Topic: Finally pulled the trigger on XM Weather - First Impressions

[ITGEEK]

Well,
After about a year and a half of debating, I decided to get the XM weather module and Skywatch service.

I finished installing the AS WX 1 module yesterday evening.  My 1197c recognizes the accessory, and a separate view is available for it which I was very pleased about.

I then called Sirius to set-up my account.
It sounds like they are in India.

The first person takes my information, then I'm transferred to somebody else.
I thought the second person would take my credit card info, but the second person was treating me as if I had just called.  I told him that I had already given somebody else my info, but he had me give all of my info again.

Every XM module has a unique ID associated with it which is written on the module package and also once hooked up to your unit, you can get the ID from a menu item.  They told me that the ID I gave them was invalid.  They said they would have to send the ID up to corporate and get it verified.

They told me to call back tonight.  Things are starting off a little rough.

[ITGEEK]

Update.
I was on the phone for an hour and a half yesterday, then
the phone got disconnected.

I called back today and they said I should call back Monday.
By then, the service should be available to me.

[George]

ITGEEK

Last week I received my XM Weather receiver, the next morning I installed it in about 3 minutes, since I already had a weathersense barometric pressure installed system installed, just plugged the weather receiver into the end of the weather sense.

I called XM Weather and they took the information and my system was up an running within 10 minutes.  So I guess I just got lucky and got someone who knew what they were doing.

George

[ITGEEK]

Yea George,
You are lucky.
Mine is hooked up exactly like yours.

I called today and they said all I have to do when I get home is to turn my system on and refresh my XM Radio id and it should work within an hour.

How do you like the service thus far?
Have you had to refresh your radio id since you got it working the first time?

[George]

I purchased it because Oklahoma in the area where I live, it appears to be the gateway of storms, lightning storms and high wins are common. 

I have not played with it enough, so far I have not had to refresh the radio id.  As I gain experience I will let you know how it is working. 

For safety's sake I do not mine spending the money, but if I do not see a value in it, I will probably remove it and drop the subscription.

George

George

[ITGEEK]

George,
My system finally worked yesterday, after turning on the unit and refreshing the XM ID.  From the little that I played with it thus far, it looks awesome.
I'm a happy camper.

[George]

Great, now you need to play with it.  There is a number of ways (as I understand) to set it up. 

The one thing I find lacking is that it does not have an audible alarm, only an alarm across the screen.  An audible alarm would alert  you to look at the weather map.

I will be watching with interest on your set up and evaluation.

George

[bobby]

I also had difficulty at first but did make it through the setup after working with several folks. 

First impression was...unimpressive...then the storms moved in

Second impression...impressive.. lightning strikes...red for bad stuff...distance easy to read...love it.

Third Impression... Need a feature to turn off the alerts, every time you loose signal the Alert recycle and you have to exit out of every alert in the entire country, from High Surf to Tornados... bad thing is you can't do anything wit the unit until you clear the alerts. 

I unplugged it until I moved the antenna. Its better now but it is much more sensitive to clear sky then the GPS, it must rely on less satellites.

Need to option to ByPass alerts