Very newby here

[kebab]

I have been following this on the ML forum with great interest and knew I wanted one right from the start.

However, from reading all the technical talk I now realise how little I understand about my transponder!!

So has anyone got the patience to explain what this is capable of?

Imagine explaining it to a student pilot with just a few hours in the saddle?

Can it detect any transponder equipped aircraft? And show it's position on my skydemon (iPad Mini with gps and SIM card)

Thanks all

[DavidC]

Pilotaware can detect other aircraft with Pilotaware boxes, and also aircraft with ADS-B.

But it can't display FLARM (used by gliders), Mode C or standard Mode S transponders (using by most light aircraft and microlights).
ADS-B is largely limited to commercial aircraft/airliners although a small number of GA have it.
Some of the latest Mode S transponders are capable of ADS-B but not all - they need an expensive approval and must be connected to a certified GPS - so relatively few people have invested in this yet. Some larger airliners have Extended Mode S transponders which send out position information which the simpler GA versions don't.

ADS-B spits out the position information frequently (as does Pilotaware), so does not depend on being within radar coverage. Mode C and Mode S transponders only transmit in respond when scanned by radar. This means at low altitude/remote areas etc, ADS-B/Pilotaware will continue to work, even when outside radar coverage.

Aircraft detected by Pilotaware can be displayed on SkyDemon in real-time; you can filter out those pesky airliners at 30,000 feet.
Range for Pilotaware is anything up to 25 km*, but Lee said he might tune that down a bit to avoid clutter.

Hope this helps

*Editted to correct 25 miles to 25km as pointed out below

[kebab]

Thanks David
I'm looking forward to when they are available ready made.

[Admin]

Range for Pilotaware is anything up to 25 miles, but Lee said he might tune that down a bit to avoid clutter.

slight correction here, the tests we have done, the range has been upto 25km

Thx
Lee

[ianfallon]

I'd vote for max range in hardware and declutter in software if necessary

[Admin]

I'd vote for max range in hardware and declutter in software if necessary

Slightly more complicated I'm afraid 
In a random access system, its important not to swamp the available bandwidth,
Otherwise transmit packets can overlap thus corrupting the data.
So its a careful trade off between

Transmit power
Transmit datarate
Repeat period (+backoff times)
Packet length

A lot of thought has gone into optimising these parameters, and there is likely to still be some tuning of power and datarate, thankfully these are all controlled by software not hardware

Thx
Lee

[Wadoadi]

they need an expensive approval and must be connected to a certified GPS - so relatively few people have invested in this yet

This is not necessarily true, if this trial goes well!
http://www.nats.aero/news/nats-enable-ads-b-transponder-functionality-ga-community/

[ianfallon]

I'd vote for max range in hardware and declutter in software if necessary

Slightly more complicated I'm afraid 
In a random access system, its important not to swamp the available bandwidth,
Otherwise transmit packets can overlap thus corrupting the data.
So its a careful trade off between

Transmit power
Transmit datarate
Repeat period (+backoff times)
Packet length

A lot of thought has gone into optimising these parameters, and there is likely to still be some tuning of power and datarate, thankfully these are all controlled by software not hardware

Thx
Lee

Ah I was thinking "declutter" was meaning just controlling the amount of things displayed onscreen.
Interesting - what bandwidth does the interface have ?