AirNav RadarBox
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CalebATC
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1- Depends. If you are willing to spend another $150 for a DPD antenna along with some good feedline for it. There isn't too terribly much aircraft in the US that use ADS-B, although you will see it increase as 2020 comes when it will be mandatory. Also, very few general aviation (Cessnas, Pipers, etc) transponders use 1090 with Mode-S or ADS-B. They use a different frequency which will probably be one day included in these radar boxes. If you have a bad location (large hill, in a hole, etc) it could really effect it.
2- Again, depends what you think. I usually have 4 aircraft at a time that have ADS-B (you can see them moving), and up to 10 at one time. If I lived out of the mountains, I am sure it would be better. And that is 25' AGL on a tower with RG-8U.
The two have nothing in common with hearing ATC. But, if you hear the planes in TRACON and tower pretty good- chances are you will have great coverage of JFK!
Unless you have a good amount of money you don't mind spending, I wouldn't recommended it. It is more popular over in Europe and those areas where ADS-B is required for IFR flights. On one thing we are outdated!
2- Again, depends what you think. I usually have 4 aircraft at a time that have ADS-B (you can see them moving), and up to 10 at one time. If I lived out of the mountains, I am sure it would be better. And that is 25' AGL on a tower with RG-8U.
The two have nothing in common with hearing ATC. But, if you hear the planes in TRACON and tower pretty good- chances are you will have great coverage of JFK!
Unless you have a good amount of money you don't mind spending, I wouldn't recommended it. It is more popular over in Europe and those areas where ADS-B is required for IFR flights. On one thing we are outdated!
Don't bother with RadarBox. It doesn't support MLAT (which is becoming a very desirable feature) and also it's a/c and routes database is seriously flawed.
The best ADSB (Box) is the Kinetic SBS1er for around the same $$$ as Radarbox and even features a built in aircraft band Rx as well as ACARS decoding.
Next is the PlaneGadgets Radar known as PGR2 and this only works with PlanePlotter software but is half the price of RadarBox and SBS1er but also supports MLAT.
Not all ADSB equipped aircraft transmit all the necessary info, and MLAT is a way of using triangulation among people all using PlanePlotter to get a 'fix' on some of these aircraft that would otherwise go un-noticed. Many military flights are plotted using MLAT.
RadarBox cannot do this and probably never will be able to as its a hardware/firmware feature in the box itself that needs to be up to the task of the special data protocol and accuracy required.
Airnav are also notoriously hard to deal with, and frequently ban many of their own customers from their RadarBox forum, simply for the smallest critisism of their product.
Regards your question about not being able to hear the controller, No, you won't be able to hear the controller with RadarBox. RadarBox (and the other two I mentioned) are simply ADSB Receivers that plot aircraft on a map and do nothing else. Except SBS1.er as that has a built in Airband Receiver but probably only as good as what you are currently using. All the ADSB boxes come with software that lets you visually see the aircraft superimposed and moving on a map complete with flight details, Alt, Airspeed, Heading, Aircraft Type etc.
The reason you hear the aircraft ok and not the controller, is that these are line of sight signals and you hear the aircraft as they are at altitude with better line of sight to your Rx, whereas, the conrtoller being on the ground somewhere is not going to be picked up unless you happen to be very close to him/her, say at the airport itself.
Hope all this helps.
PS, There are a few other ADSB 'Boxes' around as well as the ones mentioned. Aurora is another and there is a Micro ADSB (USB Stick) that sells for around $100.00 from some manufacturer in Bulgaria. Suggest yo do a search for what's available.
The best ADSB (Box) is the Kinetic SBS1er for around the same $$$ as Radarbox and even features a built in aircraft band Rx as well as ACARS decoding.
Next is the PlaneGadgets Radar known as PGR2 and this only works with PlanePlotter software but is half the price of RadarBox and SBS1er but also supports MLAT.
Not all ADSB equipped aircraft transmit all the necessary info, and MLAT is a way of using triangulation among people all using PlanePlotter to get a 'fix' on some of these aircraft that would otherwise go un-noticed. Many military flights are plotted using MLAT.
RadarBox cannot do this and probably never will be able to as its a hardware/firmware feature in the box itself that needs to be up to the task of the special data protocol and accuracy required.
Airnav are also notoriously hard to deal with, and frequently ban many of their own customers from their RadarBox forum, simply for the smallest critisism of their product.
Regards your question about not being able to hear the controller, No, you won't be able to hear the controller with RadarBox. RadarBox (and the other two I mentioned) are simply ADSB Receivers that plot aircraft on a map and do nothing else. Except SBS1.er as that has a built in Airband Receiver but probably only as good as what you are currently using. All the ADSB boxes come with software that lets you visually see the aircraft superimposed and moving on a map complete with flight details, Alt, Airspeed, Heading, Aircraft Type etc.
The reason you hear the aircraft ok and not the controller, is that these are line of sight signals and you hear the aircraft as they are at altitude with better line of sight to your Rx, whereas, the conrtoller being on the ground somewhere is not going to be picked up unless you happen to be very close to him/her, say at the airport itself.
Hope all this helps.
PS, There are a few other ADSB 'Boxes' around as well as the ones mentioned. Aurora is another and there is a Micro ADSB (USB Stick) that sells for around $100.00 from some manufacturer in Bulgaria. Suggest yo do a search for what's available.
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