Owners of Garmin weatherlink-capable portable navigators found themselves flying blind over the weekend because of an as-yet-to-be diagnosed technical fault that may be days away from a solution. Spokespersons for both Garmin and WxWorx, which massages the weather data for delivery through the XM Radio system, told AVweb on Monday morning that no one seems to know why the failure occurred or when it will be fixed. Evidently, the failure affects only some GPSmap396, 496 and 696 models, but not the panel-mounted G1000 system. Also, Garmin’s marine portables, which receive marine-related weather datalink, are similarly unaffected. One possible fix, says Garmin, is to refresh the XM receiver, which you can do by typing www.xmradio/refresh into a Web browser and then entering your receiver code. (It’s on the back of the puck-type Smart Antennas.) Make sure the antenna has a view of the sky for at least 30 minutes. Garmin says it doesn’t expect a solution before the middle of this week.
XM Outage Darkens Garmin Weatherlink
Key Takeaways:
- Owners of specific Garmin portable navigators (GPSmap396, 496, 696) experienced a loss of weatherlink capability over the weekend due to an undiagnosed technical fault.
- The issue only affected these particular portable models, with panel-mounted G1000 systems and marine portables remaining unaffected.
- Neither Garmin nor WxWorx could identify the cause or provide a fix timeline, with a solution not anticipated before the middle of the week.
- A potential workaround suggested by Garmin is to refresh the XM receiver via the XM Radio website and ensure the antenna has a clear sky view for at least 30 minutes.
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