as an extreme introvert, its enlightening how enjoyable social
interaction is on a fact finding mission to the aopa convention.. 
(another way of saying that traveling with friends makes a trip more
enjoyable) anyway, with an emphases on in cockpit weather and PFDs the
interesting things at http://www.aopa.org/expo/ were:
  
http://www.garmin.com/ has a new mode
s transponder $3k more than their old transponder that now includes alt
hold.  The cool thing about this is one can receive traffic information
(like TCAD) via mode s in the terminal radar environment!! makes you
wanta buy a 530 to display this information. 
   
http://www.avidyne.com/_aopaexpo/
had a stunning 10" 800x600 MFD.  but for me all the MFDs have large
diminishing returns over a g195..  I want a glass PFD with solid state
gyros!!! there were: 
http://www.optechnologies.com/products.html ~$30k one tube system 
http://www.meggittavi.com/magic.html $55k two tube system 
http://sierraflightsystems.com/efis2000menu.html better $60k two tubes. 
    
ARNAV's 8km NEXRAD product using ~40 ground based 9.6kb VHF FM
transmitters is dead...  King is working on a similar ground based 56kb
VHF PCM VDL mode 2 systems but is slow installing transmitters. 
     
http://www.echoflight.com/
continues to improve their MFD options.  adding terrain last year and
landsat photos this year..  The weather via the Orbcom SV system (4.8kb
VHF FM world wide downlink) with a 7km NEXRAD product hasn't changed
much.. 
      
http://www.aircell.com/products/pr_1000.htm
has gotten much better http://www.aircell.com/coverage/default.htm
and works with an MX20 and has two plans: $10/month or $30/month.  DUAS
graphics.. 
        
all above are user request <--> send weather systems. 
	  
the big surprise was http://www.wxstream.com and http://www.satellinktech.com/
(think they are the same, but one was inside and the other was outside
at aopa) they were displaying LIVE data from a geo SV that's broadcasts
on a 5min loop.  most of that loop is taken up with a continental US
*1km* 3 color NEXRAD product.  then a VFR, IFR, LIFR, CAT1 dot for metar
stations and then text metar/taf at 56kb.  The cool thing about this,
aside from the wonderful 1km image is the fact that its always
broadcasting, so the MFD needs only to wait 15mins (well, we should
suspect the nextrad data they get changes 7min or if you miss a part of
the 5min loop) then it can crop those three images and display the
NEXRAD loop right where you are, or where you are going, no waiting!!
its a rs232 interface, but the number of MFD vendors that currently
support this blind box is currently small.  The antenna can be a small
transponder like blade or gps like pad. 
	   
Call your MFD vendor (SFS in my case) and have them support this new
system!!! I have no $$ stake in this vendor, but would if I could :-)
its that good...	   

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