PilotAware

British Forum => OGN-R PilotAware => Topic started by: PaulRuskin on December 08, 2017, 04:21:03 pm

Title: PAW signal strength
Post by: PaulRuskin on December 08, 2017, 04:21:03 pm
Hi All

I have a new station (Orwell2), which is detecting both OGN and PAW traffic.  Yay!

So far, the PAW traffic is just a PAW unit 50m away.

Am I able to see any metric which tells me the strength of signals picked up from PAW?  I know how to get to the equivalent Flarm ones (telnet localhost 50001), but the equivalent output for the PAW unit (50002) doesn't seem to give any signal strength metrics.

Thanks

Paul
Title: Re: PAW signal strength
Post by: Admin on December 08, 2017, 06:01:10 pm
Hi Paul

Unfortunately there is no equivalent to the RSSI calculation you can get with an SDR dongle I'm afraid.

Thx
Lee
Title: Re: PAW signal strength
Post by: PaulRuskin on December 09, 2017, 08:23:04 am
OK, thanks Lee.  That's a shame.

Is it true to say that if I look at the flarmrange tool, http://flarmrange.onglide.com, then
- Orwell2 gives the Flarm signals received and
- PWOrwell2 gives the PAW signals received?

If so, I do have a problem, and need to track it down.  Options are
- bridge
- cable
- antenna

I'll start with the cable given my (lack of) skills in using crimped connectors!

Paul
Title: Re: PAW signal strength
Post by: Ian Melville on December 09, 2017, 09:06:27 am
How long has it been running? if only a short while, there may not have been any PAW signals in range?
Title: Re: PAW signal strength
Post by: PaulRuskin on December 09, 2017, 09:14:00 am
About three weeks.

Paul
Title: Re: PAW signal strength
Post by: Ian Melville on December 09, 2017, 12:03:50 pm
Do you have a PAW unit that you can check reception with?  Can you see the OGN ground station in you nav software? If not try it with the PAW antenna connected directly to the OGN/PAW unit (much reduced range)
Title: Re: PAW signal strength
Post by: bnmont on December 09, 2017, 03:14:39 pm
Hi Paul,
It seems likely that you site is working but has very limited reception range.
I flew near today and Orwell2 didn't see me.
Title: Re: PAW signal strength
Post by: PaulRuskin on December 09, 2017, 03:37:49 pm
I'm pretty sure that it's an antenna / cable problem.  I've enough gain to see the PAW on my desk, but very little more.

I tried an alternative (in loft, but that's not good for open sky) antenna, and that seemed to pick up someone who flew right over the top.  I've tried a different bridge to no avail - I've just watched someone fly past fairly close without seeing them.

Next stop is the connector in the loft - after that, it's swap out the antenna on the roof.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Paul
Title: Re: PAW signal strength
Post by: bnmont on December 09, 2017, 04:21:27 pm
Hi Paul,
I do hope you get fully sorted, my site at Everton seems to work reasonably well. The more base stations the better.
Title: Re: PAW signal strength
Post by: PaulRuskin on December 10, 2017, 10:04:01 am
Just need to sort the PAW antenna out.  Shouldn't be too big a problem.

I'll be putting one up at Gransden Lodge as well, so coverage around here should be getting reasonable.

Paul
Title: Re: PAW signal strength
Post by: Ian Melville on December 10, 2017, 02:19:19 pm
Signals in a loft are not good. In my TV fixing days, we reckoned the signal in the loft was 1/10th that outside.

I would check the cable terminations each end and with a meter, make sure there is continuity of the screen and centre end-to-end, and check there is no short between the two. if all good I would replace the outside antenna.

Title: Re: PAW signal strength
Post by: PaulRuskin on December 10, 2017, 07:20:06 pm
Quote
I would check the cable terminations each end and with a meter, make sure there is continuity of the screen and centre end-to-end, and check there is no short between the two. if all good I would replace the outside antenna.

Did all that before it went up. I'll just replace the whole lot and see how that goes.

Paul