Morning Patrick,
Thanks for the report. You certainly haven’t wasted any time! I have commented under your individual headings.
GPS: Good on the GPS feed from the FlarmBat, that sounds much more reliable than I was getting from my FlarmMouse. I’m guessing PowerFlarm must use an updated GPS unit with a better antenna - especially if as you say it is mounted
under the coaming (behind the dashboard)
*. I must say I’m a bit surprised if you have fitted the FlarmBat there. I would want it on top so I can see the inbuilt display. I find the FLARM display linked to my FlarmMouse
very useful - to confirm it has GPS fix and is transmitting and to point me to the gliders when they are ‘hiding’ just below cloudbase.
* I take it we
are both talking about the same thing here? In English the ‘coaming’ is the flat area on top of the dashboard below the windscreen?
FLARM: Thank you for the info on the Flarm Booster. I now remember seeing these before, but ruling them out on cost. I might be tempted to have another look when they come back in stock.
ADSB/ Mode-S: You say you received lots of traffic,... but then go on to report that ‘SkyDemon was only showing our other club aircraft when he approached us within 2nm on adsb. We were on a taxi way and he did touch and goes. On SD I only saw him during landing (threshold) and then he disappeared on SkyDemon but was visible on the Flarmbat and paw traffic page. Why is that? Is there any experience with traffic not being forwarded to SD? SkyDemon settings for traffic we’re at maximum.’
If the other aircraft is truly ADSB (or Mode-S ES) you should see it reliably from well over 50km - often as much as 100-150Km (though range will be much less if you are on the ground or blocked by hangars or terrain). Mode-S on the other hand is dependent on position as it only transmits when interrogated by Radar (or TCAS), so often disappears at low level or when the aircraft is on the ground (except at or near commercial airports, where it is triggered by their Ground Radar).
The only reason for traffic received by PilotAware not to be sent to SkyDemon is if your settings in PilotAware Configure are set to prevent this. You should make sure that you have...
Bearingless Contacts Settings (Mode-C/S)‘Mode-C/S Select’ set to ‘Mode CS + Filter’ (+ Filter if you are running a transponder)
‘Mode-C/S 3D’ set to ‘Enabled’ to receive MLAT (if available from local Ground stations)
‘Mode-C/S Sensitivity’ set to ‘Short’ or ‘Medium Range’ I suggest ‘Medium’ or even ‘Long Range’ for initial testing, dependent on quantity of traffic.
‘Mode-C/S Vertical Display Range’ SDR initially to +/- 2000ft (or greater for testing).
Positional Contacts Settings (P3i, ADSB, FLARM and MLAT - where available)
These were introduced to allow limits to be set
for Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs)
which don’t have range setting options. When using EFBs which do, like SkyDemon or EasyVFR, leave these on the default maxima and set range limits in your EFB.
Having said all that, are you sure the other aircraft
was transmitting ADSB - it sounds much more like a FLARM or Mode-S scenario?
If it definitely
was transmitting ADSB, I suspect that the problem was a very bad case of antenna blocking.
If you
have mounted Rosetta and the Flarmbat
underneath the coaming and you are using the standard antennas mounted to Rosetta, there will be a high probability of both the P3i and 1090 signals being blocked by your engine, firewall and aircraft metal bodywork between your antennas and that of other aircraft. If that is the case, you need to consider either resiting the Rosetta or using remote antennas.
Ground Station: Unfortunately, although PWNKRock at Neuenkirchen and PWETHEBQ at Salzburg both show on my ‘Stations List’ in our Database and on glidertracker.de and the ognrange sites, a search under ‘My Aircraft’ in our database using your Hex ID from my login fails to bring up any report.
I see no mention by the way of a station PWEDWN on our database nor can I find it on glidertracker.org or Glidertracker.de, though there is a
Flarm-only station EDWN1 located at Flugplatz Nordhorn Lingen - but not on the PAW network. Both PWNKRock and PWETHEBQ report on both Glidertracker and
https://ognrange.glidernet.org .
I will ask Chris, Lee or Keith to check again against your HexID as my Database access is restricted - they all have wider access.
Best Regards
Peter