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Author Topic: Why own a radarbox unit??  (Read 14278 times)

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bushfire

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Why own a radarbox unit??
« on: November 03, 2013, 01:18:24 PM »
Had my radarbox for over two years+ now.
It was a niche thing back then, spent considerable amount of money on the unit, the cable and the external antenna because there was nothing else apart from the competition to airnav... that would do what I wanted to see......
Now seems that anyone can see what I can see via "at least 3" websites that I know of show the same data "in real time" that i have my dedicated unit, pc, antenna and pc for. Side by side comparison, there's not much difference + I can see data that my hardware can't receive, eg. interstate and worldwide.
Now I see that Airnav have the radarbox24 running...
Please give me a reason why I shouldn't trash the hardware??
Please!

 

Runway 31

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2013, 01:27:12 PM »
What do you do if you dont have internet access?  For me my box and RB24 compliment each other and I take my box with me wherever I go and depend on no one else to let me know whats around.

Alan
« Last Edit: November 03, 2013, 01:31:24 PM by Runway 31 »

bushfire

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2013, 01:50:31 PM »
"What do you do if you dont have internet access?  For me my box and RB24 compliment each other and I take my box with me wherever I go and depend on no one else to let me know whats around."

No internet access?? Who doesn't have internet access these days? Even have internet access on my mobile 99% of where I travel.. so again why keep the hardware?
Talking reality now not assuming!

Runway 31

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2013, 02:00:34 PM »
Its up to you to make your choice, you do what you consider to be best for you and if you think you will be better off throwing your box in the bin who are we to stop you or try and convince you otherwise.

I cant afford 24 hours internet access when mobile especially on the continent or worldwide with roaming rates being what they are and its not unknown for the internet to go off even in the UK and there are plenty of places in the world where the internet is not great, thats reality.

Alan
« Last Edit: November 03, 2013, 02:03:08 PM by Runway 31 »

RodBearden

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #4 on: November 03, 2013, 02:06:27 PM »
I really like the fact that RadarBox keeps a log of the planes that it picks up, and that it picks up military and ga aircraft that don't have ADS-B so won't usually appear on the free websites. In the States, that will apply to a lot of domestic airliners too, unless you put up with the FAA's 5-minute delay - not much use for spotting!

I also prefer the look and feel of RadarBox and the fact that it's much more customisable.

And if it wasn't for people like us, the free websites couldn't exist anyway.

Rod
Rod

bushfire

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #5 on: November 03, 2013, 02:44:06 PM »
"I really like the fact that RadarBox keeps a log of the planes that it picks up"
That being 1 reason to keep it, but now you can buy an sdr usb unit for 20 euro and use a freeware program to log that data... ummm radarbox vs's sdr and freeware  hmmm

Runway21 yes I know it''s my choice. Just want some reasons for not using the internet for what I can receive with hardware anyway.. no internet access is not really an issue.
RodBearden had an answer to my question TY

Runway 31

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #6 on: November 03, 2013, 03:19:04 PM »
You already have the box and have shelled out the money for it so it isnt going to cost you any more, no brainer really.

Alan

tarbat

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #7 on: November 03, 2013, 03:43:29 PM »
For me, Radarbox offers many advantages over web-based alternatives:
Email alerts
Log history
Daily log reports
All the military aircraft and coastguard helicopters, etc.
Absolutely no display delay for hardware received aircraft
QNH altitude correction
Smart Filters
More "professional" map display
Low (or none) internet bandwidth required

I can't see why you would want to throw all that away, and then spend more money on a low quality, low sensitivity SDR that's not optimised for 1090mhz, and inferior "freeware" software.

ANRB vs FR24
« Last Edit: November 04, 2013, 02:57:02 PM by tarbat »

CYYZGUY

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2013, 04:25:20 PM »
Well said Tarbat.......I find with the recent upgrades, my radarbox is working better then ever.  I am more addicted to it now then I was the first day I got it.

regards,

2 Nm North from Canada's Busiest Airport CYYZ

DPD 1090 Mhz Antenna with LMR-400 Cable
Antenna 35 Feet (11 Meters) standing tall
Dedicated Airnav Station with 16 Gigs ram
Dedicated Radarbox24 Station with 16 Gigs ram
40" LED Monitor
40" LED Monitor
BCD996XT, BCT15X, BCT15X, BCT15 and BCD436 receiver

neroon79

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #9 on: November 03, 2013, 06:22:34 PM »
Just a thought, if we all (sharer) would say: Hey there are websites now let's throw away our boxes we don't need them anymore... All these nice and useful websites will die, because most of them were fed by boxes/software like Radarbox, SBS or the new low-cost ("toy") dongles (which in my opnion only become some kind useful, if you are purchasing pp too).

Ingo
Greetings from northern Germany, Ingo
11.75nm ESE of EDDV

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EK01

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #10 on: November 03, 2013, 07:21:44 PM »
Bushfire,

Don't know where you live but you should come over here to Spain for a visit and see what internet access we have to put up with. It's more like 'rubber band' than 'broadband!' and that's definitely talking reality.


Marpleman

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #11 on: November 04, 2013, 07:32:58 AM »
I see the benefit in owning a box but also having access to web sites. FR24 and in particular, its positional reporting of ga types, smaller airliners etc, makes an ideal partnership, as the majority of biz jets currently only display position with little or no reg tie up.mlat and plane plotter are beyond mu IT abilities,but now I can tie almost everything using the two sources.

Also means there's no point in me subscribing to the RB network
« Last Edit: November 04, 2013, 07:43:12 AM by Marpleman »

bushfire

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #12 on: November 06, 2013, 08:43:04 AM »
All valid points ty for the answers.
Not going to bin my hardware it was a figure of speech. Sorry
The sdr's at the moment, a cheap altenative was an example.
So is airnav selling their data to these sites? I'm assuming they are? Might be wrong
Anyway thanks all for the feedback, I might have been a bit hasty with my post never thought about half the options I have that others don't.

Just a quick question while I'm here, where is the option to turn off "permanently" the share flight data in the preferences settings? 

CoastGuardJon

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #13 on: November 06, 2013, 10:38:59 AM »
"Just a quick question while I'm here, where is the option to turn off "permanently" the share flight data in the preferences settings? "

There isn't one!
ANRB :  AOR AR8000 : Icom R-7000 : Icom IC-R9000 : JRC NRD-545 : OptoElectronics Digital Scout and OptoLinx Interface; Realistic Pro-2005 : UBC 800XLT - listed in alphabetical order, not cost, preference, performance or entertainment value!

Runway 31

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Re: Why own a radarbox unit??
« Reply #14 on: November 06, 2013, 11:10:56 AM »
I can assure you that Airnav doesnt sell its data to other trackers, that would be counter productive.

Alan