Hi Roger,
Ok, we are on the same page - that is good.
As you have said, the traffic table will list all of the Bearingless Mode-S and Mode-C contacts it receives
This does not necessarily mean it is passed to the Navigation tool for display.
In order to be passed there are 2 criteria, which are controlled by settings in PilotAware, and BOTH must be met
1. relative height
The height difference must be within these bounds, so if you have set the bounds to be +/-2000ft, and an A/C appears 2100ft above you -
it is ignored. If it is 1900ft above you - it is considered
2. range (long, medium, short)
This is a test of the signal strength monitor, using a machine learning heuristic algorithm
This analyzes data nd determines the range into the categories of long/medium/short
If you select long, it increases sensitivity and will display A/C which are further away than when short is selected
So for a 'wide open test' you may want to select the largest value for relative height, and long range.
Finally, there are 2 other additional factors to consider
3. Antenna location
The position of your own antenna will have an effect on the reception quality, and hence judgement of the threat calculation. Wherever possible, let it have a clear view of the sky. Although as traffic approaches close, your antenna location has less of a degrading impact due to the inverse square law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law4. Transponder Interrogation
Finally, an aircraft transponder will only emit Mode-C and Mode-S responses, when interrogated by ground RADAR.
in which case, dont expect aircraft either on or close to the ground to provide any Mode-C or Mode-S responses at all, this will likely only ever happen when airborne, and for sure only when within range/reception of a gound RADAR interrogation
A couple more words on the subject.
- what version of PilotAware are you running ?
- you can gauge the threat of the A/C by the "Sig" column in the traffic table, additionally the traffic table is color coded, so if a Mode-C or Mode-S row in the table gets highlighted Green/Amber/Red - this is an indication of meeting the threat criteria described above, and that a warning has been sent to the Navigation tool, which should elicit a display symbol
I hope that helps
Thx
Lee