess this answers my question.

[peevee]

Just now, Oldguy said:

I have the same system and have been questioning whether to yank it out or not, now that I have ADS-B Weather.

Guess this answers my question.

I prefer the XM but the adsb is free. the middle grade XM subscription is $54 a month vs I think just under $30 to WSI. There are products on the market that we can use in the place of the WSI but at $54 a month I don't know if we will.

[Oldguy]

Just now, peevee said:

I prefer the XM but the adsb is free. the middle grade XM subscription is $54 a month vs I think just under $30 to WSI. There are products on the market that we can use in the place of the WSI but at $54 a month I don't know if we will.

That has been my struggle. For the cost, I was satisfied with WSI and tracked it against my ADS-B Weather. Seemed to be about the same, so I let my WSI subscription expire.

[peevee]

3 minutes ago, Oldguy said:

That has been my struggle. For the cost, I was satisfied with WSI and tracked it against my ADS-B Weather. Seemed to be about the same, so I let my WSI subscription expire.

previous owner kept paying ours for 6 or 8 months and it just ran out, so I called siriusXM who can't support it, called WSI who said they can until dec 31. Weird stuff.

[Oldguy]

6 minutes ago, peevee said:

previous owner kept paying ours for 6 or 8 months and it just ran out, so I called siriusXM who can't support it, called WSI who said they can until dec 31. Weird stuff.

That is how I got mine initially as well.

[Marauder]

I had the Sirius XM weather in my truck. Like ADS-B, I found it fine for trends but like ADS-B there was always a bit of a lag. Once apps like Storm became available, I let the XM weather subscription expire.

 

[markejackson02]

44 minutes ago, Marauder said:

I had the Sirius XM weather in my truck. Like ADS-B, I found it fine for trends but like ADS-B there was always a bit of a lag. Once apps like Storm became available, I let the XM weather subscription expire.

 

Just out of curiousity, why do you have a radar display in your truck?

[carusoam]

Rainy season on the East Coast...  it helps planning a trip. A stop. A delay.  A different route.

I use cell phone technology for this.

But, if you can get XM to do it and you already have XM.   

Best regards,

-a-

[Marauder]

19 minutes ago, markejackson02 said:

Just out of curiousity, why do you have a radar display in your truck?

Back in 2010, this was the cutting edge technology and like Anthony mentioned it was a great tool when on the road hauling a trailer to know when to hit the rest stop and let the storm blow through.

[flyboy0681]

I still prefer subscribing to XM due to better fidelity, which provides much finer and smoother pixel depiction versus ADS-B's giant blocks of pixels.

[peevee]

23 minutes ago, flyboy0681 said:

I still prefer subscribing to XM due to better fidelity, which provides much finer and smoother pixel depiction versus ADS-B's giant blocks of pixels.

Also the data availability nation wide. I know what the metar is at my destination the whole way. 

[peevee]

so... apparently the box the avidyne tech suggested to replace our WSI doesn't work with the IFD running software 10.2. Cool.

[Piloto]

I found internet WX on my cell phone to work pretty well below 10,000ft and not bad above 12,000ft using the Garmin pilot app. I either attach the phone to the yoke or the visor using Velcro strips. It works were there is no ADS-B or XM. When attached on the yoke log metal backplate it couples the phone antenna to the airframe thus acting like an antenna. The signal range limitation is mostly due to the cell phones low power (0.5 watts).

José

[peevee]

54 minutes ago, Piloto said:

I found internet WX on my cell phone to work pretty well below 10,000ft and not bad above 12,000ft using the Garmin pilot app. I either attach the phone to the yoke or the visor using Velcro strips. It works were there is no ADS-B or XM. When attached on the yoke log metal backplate it couples the phone antenna to the airframe thus acting like an antenna. The signal range limitation is mostly due to the cell phones low power (0.5 watts).

José

What if it falls down the piss hole?

[bradp]

I have a stratus but went to the cheapest XM marine subscription ($10/month).  When I'm not in ads-b territory the XM is pretty solid.  It also gives me a better depiction of what the destination weather is doing better than the big boxes on ADS-B 200 nm out.  My XM goes to a 430 box so the fancy depictions (cloud tops, winds aloft, etc) can't be displayed on that box.