

You should not be surprised that the results vary from run to run - especially if the calibrating aircraft are relatively few and especially if they are not well distributed over the whole of the mutual coverage area. In any case, depending on the distribution of ADS-B aircraft in that overlap area during your log recording, the results may be more or less representative of the actual position. If your coverage only covers a small arc of the radar site's beam, then the uncertainties in the analysis become very large and the results will be less useful. The analysis result is more likely to be a good approximation to the actual position if your receiver coverage and that of the site in question, overlap to a large extent. You need to draw on other information as well. The analysis does not give you the answer on a plate - but it does provide one source of information about the possible whereabouts of the sites in question. Having run a log of the radar identifier pings, you can then use the Tools, Radar site analysis, Analyse radar site ping log to get an estimate of the location of a radar site. The Help file entry for Beamfinder has been substantially rewritten to refect the new methodology but, as a picture is worth a thousand words, I have also made a (rather long) video ( ) showing the complete process all the way from creating the reference file ("radar.txt") from scratch, to putting it to use within PlanePlotter It you don't do that, you will be disappointed that nothing has been saved to file. It only saves the data to file when you have decided exactly where the radar head is located and have performed Ctrl-click on the chosen spot. In my experience, which you may not share, dongle-based receivers do not perform well in this application.Įxisting users of the Beamfinder method need to be alerted to the fact that, unlike earlier versions, when creating the "radar.txt" precursor file, this release does not save the first draft of the calculated radar site position. I have found that the SBS-3, Beast and PlaneFinder receivers all give excellent results with the Beamfinder method. I should mention that Beamfinder requires the maximum performance from the receiver, in order to pick up pings that are close together. If you are far away from other GS, Beamfinder is the next best thing as it relies only on your signal reception and nobody else. It is not as accurate as Multilateration (Mlat) but it does not require other Ground Stations in your area. Beamfinder is a method of locating aircraft that are not transmitting position. Most of the changes refer to the Beamfinder method and specifically to the tools provided to create the calibration file required for the Beamfinder function. The following is the release note from Bev: Significant changes to Beamfinder were introduced in v6.5.7.7 of Planeplotter (released April 2022). Please do look at these extra resources as well as the following information.
PLANEPLOTTER TRACK BY AIRPORT PLUS
There is a video tutorial from Bev on setting up Beamfinder plus S here, and there is a tutorial in the Plane Plotter Help, see: Help, Help Topics, Contents, Tutorials, Beamfinding &c.
PLANEPLOTTER TRACK BY AIRPORT SOFTWARE
Currently only The Mode-S Beast and Kinetic SBS-3 allow this, although the RTL receiver dongle and the dump1090 software allow this, and the RTL1090 software can be used as well.įor Beamfinder Plus S all receivers except the AirNav Radar Box are suitable. Currently the SBS-1e (with firmware upgrade), SBS-3, PlaneGadget Radar, AVR, Mode-S Beast, miniADSB, microADSB, and SSRx receivers allow use of the Beamfinder facility.įor Beamfinder Plus, you need a receiver also capable of capturing the mode A/C transponder pings. How are the different message types used in the Beamfinder functions?įor Beamfinder, you will need Plane Plotter with a suitable receiver.What does the Display Ping Log file show for pulse rates?.Should I include entries in Radar.txt for the multiple PRFs I see?.Why do I see multiple PRFs from the same site?.Does the intensity of the line in the "u" window relate to the strength of the pings?.Why are the entries in the "z" list apparently in a random order?.

Do radars from the same manufacturer have the same PRF?.I see quite a list of PRFs when the "z" key is pressed, but some are quite similar?.Beamfinder Plus works, but I can't locate sites for Beamfinder!.What does the Display Ping Log file show for identifiers?.I've spent a lot of time analysing data, but I get different results each time.I get very inconsistent results all the time.Why may numbers of beams differ widely?.
