Marine Radar Recommendations

[randymullaly]

I fish out of a 23' Bay Boat. Lately Ive been spending more time off shore than in shore. Id like to find a good option to see weather conditions when Im outside of cell range. Id appriceate recommendations. ALso, anybody familiar with any of the blue tooth products that let you use your IOS device such as the Furuno
First Watch Wireless or XM Marine Weather? As always, Im beyond grateful for the collective knowledge of the folks on this forum and the willingness to share information.

[Salty Gator]

Unless you get a dedicated radar system , seriusXm is the only option I’m aware of unless you are in cell range. That’s what I’m going to do for the next unit on my bay boat

[zload]

I'm running the XM Weather system on my Garmin chartplotter/NMEA 2000 network. I added it after the wife an I got caught in a nasty lightning storm otherwise she wasn't going back out (and I also run offshore on good days most recent was 35 miles out- slick calm and some good snappers & grouper to boot). As far as appearance it is very similar to a web based weather page in use. Typical color radar over the chart, storm indicators, lightning indicators and then various forecasts.

The Garmin weather module/antenna is expensive and then there is the monthly subscription service. Seems like my antenna was about $650 and I am currently paying about $12/mo for the basic service which is sufficient for my needs, I believe the next level up is about $34/mo and adds live/higher resolution radar with storm tracks/future movement etc, but if I see a big blob building on the standard radar I head to the hill so not worth the extra cost. With the basic subscription you can see marine zone forecast as they update, warnings etc. You can also add XM radio it's only $5/mo or so if that is important to you. Personally the upgraded services are really designed for much further offshore boating than the 20 - 30 mile rec boater. Of course if you ignore the radar and try for 1 more snapper you can still get caught by the storms, the higher level of service with the live doppler would probably be better to dodge storms but if you tend to be cautious I think the basic works well enough.

My receiver/antenna is mounted under the top surface of my console, no reception problems through the fiberglass and surrounding railings, looks very much like a GPS antenna. The XM radio signal is much more sensitive so if I put a drink or tool over the antenna the XM loses its signal. You can also suspend the service if you want to forego it during the winter and just call to reactivate. I also find that when my boat is parked and powered ff under my metal boat shed it will lose sync with the subscription so I usually power up the system and make sure everything is synced up the night before and if needed I send a refresh signal which solves it if not.

I think it is worth it for any nearshore/offshore trips but then I'm a risk adverse guy with 2 VHFs, a PLB and a SPOT so take my opinion for what it is worth to you