Anyone see this weather system yet - any good? Real-Time radar:

http://onboard.weather.com/

On Saturday 09 October 2004 8:06 pm in rec.boats.electronics Joseph wrote:

Anyone see this weather system yet - any good? Real-Time radar:

http://onboard.weather.com/

Looks OK if you never leave USA coastal waters.
Otherwise a bit useless.

--
My real address is crn (at) netunix (dot) com
WARNING all messages containing attachments or html will be silently
deleted. Send only plain text.

Only problem is all those annoying popup ads appearing on your radar.


"Joseph" wrote in message
om...
Anyone see this weather system yet - any good? Real-Time radar:

http://onboard.weather.com/

(Joseph) wrote in
om:

Anyone see this weather system yet - any good? Real-Time radar:

http://onboard.weather.com/

Looks nice, but $2K for the hardware and then $700/year or $400/6 mo seems
a bit pricy to me.

-- Geoff

"Joseph" wrote in message
om...
Anyone see this weather system yet - any good? Real-Time radar:

http://onboard.weather.com/

Seems way too pricey for what is essentially all free information (to a
vessel that already has satellite internet connection). The quick access to
data bases in useful format provides a lot of the product's value. I have
always thought that commercial weather products might eventually eliminate
the need for the US government to duplicate and compete with the private
market in this area. But the price of this package, using information that
the provider has little if any cost in obtaining, is not competitive in my
opinion.

Jack

On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 10:05:07 -0400, "Jack Painter"
wrote:

Seems way too pricey for what is essentially all free information (to a
vessel that already has satellite internet connection).

===========================================

That's my initial reaction also but when you stop and do the math it
might make sense. Assume you spend 10 to 15 minutes a day downloading
the information with your satellite internet connection which seems
about right in my experience. If your satphone connection is costing
anywhere from $1 to $3 per minute, $60 to $70 per month might turn out
to be a bargain. You also get the information stored in what appears
to be a very convenient format which is constantly being updated.

Jack Painter wrote:

snip
I have
always thought that commercial weather products might eventually eliminate
the need for the US government to duplicate and compete with the private
market in this area. But the price of this package, using information that
the provider has little if any cost in obtaining, is not competitive in my
opinion.

Who is duplicating who? I don't know where that weather data on that
system comes from but if it is generated with data from government
systems funded by tax Dollars it would seem that the extra costs are for
getting the data embellished, packaged, and delivered.

If there is reasonable (i.e., free or cheap) public access to the same
basic data the "private market" is using, I wouldn't want the government
to abdicate to the private market product. That would be a disservice
to the taxpayer who does not want to pay for the various bells and
whistles and/or alternate delivery paths that make it attractive to others.

As far as competitive, if you want to use that every day and amortize
the hardware and subscription costs over three years, that service would
add a little less than $4.00 per day to the operating costs of a boat.
And I assume you can use it all you want for that.

Four bucks a day is a drop in the bucket compared to the other operating
costs in a boat that would typically want something like this. And if
you want to run from bad weather, it could easily be worth $4 a day to
know which way to run.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jacker at midmaine dot com

I stopped by their booth at Annapolis. It looks pretty but VERY expensive
and only covers coastal US waters. They are "thinking about" expanding to
the Caribbean but no promises.

Their major source of information is the NOAA doppler radar system so there
is no information more than 150 to 200 miles offshore. That means that in
most of the area you can use a cellphone modem to get the same thing for
free.

I believe I will stick with my $200 polar orbiting weather satellite image
rig, WEFax, Sailmail GRIBB downloads and Herb. All free.

"Joseph" wrote in message
om...
Anyone see this weather system yet - any good? Real-Time radar:

http://onboard.weather.com/

On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 21:03:28 -0400, Glenn Ashmore wrote:

I believe I will stick with my $200 polar orbiting weather satellite image
rig, WEFax, Sailmail GRIBB downloads and Herb. All free.

Would you be kind enough to elaborate? What's the rig, what are GRIBB
downloads and what's Herb? Thanks, Glenn.
--

Larry
email is rapp at lmr dot com
10/11/04 10:58:34 AM

"Larry" wrote in message ...

Would you be kind enough to elaborate? What's the rig, what are GRIBB
downloads and what's Herb? Thanks, Glenn.

I built a Quadrafillar Helix antenna from 1/4" stainless tube. Cost about
$60, very rugged and looks very professional. The reciever is a Hamtronix
R139 for about $120 but I may upgrade to a RIG receiver for a little more.
With WXtrack, Satmon and Satsignal shareware I automatically receive about 6
usable real time polar satallite pictures a day. From home in Macon I get
coverage from Hudson Bay to Trinidad and Colorado to the mid-Atlantic. Got
some great pictures of Frances just before she blew my antenna down. :-)
Anchored at Anegada I got much clearer coverage from Long Island to the
Amazon and Southern California to the Cannaries.

GRIB (sorry only one B) is GRidded Binary weather files. It is the standard
format for weather information. They are mathematical models of the weather
that you can use for animated forcasting using Digital Atmosphere and
several charting programs like Raytech and MaxSea. You can get full files
over the web or download chunks for the area you are interested in covering
3 to 7 days on Sailmail.

Herb is Herb Hilgenberg. aka "Southbound II". Guardian angle of all
Atlantic passagemakers. Provides free individual weather and routing advice
to cruisers from England to the Panama Canal broadcasting out of Canada on
SSB 12359.0 at 2000 UTC every day.

Glenn