R.A.A. Pilot certificate is it correct?

[SDQDI]

Thanks for that Maj. We aren't an affiliate so I will get that looked into and get the wheels rolling.

 

We have been slowly growing here and are slowly getting more and more people. As a point of interest, today we had organised to fly down to scone to visit Pays warbird museum and have lunch at scone aero club. The weather on the range has prevented most of us going and we had a dozen people in our clubhouse twiddling their thumbs. We do have some old aus flying mags there but an up to date supply of RAA mags would be awesome.

 

Thanks again for putting the time into finding out for us Maj

 

 

[kgwilson]

SDQDI.......I have touched base with the CEO on the free mags for FTFs and affiliated clubs. That will be the case .....he suggested if your club is not an RAAus affiliate, that you become one and then you'll recieve copies of the magazine each month......Cheers

What is the cost for a club to become affiliated? I enquired a year or 2 back & it was over $100.00 if I remember correctly & that was due to the provision of Insurance cover. We do not have an aircraft so insurance was not an issue for us but there was no other option at the time. If this is still the case it will be more cost effective to just pay the $90.00.

 

 

[kgwilson]

You can pick the high speed internet users by their disparaging remarks about people needing a paper magazine because they aren't moving with the times or they want to live in the dark ages. Thursday at 7.29pm I measured 0.11 Mbps download and 0.34Mbps upload, but that is only the beginning, if it was stable at all I would be able to depend on the pdf arriving, I used 1.1 Gb on Sunday(Took all day and half the night) trying to get a firmware update for my phone and the closest I got was 11% in about 8 attempts and still don't have anything to show for it.

You need one of these. Expensive but unless the NBN is coming soon it will take the frustration factor out of the equation. https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/iridiumgo.php

 

 

[fly_tornado]

You can pick the high speed internet users by their disparaging remarks about people needing a paper magazine because they aren't moving with the times or they want to live in the dark ages. Thursday at 7.29pm I measured 0.11 Mbps download and 0.34Mbps upload, but that is only the beginning, if it was stable at all I would be able to depend on the pdf arriving, I used 1.1 Gb on Sunday(Took all day and half the night) trying to get a firmware update for my phone and the closest I got was 11% in about 8 attempts and still don't have anything to show for it.

yeah that's the price you pay for peace and quiet.

set yourself up a big aerial and create a wifi hotspot with one of the many 3G routers on the market

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

Internet is very slow here on the farm (ADSL2 on landline)

 

The worst -

 

Test run on [*06/04/2015*] @ [*11:09 AM*], Your download speed is [*1 KB/s*] (0 MB/s),

 

The best -

 

Test run on [*18/02/2015*] @ [*09:48 AM*], Your download speed is [*45 KB/s*] (0.04 MB/s),

 

 

 

On the Telstra mobile broadband -

 

Best ever -

 

Test run on 01/01/2015 @ 08:26 AM, Your download speed is [*31 KB/s*] (0.03 MB/s)

 

The worst - being so slow it can't run the speed test.

 

 

 

We are not eligible for satellite because (according to Telstra), their mobile signal is similar to city speeds, and according to their coverage map, we should have good coverage inside and outside our house and all over the property. Reality is the signal is only in a narrow band where you have to be outside on the upper deck of our highset house to get one bar. Move 2 steps and the signal is lost. Telstra say they would not have allowed us an ADSL connection on our landline because of the distance from the exchange. NBN is not coming to our neck of the woods in the next 5 years. I travel to town to get Telstra's mobile network and do most of my downloading and surfing from there.

 

 

 

So a 35MB pdf would take 15 minutes to 9.7hrs on the landline. I can wait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fly_tornado]

that ADSL speed is terrible, I would lodge a complaint with the TIO and get them to fix it. As for your 3G, you can get a larger directional aerial and point it at your local tower and get much better speed around 150Kbps.

 

all of this stuff is fixable, if you want to fix it.

 

 

[rick-p]

Why spoil your argument with the "godless" reference. The people who are the maddest are doing it in the name of their god. and you then immediately quote a "requirement" of god with reference to food for a particular group. as a case in point.???General comment on the magazine. Believe it or not there would be people with no modern IT facilities who are otherwise quite capable of flying planes. A lot of people still read and treasure books.

I'm not particularly critical of the board decision, but they should still mail out important operational stuff to carry out their responsibilities to ALL members. The Magazine is not FULL of important information but it has been the vehicle of most of it.. Nev

Figure of speech Nev.

 

What I meant to say is that it is a real GOD Godless society not one of these used car type salesman from the Middle East.

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

that ADSL speed is terrible, I would lodge a complaint with the TIO and get them to fix it. As for your 3G, you can get a larger directional aerial and point it at your local tower and get much better speed around 150Kbps.

all of this stuff is fixable, if you want to fix it.

Tried the idea of a larger aerial, however we were advised that it would not boost the signal, just pick it up (as we do now) and make it available inside the house, or where ever we set up the base unit, so we can enjoy a weak signal without being confined to a small space. The tower is simply too far away. Telstra based their coverage on a tower that does not exist (yet). In response to constant complaints, they said there was a software glitch in it and after we repeatedly said it did not exist, they finally admitted it had not been built. Our tower is about 8km away with the signal coming through a gap in the hills.

 

 

 

At Springsure the signal drops out 5km out of town and doesn't re-emerge until 170km later down the Highway to Tambo, and then only in isolated spots. The rural areas are still way behind the rest of the country. Without the infrastructure, there is no other way to fix it.

 

 

 

IridiumGo is $850USD to buy, $50/month and $1.50 per minute for data (they say it is not ADSL speed). Try doing Windows & software updates on that.

 

 

[rankamateur]

I have a satellite dish on the roof, carried over from the transition from dial-up. It never provided much better than fast dial-up anyway. The combination of throttling the upload and download speeds and latency issues made it about twice as good as dial-up with ranged from 28.8 - 31.2 kbps. It was also impossible to get to hook up under heavy cloud or rain. Really took the fun out of watching BOM radar! When we initially transferred to wireless mobile broadband it was a considerable improvement but it has got so oversubscribed now that is only any use to chronic insomniacs.

 

 

[Oscar]

I have had a Telstra fibre-optic cable through my farm, about 40 metres from where my home office is set up, for over 20 years. But I can't get access through other than a derelict copper line that's about 3 km from the exchange! I can't get better than ADSL1. We're in a wireless black hole, I can't use the mobile phone unless I walk up the hill, unless there's heavy cloud cover. And my place is 80 km approx from Sydney, and about 2.5km from the Hume highway as the crow flies...

 

However, even on ADSL1 I can use the e-Sport Pilot. Yes, I have to be patient but it's acceptable. I would probably be inclined to chip in with commentary here, but for some really SILLY reason, I happen to think that the legality of flying RAA aircraft with / without an RAA Pilot Certificate is more damn important than bickering about access to Sport Pilot.

 

Pretty obviously, I'm on my own with that preoccupation. It seems most people here are more interested in reading about it, than actually FLYING.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Thanks for that Maj. We aren't an affiliate so I will get that looked into and get the wheels rolling.We have been slowly growing here and are slowly getting more and more people. As a point of interest, today we had organised to fly down to scone to visit Pays warbird museum and have lunch at scone aero club. The weather on the range has prevented most of us going and we had a dozen people in our clubhouse twiddling their thumbs. We do have some old aus flying mags there but an up to date supply of RAA mags would be awesome.

Thanks again for putting the time into finding out for us Maj

No problems...that's what a board member should be doing......best of luck with your club, I'll drop in when I'm down that way next.....will Prob see the Smackdown at Old Station next weekend. .....Cheers

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

What is the cost for a club to become affiliated? I enquired a year or 2 back & it was over $100.00 if I remember correctly & that was due to the provision of Insurance cover. We do not have an aircraft so insurance was not an issue for us but there was no other option at the time. If this is still the case it will be more cost effective to just pay the $90.00.

Not sure what the current cost is, it should be on the website though..if not call the office or CEO, there are more advantages to be coming affiliated than just getting a few copies of the magazine...

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

(

 

Tried the idea of a larger aerial, however we were advised that it would not boost the signal, just pick it up (as we do now) and make it available inside the house, or where ever we set up the base unit, so we can enjoy a weak signal without being confined to a small space. The tower is simply too far away. Telstra based their coverage on a tower that does not exist (yet). In response to constant complaints, they said there was a software glitch in it and after we repeatedly said it did not exist, they finally admitted it had not been built. Our tower is about 8km away with the signal coming through a gap in the hills.

 

 

At Springsure the signal drops out 5km out of town and doesn't re-emerge until 170km later down the Highway to Tambo, and then only in isolated spots. The rural areas are still way behind the rest of the country. Without the infrastructure, there is no other way to fix it.

 

Sue/Rankamateur

 

With the wireless, do you get good signal strength but poor throughput or poor signal strength as well. If the later then there are solutions available, absolutely. I oversaw the team that provided telco services to a large national organisation so I know that there are solutions available. The best choice for 3G/4G is called a mini cell, it relies on having a good quality antenna that can get line of sight to the cell tower through a directional antenna (height is your friend) and then as the name suggests acts as a cell phone base station for all your normal mobile equipment...They generally come as 2 parts, the sensitive receiver which is placed at the end of an antenna cable or where the Telstra/Optus Tech determines has the best reception of the cell base station in your property. The second is connected using usual wifi to the first and then rebroadcasts on the cell frequencies.....They are good bu MUST be set up correctly, and imho to get reasonable data transfer rates, must use a yagi antenna and not the inbuilt antenna. The Telco's will generally not allow you to set it up yourself, but rather will attend your property (at your cost) and will advise if they can work without external antenna to fix the problem, or you will need a yagi. When these are set up signal strength on your phone means nothing....It can be really strong due to the fact that it easily sees the 2nd of the 2 boxes, but if the 1st box cant easily communicate with the cell then strong or not performance will be poor.

 

From memory they are not cheap, circa $1k and the antenna from memory is also expensive, but they can make places work that otherwise would not.

 

This site has info on the devices http://www.cel-fi.com.au/ these are not boosters (which are illegal and WILL cost you heaps in fines/court costs if you use them, and the mobile phone operators are very zealous about ensuring people who have them are prosecuted)

 

We were able to get them on trial as a company and pay for them when we knew they solved problems. I suspect as an individual consumer that wont occur, however I would absolutely get written conformation that in the event that the performance improvement you get isn't worth the costs (and that is your determination not theirs) you can return them for a full/partial refund as you negotiate.

 

I also agree with FT that if your ADSL speeds are as you describe you have every right to complain and have something done. I believed that Telstra used to not install ADSL where they knew speed attained would be less than 1Mbps down, so that should be the minimum you can achieve. As an exercise do you know where your Telstra exchange is? If you do, drive the route from your home to the exchange to see what the distance is, that will determine what bandwidth theoretically you should achieve. The closer the better.... after about 6kms your in trouble as this graph from the internode website shows:-

 

 

Another thing you can do is look at your router parameters (on some form of status page) to determine what the Line attenuation the router/modem is seeing) If yfor example you know you only live 3km from the exchange but the attenuation is 80dB then you know that the line has a fault and you should be able to motivate Telstra via your ISP to fix it......

 

Andy

 

P.S The mini cell approach can fix problems , I have seen that numerous times, but if there is nothing at your site (signal wise) then this magic bullet wont be! like everything wireless your mileage may vary.

 

I wouldn't suggest that people DIY unless they understand the technology well. However saying that Telstra or Optus can do a much better job is probably true in the city's because ther will be a specialist available Im not sure how well that will work in the country...

 

I provided a link to a website that sort of explains the technology and has equipment users guides so people can see for themselves...I personally would suggest that you buy from the Telco's themselves, they can probably best match equipment and antenna's needed.

 

and lastly try here http://www.citytechnology.com.au/store/antennas/telstra-nextg-3g-4g for a list of possible antennas and rough costs....Remember when it comes to coaxial cable the shorter the run the better off you will be......A long run may loose as much in the coax as the antenna gains, so please try really hard for short runs (and a 15m cable with spare wound up to give a reach of 3m is still a long run).... While the link in this para deals with Telstra there is an equivalent link on the LH sid3e for Optus/Voda if they are your poorer choice (imho)

 

When it comes to antennas, don't go straight away for the 22dB yagi....the beam width will be very narrow so difficult to set up...Id personally try an Omni first, but remember if an Omni has a significant gain its because it cuts off signal above or below the horizontal plane..as such unless you are mounting on a flat surface such that the antenna is perfectly upright it probably wont work (thinking of a magnetic mount on a 22degree tin roof as an example of a possible problem)

 

 

[ev17ifly2]

If you have no access to ADSL and poor wireless you then have the option of govt subsidised satellite broadband.

 

Currently not as fast as the other two but is fairly reliable

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

I personally would be keen to see if I could make 3G /4G or ADSL work in preference to Satellite...generally Satellite is over subscribed and the bandwidth rates achieved at night may well be total crap.....Best bet would be to try at 4am in the morning when the satellite wont have the full (over) load on it

 

Andy

 

 

[rankamateur]

you then have the option of govt subsidised satellite broadband.Currently not as fast as the other two but is fairly reliable

Been there, it ain't a pretty option. One of the biggest issues with all these substandard internet options is that web page designers squander capacity on high definition images just because they can and everyone has broadband don't they. It should be compulsory to have programmed a Commodore 64 before putting up a web page. That way every bit would be carefully considered.

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

Andy,

 

On the farm we get (if we are lucky) one bar on the mobile, so poor signal from 8km (as the crow flies) on the other side of the hills. Telstra shop said they would never allow us to have ADSL on our landline (we went through TPG before we got that advice). At Springsure we are within 1-2km of the exchange, but our copper wire is woeful. It was to be replaced with the wireless NBN last year, but change of Govt and we missed out to more populated areas. Doubt it will be upgraded now. Not eligible for satellite on the farm (even though both Telstra services - mobile and landline - are too slow), Telstra still claims the mobile service is "city speeds".

 

 

 

I go to town with the dongle to get service.

 

Sue

 

 

[ev17ifly2]

Gee Sue I thought we had it bad. Even though we have satellite Andy is right, bloody woeful at peak times.

 

Our copper also went in the ground when Alexander Bell was a lad and every farmer in the road has dug it up a couple of times since so the ADSL electrons can't make it from the exchange.

 

Av8or

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Andy,

On the farm we get (if we are lucky) one bar on the mobile, so poor signal from 8km (as the crow flies) on the other side of the hills. Telstra shop said they would never allow us to have ADSL on our landline (we went through TPG before we got that advice). At Springsure we are within 1-2km of the exchange, but our copper wire is woeful. It was to be replaced with the wireless NBN last year, but change of Govt and we missed out to more populated areas. Doubt it will be upgraded now. Not eligible for satellite on the farm (even though both Telstra services - mobile and landline - are too slow), Telstra still claims the mobile service is "city speeds".

 

 

 

I go to town with the dongle to get service.

 

Sue

then maybe the mini cell might be the right tool for the job...

Heres a review that aligns with my experiences http://www.digitalreviews.net/reviews/mobile-devices/poor-mobile-coverage-at-home-the-telstra-cel-fi-smart-antenna-solution.html

 

Andy

 

 

[fly_tornado]

Sue we looked at doing rural broadband when Optus first released decent wholesale pricing back in 2010, we could get 10kms with an antenna wired into a USB modem, just using google maps, a handheld compass and a bit of patience. But the problem was dealing with the country folk, an hour on the phone trying to get them to do basic stuff and you where ready to stick a fork in your eye.

 

 

[DonRamsay]

In the light of these awful experiences I'll keep quiet about living 400 metres from the exchange and get respectable speeds most of the time. A couple of years ago when we lived more than 5 kms from an exchange we got ADSL 1 at yo to 3.5 Mbps. Now we average 15 mbps. The NBN is due within 12 months but won't make a lot of difference.

 

The recent webcast of the GM from Cessnock was interesting. The technician had two antennae and a fancy looking 4G modem. He was getting >60 Mbps down and >25 Mbps up. According to the Telstra map, he was outside the 4G area but the antennas made reception good and speeds like greased lightning.

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Don

 

He was using multiple 3G/4G modems and consolidating the bandwidth into one complete solution.

 

I know electronics isn't your thing, but something like the TP-Link TL-R480T Router when configured right and used with up to 4 x 3G Modems in a reasonable coverage area can, with the right type of internet services, be combined into 4 x what ever you can get with a single service.

 

The type of thing you are then doing on the internet will determine whether you then see 4 x the speed or just 1 x the speed. Downloading a single file using your browser would, for example probably only see 1 x the speed, using any form of torrent solution or anything that has multiple concurrent downloads of small sections of the file will see 4 x the speed available.

 

But the reason he got fast per modem speeds was the external antennas...4 x crap is still crap, and internal 3G/4G antennas are fit for purpose, but using all that the cell can throw at you isn't that purpose generally speaking.

 

Andy

 

 

[rankamateur]

I go to town with the dongle to get service.

That's not a very nice way to talk about your husband Sue.

 

 

[rick-p]

I have found that the most reliable system for use where we are is 2 IXL jam tins (empty of course) and number 10 string. It is only restricted by distance but has another use also, it can act as an arrestor hook for when they deliver the magazine by airmail

 

 

[DonRamsay]

. . . I know electronics isn't your thing . . .

Au contraire! While not in your league Andy, after I finished my Commerce Degree, I went to TAFE and did a Radio Trades course. Sadly, I had to pull out after just 18 months of the 3 year course but I certainly enjoyed it. I had an interest in things electrical and electronic from early childhood starting when I cut through a 240V extension cable with a pair of (uninsulated) garden secateurs and lived to tell the tale.

 

. . . But the reason he got fast per modem speeds was the external antennas . . .

That is exactly what he told me on the day. However, had he attempted to use the antennae from the western side of the Clubroom, he would have got nothing. It was at my suggestion that he set up on the Eastern side and direct his antennae to the North East towards the 4G tower.