Ver1.4 vs SBS

[b744]

Away with both boxes working in my hotel room. Both aerials same place etc to compare the 2.
Radarbox has picked up 20 more contacts over  24hr period than the SBS but seems very reluctant to show these on the map. I have 6 plots on the sbs but none for radarbox....why is this ??

Unless I'm missing this somewhere,once a contact has been lost on radarbox then there is no record of its height anywhere is the database ?? I think this needs correcting in the next upgrade. I realise I've posted this before but this means you have no idea if that contact has overflown at FL350 or landed at your local airport.

Can I also ask Airnav to look at the "interested" tag/function that sbs uses and consider a similar function for radarbox.

Very pleased with v1.4......thanks for all the hard work.

[AirNav Support]

Do you have any filters on? Sounds that way, just confirm the contacts in the MyFlights list are showing a globe as well?

[b744]

no filters used at all. I get the odd plot but again not as many as sbs which currently has 10 versus 0 on the RB.

Regarding my comment about the "interested" tag, you put a comments column in the my log function. I cant find it in the main aircraft database so I cant add any comments. If you could see it in the database explorer aircraft list and edit it then it could be used as I'm suggesting.

Thanks

[b744]

No filters set at all and I get the odd plot but here I am watching an A380 depart,plots fine on sbs but nothing on Radarbox at all. The aerial is sitting on a balcony next to the sbs one with an unobstructed view of the departures. The only plots I get are when the aircraft are well out of sight climbing through FL200+...............dont understand !!
Is there any setting I may have set wrongly ?? I have checked filters on the advanced menu and pressed show all.

Any ideas ??

[AirNav Development]

Are you using the base plate provided with the RadarBox antenna? Have you tried to switch antennas (use SBS-1 antenna o RB and vice-versa)? We need to know more details.

All the tests done here and from various beta testers show that RadarBox is more sensitive than SBS-1, provided the kind of hardware it has (much newer) so there is no reason for that to happen.

[b744]

yes using the base plate and again yes have switched aerials but same results. Just to confirm an example. A B777 took off and could be seen with the naked eye,plotted on sbs but not RB. Now its FL360 over 100nm away and its plotting on RB....bit confused !

[EINN-07]

Maybe try a polar plot to see what's happening ?

[Allocator]

When I first got my RadarBox, I was running the SBS-1 and RadarBox side by side for quite a while.

I didn't see the strange differences that b744 reports and I can't think of any reason why this should be the case.

b744, when you say that there was a difference of 20 contacts over a 24 hour period, is this based on the logs?

You report that you have no filters selected, remember that you can use height, aircraft, range, airport, airline etc.  If you had EGLL selected as the airport in the quick filters and there was no valid route with EGLL in it, then the aircraft would be filtered out on the map, but would appear in the list.

It would seem that there was a fliter in there somewhere - other than that, I don't really have any ideas.

Certainly, from my experience of using both boxes, whilst there is always a slight difference between the 2 displays due to timeout settings and antennas, Radarbox consistantly displayed slightly more aircraft than the SBS-1.

[AirNav Development]

From our hardware department:

SSR signals have a very high bit rate. The modulation scheme used in this technology is not suitable for AGC type receivers. Radarbox has a 70dB dynamic range on RF input signals. It is factory calibrated so that strong and weak signals can be correctly received. If there is an extremely strong or weak signal being received, a missed demodulation can occur of course. This is the same for any receiver of this type. The software based receiver scheme can control this type of events to minimize its effects.

Several tests and user feedbacks have proven that RadarBox has an increased sensitivity and receives weaker signals, resulting in an increase of overall communications range, against competition.

So far, strange behavior for near airplanes with strong signals have not been reported. Tests have been made on strategic stations operating near several european airport runways which show no problems regarding this issue.

[Roadrunner]

I have both a RadarBox and the competition and I have not noticed any difference in the number of contacts or the information shown when the two are compared with the aerials located in similar positions. Nor have I had a problem with problems from strong local signals. Aircraft to Luton pass directly over my house at between 2900-2500 feet and traffic from Stansead at 3000-4000 feet. Plus I have had a police helicopter hovering at 800 to a 1000 feet 100 yards from the house and the signal was handled by both machines without any problems being apparent.

[b744]

I reported what I saw. Now I'm back in the UK it plots fine with a loft mounted aerial.
Just to squash any filter questions...non active and to give an example.
SQ B777 took off and visible to the naked eye. Route as per rb WSSS-RJBB, as it climbed and was FL200 and above RB picked it up. However,an Airasia A320 tracked at 7000 into WMKJ. A QF A332 flew overhead at FL360 again very clear to the naked eye and remained so for a few minutes.That routed YPDN-VABB.
So where can this hidden filter possibly be ? Not height due A320 at 7000,not route as explained or type etc etc
In a clear unobstructed environment RB plots a/c well but when you throw in the clutter of inner city hotel rooms the SBS out performs....fact.
And while I'm on a roll, I've asked Airnav for a more complete My Log to incl callsign and alt/ht data but heard nothing back.(callsign for log production)
I've also asked for a more robust way to identify wanted aircraft. SBS uses an Interested column which can be used to sort the my flights in the list and appear later in the log function. RB Smartview is great but when you load it up with a large number of targets the whole program slows down too much. If you had a good look at the SBS way of doing this and then took the best bits,combined them with the alert function you'd have a fantastic approach to it. Instead, if I look at Mylog I have no idea which aircraft were in my smart veiw list and where any went as no ht/alt readout available.
It was a while ago I first mentioned these....way before ver1.4 and I said then if you get these right then you'd have the best product....as it stands my SBS still soldiers on because it produces the results 24/7 all be it in a lesser display format but it dosent freeze on me and shut my pc down.

Finally, when are you going to enable us to deselect "share data" and keep it that way so it works without internet all the time??This has been a problem since the box was released
End of rant !!

[Roadrunner]

b744,

I have not tried my boxes in a hotel and enjoy a fairly clear sky view from my house . The only clutter I have is from the house itself but in the open sky directions they both perform the same. I do have one thing that is different between the two - SBS1 starts quicker than RB but once they have both got going they appear identical. 

I agree with you about the "Share data" option. It should be possiblefor it to be switched off and that setting being retained in preferences. Maybe if we could do that then the possibility of problems as we log in each time - because of the default settings sending the PC to look for an immediate internet connection - could be solved.

Regards

Mike

[AirNav Support]

B744,

Nobody else is having the same issue as you describe so it maybe the hardware has been damaged in some way on your travels. Please contact support via email and we can sort out a RTB and get it fixed if it requires it.

Your requests are being noted, we are getting loads and we do have to sort through them and work out which ones can be done within time constraints.

Share Data Option:

This issue has seem to be resolved on most machines where by RB copes fine if there is not Internet and the button is ticked. This will be looked into further.

Regarding have the option stick, we don't like this idea as we feel this may have negative impact on the network.

Hope that explains things.

[Roadrunner]

Regarding have the option stick, we don't like this idea as we feel this may have negative impact on the network.
Hope that explains things.

[Roadrunner]

OK so purely from a commercial point of view you do not want to do this. However,  if we are to be fixed to sharing - except by changing on each occassion, could it not be a question that is asked on the start up screen rather than having to wait for the full program to load before we can untick the sharing box.  When I am mobile I want to keep things as simple as possible and this would assist. :-)