Siriusly Messed Up

Getting weather info in flight has gotten cheaper due to FIS-B (ADS-B In). However, years before the FAAs eventual roll out of FIS-B and its array of free weather-information products, the dominant player in that industry was Baron Services though XM Radio. Sirius radio offered a competitive product from WSI. Eventually, Sirius and XM merged. The leading hardware was probably Garmins GDL 69 and 69A receivers getting XMs Baron offering.

Frank Bowlin

Monday, May 21, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The advent of free FIS-B (ADS-B In) weather information created a zero-cost competitor to paid satellite weather services like SiriusXM.
SiriusXM introduced a new, more affordable weather package (Pilot Express), but it is incompatible with older Garmin GDL 69 receivers which were designed for XM channels, leaving users stuck with pricier legacy plans.
The author, an early adopter of satellite weather, feels "screwed" by this market progression, as their older hardware faces planned obsolescence due to the merger of XM and Sirius technologies.
Facing high costs and eventual service discontinuation, the author plans to abandon SiriusXM and switch to FIS-B for weather information.

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Getting weather info in flight has gotten cheaper due to FIS-B (ADS-B In). However, years before the FAA’s eventual roll out of FIS-B and its array of free weather-information products, the dominant player in that industry was Baron Services though XM Radio. Sirius radio offered a competitive product from WSI. Eventually, Sirius and XM merged. The leading hardware was probably Garmin’s GDL 69 and 69A receivers getting XM’s Baron offering.

Like many, I installed a Garmin GDL 69. The (then) Sirius weather packages ranged from the insufficient Aviator LT for about $25 a month to the over-the-top Pro package for a whopping $95/month. I selected the $55 Aviator package and still felt the value was lacking. But when you really need the weather, it’s priceless—a concept probably not lost on Sirius execs. So, at over $700 a year I had on-board weather.