Hi Ian
Very complicated subject this ....
After The comments that people were driving around with PAW units in the car, I gave it a try today. It was not a good idea to set the mode S to test(noisy mode). My ears are still ringing from the non-stop alerts on the drive to Heathrow
Not a good idea, that is simply there for S/W test
I changed to the other extreme for the return home. With the high level of alerts it appeared that the alerts were queued
This is correct, when an alert meets a threshold it is queued to the audio sub-system, but if another message is in the queue, then that must complete first.
and often given after the threat had move quite some distance.
Threats are issued immediately, there is no delay.
Are you referring to precise (ADS-B/P3I) or imprecise (Mode-S) threats ?
If it is imprecise then it is based upon signal strength, which has a correlation to distance but not a direct relation.
It was also apparent that there was no priority for nearest threats.
Highest priority threats are issued first.
If it is a precise threat, then the order is closest first, if it is imprecise, it is signal strength first.
So, are you referring to precise or imprecise traffic ?
For example I was close to the threshold. There were three aircraft on final at 5, 7 and 10km. 7km was called first, then 10. The third was. Called last by which time the threat was approx 3km and closing fast. Inter spaced with these three calls there were others for aircraft heading away from me.
OK, this is ADS-B traffic ?
At the distance specified were they within the height boundary ?
are you aware of the warning zones
HIGH - (3km +/- 500ft)
MEDIUM - (5km +/- 1000ft)
LOW - (10km +/- 2000ft)
Is it possible to prioritise the alerts? And perhaps discard the more distant ones in a target rich environment?
hmm this is possible I guess by having multiple message queues rather than a single message queue
Before anyone Says this is an unrealistic test, i would argue not as there was less than 15 aircraft in the vercinity, no more than a good fly in.
TBH, I think once you get to this situation, then you could be overwhelmed with information, this is why there have been a lot of requests to disable alerts when in the viscinity of the airfield for arrival/departure
Thx
Lee