OGN Station showing as aircraft on radar

[NATO]

Hi,
I went for a flight over my house which has an OGN station based there and noticed it was shown as an aircraft on SD, when I got home I looked at the radar screen on PilotAware and it also shows as an aircraft, on page 22 of the PilotAware  guide it shows an aerial mast at the ground station.
Is this an incorrect setting in the OGN ground station or do they now show up as aircraft not masts ?

[AlanG]

Hi Nato
You will not see a mast depicted in SD for your Base station as this is a conscious decision regarding the protocol used to transmit the information by Tim Dawson. 

In the Paw radar screen mine does and has always as far as I can remember displayed a fainter yellow mast with radiating pattern overlaid onto the white Ownship aircraft. 

if you want to see a Mast in your Nav system you will need to change to EasyVFR version 4.   

[NATO]

Thanks Alan,
I looked at my laptop screen rather than the Mini I pad I use SD on, you are correct hiding under the white aircraft was a faint yellow mast, so I drove down the road approx 1 km and this split the image.
Shame SD don’t show a mast as I thought there was another plane flying over my house 

Regards,

Neil

[exfirepro]

Hi Neil,

As members of the PilotAware Team, we (and lots of users) have tried since the start of OGN-R to get Tim D to display the Ground Stations as ‘Masts’.

Their presence is sent to the EFB’s using a specific code for ‘fixed objects’, which Tim argues is only meant to be used for ‘tethered balloons’. He has in the past accused Lee/us of ‘bastardising the accepted protocols for our own ends’ and despite pleadings to the contrary continues to treat these signals as ‘traffic’. Worse still, he displays them as ‘jet aircraft’, - despite the fact that he himself has implemented a range of symbols for different traffic types, which could easily be extended to include a suitable symbol for ‘fixed or tethered objects’.

I have great respect for Tim and get on extremely well with him as a person, but unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that getting him to change his mind on this is never going to happen.

Best Regards

Peter

[mariko]

The symbol is an aircraft, but it is displayed with the name "G/STN", is it right?  So, no misunderstanding is possible.

[exfirepro]

Hi Mariko,

Point taken but here in the UK, where you are expecting to see a ‘G-XXXX’ callsign adjacent to an aircraft, it’s very easy to be caught out if an aircraft symbol with ‘G/STN’ suddenly pops up on screen near you when you aren’t expecting it.

Regards

Peter