Another newbie question

[Southwest]

Am I right in saying that flights marked with a * are networked ones?

If so, why is it that quite a number of the flights that appear well within my polar diagram are marked with a *?  Just had two aircraft almost side by side, one had the * and the other one didn't.

Sorry if this is a basic "der, you should know the answer to that one" question.

[AirNav Support]

Yes they are the network flights. Your Polar diagram does not know about height, for instance you could be getting certain aircraft via your antenna which at at FL300 but the ones at 3000ft in the area could be blocked by hills and hence shown via the network.

[Southwest]

Thanks for the quick answer, I can understand about low and high altitude.

However, the two flights I mentioned in my thread were at FL330 and FL350, one had the asterisk and the other didn't, I just couldn't get my head around that one.

[flanker]

Southwest, it is possible that even the height difference between FL330 & FL350 could make the difference between you receiving an aircraft or not, especially if it's close to the edge of your reception range. I wouldn't worry about it being anything wrong with your RB. I see quite noticeable differences in reception on different days - maybe due to weather conditions etc. although some on the forum may not believe that transmissions in the 1090MHz range could be affected in this way.

[Southwest]

Cheers Flankler,as you can see from the original post both aircraft were 'well within my polar diagram, meaning they were slap bang in the middle of it.

Oh well, one of those technology moments I'll have to put up with.

Have a great weekend