tgreene
New Member
This is where I am at, I have a 26' boot that I am putting a Garmin 740S and a new Ducer to match but my boat is not setup for a radar. I am trying/ like to get some form of weather/radar capabilities that I can tie into the 740S.
The Garmin GXM 51 antenna is a combo sat and xm. Excluding the GPS portion of the antenna and speaking towards the XM side only the antenna comes in at a staggering price of $700(retail) which in my opinion is a bit extreme. I can by an XM antenna for my stereo for 35, module included. That being said it does have the capability to bring large amounts of data such as XM weather and stereo simultaneously. Then you also need to get a monthly subscription at $10, $30 and I think $50 depending on the data you want. Now being it is XM you will pretty much have good reception no matter what.
The Garmin GDL 40 is a GPS/ Cellular antenna which comes in at $300 and I fill to be more reasonable for what it is. This antenna is reliant on AT&T cell towers so that is a negative to this antenna, not because of AT&T but just cell towers in general. It appears that the subscription setup is $5 per day and thats how you get service which could be pretty steep depending on how much you want to use it. Now I did notice that the antenna output max is 2.25w which is easily 4 times higher or more of an output compared to most cell phones today.
So what is the right answer, I haven't a clue? I was almost immediately sold on the GDL 40 but now I just dont know what to do. As far as connectivity both units are NMEA 2000 so thats a no brainer. Any and all opinions and comments are welcome, please help.
The Garmin GXM 51 antenna is a combo sat and xm. Excluding the GPS portion of the antenna and speaking towards the XM side only the antenna comes in at a staggering price of $700(retail) which in my opinion is a bit extreme. I can by an XM antenna for my stereo for 35, module included. That being said it does have the capability to bring large amounts of data such as XM weather and stereo simultaneously. Then you also need to get a monthly subscription at $10, $30 and I think $50 depending on the data you want. Now being it is XM you will pretty much have good reception no matter what.
The Garmin GDL 40 is a GPS/ Cellular antenna which comes in at $300 and I fill to be more reasonable for what it is. This antenna is reliant on AT&T cell towers so that is a negative to this antenna, not because of AT&T but just cell towers in general. It appears that the subscription setup is $5 per day and thats how you get service which could be pretty steep depending on how much you want to use it. Now I did notice that the antenna output max is 2.25w which is easily 4 times higher or more of an output compared to most cell phones today.
So what is the right answer, I haven't a clue? I was almost immediately sold on the GDL 40 but now I just dont know what to do. As far as connectivity both units are NMEA 2000 so thats a no brainer. Any and all opinions and comments are welcome, please help.
