February 6 2021
I received a portable ADSB receiver for Christmas, now it is time to install into the Q2. This is a portable unit (Stratux) from "Sky Dog Electronics" "and came with a battery pack and external GPS puck. You can buy the unit as a kit or as a completed ready to uses unit. The unit works as a receiver only and I do not have a ADSB out unit in my airplane. In Canada however this is all a moot point since ADSB is not in wide use here. There are no ground stations in Canada broadcasting weather, Notams or Radar. So what is it good for? For giving the pilot a better view of the airplanes that are flying in the airspace you are flying in. A note of caution here though is that it will NOT show airplanes that are transmitting a 1200 transponder code, those you will still have to be on the look out for. Going into the USA though you will receive more traffic and get weather. I am using the "Stratux" and picking up it's WiFi signal on my Samsung S2 Tablet and all is working very well. After doing some testing I found that it will show all traffic that has ADSB out as well as any airplane that is transmitting with a Mode S transponder. This covers quite a few that would be in my airspace. I did some testing at home and found that there were many aircraft that I could not find with my eyes only. I live 5 miles from and active airport with lots of small aircraft traffic and training going on. It was quite a surprise how many I could not find easily. Traffic can be filtered so you only see traffic within say 2000 feet altitude and it will give you color coded examples if they get to close. So this is a inexpensive traffic observation tool you can add easily. Should you be a frequent US flyer you can add a ADSB Out unit when needed.
