[CA] [CA11] XM weather zone forcasts

[bkeith461]

We just completed a 10 day, 400 mile trip around Lake Huron and the North Channel. I have a host of new Raymarine equipment on my boat and for the most part, it functioned impressively. Prior to the trip both myself and one of the other boats in our group subscribed to the Sirius/XM offshore weather service. While reviewing the zone forecast I noticed the forecast took much longer to populate on my equipment than that of the others (about 15 minutes vs 5). I also discovered that my chart plotters (Axiom 9 and 9RV with a SR150) showed only the US zones while the Simrad equipment showed the Canadian zones and text forecasts as well. Is there a known reason as to why these zones do not populate on my Raymarine equipment? I called Sirius/XM and they sent a new signal to make sure it wasn't on their end. Living in the area of the Great Lakes that I do, I spend a fair amount of time in Canadian water. I would be of great value to have access to these zone forecast. The trip let me really exercise my equipment and features. I had a couple of other issues pop up that I will address in an additional post as they are not pertinent to the weather function, but they appear to be related to the Navionic's chart card.

Thanks,
Brian

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Brian,

One should typically expect that marine zone forecast data will populate within approximately 5-10 minutes. However, reduced satellite signal strength may delay reception marine zone forecasts as well as other SiriusXM Marine Weather features supported by the SR150. For maximum SiriusXM satellite signal reception the SiriusXM satellite antenna should be installed in a location where it will be afforded an unobstructed view of the skies overhead. If rail mounting the SiriusXM satellite antenna care should be take to ensure that it's satellite signal reception will not be shaded by crew/passengers or other objects onboard. Within a properly installed and properly functioning system, one should expect three bars for signal strength.

SiriusXM satellite weather claims support for NOAA marine zones ... no mention is made of Canadian government Marine Zone Forecasts. Should you examine SiriusXM's Marine Weather web page (see below), you will find that only NOAA Marine Zone forecasts are for the SiriusXM Satellite Marine Weather packages for Raymarine products.



A feature request will be logged to consider addition of support for Canadian marine zone forecasts by the SiriusXM Weather feature within a future software update to the SR150 and to the LightHouse 3 operating system. At such time that support for Canadian marine zone forecasts was included with these items, the associated SiriusXM Marine Weather packages would likewise need to be changed to accommodate this feature request.