Hopefully Lee can now advise whether that is likely to have been responsible for your 'Ghost', though I'm not sure he will ever have tried that scenario - I know I certainly haven't , but I can do so locally to see what happens if required.
This would not cause a ghost to appear
The issue is most likely a misconfiguration of ICAO code
I think we need to wait for John to provide the settings to determine this
Thx
Lee
Hi Lee,
Like you, my first thoughts on reading this thread were that there must be two or more devices - one of which had the wrong Hex ID, but John reported having only his PAW Classic and Garmin GTX328 transponder and that both were running the correct Hex ID. This was borne out by subsequent screenshots and the fact that Mode-C/S and Mode-S/3D were both disabled seemed to rule out the transponder.
The mention of a FlarmMouse, however, raised the possibility of a second ‘positional’ device, especially as they are (as you know) habitually supplied coded with a non-ICAO ID, which would clearly cause this effect, though I was very sceptical as I could see
no FlarmMouse, merely a Mouse GPS (as has since been confirmed). This leaves only the PAW Classic and John’s Garmin GTX328 transponder in the Aircraft.
As stated above, I had already discounted the transponder, as from John’s Configure Screen, he also clearly had
both Mode-C/S and Mode-S/3D
disabled in his PAW Classic,
though in hindsight this of course also means that the transponder filter is (presumably) not selected.
Realisation of this made me reconsider the GTX328, but not being familiar with it I have googled it and managed to find and download copies of the Installation Manual and the Pilot’s Guide (from 2007, so not necessarily the most up-to-date versions, but the best I could find).
From these, it is obvious that the GTX328 is a sophisticated unit, with a very complex setup procedure. It is, however, reported as being incapable of broadcasting (or being converted to broadcast) Mode-S/ES (ADS-B) though it
does transmit Mode-S acquisition squitter replies about once per second
whether [external]
interrogations are received or not.
It also appears to be the case that the GTX328 can be programmed to transmit both its ICAO Hex ID AND a separate ‘Flight-ID’ which - depending on the configuration at the time of installation, may be the normal Aircraft Reg OR a variable Flight-ID (e.g. for commercial use) ‘which may be the aircraft registration number or other call sign’ - configurable by the Pilot and changeable prior to each flight,
though the manual states clearly that this can only be done if the unit is configured at installation by the installer to enable the user to alter the Flight-ID. The Pilot’s Guide makes no mention whatever of setting a Hex ID and this is covered solely by the Installation Manual.
Having read through the entire manual, it seems that depending on how the unit was configured at the time of installation, it would be possible to get to a situation where the unit was transmitting
two different ID codes, though even if this were the case, surely it would only display as a Bearingless target and not a known position target - or am I way off the mark in that assumption?
I would certainly recommend that John updates his PAW as a matter of urgency to 20201101 and enables ‘Mode-C/S + Filter’ with realistic Range and Altitude Settings and ‘Mode-S/3D’
The plot thickens.
Best Regards
Peter