PAW signal strength

[PaulRuskin]

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

[Admin]

Hi Paul

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

Thx
Lee

[PaulRuskin]

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

[Ian Melville]

How long has it been running? if only a short while, there may not have been any PAW signals in range?

[PaulRuskin]

About three weeks.

Paul

[Ian Melville]

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)

[bnmont]

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.

[PaulRuskin]

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

[bnmont]

Hi Paul,
I do hope you get fully sorted, my site at Everton seems to work reasonably well. The more base stations the better.

[PaulRuskin]

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

[Ian Melville]

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.

[PaulRuskin]

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