Yesterday was the day apparently that Sirius officially took control of XM, and merged programming.

I have searched, but I haven't found anything about how this will or could affect XM Weather subscribers.

Any hiccups in service? Are we going to see a rate increase?

I downloaded new program guides today to keep in the truck and airplane, and there's some minor fluff changes to the music channels, but things look pretty much the same.

XM WX looks and acts the same in the airplane.

As for rate increases...

You betchum Red Ryder. They'll lay low for a little while, but with their new monopoly on the sat radio services, stand by to get hosed in the not too distant future.

Gump

GumpAir wrote:stand by to get hosed in the not too distant future.

That's what I'm worried about. They gotta recover that ROI on the big purchase. They are the only satellite weather player in the game.

GumpAir wrote:I downloaded new program guides today to keep in the truck and airplane, and there's some minor fluff changes to the music channels, but things look pretty much the same.

XM WX looks and acts the same in the airplane.

As for rate increases...

You betchum Red Ryder. They'll lay low for a little while, but with their new monopoly on the sat radio services, stand by to get hosed in the not too distant future.

Gump

Precisely why I never got into THAT service...they got you by the ying--yang. You will pay their price or nada. I like good tunes but not at their price.
I have been recording music to reel-to-reel for over 40 years on high quality tape and I just transfer this and other music from friends to mp3, cassett, or audio cd's to use in my vehicles.
HC

I believe there is a three year freeze on the rates as a condition of the merger. after that lookout.

So far as I know, any of that XM/ Serious service is still too spotty in interior AK to warrant the investment. Anybody have experience with it north of 60 degrees latitude?

I did hear recently that the high-end satellite GPS's can display FAA webcam images. Again, never had an opportunity to see that done here, but if the technology exists, that's great. Anybody know about this? (Unfortunately, it sounds like they won't support 3rd-party web cams, not surprisingly)

If we could ever get reliable northern coverage by the addition of a satellite or two, that'd be pretty darn handy.

-DP

I had fair XM radio (not weather) coverage as far north as Fairbanks, and out west to Bethel and the villages along the YK Delta using the Garmin 396. And that was with antenna on the glareshield. They make some external mounts now that I think would really improve the situation.

Gump

denali,

The problem won't be solved by just another satellite. The satellites used for this service are geosynchronous--they live down by the equator. Another geosynchronous satellite wouldn't help.

The GPS constellation and the Iridium constellation, on the other hand, use orbiting satellites, which is why they do work in AK.

The original promise of the Capstone program was to bring this kind of service to AK. Unfortunately, the FAA chose to disseminate that information from ground based transmitters, so reception is pretty limited at the moment in AK.

This too may change, however, but it'll have to be space based system to work.

MTV

Go ahead raise the rates with what I save by having better music I'll still be ahead... Radio Margrettaville here I come