Satellite Weather - Which Service and Which Receiver?

[clt_capt]

So I need to replace my backup GPS and while I'm at it, I figure I might as well get Satellite Weather. Looking at what is out there, best I can tell Lowrance and Furuno have Sirius Weather and Garmin has XM

I'd love to hear thoughts and experiences...

[Wireman]

I have Sirius that displays on either of my 10.6" Furuno NavNet's in my center console. Pretty good for the sea surface temps, although you can't zoom in on a close scale. You will still get a general idea where you need to be fishing.

The best part of it is monitering heavy rain, thunderstorms, and lightning strikes while well offshore or when I'm in the Bahamas. The lightning strikes are different colors so you can tell exactly where the most recent strikes are in relation to your location. It obviously also shows you which direction the storms are traveling so you can easily avoid them when traveling. Between that and the radar you're golden to avoid nearly anything coming at you. Also real time bouy conditions all along the coast. Well worth the coin just for the safety aspect alone in my opinion.

[offshore]

I have been on boats with both and prefer the XM weather packages. I also likes the way it processes the data better. I have had XM for the past three years and it has helped with storms and the Nexrad radar is great for storms way out of my radars range. I use the buoy data almost every trip but the SST information is normally at least 6 hours out of sink with the actual water temps out of OI. I have all Simrad stuff on my boat but bought a Garmin 545 for a backup GPS and for the XM. Good stuff. I have the XM Master Mariner package...Mark

[gustoIV]

Raymarine uses Sirius, I have had it for the past few seasons and have been happy with it.