Sirius Satellite weather coverage area

[tilmonday]

Has anyone used this in the Caribbean? I have seen conflicting information on this. I am looking at adding an SR100 to my Raymarine C90.

Thanks for your help

Dave

[capta]

I always lose it just before Bermuda heading south. I cannot get it in St. Thomas or anywhere south or east of there. A grand in equipment that is totally worthless down here.
Not so, on the east coast, however; a great helpful tool.
The attachment is their wx provider's area map if it uploaded????.

[Jim St.Pierre]

We have a Garmin 376c GPS Plotter/XM weather, we go to the Bahamas and use the xm weather most of the time. We also listen to Cris Parker on our SSB in the morning. He also does the Caribbean. The XM is touch and go there. Hope this helps. Jim

[sailahike]

anyone have experience with sirius weather on the west coast of NA down into mexico? we are hoping to cruise to mexico and i was curious if it is worth the investment? or can someone remind me of the guy who does the SSB daily update for the W coast? i have cruised there before and remember there was a very reliable report every morning....thanks for any advice. don't forget to takeahike when you get ashore!

[capta]

It took me a year to get this out of them. It seems fairly accurate though in the Atlantic it is pretty optimistic on the fringes.
Great system when it works.

[jeremiason]

Originally Posted by sailahike

anyone have experience with sirius weather on the west coast of NA down into mexico? we are hoping to cruise to mexico and i was curious if it is worth the investment? or can someone remind me of the guy who does the SSB daily update for the W coast? i have cruised there before and remember there was a very reliable report every morning....thanks for any advice. don't forget to takeahike when you get ashore!

We have Sirius Weather on our Raymarine E-120 CHartplotter.

We were in Mexico from Oct 2010 thru Mar 2012 and it worked well all along the Pacific Coast and throughout the Sea of Cortez, up to Puerto Penasco.

When we sailed south last Spring it worked along the Pacific Coast of Guadamala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

It started getting slower when we crossed into Costa Rica and about half way down the coast (Around 10 degrees) it stopped downloading data.

The Sirius Radio signal lasted a little longer, but by the time we were in Panama, it was also dead.

Since DOn Anderson died, the Weather Guru for the Pacific Coast of Mexico is Geary on the Sonrisa Net. His web site with frequencies and time is here

An alternate is the Baja Net at 0800 hrs (California Time), which gives weather and other information. It is on LSB 7233.5 and works well throughout California, the Baja and Sea of Cortez.

[tommyh]

We have it here in califorina but loose it when we go south and cross the border, it sucks,not worth the money.

[bene505]

Since people are getting different results, perhaps we ought to ask what type of antenna people are using.

Regards,
Brad

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, sailahike.

[jeremiason]

Originally Posted by tommyh

We have it here in califorina but loose it when we go south and cross the border, it sucks,not worth the money.

If you are losing your Sirius signal when you enter Mexico, you have a bad unit or inproper installation.


Are you using the Raymarine Weather Unit or something else?

My signal strength was excellent along Pacific Mexico, from San Diego, CA to Puerto Madera (Southern border with Guatemala). Also the Sea of Cortez from Cabo san Lucas to Puerto Penasco (40 miles from the Colorado River/US Border)

Originally Posted by bene505

Since people are getting different results, perhaps we ought to ask what type of antenna people are using.

Regards,
Brad

Since the original question asked about the Raymarine Sirius Weather unit, there are no antenna options...

The Raymarine unit comes with its own antenna and there are no other options.

[sailahike]

thanks so much jeremiason. that is awesome to know that it works so far south on the W coast. i have never seen the interface for the sirius weather but from the website it looks packed with great information. and what a luxury to have weather info access to it 24/7.

thanks so much for giving me the names of the SSB broadcasts too. also very helpful. and as all sailor know you must have a backup for your backup so radio is still important no doubt.

glad to hear you have been out there for years on the boat. we will live vicariously through you.

definitely sounds like its worth the investment. seems like you are happy with the raymarine unit you have. but if you have any other comments on hardware im sure we are open to that info as well.

thanks again. may the wind be at your back.

sailahike
JD

[tsitz]

Hi
Sorry to belabor this, but does anyone know about Sirius coverage TO Bermuda FROM the East coast (Annapolis)?

I have a Furuno MFD Navnet and would like to install this if I can get it to Bermuda.... It looks as if it's close....
Many thanks for any reply help

[charris]

Hello All - the thread is a couple of years old but still valid. I have a Raymarine SR50 mated to my C80 Classic MFD. I used it in Florida and loved it - some great features. However 3-4 years ago when we brought the boat to Mexico, I cancelled the service. I seem to recall I just felt that the information provided was not worth the cost.

Don't confuse reception with weather data. We have solid connection to Sirius entertainment audio all over Mexico, and the audio and weather antennas while separate are the same antenna and I'm sure the same signal. So the Sirius weather signal is strong and no problem receiving it here on the west coast of Mexico. But a transmitted signal needs to carry the information you want.

However I am seeing reports of folks receiving wave charts, wind charts, and pressure charts, as well as forecasts.

If any of you out there are actually using the service, would you please come back in here and let us all know what Sirius weather features you are receiving on your MFD when you are on Mexico's West Coast.

I don't have a SSB, so when away from shore do not have a source for weather forecasts so would reactivate my Sirius immediately if I knew it was going to give me some good data.

Thanks for any help

[japarker11]

I know you will find this reply strange as it does not contain direct experience for your latitude. We had the SXM service for three months in late summer 2014. We were sailing the Gulf of Alaska and Inside Passage from Latitude 48 N to 60 N.
You might ask what does that have to do with your latitude 15 N ? We were constantly affected by a low located about 300 to 600 miles west in the Gulf of Alaska. It seemed that this low was being reenergized from tropical depressions spinning up from lat 15 N. In the AM planning I would sneek a look at the pressure forecasts nearly out to Ha and get the NOAA North Pacific text alerts and warnings which included your offshore waters. Another useful report was the offshore buoy reports.

All of this came in and displayed graphically on the Garmin chartplotter. Coastal and 300 miles offshore reporting were pretty complete between lat 15N to 55N. Doppler reporting was nonexistent except at the lower 48 for about 40 miles offshore.
Reception was poor above 55 N , as I think the the Sat signal was about 10 degrees above the horizon. It appeared to me that the completeness of info would be similar down to about Cabo.

We have been doing some backstay mods which knocked out the availability of SSB. The SXM weather was the most expedient way to get weather for this 2600 NM voyage. To our surprise , fish boats and most tugs were subscribed. Would suggest getting aboard a vessel that is subscribed to verify what is available in your locale. An enquiry on the Vhf in an anchorage should come up with at least one subscriber.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[charris]

Excellent response japarker11. Thank you very much for this. I will analyze the info you have sent and make a decision. Thanks for taking the time to share you experience