Have I got a problem?

[Tallyho]

OK new RadarBox arrived this morning, rushed upstairs set it all up and it appeared to be working fine. However after almost a full day of receiving I only appear to be getting about between 1 and 5 live returns, which appear to be dwindling as the day goes on.
Aerial is located on 3rd floor Velux window pointing East and I am just south of Chichester, so I should be picking up shed loads of traffic going into Gatwick and Heathrow.

Network pick up is fine I get hundreds when I switch that on.

When I switch it off and just go for my live data I only get a handful of listed reports and one or two plots which are intermittent at best.

I am beginning to think I may have a faulty box, dodgy aerial or a wrong setting, any guidance would be greatfully received by you wise and experienced ones out there.

PS - I have tried aerial in differnt locations using the laptop and same story little or no returns of live data no matter which way I face the aerial. Despite what looks like a pretty unrestricted line of sight view from the windows.

thanks
Keith

[Tallyho]

Ok think I have found the problme if I forcably push the aerial cable into the unit, my return went from 1 or 2 to 102 !!!!
So it is definitely an aerial connection problem to the unit, the trouble is I really have to push the aerial lead quite hard to get the unti working properly and as soon as I let go the plots timeout.
How do I fix this permanently ?

[Tallyho]

OK I definitely have a problem with my aerial connection as you can see from the two screenshots below...
the good one shows almost 400 msgs/sec being processed and over 100 aircraft being picked up but I have physically push the aerial lead in to get this level of signal...



then the bad is what i get if I dont touch the connection 2 msgs/sec and only 8 aircraft listed...



I will wait for support to get back to me, I have dropped them an email and hopefully they will read an respond to this.

Ho hum !

[Allocator]

Look at the antenna plug.  There is a small gold pin sticking out the middle. Try gently pulling this towards you a bit - you might need to use a very small pair of pliers, but be careful - if you damage the plug then you might not be able to get this replaced under guarantee. Then when you insert the plug into the back of the RadarBox, be careful not to push this centre pin back into the plug.

This centre pin has caused problems before when the antenna hasn't been aligned correctly when connecting it.

See how this works.

[Tallyho]

Tried that, the centre pin seemed pretty fixed and sturdy, which makes me think it could be the box side of the connection. Out of interest what sort of msgs/sec transfer rate should you be looking for?
As you say I do not want to void any guarantee not after paying out £400 for the unit in the first place!!!!

[Allocator]

I'm get around 200 - 300 messages per second at the moment in central UK.

If you are fairly sure you have a problem, contact support direct at [email protected] - they are very good with returns.

[AirNav Support]

Check the antenna wire, as its likely its not coming out enough and not touching with the RadarBox.

Might help in confirming what you need to send back.

[Tallyho]

Hi Support if you are reading this can you please respond to my emails (3 days now) asking for details of how to send my new box back for repair/replacement.
I am more than happy with the unit when it is working, my only problem is to get mine new unit to pick up local traffic via the antenna I have place something under the antenna connector at the back of the unit to lift it off the flat surface (connector is now taking the weight) and then place two hefty sized reference books on top of the Radarbox unit to press down on the antenna connector at the back of the unit to make a decent connection. It sounds like a problem joint inside the unit and not with the antenna lead connector itself but I will leave you guys to discover the problem, I just want a nice tidy window sill with a neat little radarbox unit sitting on it ASAP !!!
thanks
Keith

[AirNav Support]

Hi TallyHo,

We did reply to your email and have sent it again, if you have not received ite check your spam folder.

If does not get through to you pm us and we will send it via pm.

[Tallyho]

Thanks Guys... got the details via your PM message.... many thanks