Boost PowerFLARM Range with Better Antenna?

I didn't really look at this thread much, as I have 2 antennas and didn't think that was my issue.

But many of us seem to have a range issue - I can see a friend's glider for about 2 miles (similar to the stealth mode range) then he disappears - but I can see a 747 40 miles away and 15,000 ft above me.

PF is becoming like SPOT - it was something everyone was on board with and now more and more I hear pilots spreading negative experiences. This will not help safety and PF.

I am amazed I have not seen anything from the manufacturer telling us how to fix the issue. (they have my email address and I have written them about the issue........)

WH

On 8/4/2016 11:15 AM, WaltWX wrote:
He suggested I swap out my PF core with a known good one. Perhaps the receiver is faulty. That would account for my friends seeing my PF on their displays just fine... but I'm not getting reliable received PF tracks. Finding a local "friend" to swap out their PF core may be difficult since these are the same people I have to fly with to test things in the air.
Walt, give the above a try, anyway. If it's your receiver that's
faulty, the problem will move to the other glider.

You probably already knew that...
--
Dan, 5J

OK, sorry to point out the "obvious" to some here.

When crossing power and data wiring, at least make it close to 90* to limit signal/power EMI crossover.
DON'T run power next to data.
Twisted pair wiring is good.
If shielded, ONLY GROUND ONE END.
If grounding, try to use a single ground point (to avoid ground loops, thus noise......).

In general, low power (battery loads and/or transmit swamping) is close wiring. Follow basic ideas and limit some issues.

FYI...

An update from "WX" Walt Rogers...

After contemplating my poor or nonexistant range detection with my PF even though my buddy pilot PF sees my Flarm just fine, I've decided to do more detective work on transmit range versus receive range.

First, Dan... thanks for the suggestion to swap PFs with a friend and do a fly off. I checked with my neighbor here in Palmdale, CA, Britton Bluedorn and although he's willing to do a swap of our core PFs, both are schedules make it very difficult to do a fly off. Perhaps by the end of the season, we'll get around to it. Since my PF is providing good range to other PF gliders and warnings to them, keeping my PF in the ship for the 2016 season makes sense. It seems like I do get a PF warning when in very close encounter with another glider. So, I'll probably keep flying it through the season and after convinced it's a hardware receiver defect, send back the unit for repair/replacement.

My neighbor, Britton Bluedorn has set up a portable PF installed in a easily carried box than can be used for signal strength with PFs. He's attenuated the transmit/receive so that very short distance checks can verify differences in PF detection both to the transmit and receive performance. I'll be playing around with that in the next few days and report back my results.

Perhaps this problem with failed or greatly reduced PF receiver chip performance is more widespread than we realize.

Walt Rogers WX

"WX" Update on range performance...

Interesting note. Here are the cumulative Nationals competition FLARM Analysis performance average range:

2014 - Montague 15M Nats - 7.0km
2015 - Hobbs Club Class Opens - 2.2km
2016 - Nephi Std Open 15M - 0.5 km (approx - will recalculate soon)

This shows a steady decline... hmmmm PF receiver sensitivity degradation?

No changes in antennae location or coax layout during this period.

I will recalculate my Moriarty NM Super Regions PF performance for 2013 later...

Walt Rogers WX

Over the last two weeks I think that my PF Core transmission range problem has been resolved. As with many of these PF problems, it appears to be a combination of factors, errors and reception/transmission problems with other PF equipped gliders. Just remember... the PF equipped glider you may be testing with... may have it's own problems. My recommendation is to get a Portable PF In-A-Box with an attenuator to test your ship's PF on the ground. Also, try resetting the unit with $PFLAR,99 and reloading a CORRECT FLARMCFG.TXT file.

If you go back to my earlier posts in "Boost PowerFLARM Range with Better Antenna?" you will notice that I had terrible detection range issues during the Nephi Nationals 2016... averaging 0.5-1km detection range for all days. It seemed as if my PF was in Stealth Mode, but I could not confirm this from the settings on my Butterfly display. After a consultation with Richard at CraggyAero, he noticed an error in my FLARMCFG.TXT which would have prevented the unit from using default setting. Then I discovered Luke's recommendation to run the $PFLAR,99 command which reset the PF, then reloading a correct FLARMCFG.TXT.

This probably solved the problem, but I was unable to verify it on the next comparison flight with Jim Staniforth's "JS" ASG-29. Unfortunately, it appears (based on a subsequent test with a ground Portable PF unit), that Jim's PF was not transmitting. He was able to SEE my PF... but I could not see him.

A week later I tested my PF Core in the ship by using my friend, Britton Bluedorn's Portable-PF-in-a-box unit and discovered that my transmit range from the ship PF was working ok... testing at about 5.8nm range. Here's a description on his box:

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

A week after that, I flew with two different PF Core equipped gliders. The FLARM analysis showed decent range of detection varying between 3-14km.

Go figure!

Walt Rogers "WX"