Video review: Scout vs. Stratus 2S ADS-B receivers
1 min read
What’s the difference between the Scout and Stratus 2S portable ADS-B receivers for ForeFlight? Both offer subscription-free weather and traffic, but there are major differences in features and price. We go flying with both to explain how they compare.
Scout vs. Stratus 2S ADS-B receivers.
I have a much more cautionary and concerned view about Scout than the video alluded to. And I have told ForeFlight about this (since they were pushing Scout on their booth at Oshkosh this past summer). I was given the following statement by ForeFlight: “Our pre-release testing of the Scout and the feedback from other pilots who have flown with it since launch has not revealed any consistent issue like you described.”
Here is what I said to ForeFlight “As an instructor on a dual flight, I flew a helicopter from Wisconsin to Arizona after EAA Oshkosh 2017 on Monday 7/31 and Tuesday 8/1 at an average of 2000ft – 3000ft AGL. We had two portable ADS-B dual band receivers and a panel mounted G500H with ADS-B In. The two portables were a Stratux unit assembled by the commercial student pilot, and a Scout purchased from the Avionics shop on the ForeFlight Stand in Hangar C at during Oshkosh week.
During all phases of the two day 1300nm flight, the Stratux showed traffic that the Scout failed to display. The Stratux would show many more targets inside 10nm than the Scout. Worryingly even within 5 mm the Stratux would display targets not shown by the Scout.
The Scout only occasionally displayed any ADS-B towers and consequently, for nearly all the flight we had no ADS-B In weather. The Stratux would often show as many as two and sometimes three ADS-B towers ‘similar to the G500H’ when Scout showed none.
I tried moving the Scout receiver with its antenna around the helicopter bubble canopy but it made no difference. The Stratux sat on the back seat.
The only possible conclusion is that Scout is a significantly inferior “ADS-B In” box compared to the portable dual band Stratux. In my opinion its performance was below acceptable.
Indeed, the Scout appears to me to be positively dangerous in that it failed to display close in traffic. In my opinion ForeFlight should immediately, and as a matter of priority, publish warnings about its shortcomings and that it cannot be relied on to show nearby traffic.”
The lack of weather could be an issue for some pilots, but on this flight we were much more concerned by its poor performance on traffic information.
Well, to start, the scout is a single band rx and the Stratus is a dual band rx so the comparison is invalid to start. Furthermore, without an ADS-B out transponder and only a single band ADS-B reciever such as the scout you should have known that your reception of ANY traffic contacts would be severly limited. IMHO as an informed pilot you should be aware of the technical limitations of using this device in such a configuration and know that it would only be a very minor aid to monitoring traffic near your position and should not rely on it AT ALL as a reliable source of traffic info. All that being said, if you were in fact operating with an ADS-B out transponder and still had such poor performance then your concern is valid. Otherwise, not so much…
That’s not actually correct – the Scout is a dual band receiver, just like the Stratus 2S.