As I am sure you are aware by now, WSI is transitioning The Weather Channel Marine service to a new broadcast mechanism - Sirius Satellite Radio - and to a new weather viewer - AirGator’s WXMate software.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself, AirGator, Inc. and WXMate (pronounced Weather Mate) to you, and invite you to become dealers for our WXMate – Sirius Marine Weather solution. AirGator, in partnership with XM, pioneered the delivery real time satellite weather in aviation and ground transportation in 2001. We now have thousands of civilian, government and military customers who use our XM WX and Sirius WX systems for weather and situational awareness in mission critical environments. We are excited to bring our extensive expertise with situational awareness and satellite based data delivery to marine weather. Over the last year we have worked with Sirius Satellite Radio, WSI/The Weather Channel Marine and our hardware partners to effect a smooth transition of service. We introduced WXMate at the Miami Boat Show this year, and started shipping the product to customers in March. As the only product that works with both XM WX and Sirius weather WXMate gives you and your customers maximum flexibility.  As the only product that works with both XM WX and Sirius weather WXMate gives you and your customers maximum flexibility.

WXMate is designed to work in a multiple display environment, and can be networked via Ethernet or Wireless WiFi to show weather and GPS information on multiple displays in a vessel.

Packages and pricing:
For New Customers: AirGator carries a wide range of packages to suit every customer need. For customers who already have a display device (on board PC, laptop, TabletPC and some PDAs) we offer a complete weather kit which includes the Sirius Satellite Weather receiver and antenna, cables and wiring, and the WXMate software for $1299 (USB receiver) or $1349 (Ethernet receiver). We offer generous dealer discounts. WXMate packages are available and shipping within 1-2 days of order receipt. We are happy to drop ship product to your customers directly if you prefer. On April 10, we will begin same day shipments for orders received before 1:00PM EDT.

Existing Weather Channel on Water subscribers:
WSI is offering a transition plan for these customers which includes free hardware and WXMate software (a $1299 or $1349 value) when they renew their subscription for a two year period to Sirius Satellite Weather. Details on this package can be found on The Weather Channel Marine web site.

Compatibility:
WXMate is compatible with any PC or TabletPC running Windows 2000, XP or Vista and some Windows Mobile PDAs. WXMate will accept a GPS feed from a portable GPS or from most of the commercially available chart plotters as well as dedicated serial, USB and Bluetooth wireless GPS units.

The WXMate package is also compatible with upcoming Sirius Marine Weather solutions for Furuno and Maptech, and we hope to add Northstar and Raymarine to the list shortly. Customers who buy a WXMate package will be able to use the receiver with Furuno NAVNet VX2 chartplotters, and in the near future with units from other manufacturers, while still accessing weather data on the PC-based displays.

Becoming a WXMate dealer:

Signing up as a WXMate dealer is easy. Just call us or email and provide us with some contact and financial information. We’ll add your information to our WXMate Dealers page with links to your website. Dealers who wish to purchase a demo system can take advantage of our special Dealer Demo pricing. Call us and ask for details. As a dealer you can also run demonstration copy of WXMate on a PC in your display area with a live-weather Internet weather feed.

You and your customers can try WXMate for free (trial software uses stored WX information, not the live weather feed) by clicking our free trial link to download our software.  Click WXMate Brochure to download our brochure in PDF format. Dealer may reprint and use our brochure in marketing activities. Let us know if you need additional collateral, images and verbiage for your own web site. Dealers may also link to our web site at http://www.wxmate.com and we will gladly add your information and websites to our dealer page.