I just got my FlightBox, powered it up and an am seeing high altitude traffic on ForeFlight but no weather information. What’s wrong?
It sounds like you’re testing out your new FlightBox on the ground. Unless you’re very close to an ADS-B ground tower you won’t receive any weather information. Here’s the full story:
ADS-B weather is transmitted from FAA ground towers over the 978 MHz UAT frequency. Because UAT is intended for in-flight use, the towers are configured to send the signal up and out. You normally won’t be able to receive from any ground towers until you’re at least a few hundred feet in the air. In some remote parts of the country you’ll need to be several thousand feet up. This is because the UAT system is “line-of-sight” - you basically need a clear path between your aircraft and the tower to receive.
If you get up to altitude - say 3000’ AGL - and your still not getting any weather you will want to check the status of your FlightBox using either the onboard web app or the FlightBox mobile app. You want to make sure that you’re receiving UAT messages and that you’re linked with one or more tower. If you have a UAT message count in the hundreds and have one or more tower linked, you should be getting weather data.
If you’re not getting UAT messages or linked to any tower you might need to:
- Check that your antennas are tightly connected
- Make sure you have the antennas connected to the right jacks on the box
- Check the placement of your FlightBox in the aircraft
- Verify that your FlightBox is connected to a 2+ amp power supply
- Verify that you’re using a high capacity (22 gauge+) power cable
- If using a battery, make sure it has a solid charge