ADS-B Weather vs XM Weather Canada

[CrackerJ99]

Good Morning,

Just looking at possibly getting some weather options on foreflight for flying in Canada.

I am having troubles finding ADS-B weather coverage information for Canada.

I think XM weather would work well but it is fairly expensive for the private pilot.

So what is everyone using for weather coverage on foreflight?

Thanks

[Tailwind W10]

ADS-B in-flight weather information is FAA's enticement for US pilots to equip with ADS-B equipment for flying in US airspace. To the best of my knowledge neither Transport Canada nor Nav Canada (despite some discussion) have any plans to implement a similar system in Canada. I don't know if there are any other in-flight weather options for Canadians, aside from XM.
Gerry

[JasonE]

Plane I am flying now has XM. Give me a few weeks to get used to it and I'll tell you if it's worth it.

[Tips Up]

NavCanada and Aireon just finishing launching the last of the satellites this year for a space based adsb tracking system. One may assume it will be able to transmit weather eventually but I can’t find any info on that yet. Outside of being close to the US border, no real adsb service in Canada. I use a Sirius Sxar1 for weather and as a backup external gps source for ForeFlight. Works well. Coverage for satellite images not good in northern portion of provinces but the metars available for all the airports throughout.

[AirFrame]

NavCanada's satellite system is based on 1090MHz transmitters and does not have the bandwidth to broadcast weather along with traffic information. In the US, Weather is broadcast from the ground along with traffic on the 978MHz band (called UAT), and they have bandwidth to spare on that system.

For NavCanada to broadcast weather over ADS-B, they would have to pay to build out additional infrastructure, and those costs would go directly to the people using the broadcast... And would likely be much more expensive than XM.

[CrackerJ99]

Thank you for the info

Looks like if I really want weather I am going to have to bite the bullet and get an xm weather subscription.

Now I just need to figure out what I am going to do to meet the requirements to meet the USA ADS-B mandate.

I have a Garmin GTX330 transponder. I can upgrade it to the GTX330ES but it's about 3 grand total. With it being that high, I was wondering if it's worth while to go with a different option if I am willing to spend a bit more.

[geneticistx]

get a US sirius subscription. it works fine in canada.

[AirFrame]

Another option, if you happen to have internet access one way or another in flight... Cell, etc. Garmin's Aera 660 now has the ability to get internet weather when connected to an internet source, this may be available on other Aera models or other Garmin GPS' that have WiFi. If you have a good data plan, and happen to be flying over areas of good signal, turning your cell phone into a hotspot may be an option. For local flying for me, it works. I suspect if I were travelling the coverage may not be as continuous. That said, every time I looked at my phone while flying from Langley to Calgary, I had a good cell signal, and I wasn't above 10K' for more than 10-20 minutes.

[185_guy]

As for ADS-B, there was an ad in COPA or maybe online for this: Nav light replacement. I thought the price was near a grand.
https://www.uavionix.com/news/uavionix- ... -solution/

[AirFrame]

The uAvionix system is a good one if you are only concerned about meeting the ADS-B requirement in the US. It broadcasts on UAT, 978MHz, so it likely will not be compatible with Canada's 1090MHz-based system.

The majority of the cheaper systems coming out in the US to meet the mandate are UAT-based. The volumes that they're being produced in allows for lower cost for the consumer. Of course Canada would chose the more expensive system, in a country with an even smaller market.

[milotron]

Anybody have confirmation on whether Canada will require diversity antennae for their system? I need to upgrade my transponder as part of a panel upgrade, and don't want t replace it again in 4 or 5 years. I will need ADS-B compatbility for the US regardless.

[Cessna 180]

Anybody have confirmation on whether Canada will require diversity antennae for their system? I need to upgrade my transponder as part of a panel upgrade, and don't want t replace it again in 4 or 5 years. I will need ADS-B compatbility for the US regardless.

some sources say you do, some say you don't. navcanada won't say officially until the system is online and they put out a specification. to be safe, i'd at the minimum look into getting antenna diversity. the cost may not be much higher depending on the depth of install you will need. biggest issue is there are only a few transponders offering that capability.

[dpm]

I am having troubles finding ADS-B weather coverage information for Canada.

US FIS-B radar does extend a bit over the border into Canada—at 6,000 ft over Pembroke, or 5,000 ft over Ottawa, I can generally pick it up on my GTX 345 transponder and get radar coverage ~50–100 miles into Canada (give or take)—but I would not rely on that for weather avoidance. Also, US FIS-B does not include Canadian TAFs or METARs at all, even near the US border.

SiriusXM is a bit expensive, but it works at any altitude (even on the ground), and has better radar resolution and detail than FIS-B, as well as additional weather products.

If I were Nav Canada, I wouldn't invest in a 978 MHz UAT FIS-B infrastructure simply because by the time they built out the system in ~10 years, we'd probably have affordable satellite internet in the cockpit, at which point both SiriusXM and ADS-B FIS-B will be irrelevant. It would be a complete waste of money and effort.