PowerFlarm users are not able to use this tool as our units do not
produce an IGC file at this point. I have a PowerFlarm brick installed
in an ASW27 and my range seems to be 4KM which is plenty for collision
avoidance, pcas and adsb ranges are definitely reduced as compared to
the portable unit that I had previously.

Luke Szczepaniak



On 10/01/2012 12:24 PM, Kimmo Hytoenen wrote:
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.