A bunch of questions about RadarBox

[jfl]

So despite being a jobless college student bum I'm considering picking up a RadarBox. I've got a billion questions or so that I'd appreciate if you guys could answer.

Can someone please give me an idea of how much coverage to expect inside a window (in an area pretty much free of mountains) as opposed to being mounted outside on a roof? What are some common antenna options that people use aside from the in the box antenna?

For users in the US: about what % of aircraft would you say have ADS-B installed?

In regards to the previous question: why do I sometimes see a lot of screenshots from people that only have a handful of aircraft over the entirety of England (with no obvious filter applied), but other screenshots are saturated with aircraft? I know that traffic tends to fluctuate but I'd imagine there are more than 6 ADS-B enabled planes over a country at any given time.

Can the altitude be changed to display in feet instead of flight level? Can the speed be changed to display in mph instead of knots?

What sort of options are there to display weather conditions?

Sometimes I see a circlular shape (with very jagged edges) on people's radar. What is this?

For airports, do outlines of the runways, etc. come preinstalled or do you have to install them separately?

Can you see planes take off and land on the actual runway, or is this too low an altitude for your RadarBox to get a signal? If too low, what's the lowest altitude you tend to see aircraft at?

For satellite imagery, do you have to track down your own images, or will the software handle this automatically?

I see a "Home" label in screenshots, is this the location of the local RadarBox? If so, why isn't the center of the map the "Home"?

Can you view a plane's flight plan? I know that you can see the past path up to a certain time, but is there any way to tell where it is going (aside from the destination airport)?

How often do software and firmware updates come out? What are the newest versions of each?

How happy are you with your RadarBox purchase? What is your favorite feature about it? What do you dislike the most about it?

A bit off topic, but does anyone have any tips for listening to air traffic -- lists of common terms/procedures, frequencies to airports, etc.?

Thanks a ton :)

[RodBearden]

Hi JFL and welcome - a few answers:

If your aerial can see clear sky, you can get up to 200 miles, through walls, a few yards!

In the US, only the major airlines (or those with the latest Boeing and Airbus planes) have ADS-B.

The number of aircraft shown in the screenshots do of course vary greatly with time of day and location, but also on how close you are zoomed in to an area.

You can't change the units of measure (flight level or speed).

The ragged circular shape is the "polar diagram" showing the mamimum range aircraft have been detected from the RadarBox in all directions.

There are no weather conditions shown on the map, but you can get weather reports in a pop-up window from any airport.

You can see planes landing and on the ground if your RadarBox can see them. We get many on the network from Heathrow, Paris airports, etc.

The satellite imagery is just one menu choice - anyone can do it!.

The Home is the location of the RadarBox - you can click a button to centre it, but the map can be dragged in any direction.

Software updates come out very variably but perhaps every six months is a good approximation. Firmware has only been updated once, over a year ago. Latest software is Version 2.0 (called RadarBox 2009).

I LOVE my RadarBox - best feature is that it just works, straight out of the box! Oh, and the network!

Hope that helps

Rod

[AirNav Support]

Lots of questions so will be brief on them, and any you wanted expanded ask away.

1.) 100nm-150nm is common if you have a good position with the antenna provided (though note that will be on flights which are above FL200). We have an external antenna kit on our site which can give you up to 250nm coverage.

2.) Will let the US users explain, but its always increasing, in NY areas about 30-40% of commercial aircraft have it but in Europe its more like 60-70%.

3.) Depends on your coverage really. Better the antenna position more chance you have to catch all the flights. But if you can't our network should have someone who will.

4.) You can set it for feet if you want and you can't change to mph as its not used in aviation.

5.) It will show you the metars for a specfic airports and tafs.

6.) These are polar maps, which show the coverage received by that box.

7.) They are installed for major airports in Europe, you may need to install some yourself but its very easy. If there is no airport map for local airport our helpful customer Rod can help :)

8.) Yes you can see them land on the runway but again it depends how close you are and also whether your antenna has them in a good line of sight.

9.) It does this by itself.

10.) You can center on home as well, but those images the customer has moved the map to wherever they choose.

11.) This is not available.

12.) Usually every couple of months.

Hope that helps.

[jfl]

Thanks for the quick responses!

I'd appreciate if any US users can chime in on the amount of traffic they usually pick up.

[RodBearden]

I seem to have missed something - how do you change Flight Level to feet? (I don't want to, but I ought to know!)

Rod

[AirNav Support]

You can set at which level do you want the feet to turn into Flight level so you can set that above 45,000 and then they should all be displayed in feet.

[RodBearden]

Ah - I'm with you!

Thanks, Support

Rod

[Allocator]

Thanks for the quick responses!

I'd appreciate if any US users can chime in on the amount of traffic they usually pick up.

jfl,

Have you seen the video tutorials here:

http://www.airnavsystems.com/RadarBox/Video/index.html

They're also on YouTube, but not as easy to see:

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

It's worth reading through the FAQ's too:

http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?board=2.0

And you can download the manual from here:

http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=607.0

You can download the software from here and run the demo:

http://www.airnavsystems.com/download/anrb/anrb20setup.exe

[jfl]

Allocator,

The software download link was very helpful, thanks!

[Allocator]

No problem - ask as many questions as you like :-)

[MANSPOT]

Hi I am new to Airnav and I would appreciate some help with my screen setup,below the map on the right side of the screen their is a graff showing aircraft hights,I would like to remove this so that the map is the full length of the screen 

[Allocator]

Use Map > Vertical Tracking View to toggle on/off - or use the F8 key :-)

[MANSPOT]

Thank you for such a prompt reply
 may I just say what a fantastic peice of kit this is
I have two mates with sbs boxes that will soon be on ebay for sale
they are both getting airnav boxes now they have seen mine

[Allocator]

Manspot,  I forgot to welcome you to the forum!

Ask as many questions as you like here, many of us have been using RadarBox for quite a while, so we have loads of hints and tips :-)

There are a few ex-SBS-1 users too, as well as some that use both, so we do understand the competition - although really there is no competition, RadarBox is best!