XM weather - anyone using it?

I have a Garmin 396. I also had the lite weather, upgraded to full
for Oshkosh last year and have not reverted to Lite. The winds aloft,
cloud cover, and storm cell depictions were very nice to have on the
return from Oshkosh to Phoenix.

I have not used it in the glider mostly because I didn't do much
soaring last year. I think its use in contests is prohibited, but I
think it would be very helpful for non contest XC.

The Garmin XM antenna is a power hog though. You can run the 396 all
day on batteries without it but you need external power if the XM
antenna is connected. I have found no way to turn off the antenna and
leave it connected.


Andy

I've heard of the GMX30(A) being a power hog from a few owners. Has
anybody measured how much power it (or the GPS+GMX30A combination)
consumes? Numbers for 12 volt external power draw with a fully charged
GPS battery and a flat GPS battery would be great ...

Thanks

Darryl

On Mar 10, 5:58 am, "Andy" <a.dur...@netzero.net> wrote:
> I have a Garmin 396. I also had the lite weather, upgraded to full
> for Oshkosh last year and have not reverted to Lite. The winds aloft,
> cloud cover, and storm cell depictions were very nice to have on the
> return from Oshkosh to Phoenix.
>
> I have not used it in the glider mostly because I didn't do much
> soaring last year. I think its use in contests is prohibited, but I
> think it would be very helpful for non contest XC.
>
> The Garmin XM antenna is a power hog though. You can run the 396 all
> day on batteries without it but you need external power if the XM
> antenna is connected. I have found no way to turn off the antenna and
> leave it connected.
>
> Andy

For slightly different approach I use Pilot My-Cast on my mobile phone
(not a cell phone as mentioned in previous discussions).

https://secure.my-cast.com/pilot.jsp

It works very well in both the glider and the C-172 and I've found it
routinely useful in keeping up to speed on changing weather, dodging
scattered precip, etc. The Sat images are particulary good for an in-
flight snapshot of conditions.

Bob