WxWorx ground system no longer for sale?

[Austin Ivey]

Maybe I'm just missing something but I can't find where the "ground" wxworx satellite system is available for purchase anymore:

http://www.wxworx.com/purchase.html


Are they selling it via a different venue? Any ideas??

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Originally posted by Austin Ivey
Maybe I'm just missing something but I can't find where the \"ground\" wxworx satellite system is available for purchase anymore:

http://www.wxworx.com/purchase.html


Are they selling it via a different venue? Any ideas??

I thought it to be on the expensive side to begin with... Several months ago, I heard that the price was being increased to somewhere near $1500 for the system. I really can't imagine that they'd sell too many units at that price.

The idea seemed to be a good idea, but they certaintly could have hit up more storm chasers if they had dropped the price a bit. In addition, the system cannot entirely replace other data sources since it's missing some very valuable SPC products, NWS discussions, and so forth. Perhaps I'm just pulling out reasons why I didn't want to spend the money on it... LOL

 

[Robert Dewey]

Jeff is probably right...

I think one of the reasons they charge so much is because the storm chaser population is pretty low. Lets just say out of the entire U.S. that there are 5000 active chasers, that's still only 5000 units of POTENTIAL sales... Probably sales ran along the lines of 500 units in total. They had to raise the price to compensate for the lack of expected sales... Usually, as demand increases, so does price, and if demand decreases, so does price... In this case, demand drop so low, that the price had to rise to compensate and squeeze every last penny out of the next couple of sales (hope I am making sense).

The service is run on the XM satellite feed, which is a one-way broadcast... So technically the company could have easily added pretty much any type of weather data to the stream (SPC, NWS, etc.) and it would have worked like a mini-NOAAport. It would then be up to the computer to decide which data stream you would like and which ones to discard - In my opinion, that may have generated many more sales... Just my opinion though :wink:

 

[mikegeukes]

The XM Mobile Threat was geared toward emergency management,
emergency response teams and public safety agencies.

Ground Solutions/Mobile Threat Net:
For more information on Mobile Threat Net:
Contact Brentwood Resource Group (BRG) at 843-237-7226
or visit http://www.mobilethreatnet.com.

Mobile Threat Net is distributed by Baron Services.
Visit http://www.mobilethreatnet.com for more information.

Source of the data above: is found at the bottom of the pages.
http://www.wxworx.com/contact.html
http://www.wxworx.com/ground.html

Mike

 

[Mike Johnson]

From what I have gathered from pilot friends, reviews, chasers, etc.,
the customer service and overall attitude towards chasers and
others was/is not all that great.

I have noticed more used units for sale on eBay, etc. of late.

I think the expansion of GSM phones and Bluetooth will fill in the
data gaps soon.

Any word if the existing XM services will be cut back?

Mike

 

[Amos Magliocco]

I think we're making a mountain out of a molehill here. XM products are available through local dealers and always have been.

I don't think they put a lot of effort into marketing chasers because we're a tiny universe. If there are 500 serious chasers in the country, how many of them chase enough to justify XM, and of those, how many can afford it? You might be looking at a number like 40 or 50. How many chasers actually have XM right now? I bet it's no more than 30 or 40. That doesn't justify a major marketing campaign.

Don't mistake the number of registered Stormtrack members with the number of chasers who drive 6000-10,000 miles annually. We're an afterthought because we're a tiny market.

 

[Bobby Eddins]

As already stated here Threatnet is actually not marketed towards chasers at all, but rather Emergency Management. Aviation and marine are the primary targets.

For several month now the "ground" system has not been available direct form Wxworx.com and has been farmed out to BRG at http://www.mobilethreatnet.com/ who marked it up.

In my case it's been provided to me. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford it at all.

Even so with all it's flaws it was very nice having realtime radar this last year and in at least one case was responsible for me baging several tornados in one day.

 

[fplowman]

I have to concur. I was offered a dealer opportunity. However; They wanted me to sell them at $1500. In all of my communications not once were stormchasers ever spoke of. they wanted me to concentrate on municipalities and the like for their uses.

 

[Verne Carlson]

Does anyone know if the monthly charge is still $100? I love my wxworx system but I would love it more if the monthly price came down to about 1/2 that.

 

[Charles Allison]

Originally posted by Verne Carlson
Does anyone know if the monthly charge is still $100? I love my wxworx system but I would love it more if the monthly price came down to about 1/2 that.

It is still $100 a month. I just hope a lot of planes and boats are using this because I would hate to get stuck holding a $1000 paper weight if they ever stopped service because of lack of use. I can't see to many municipalities using this at $100 a month. Its hard enough trying to justify it for storm chasing.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I know some chasers were able to get the $50 per month plan and that that is all one needs. It's not the ground plan or whatever.

 

[Scott Currens]

Why pay $1500 when you can pay $900?

I don't know why they are charging more for the ground equipment? I'm about 98% sure you can receive the ground service with any of the equipment packages. Just order the marine or aviation hardware and get the ground service plan.

Scott Currens

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Just order the marine or aviation hardware and get the ground service plan.

Don't you just get the marine or aviation service plan?

 

[Charles Allison]

Re: Why pay $1500 when you can pay $900?

Originally posted by Scott Currens
Just order the marine or aviation hardware and get the ground service plan.

Scott Currens

The hardware is the same but the software is very different. You would need the ground software to run the ground service.