Radarbox faulty - to return to W&S

[daveg4otu]

Biscuit tin full of rubble - goes nowhere even in strong winds.

[carp777]

i know its no help but W&S are very good at turning round repairs. Sent mine in on Tues this week and got it back at 0930 this morning excelent service

[Speedbird London]

Today, Saturday, received my, previously deaf/blind and now, "repaired"  radarbox back from W&S, however, all is not well.

Although now, yes, I can get a few flights from the supplied aerial, the sensitivity is nowhere near what it was before it went t**s- up a couple of weeks ago.

According to the plot now showing on the screen; from my Nth London location, (Height ASL?) I'm getting returns from about 20 miles north of the M25 and not even as far as the M25 in the south.  Previously I was enjoying returns from beyond the French and Dutch coasts and south Yorkshire in the north!

Can anyone else with an apparently repaired 'box testify to similar behaviour?

Might I hazard a guess in thinking that the "Fix" that W&S are apparently fitting to SAW filter repaired boxes is effectively de-sensitising them?  At these sorts of frequencies small apparently insignificant things in the signal path can invoke strange and unnacountable behaviour.

I might also put in a plea for Airnav to look again at this situation?  To say it's only happened to a few times doesn't seem to be a good enough answer for what seems to be an on-going design issue.

If a piece of equipment is designed to be connected to an aerial which might, conceivably, be mounted high up in the air and prone to static charges then it should easily be able to withstand them without failing shouldn't it?

I have a Windows based HF/VHF receiver, WinRadio G313i which is ALWAYS connected, via an atu, to a wire aerial about 120 foot long and 50 feet off the deck, if THAT doesn't get shed loads of static then I don't know what does, needless to say I've never had any, "issues" with that, neither have I had issues with my AR3000A's, Fairhaven RD500 and other HF/VHF/UHF equipment that has passed through my hands over the last 30 years and that remains permanently connected to various aerials about the place.

This messing about is taking the shine off, I didn't spend all that money for a work-in-progress.

I'd be interested to learn of other peoples experiences.

Cheers

Ed.  Direct email: [email protected]

[daveg4otu]

Can only say that mine suffered  a sudden loss in sensitivity about 9 days ago -returned to WS  last Friday (before the bank Holiday) got it back yesterday - if anything betterethan as was originally.

However I will agree with your remarks about equipment and static - I've run assorted VHF and HF TX/RX or RXs  over the past 40 or so years connected to some fairly massive arrays(EG:20 meter 3 el Yagi ) or LWs  and never had any  ill-effects ....

Never dabbled in UHF.



Two things  tho that may have a bearing on the current situation.


1:All those antenna were working against a  fairly large earth mat

2:The equipment was  valved, or at best transistorised - no ICs.

[gzerovti]

Over a week now and still waiting for the return of my Radarbox!

It was on the W&S bench on Tuesday being worked on.

Hope its this week.

Terry

[AirNav Development]

Only our first units are affected by static problems. When they come out of W&S the problem is totally corrected (a new simple electronic circuit will be added to their input) and the same situation will not happen in the future.

All the units made in/after July 2008 do not have any kind of static problem (80% of the unit on the market now).

[Hawkeye]

Seeing as it's a known design problem, will the ones made before last July be put right free of charge if they become faulty after the 2 year warranty expires?

[malc41]

Hawkeye

Interesting point!

[gowiththeflow]

Seeing as it's a known design problem, will the ones made before last July be put right free of charge if they become faulty after the 2 year warranty expires?

i got my one January 2009 is it ok to fit outdoor aerial.

[Tallyho]

Would it not be better to specify the serial numbers affected rather than a date.

[malc41]

gowiththeflow

It would seem so, but do read WAL2T message with reference to grounding the mast, etc

[AirNav Development]

"Seeing as it's a known design problem, will the ones made before last July be put right free of charge if they become faulty after the 2 year warranty expires?"

If it was a 100% guaranteed problem we would do that but this problem only happens to less than 3% of boxes and under very specific conditions. Most (99%) of them are sold.

"i got my one January 2009 is it ok to fit outdoor aerial. "

Of course it is.

[Wayne]

Development

Could you just clarify what the "very specific conditions" are please ?

I mentioned on the forum over a week ago that I was having reduced reception problems and you said it was all down to atmospheric conditions, wind direction, runway in use and flight routings.

I bought mine in January 2008 and am tempted to return to W&S. Do I just contact them directly or do I need some specific referral from your company ?

Cheers

[AirNav Development]

I mentioned on the forum over a week ago that I was having reduced reception problems and you said it was all down to atmospheric conditions, wind direction, runway in use and flight routings."

ADS-B signal propagation is affected by several conditions. 99% of the times when a user reports reduced reception this happens because of low propagation. Also sometimes there are issues with users antenna. Anyway you continue to receive 50% to 70% of the total traffic you receive at maximum conditions.

Anyway if in one day your experience a 90% drop in received traffic and that continues to happen, day after day, it is for sure a hardware failure. The "specific conditions" are usually the problems caused by static on the antenna connector.

Again:
- this only applies to a very limited low number of units (the older models);
- when you return the box to W&S the problem is corrected forever (no re-returns);
- only 3% of the users that have older units have reported this problem;

Please contact our support as they will give you more helpful details.

[malc41]

Development

But that does not answer the question posed. 

Seeing as it's a known design problem, will the ones made before last July be put right free of charge if they become faulty after the 2 year warranty expires?