Baron Mobile Threat Worth it

[James Wilson]

I called and talked to the people at Baron but before I bought I wanted to see how actual chasers liked it. They say that you never lose service is that correct? Is the radar as good or hopefully better then other cheaper options? Money is not an issue for me it is just that even with a booster I loose service where there isn't service and want to correct that.

Worth it or not?

 

[JeremyS]

I called and talked to the people at Baron but before I bought I wanted to see how actual chasers liked it. They say that you never lose service is that correct? Is the radar as good or hopefully better then other cheaper options? Money is not an issue for me it is just that even with a booster I loose service where there isn't service and want to correct that.

Worth it or not?

My chase partner got it last year and we use it quite a bit. It's awesome because it doesn't ever lose service unlike GRLevel3 with cell coverage. For example on the Tulia storm earlier this month, we had no coverage going through that massive canyon, but we had Baron so we were able to keep track of the storm location and severity as we headed towards it.
That being said the radar is "different" than what you're probably used to seeing on RadarScope or GRL3. It's much lower definition, not as many "pretty colors", etc. We do like the shear markers on it as those are always helpful and seem to really match up with good areas of rotation.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I've used it every season since 2004. Most years I don't turn off the service because the winter weather radar algorithm is pretty useful. I run into data holes all the time in the Midwest and Plains even now where it is critical in maintaining at least radar.

 

[James Wilson]

In those data holes you still have radar though right Dan?

 

[Dan Robinson]

Yes - if my cellular connection encounters a data hole, Threatnet is always working.

 

[Lou Ruh]

I honestly wish it worked all the time, but, there have been times (as recently as yesterday) when the system was connecting to Sirius/XM but no data delivery was occurring (today it all looks good) ... still worth it for me ... it was there when I needed it for the most part.

 

[Bill Hark]

I had cellular data issues when chasing in eastern Colorado and parts of Oklahoma in the last couple of weeks. Radarscope was not updating, but Baron Mobile ThreatNet chugged away without issue. It's still definitely worthwhile. I keep it on during chase season.

 

[JamesCaruso]

My chase partner and I did away with Baron a few years ago. As Jeremy said, the resolution and look-and-feel of the radar is not what we are used to. You are going to want to default to GR or RadarScope 95% of the time. It was nice to have Baron as a backup when there was no internet connection, but that was a relative rarity and we didn’t want to be so dependent on radar that we couldn’t do without it and go old-school for even 15 minutes when necessary now and then. It wasn’t the money, it just seemed like too much hassle for relatively little use. There comes a point where there is too much data, too many devices to monitor and maintain. We were mostly using an iPad while chasing, and had Baron running on a laptop. We still had to monitor Baron to make sure it was running properly and updating for when/if we needed it, and it got to the point we just wanted to streamline and simplify. And Baron had its own issues, it sometimes was temperamental, took a while to get set up and establish a connection, experienced delays in radar updates, etc.

Hopefully we will one day have GR-type resolution on a satellite connection!

 

[Nathan Parker]

I don’t have the satellite version, but I have the web-based version. I love the web-based version, but it does require Internet access. I’ve heard the satellite version is great if you’re in an area with coverage issues.