RB2009 Delivered and Working...but...

[Tramline]

Well, thanks to AirNav's timely intervention my RB2009 was duly delivered.   I'm a complete technophobe and began (in my mind) the daunting prospect of trying to set it up. I began at 1410 and received my first 'contact' with A6-EDB climbing out of LHR at 1440 - that for me is nothing short of amazing.  Since then, I've managed to stem the flow of blood from my thumb - caused by scissors whilst trying to open the packaging and also had to renew my Anti-Virus as I was informed it was due to expire tomorrow.

It is an excellent product, but I read through the instruction manual and I'll be honest, my mind is swimming just how to really get the best out of my alerts and displays.  I need loads of aircraft but not much BA stuff - just two or three frames and I wondered if anyone could either demonstrate the best way of adding/amending alerts for my needs? I also need a lot of 'Over The Top' UL9 stuff!

I know Allocator is relatively close to LHR, but not sure who else is? - I live in Staines and would be prepared to visit or host a visit so to enable me to actually understand how it's done and seen with my own eye's whilst making copious notes with a paper and pen.

Can anyone offer some tuition?  I don't have a criminal record (yet), at 47, I'm fully house trained, can make tea and provide a tin of biscuits.

I work shifts, I can do 07Dec, 14, 16,17 or 18Dec and I'm free all those days. 

I'd be grateful for any help.

Many Thanks,  Paul

[Allocator]

Paul,

I'm at Yeovilton today and tomorrow and Shawbury on Friday, so not near Heathrow at the moment.  I don't have my RadarBox with me (most unusual!) so all this is from memory.

I'm pleased that you are up and running and I hope that your thumb is back to normal soon - maybe AirNav should put a warning on the packaging "May cause over-excitement" :-)

As far as the alerts are concerned, I'd just start simple if I were you.  You don't have to use all the options at once.

Here are a few pointers to get you started.

In the Mode S box, I have 43C* as all the Brit Mil aircraft codes start with 43C and the "*" acts as a wildcard.  (the mil aircraft will only show in the list and not on the map, but you can "see" when they are around). In the SSR code box, I have 7700 7600 7500 which covers all the emergency squawks and 7000 which is the VFR squawk.

I have a selection of specific callsigns in the Callsign alert box, for example G-VLCN and G-DOGY

I don't tend to bother with the alerts within a certain range, but some people use this to spot aircraft overhead within say 5 miles.

If you want alerts from the Network traffic, make sure you tick that box.

Tick the Audio alert box - and browse to the alert wav file in the Radarbox directory.

Tick the pop-up message box.

That should get you started.

[Tramline]

Many thanks for that Allocator, I've ventured into the Alerts and tapped in something!  Perhaps we'll be able to meet on one of those days listed to go through RB?  I'd be very grateful for any assistance.

Thanks again,

Paul

[tarbat]

Paul, I'd offer tuiton if you fancy a 1200 mile round trip to the Highlands!!!

Looks like I have similar alerts to Allocator.  ModeS code of 43C* is great for UK mil.  Squawk codes 7500, 7600, 7700 will alert to emergency situations.  I also alert to anything within 2 miles of my home.  I also have a list of my favourite aircraft registrations, such as:
G-SAR* = Search & Rescue
G-CG* = Coast Guard
G-SAS* = Scottish Air Ambulances

But I didn't start with all these alerts.  I added to them over time, as I discovered what aircraft were flying around near me.  For me, that was part of the fun of using Radarbox.

More recently, I've also added various registrations and callsigns to the Fleet Watch section of SmartView, which avoids having lots of alerts all the time but quickly singles out the aircraft I'm most interested in.

[Tramline]

Tempting offer there Chris.  This is such a great product and superb support via AirNav and all the forum members. 

Anyone who can offer tuition on my dates as per my first post on thread, please let me know.

Thanks,  Paul

[AirNav Support]

We should start a training course in London for RadarBox usage :)

Seriously though its not hard to pick up. The manual and the forum means your never too far from help.

[HadNav]

This thread has been very interesting to me living in England. My RadarBox has now been running for 2 days on the indoor antenna. I pull in over 200 flights in the 10 hours that I run. I will take on the above tips. I bought an outside antenna from W@S with my radar box. I just have to figure out connections and cable and if I need an amp. I don't anticipate more than an 8 metre run of cable.