just purchased Radarbox

[clayton4115]

well im proud to say i have just purchased RB, i looked at the competitor but theirs looks prehistoric, lol

anyways i paid a total of $900 for it Australian dollars, most ive ever spent on such a small box (anyone know why it is so expensive?)

anyway i hope to have alot of fun with it and hope it give me alot of viewing pleasure over the next 5 years or so, i also have a scanner which i will listen which should complement RB,

talk about me being all eyes and ears! :-)

p.s i havent received it yet,should get it tomorrow in the mail, express post from Melbourne, now we will have Brisbane plugged into the server as well (soon)

down the track i would like to get an external arial and hopefully get alot more traffic, but im sure i will be pleasantly surprised from the defaul aerial.

[cosmoc]

Good on you
The RB costs so much because it is pure quality:-)
Looking forward to seeing your network feed

[DaveReid]

most ive ever spent on such a small box (anyone know why it is so expensive?)

You have answered your own question - things cost what people are prepared to pay for them  :-)

[clayton4115]

well there is no alternative is there? thats what you have when there is not much competition in the market, basic economics 101.

[clayton4115]

my personal opinion is that its probably $500 too expensive, but they (manufacturers) can price it whatever they want, since there is no competition and we consumers have to pay for the priviledge.

[AirNav Support]

Not exactly right. There is research and development costs which need to be made back from selling a product.

This sort of product is for a 'niche' market so we won't be selling 1million of these units per day (we wish though :) ) so the cost per RadarBox then hence is higher.

The ADS-B prodcuts are also very new, RB has only been around a year and many other products that you might be comparing to would have had a much longer product lifetime.

[clayton4115]

yes, i agree what you are saying Airnav support, and if i didnt think the purchase was worthwhile i would not have taken the pluge (but which hobby isnt cheap)

i suppose its like any new technology, just look at the computers and how they have come down in value, heck i am typing this on a 21" CRT monitor i purchased for $500 on "specials" 4 years ago, lol now you can get a you beaut 24" LCD for a comparative price.

[clayton4115]

hi all just got radarbox and had a quick run through its paces, kinda disappointed in the antenna coverage, im only getting 10-15 NM coverage with the antenna stuck on the ceiling, (a temporary measure) will put it on the loft on the weekend. Also the range is only towards East / South East, what can i do to improve coverage, i would like to get atleast 200 NM all around,

i am about 12 NM from YBBN airport on one of the approach paths.

[clayton4115]

can anyone tell me why the runway at brisbane airport is out in the ocean?

[Allocator]

hi all just got radarbox and had a quick run through its paces, kinda disappointed in the antenna coverage, im only getting 10-15 NM coverage with the antenna stuck on the ceiling, (a temporary measure) will put it on the loft on the weekend. Also the range is only towards East / South East, what can i do to improve coverage, i would like to get atleast 200 NM all around,

i am about 12 NM from YBBN airport on one of the approach paths.

The antenna really needs to see the sky and it won't work as well indoors.  I often use in on the window ledge so that at least I get good coverage in one direction.  Are you using the "groundplane" - the metal CD sized metal plate?

If you can install RB on a laptop, try it in different locations to see the results.  I find that some of the best coverage is with the antenna on the car roof with the car out in the open.

Even moving the antenna 6 inches left/right/up/down can have a dramatic effect.    Let us know how you get on.  Playing with antennas and antenna positions is all part of the fun :-)

[Allocator]

can anyone tell me why the runway at brisbane airport is out in the ocean?

In some places the RB map isn't 100% accurate.  Have you tried a different map projection - you have a choice of spherical, metcator and cartesian.

If this doesn't work, then use the Satellite Layer download available in the latest version of the software - RadarBox 2009.

[clayton4115]

yes i think i will need to put the antenna to the loft, i tried the different map views but to no avail may have to download the latest software and try that.

[Allocator]

Just bear in mind that with the antenna in the loft, there is still going to be material between the aircraft and the antenna.  Also, if you extend the antenna cable, you will get losses at the high frequency that Mode S works.

It is possible to have a big antenna, a long cable run and worse performance than with the standard antenna and cable!  As I mentioned, experimentation is the way ahead before you start drilling any holes :-)

The latest software has a more functions, runs faster and is more stable - It also installs into a completely new directory, so no need to uninstall anything before you install 2009.

[RodBearden]

Hi Clayton

I've just done an outline for Brisbane Airport so that you can watch the aircraft floating around in detail if your reception goes to sea level there :-)

See the Outlines thread.

Rod

[DaveReid]

yes i think i will need to put the antenna to the loft, i tried the different map views but to no avail may have to download the latest software and try that.

I suspect it's a simply question of precision, rather than anything to do with map projections.

Any vector map represents physical features like coastlines as a series of points linked by straight lines.  To reproduce every nook and cranny of the coastline exactly would require an almost infinite number of points, so the mapmakers compromise by reducing the number, which doesn't make any difference when you're zoomed out, but when you're zoomed in what you see is just an approximation to the actual coastline.