PowerFlarm Unit Testing - Portable-PF-In-A-Box

FYI...

Britton Bluedorn's Portable PowerFlarm in a box:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yjzhe8wgo...jIrESm4Fa?dl=0

was of IMMENSE help and an efficient cost effective way to test the transmit/receive radiation pattern or range of your installed PF Core unit. Fortunately, he is my neighbor and loaned me the unit.

I hope that this will help others out there as well.

Walt Rogersw WX

On Monday, August 22, 2016 at 8:21:09 PM UTC-4, WaltWX wrote:
FYI...

Britton Bluedorn's Portable PowerFlarm in a box:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yjzhe8wgo...jIrESm4Fa?dl=0

was of IMMENSE help and an efficient cost effective way to test the transmit/receive radiation pattern or range of your installed PF Core unit. Fortunately, he is my neighbor and loaned me the unit.

I hope that this will help others out there as well.

Walt Rogersw WX

Very interesting, I think I can guess how you use this, but I'd rather have a description of your test procedure and love to see your data.

BTW on a similar note, flarm.com will give you a range analysis purely in Horizontal 2D. This is probably the most important for anticollision, however I would be curious to also see the vertical range analysis - a side view instead of top view to to see if the pattern is good above and below.

Chris

FYI, Steve Koerner gets all the credit for thinking of the portable box tester. I just followed through with his recommendations. see link below for history:

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec....0/op6SYmVEcmkJ

On Monday, August 22, 2016 at 11:06:47 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Monday, August 22, 2016 at 8:21:09 PM UTC-4, WaltWX wrote:
FYI...

Britton Bluedorn's Portable PowerFlarm in a box:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yjzhe8wgo...jIrESm4Fa?dl=0

was of IMMENSE help and an efficient cost effective way to test the transmit/receive radiation pattern or range of your installed PF Core unit. Fortunately, he is my neighbor and loaned me the unit.

I hope that this will help others out there as well.

Walt Rogersw WX

Very interesting, I think I can guess how you use this, but I'd rather have a description of your test procedure and love to see your data.

BTW on a similar note, flarm.com will give you a range analysis purely in Horizontal 2D. This is probably the most important for anticollision, however I would be curious to also see the vertical range analysis - a side view instead of top view to to see if the pattern is good above and below.

Chris

@Chris - the beam pattern for a half dipole is maximum at 90 degrees and minimum above and below - think of a tire. See the 1/2 wave dipole antenna wiki at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipole_antenna . See the radiation pattern demo about halfway down.

This also shows why the antenna should be vertical in the installation; otherwise, you aren't getting the maximum range in the horizontal - where the max warning is most useful...

On Tuesday, August 23, 2016 at 10:33:00 AM UTC-4, Dan Daly wrote:
...the beam pattern for a half dipole is maximum at 90 degrees
and minimum above and below - think of a tire.

Nah, think of a DONUT!
Much better, mmmm...

See the 1/2 wave dipole antenna wiki at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipole_antenna
See the radiation pattern demo about halfway down.