Where did the Pucks go?

[Dave_EGDR]

Think Kinetic now need to be looking at Hardware & Software as two separate products.  There would be a good market for BaseStation Lite on its own working with third party hardware.

The they can sell cheaper hardware (puck) that has its own version of BaseStation Basic with either more features than the stand-alone.  Follow this up with the full blown package of SBS-3 and BaseStation Enhanced

[Anmer]

I agree but the tracking websites are are eating into the software market too.

Flightradar24's RadarView is a good example.

[Watson-Watt]

I wonder if it's a question of pricing?

We've all discovered the wonders of 10 quid TV dongles.

Perhaps in order to justify a price of hundreds of pounds there's been a frenzy of adding value to them, hence the seemingly unreasonable delay.

At Christmas I would have bought a Puck without hesitation. Now in the light of the dongles, I won't....unless they can give me something the dongles can't.

Just my tuppence worth's

I think that you have hit the nail squarely on the head.

I've just looked at the invoice for my SBS-1 bought in November 2007.
I paid £389.23 (inc VAT) and shuddered as I did so. I believe that, up until then, the price had been £499, the reduction being a response to Airnav's box appearing on the scene.

I like my SBS-1 and being able to choose various add-ons, outlines etc has allowed me to tailor it to my requirements. However, nothing lasts forever so in the event of it expiring, I won't under any circumstances buy anything as costly again. I think that a £10 dongle, despite the complicated configuring required, would be about as much as I would pay.

[IanH]

despite the complicated configuring required

Not so complicated IF it all works ok. Install USB drivers (Zadig), run ADSB software of choice to collect signal from dongle (on Windows: RTL1090 or ADSB# ) and set up display software (PlanePlotter, GlobeS, etc).

If Zadig fails to install the USB drivers, that's where it can all fall apart but I've only had that on one of about half a dozen test installations. For the rest there are walk throughs and videos to help.

Looking at the pleas for help on various forums, it seems that people buy the dongles expecting them to work out of the box and sometimes not even sure what they can do.

So a Puck with software ready to go will suit those people (maybe even a Radarbox!).

Or has been suggested previously a version of BaseStation for sale to work with a dongle to provide the decoder and display in one package

[Watson-Watt]

Thanks for your response, Ian.

After my posting yesterday, I thought that it might be worth having a go so I splashed out £11.99* on one of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009VBUYA0/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'll give it a whirl and see how it goes.

All the best,

W-W

* That should get the economy back on its feet.

[Anmer]

After my posting yesterday, I thought that it might be worth having a go so I splashed out £11.99* on one of these:

When it arrives, carefully follow these "instructions" and avoid installing the wrong drivers.

http://www.flightradar24.com/dvbt-stick

[Watson-Watt]

Thanks for that, Mike. I've had a quick look and it seems just the job!

Much obliged.

W-W