Is Airnav Radar Box Worth The Money?

[Johnn]

Hi
I would just like some opinions from people who own and use the radar box , then I will make up my mind about purchasing one!

Thanks!

[RodBearden]

Hi Johnn

Just reading through the forum, I'm sure you will see that all the people here are VERY enthusiastic about RadarBox - sure there are gripes and some of them are justified ;-)

I'm sure pretty well everyone here thinks RB is great, and well worth the money - even those of us who have paid more to get extra aerials, preamps etc.

It's an excellent tool for any aviation enthusiast, and apparently for many aviation professionals as well. And do note that what you're buying into isn't just what it is now, but what it will be - it's still under very active development and improvement. And the upgrades are free!

Buy one and enjoy!

Rod

[Deadcalm]

Being a confirmed sceptic, I would say "Probably"

There are only two affordable units on the market, as far as I know, and the other one has far fewer features and isn't being actively developed.  It does, however, have certain advantages according to your point of view, and is popular with spotters.

I bought my RadarBox in March, and have generally been pleased with it, but suffer from a number of problems which most other users don't experience.

There have been software updates since then, with many new useful features, but I (and others) still experience some problems, and some features still don't work properly (or have ceased to work when they were OK with previous versions), which is probably true of most software packages.

On balance, though, the support here seems to be rapid and well intentioned, and the product has tremendous potential, so I would say, faced with the choice, buy RadarBox but keep injecting input here if you do - it does help things to be improved, eventually.

DC

[AirNav Development]

Deadcalm: as you say said the problems you are experiencing are very rare and only 2 or 3 in 1500 users that already upgraded to V2.0 have them.

We have a detailed comparison between our product and our competition at:
http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=606.0

[Hosch]

Johnn,

I bought my RB in April and use it nearly every day (24/7). The new version 2.0 works excellent. I can only recommend it. The forum has alot of experienced users who are very helpful.

Hosch

[GlynH]

Hi Johnn,

Well I've only had mine a month and for me it was well worth the money but ultimately only you can say if it is worth the money...:-)

A friend of mine who has had the Kinetic SBS-1 for a year also bought a RadarBox at the same time and is enjoying it so much he wouldn't go back.

In fact there are more than a couple of SBS-1 users who have purchased the RadarBox and the concensus is the RadarBox is far superior both hardware & software wise.

Interestingly I have not heard of a RadarBox user who has gone the other way and bought an SBS-1 and I will admit to feeling more than a twinge of sadness/disappointment for anyone who buys the Kinetic product over the AirNav one...

AirNav have just released RadarBox 2009/v2.0 software and it is a huge improvement over the earlier 2008/1.5 version.

Is it perfect? No...but the Developers take an active part in the forum, listen and are quick to respond although I seem to have touched a nerve a couple of times...but I have a habit of doing that :-/

It is a well built, solid, good looking piece of hardware that does exactly what it says on the tin without running 3rd party software utilities and whose potential is being realised with every software release.

This forum is a mine of information where friendly & knowledgable users are coming up with inventive ways to use the product and the Development team are keen to incorporate new ideas in each software update.

I am very fussy about what I buy and I usually buy the best regardless of cost and the RB certainly hasn't disappointed.

Buy one, you won't regret it. :-)

Kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[bailey_uk]

Agree fully with the comments above.

The support offered on this forum provided by AirNav and also fellow RB users is the best I have ever seen for any product / hobby online and I feel privileged to be part of it.

Have a scan through the other threads on this forum and see for yourself.

I think its fair to say also, that many of the users problems / questions on here are easily solved and anwered just by altering a few settings as opposed to downloading additional software.

James

[Allocator]

You will all know that I have no opinion at all ........... ha!

I've had RadarBox for over a year now and the SBS-1 for over 2 years.  I've hardly used the SBS-1 over the last 12 months, if fact I fired it up to do a bit of testing the other day and I'd forgotten just how basic it is without all those 3rd party add-ons - you don't even get any registrations as the database comes completely empty and you have to install a populate program before you get any useful data.  Then there are the maps, or rather lack of maps - then it doesn't really matter, as you are only going to be watching traffic in the range of your own antenna anyway.

Don't even get me started on the lack of SBS-1 network data - something that is still advertised as being part of the system - I just don't know how they get away with it!  That promise was one of the reasons I bought the SBS-1 in the first place - at a cost of GBP 499 - ouch!

[Terry]

  John,
            I can only agree with all the above comments,from my personal point of view having used both systems ,the RB for me is the better of the two.Easier to use and will only get better with time,the developers of AirNav have produced a fantastic piece of kit,that with the support you get not only from AirNav,but other users on the forum which is totally friendly opposed to somewhere else i decline to mention,but between the two systems i prefer RB,the other is in a box gathering dust.

[testmonkey]

Is it worth the money? Depends on why you want it and how much use you'll get out of it.

If you've got plans to use it a lot and it'll add to your enjoyment of monitoring airband or spotting then yes it probably is. If you looking at it as a novelty item for what it does then after a few weeks when all your friends have seen it and gone 'WOW' you'll probably look at it gathering dust and wonder why you bothered.

If your getting it for the right reasons, as others have said, it's a winner. Loads more development to come, developers who actually listen to and integrate users ideas and a friendly bunch on these forums who are always ready to help whether you're pushing the boundaries or asking the simpliest of begineers questions.

[jasper37]

 nice piece of kit and definately well worth the money
its never been off since i got it over 6 mths ago

[juangelb]

Hi People,

I have 1 X SBS-1 and 3 x RadarBox.
For me it worth every cent I spent on this.
Left one RB in Buenos Aires, but there I have problems with antena.
Here in Brasil I put a streaming from local traffic radar screen and speech
from Control Tower. It can be seen at :
http://www.maquinasvoadoras.com.br/india.html

Congratulations to Airnav for nice work.

Best Ragards : Juan

[clayton4115]

hello Juan, wow you got a great site to show aircraft, this is great!

[juangelb]

Hi clayton4115

Thanks... You put me high ... Hahhhahhhaaa..

Well we started 3 years ago wit publishing aviation evnts doing photography
and the site itself alreadi has about 60 or more gallerys from this events.
Then for getting somthing more for the visitors we put Live tower from Guarulhos (SBGR) then another SBSP ... SBMT... and then we put live Radar....

Likely the visitors nowadays dont even take a look to photographys... but they centanly stays for hours every day watching the radar screen...


Best regards : Juan

[Johnn]

Wow thanks for that link! this is great!

So you can the the radar box to anywhere in the world you are?

Thanks!