DeX Operations Manual V. 2.1
Page 40
XM WX® Satellite Weather
The DEX can be upgraded to display weather information originating with the National
Weather Service and broadcast by XM Satellite Weather.
The following XM products are currently available to DEX users.
XM WX® Product
Update Period
US Nexrad (showing precipitation on the
surface and aloft)
5 minutes
Metars / TAFS / City Forecasts
12 minutes
TFR/SFR
12 minutes
Lightning strikes
5 minutes
Winds Aloft at various altitudes
12 minutes
IR Satellite photo (showing cloud coverage)
15 minutes
ECHO Tops (maximum precipitation altitude)
7.5 minutes
Severe Weather Storm Tracks(SCIT)
1.25 minutes
BOLD FACE products are AVIATOR plan only
XM weather is received by the XM weather radio and transferred to the DEX via a
wireless “Bluetooth” connection. The DEX and a particular Bluetooth weather receiver
must be PAIRED to enable them to automatically connect and find one another.
When the DEX is started up and Anywhere Map is selected from the opening screen,
the system will automatically find and connect to the PAIRED weather receiver, at
which time it will begin to receive weather files. The various weather products are
transmitted periodically from the XM Radio satellites and will appear on the map as
soon as they are received, assuming that the products are enabled in the View Settings
screen, under the weather tab.
As new products are received, the display will automatically update.
Note that it can
take a few minutes for the first weather data to appear.
It is critical that the XM
WX receiver antenna be placed such that the system records a steady “GOOD” (3 bars)
of signal strength. One or two bars of signal strength will result in missed weather
updates and erratic performance.
Products such as Nexrad color radar images, Echo Tops, and IR Satellite photo images
are transparently overlaid on the aviation map. The transparency can be controlled on
the View Settings XMWX tab, and can range from 10% to 90% transparent.
The Nexrad product tells the pilot where areas of precipitation are located, and the
image covers virtually all of the continental United States. The diagram shows areas of
coverage of the US Nexrad network.
