Hi to the Forum!
Well as promised after been the winner of the Forum's Transponder Mouse Competition I have put together a few photos and some thoughts on this receiver.
I would first like to thank Dan and the other members of the Forum for all the help and advise which gets posted on the boards everyday. Although I am not a big poster I do visit most days to keep up-to-date with the current goings on!
I would also like to say that I am no Tech person so for all on the Forum who love the more technical posts my apologies in advance!
On receiving the Transponder Mouse in the post I was first very surprised at the size which is very compact. The unit feels very solid and well built. As the TM is basically a pre-built Beast my first job was to make sure I was running the latest Firmware version on the TM. By visiting the following website:
http://www.modesbeast.com/I was able to update to the latest Firmware using the excellent instructions on the site. Once this was done I proceeded to install the TM by connecting to my antenna (SSE-1090SJ mk 2) which is sited in the loft of my home. The TM will stay in the loft as this keeps the coax length to about five meters. I am then using a USB Extender over Cat5 cable to enable the TM to connect to my PC.
I went though the usual of making note of the COM port number in the device manager of WinXP and making sure that all settings were correct in PlanePlotter as suggested on modesbeast.com website.
On clicking the started button in PP, I must be honest, I nearly fell off the my chair in surprise! The screen showed a massive 110+ aircraft, which for an indoor antenna I though was outstanding!
The photos on the post also show a plot I did using SBSPlotter.
So my final thoughts are that I am extremely happy with my new toy! However, for anyone who is handy with a soldering iron I would buy the kit version of this excellent receiver as the TM is the same and you will save yourself around 150€!
In my view anyone who buys either the TM or the kit version you will not be disappointed. I can't wait to get my antenna on the roof!!
Most Kindest Regards,
Andrew Hall.
