Lowrance Lwx-1

[Yellow Fever]

Hello...I have the Lowrance LWX-1 on my boat and am thinking of using it this year. My question is if it works as well as they say. I have gotten a lot of differing opinions so it a crap shoot if I sign up or not. I will be using it on Lake Ontario so if you use it on Lake Ontario (or in general) give me your opinion please

[Hawker]

I had a guide trip yesterday and I can say unquestionably that the Sirrius Weather (LWX-1) played a HUGE factor in the trip NOT being called off! The trip had been booked for over a month for the 4 gentlemen that I took out! I arrived at the lake approx an hour & half early primarily to have everything ready and to check lake conditions etc! There were storm cells popping up one after another to the west of the lake, some moving due east, some moving NE and some moving due north, and by having the LWX-1 activated, it was easy to determine those cells distance from me, how fast they were moving and exactly which direction as well as show the precipitation and the degree of precipitation! As my clients arrived, they were of course concerned about the lightning & rain and I was able to show them on the spot where the storms were located and the details of the storms! After waiting for one approaching cell to arrive and pass we could see that it was all clear once that cell passed us and we spent the remainder of the day fishing under cloudy but not stormy skies! One very neat feature is that you can set warning distances for both storms and lightning so that once a storm crosses into that warning distance you set, an audible beep alerts you that lightning or storm is approaching so that you can monitor it yourself!! I just installed mine last month and wish now I'd had it long before!!

LWX-1 get's a giant thumbs up from me!!

Best of luck & tight lines

[Yellow Fever]

Steve...thats the kind of feedback i am looking for. I fish a lot at night and on 2 occasions (with the same guy) actually had the marine antenna buzzing and once i put it down our rods started to buzz as we were casting. We looked at each other and got back to the ramp. It seems that we were "charging up " so i feel we were really lucky. (and i quit fishing with him )

[jhebert]

Originally Posted by Hawker

...[Sirius] Weather (LWX-1) played a HUGE factor in the trip NOT being called off!

That is a good story, but since you were still at the dock you could have checked the weather on a smartphone. I think the notion of having satellite delivery of the weather information aboard your boat is only crucial when your boat is offshore, and far enough offshore that you cannot get data over your cellular mobile device. On that basis, I would judge the utility of the Sirius Marine Weather service depends upon where you are going to be boating.

Also, I note that the originator of the discussion is from Ontario. I have read that Sirius Marine Weather subscriptions are only available to residents of the USA. This may encumber residents of Canada in getting a subscription and activating their receiver.

Compare at: https://listenercare.siriusxm.com/ap...ers/list/p/906

"Who can buy Sirius Marine Weather service?

Sirius Marine Weather is only available for residents of the continental US."

[Yellow Fever]

Jim...thats a good idea checking on my smart phone....except in my case it was 10 years ago and they had not been invented. And yes i do happen to fish Lake Ontario off shore anywhere from 6-14 miles on a given night and cell service is poor to nonexistent out there. i do value my life which is why i want to know how well they work. I am in Canada but have a US address i can use and i am right on the border so i figure that there has to be some overlap of the signal.

[jhebert]

I have just written an article about Sirius Marine Weather service and the satellite signal strength. You can see the footprint of their newest satellite, Sirius FM-5 in my article. You may find this informative:

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/003129.html

It looks like Lake Ontario is in the focus of the main beam for Sirius FM-5. Signal level should not be a problem.

Yes, at 16-miles offshore in Lake Ontario from the Ontario shore you may be out of cellular telephone range of the Ontario carriers and weather data delivery by satellite would probably be much cheaper than getting it by roaming to a USA carrier. However, from Kingston, it looks like you can't get 16-miles from shore until you run about 35-miles to the Southwest and go into the main portion of Lake Ontario. If you are fishing out that far, yes, you'd benefit from the Sirius Marine Weather data. Check the details of the subscriptions, as the cheaper "inland" package might not cover the area you are interested in watching.

I have used Sirius up in Northern Georgian Bay in remote areas where even on shore there is no cellular service. It does come in handy.

[Hawker]

Yellow Fever there are several subscription options available with the Sirrius Weather service, one of them being a month to month option which would give you the opportunity to try it out to see how you like it! Personally (my opinion) I feel like the LWX-1 gives me much greater info and detail on the weather picture than I get from my smartphone (4 different weather apps running on it) and it's overlayed on my chart screen so that I can simply zoom in/out to get the big picture! With the added bonus of the audible & visual alerts as well, it's been a welcome addition to my boat. I have my alert range set at 15 miles for both storms & lightning which I feel gives me ample time to make the decision to jump & run back to the ramp, or stay and fish depending on the track of the storm! Other options which I don't need or use in my area are also available to you (wave height etc) which may be very helpful on larger bodies of water such as you'll be on!

Actually Jim, I (and my clients this past weekend) did indeed check the weather on our smartphones but the information (maps etc) given by them lacked the detail given by the LWX-1 such as storm cell movement, wind speed, lightning, distance etc! Based solely on information from smartphones we likely would have called off or waited a longer time at the ramp before launching! It could be there are some weather apps we are not using that would/could provide the above info and I'd be most appreciative of knowing them if you wouldn't mind sharing! I read the article you linked to in your post (interesting & well written) but I gotta admit some of it was way over my head (lol)! While I totally agree that the LWX-1 would be a great benefit for off-shore fishing/boating out of range of cellular coverage, IMHO it is also very beneficial even when cellular coverage is available too, and a matter of personal preference if that makes sense!!??