findings so far

[Theo]

Hi all
My name is theo, living in the netherlands.
reading sometime now on both forums (airnav/SBS1) to compare the 2 boxes.

I'm consider to by one of the 2 radarboxes that been availible at this moment
I don't know wich it gonna bee at the moment but my trust in the sbs1 decrease's every day
Why?.....
Wel let me tel you.
Sinds a couple of days i'm a goldmember of the dutch site called ATCBox.
maybe some of you know this site, anyway its possible for goldmembers to watch live
footage of the sbs1 radarbox and the airnav radarbox.
Now its hard to compare the 2 boxes because the airnav has a limit of 5 min.
and the one that stream it dissabled/enabled the stream to his needs, so you cannot compare
the 2 for real
so i focust on the sbs1 this week, and i noticed some strange things .

1. when i look outside and spot a plaine (sometimes 3 at he same moment),
and i look to the ATC radarbox, (streaming the sbs1)most of the time it show's no picture's of plaines nearby,
and if it does show a plain in the area on the stream and i go look outside i see nothing.
this gives me the feeling of none live (realtime) footage
sometimes it is showing the right data, but this is a 2 out of 10 hit.
Must say that the stream of helmond is more acurate for possitioning the planes then the variable stream
question.. is the sbs1 not acurate?, and therefore not real live (i must figure this out), or is
it software (firmware)related.

2. sometimes it shows a plaine on the radar and i see actualy 1 outside, butt
on the radarscreen it shows to far to the west of me, this give me the feeling
that the layout isn't correct, but when i look to eham the layout is correct even with a overlay of a google map.

3. Another strange thing, i spotted 2 plaines pasing eachother, on the leftside,on the radar it
showing they where passing on the rightside, why show's it wrong??

anyway for the airnav i have no remarks because i don't have seen this in realtime, but
if this box does the same as the sbs1, it gonna be non of these boxes
hope the airnav is more acurate then his competition....

Ps it is not my intention to pull down the sbs box, i'm only telling what is see and
what i think  for so far

[AirNav Support]

We won't answer the questions directly as we are not a SBS support forum, you need to ask them that. If you want us to answer questions then ask them about RadarBox :)

But we will say, is that we have a comparison of RadarBox and SBS at
http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=606.0

We have had many customers move over from SBS to RadarBox, if you search the forum you can find there posts.

Also regarding question 1, remember both devices track (display on the map) ADS-B transponder aircraft only. The ADS-B transponder uses either GPS or the aircrafts internal navigation. The latter can sometimes become out of sync which may show aircraft a mile or so out (though this is not common 5% or less)

I hope that helps.

[CoastGuardJon]

Hi Theo and all, I got to open my RB on 25/12, and tried to have a play - my wife's lap-top is Acer Gemstone 5920 with Intel dual core cpu running Vista.

We were staying with mother-in-law (she's one of the few real good ones!) who only has dial up, on the Wilts/Somerset border near Warminster.

Loaded the CD software all OK.   Plugged in the RB to USB socket - absolutely SFA, no green power light - nothing.   Pinched m-i-l's camera dock to PC lead, and plugged - green light and a couple of flashes from the blue LED.   Re-started pc and started RB program, typed in User name and Password - need to be correct case, and started getting lots of flashes from blue LED and the white (?) one, picking up a max. of 9 a/c from a really crap location - fantastic - took it up to the top of the hill at Westbury White Horse - WOW!!! - couldn't count the number of a/c, (including arrivals and departures from LHR and LGW) just too many of them, no overlapping of captions - worst problems were trying to decide which a/c to follow and having to hide under a fleece to see the screen.

Many thanks (esp. Allocator and Tarbat) to all in this Forum for the advice to go this route rather than the SBS - it all started up so easily, apart from duff USB lead - AirNav, I think you have a problem with the USB leads you are sourcing - this one is not the first, straight out of the box.

I'll post how I get on with Maplins customer service and replacement of the u/s lead.    Once I've got some external antennas erected, I'll start the network system (our walls are 3' thick stone, so don't let many RF signals through.

My advice to anyone looking at getting a virtual radar box (I've looked at live-time displays on the SBS-1) is to go for the ArBie, second to none!

[DaveReid]

The phenomena you describe (aircraft transmitting incorrect position data, or no position data at all) are both very common, and there is nothing that either SBS or RadarBox can do about it.  Both boxes will display aircraft where they are, in real-time, if the aircraft is transmitting accurate data.

If aircraft are showing as incorrectly positioned relative to your location, it's also possible of course that they are in the right place and you have entered your location wrongly.

[Allocator]

Theo,

Welcome to the forum!

I'm not quite sure where about you are in the Netherlands, but I've recentred my RadarBox FTP feed to cover the whole country.  You can see it here - give it 5 minues from the time of this post to update.

http://www.ruyton.demon.co.uk/html/airnav_radarbox.html

I've used an SBS-1 and now use RadarBox and both boxes provide real-time live data.  Of course, you won't see all aircraft on the map because not all aircraft transmit position information.  The big advantage of the RadarBox is the Network data, although that as you know is delayed by 5 minutes for security reasons.  In my FTP feed - which is also delayed 5 minutes - the Network traffic (marked with "*" after the callsign) will be 10 minutes delayed.  However, it will give you a good idea of what you can see using the RadarBox Network alone - I'm based in the UK, so you are too far away for me to be getting live traffic over the Netherlands.

There is an AirNav YouTube Channel dedicated to the AirNav RadarBox that you might find interesting.

http://uk.youtube.com/user/AirNavTeam

If you want accurate traffic information, then maybe you need an AirNav RadarBox of your own :-)

All the best

Allocator

[Allocator]

Hi Theo and all, I got to open my RB on 25/12, and tried to have a play - my wife's lap-top is Acer Gemstone 5920 with Intel dual core cpu running Vista.

Jon, I'm glad that Santa brought you what you wanted :-)

[CoastGuardJon]

Already had a PM from AN Support - my reply

"Yes, it has 2009 sticker on wrapper, unit serial no. ANRB10142.
Thanks for the very quick and prompt response - FirstClass."

Would I have had this level of service from the Dark Side - I don't think so.   AN Support must be keeping an extremely close eye on this Forum to have picked up so quickly on this.

[Allocator]

Theo,

I see that you're not on-line at the moment, so I'll switch off my FTP feed of the Netherlands.  Just let me know when you're here again and I'll switch it on for you.

[AirNav Support]

CoastGuardJon,

We always keep an eye on the forum posts or at least we try do but sometimes there is just soo many when the forum gets busy :)

[Theo]

@airnav support

Sorry if you missunderstand me, i dont want you to answer any question, i should have wright "i asked myself" and yes i know that they can only receive ADS-B transponder aircraft only, but i see lot of planes pasing over my home town butt see almost never one appear on the sbs stream (ore to late).
Look it doesn't have to be exact on a mm, but when it shows a plain it must not be showing a plain flying over a town some 30/35 km away that is what i mean with not acurate

@allocator.
THX for the offer, and yes i will buy a box the only question is wich one;-)

for the remark of entering the wrong coordinates, its a live stream from someone else his box so i can not entering anything.

anyway now the newyear has started i wil see if i can find a store in my area who's selling the airnav box and is willing to demostrate it for me,  hope the airnav does a better job, we will see......

[Allocator]

Theo,

I've missed you again :-)

My FTP feed is covering the Netherlands again for your info:

http://www.ruyton.demon.co.uk/html/airnav_radarbox.html

[Theo]

lol.. I'm now online will check out if you streaming Or you can contact me on msm for setting a time youre stream is availible......

[Allocator]

Theo,

I've just moved the map back to the Netherlands from the UK - give it 5 minutes to catch up :-)

Just let me know if you want me to zoom in/out etc

http://www.ruyton.demon.co.uk/html/airnav_radarbox.html

[Theo]

ok watching now a question is it possible for the airnav to show the same info as the sbs, i mean it shows the fleat (ex. klm, easyjet etc.etc)
and where the plain is comming from and destination ex. ams-mrs.
i know this info can be displayed on the leftside screen but can it be shown on the radarscreen also.
ps you don't have to demostrate it just a question.

[Allocator]

Not at the moment Theo.  The SBS-1 is very flexible when it comes to what you can show on the map label, but at present you need to use the aircraft list and/or the thumbnail photo area below the list that shows the fleet etc.

The route is shown on the screen if it is avaialble.  RB autopopulates the route if it doesn't appear in its database, but there are always problems with odd flight id's not matching to routes - extra letters etc.

As a controller, I like to keep the labels to the minimum anyway in order to avoid screen clutter.  You'll notice that the labels don't overlap in RadarBox like they do in Basestation.  If there isn't enough room for the label, then it won't be displayed until there is room.

I'll zoom out a bit so you can see more of Europe.