WX Worx price increase

well its been said that some may not chase in the plains and those that do know the cell coverage can be minimal if at all. So the WXWorx is very handy.

The other package they have that is 49.99 Master Mariner is excellent. There may be 2 things you dont get that you only get with the responder package. I think those things I never use any way.

I used the responder package last year and there's no diffrence with how things are shown on screen. Ehy the responder package is 50 dollar more is beyond me but i dont use it anymore any way.
 
Do the shear SCITS come with the Master Mariner plan? If so I may upgrade just for June. I have the $30/month Sailor package (radar, METARS, warnings, fronts, forecasts). I can get by without the shear data, but it'd be very helpful to have for another $20.
 
next year ill have it :(

I am torn between that and cingular wireless card though.. Still trying to decide.
 
Originally posted by fplowman
next year ill have it :(

I am torn between that and cingular wireless card though.. Still trying to decide.
Click to expand...

I have WxWorx with the Reponder plan. In retrospect given the choice between WxWorx and a Cingular wireless card I think I would go with Cingular. I do not have Cingular so I cannot speak with any authority as to their coverage area, but if it is anything close to what their coverage map indicates I think it would be the better choice.

While it is true that with WxWorx you have coverage everywhere, there are still several draw backs. The first one is that WxWorx is a memory and power hog. Many people have posted complaints to that affect and that has also been my experience. With WxWorx and your laptop are both plugged in you need to keep your car running or you will lose your WxWorx signal and have to resent your reciever.

The second reason is simply the cost, even if you have to sign a contract with Cingular, I think it will still be cheaper in the long run.

Third, WxWorx does not give you access to any SPC or SPC mesoscale products.

Fourth, WxWorx radar while it is "current" it can still be up to 6 minutes old, since WSR88d data is only taken every five minutes and then you have some processing and transmission time, a lot can change in 6 minutes.

Fifth, WxWorx only becomes a distraction once you have located your storm.

Sixth, the radar data is "nexrad" not 88D, meaning it is smoothed and filtered, only 6 reflectivity levels. With Cingular you would have access to 88d data as well as radial velocity data.

The benefits of having WxWorx are that it integerates with your GPS and updates automatically. I will say that on a couple of occassions when I was traveling, not chasing, I was able to navigate around and through storms and avoided any hail as a result of having WxWorx. It has also helped in being able to make good decision as I approached storms while chasing in areas, one of the many areas, where my Sprint data card does not work. However if I would have had an opporational data card I probably could have achieved the same results.
 
Than you for the input Jason. Very compelling and valid points. I may be swayed towards the cingular card.... Anyone elses opinions if you had to choose between the two?
 
I've been out in the field using WxWorx and it is absolutely amazing. The "tops" function and satellite will show where convection may be starting. I have used the radar to pick storms and to navigate around nasty cores at night. I also like the surface station data. You still need to forecast but during the chase, it is very helpful. Definitely worth it though I wish it was cheaper!

Bill Hark
 
Sixth, the radar data is "nexrad" not 88D, meaning it is smoothed and filtered, only 6 reflectivity levels. With Cingular you would have access to 88d data as well as radial velocity data.
Click to expand...

Just a quick note... The data is very smoothed, as Jason noted, thus meaning that any small-scale radar signature is likel lost. However, it still is WSR88D data, which is the same as NEXRAD. Unless you have level II data access, the data you view on an internet page (again, assuming it's NIDS data, which all are currently IIRC) will be the same as the WxWorx system uses, though WxWorx is severely smoothed. With internet data (e.g. CoD), you do have access to other NIDS products, such as VIL, various velocity tilts, etc. WSR88D = NEXRAD for all intents and purposes.

Now, I still can't understand why the smooth the data so much. If the ground system is aimed towards the likes of emergency managers, and you assume that emergency managers know how to interpret radar in a basic sense, why smooth the heck out of it? Cmon.. The target audience is at least a little skilled at radar interpretation, so why handicap us/them by a smoothing process which essentially severely reduces radar resolution? Ugh.
 
I agree, smoothing of radar data is bad, bad, bad. Smoothing operators basically attempt to make the whole echo appear more uniform, and since it blends a gate with neighboring gates it results in lost information and causes real structure in the data to be lost. The "blur" function in a paint program does the very same thing to an array as a smoothing operator!

You do get some visual aesthetics from a smoothing operation, but it makes it that much more difficult to get real information from the product (especially if, god forbid, on a velocity product).

Nothing against the people who use WxWorx, of course; they're doing the best they can with the products available.

Tim
 
Well as much as I hate to do it I am going to have to get WXWorks next season. In some ways it takes some of the fun away from the forecasting aspect of the chase but at this point I must be able to compete with many others that do have it.

Mr. Hulst had his setup with him while he was chasing with us a few time this season. It indeed was a very very handy tool. Had I had it on 5/11/05 S.W. KS I would have one more tornado under my belt.

I can see pros and cons about using it but I will have to deal with them both.

I will plant my money tree this summer so, perhaps, it will produce next season. lol

Mick
 
I may be mistaken, but I think the reason for the smoothed radar, satellite and lack of SPC products is due to limited bandwidth on the XM system. The smoothed radar image contains far smaller pixel resolution than the radar images you'd get on the web. Essentially the receiver has to download a full-size national mosaic every five minutes, which, assuming a slow baud rate, may only be possible if the data is smoothed.

I'm only guessing at this, but watching the XMlink status window shows that the receiver is constantly receiving data as it slowly trickles down from the satellite. With our current technology it seems that it would be easy to accelerate the baud rate and add all kinds of hires imagery and products to the datastream. But perhaps XM commands a high premium for their bandwidth, and the only way WxWorx can make it feasable is to buy a tiny bit of bandwidth and use it the best they can, trimming down file sizes and resolution as much as possible.
 
Sixth, the radar data is "nexrad" not 88D, meaning it is smoothed and filtered, only 6 reflectivity levels. With Cingular you would have access to 88d data as well as radial velocity data.
Click to expand...

Just a quick note... The data is very smoothed, as Jason noted, thus meaning that any small-scale radar signature is likel lost. However, it still is WSR88D data, which is the same as NEXRAD. Unless you have level II data access, the data you view on an internet page (again, assuming it's NIDS data, which all are currently IIRC) will be the same as the WxWorx system uses, though WxWorx is severely smoothed. With internet data (e.g. CoD), you do have access to other NIDS products, such as VIL, various velocity tilts, etc. WSR88D = NEXRAD for all intents and purpose

Now, I still can't understand why the smooth the data so much. If the ground system is aimed towards the likes of emergency managers, and you assume that emergency managers know how to interpret radar in a basic sense, why smooth the heck out of it? Cmon.. The target audience is at least a little skilled at radar interpretation, so why handicap us/them by a smoothing process which essentially severely reduces radar resolution? Ugh.
Click to expand...

Compare the http://weather.noaa.gov/radar/mosaic/DS.p1....us.conus.shtml,
radar mosiac which is the same 6 color levels that WxWorx uses verses the 15 levels that are displayed on a typical local WSR88D image, http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/latest/DS.p1...0/si.kcrp.shtml, there is a significant diference in what can be resolved particularly in reguards to the most intense, "more interesting", convection. I usually here the more dumbed down imagery refered to as nexrad and the more detailed called local doppler.
 
I may be mistaken, but I think the reason for the smoothed radar, satellite and lack of SPC products is due to limited bandwidth on the XM system. The smoothed radar image contains far smaller pixel resolution than the radar images you'd get on the web. Essentially the receiver has to download a full-size national mosaic every five minutes, which, assuming a slow baud rate, may only be possible if the data is smoothed.

I'm only guessing at this, but watching the XMlink status window shows that the receiver is constantly receiving data as it slowly trickles down from the satellite. With our current technology it seems that it would be easy to accelerate the baud rate and add all kinds of hires imagery and products to the datastream. But perhaps XM commands a high premium for their bandwidth, and the only way WxWorx can make it feasable is to buy a tiny bit of bandwidth and use it the best they can, trimming down file sizes and resolution as much as possible.
Click to expand...


I actually sent an email to the sales agent at Baron that I bought my system through, and asked him whether or not that was the case. I never recieved any response. That would be my reason number seven why to go with Cingular over WxWorx. I can't stand it when businesses blow off their customers.
 
Sixth, the radar data is "nexrad" not 88D, meaning it is smoothed and filtered, only 6 reflectivity levels. With Cingular you would have access to 88d data as well as radial velocity data.
Click to expand...

Just a quick note... The data is very smoothed, as Jason noted, thus meaning that any small-scale radar signature is likel lost. However, it still is WSR88D data, which is the same as NEXRAD. Unless you have level II data access, the data you view on an internet page (again, assuming it's NIDS data, which all are currently IIRC) will be the same as the WxWorx system uses, though WxWorx is severely smoothed. With internet data (e.g. CoD), you do have access to other NIDS products, such as VIL, various velocity tilts, etc. WSR88D = NEXRAD for all intents and purpose

Now, I still can't understand why the smooth the data so much. If the ground system is aimed towards the likes of emergency managers, and you assume that emergency managers know how to interpret radar in a basic sense, why smooth the heck out of it? Cmon.. The target audience is at least a little skilled at radar interpretation, so why handicap us/them by a smoothing process which essentially severely reduces radar resolution? Ugh.
Click to expand...

Compare the http://weather.noaa.gov/radar/mosaic/DS.p1....us.conus.shtml,
radar mosiac which is the same 6 color levels that WxWorx uses verses the 15 levels that are displayed on a typical local WSR88D image, http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/latest/DS.p1...0/si.kcrp.shtml, there is a significant diference in what can be resolved particularly in reguards to the most intense, "more interesting", convection. I usually here the more dumbed down imagery refered to as nexrad and the more detailed called local doppler.
Click to expand...

Jason,

The top link is for a product called Radar Coded Message, or RCM. There are only a few defined "levels" of intensity of RCM. The second link is for Level III NEXRAD data (formerly NIDS), which provides reflectivity data in 5dBz increments from 0dbz (or -28dBz in clear air mode) to 75dBz. You can now get Level II data, which has reflectivity intervals of 1dBz (there are huge velocity differences as well), through a few providers (such as Allisonhouse). At any rate, "NEXRAD" is just another term for the WSR-88D network radar system.
 
I too hope to have WX Worx by next year. Compared to other hobbies, that's pretty cheap. I've probably spent close to $3,000 on my photography equipment.. so compared to that this is nickles and dimes.. lol.

Actually I did have the WX Worx system during the 2004 chase season, I ended up selling it so I could pay bills off. Honestly, it is an awesome tool to have while chasing.
 
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