Mark,
If the aerial is well installed, so that the "visibility" is equal in all
directions, I believe that 2-3 miles range is good. If someone
can see another glider from distance of 6 miles, then AFAIK the
antenna gain is strong into that direction, but weak in other
directions. In you make a directional antenna, you lost the
performance in all other directions. The antennas delivered with
FLARM are omni-directional, so the range analysis is spherical in
optimum case.
Have you used
http://www.flarm.com/support/analyze/index_en.html
to analyze the range?
-kh
At 15:56 01 October 2012, Mark wrote:
Three members at my club (self included) have installed
PowerFlarm bricks
r=
ecently. We carefully read and have complied with the
antenna separation
r=
equirements in the manual. As is stands currently, the
maximum xperienced
=
communication range (Flarm to Flarm) is about 2.2 miles and it
frequently
d=
rops out around 1.3-1.5 miles. Regarding PCAS operation, the
only alert I
=
have received using the PowerFlarm Brick has been the
towplane at a
distanc=
e of about 1000-1500 feet lateraly, same altitude. At the same
time my
Zao=
n PCAS alerted to the same towplane at a range of 2+ miles
and 1000 feet
be=
low.
The three gliders are a Ventus 1, Discus 2, and a PIK. All
three seem to
b=
e experiencing the same issues with very poor range. Emails
to FLARM have
=
seemed to fall on deaf ears. We're curious if we're the only
ones or if
ot=
hers are also seeing the same issues with BRICKS. We've
heard plenty from
=
portable users who are reporting 6+ miles Flarm to Flarm and
PCAS alerts
ap=
proaching 5 miles. If changes to the installation will fix this,
great!
W=
e just need to know what to change. The US dealer has seen
pics of our
ins=
tallation and says the antenna installations look good. They
are all on
th=
e top of the glare shields so should be excellent visibility. We'd
like
th=
is to work, but if there is no option to improve the performance
then
sendi=
ng the stuff back is certainly on the table. More testing this
weekend,
bu=
t at the moment it's not looking good.