Plane Spotters / Flight Radar Thread

miller745 · 9 Apr 2017 at 11:51

Having nothing but frustration with my ADSB setup at the minute! Every time I move the pi to do something the aerial performance seems to go off a cliff.

As you can see I've had the aerial sweet as a nut for the last few days until adding a POE HAT to the pi last night, now I can't get it back to how it was

Frustrating when you know what should be getting seen!

If i play with how far the aerial is screwed on, I do see brief glimpses of aircraft but they vanish after a few moments. Had this problem with every aerial so I'm wondering if something is up with the usb stick, any ideas of what I can do/check?

neodude · 9 Apr 2017 at 12:19

What kind of antenna and dongle are you using?

miller745 · 9 Apr 2017 at 13:39

I stole Feek's idea of a two element j-pole collinear, it's going straight into a flightaware pro plus stick.

neodude · 9 Apr 2017 at 15:11

Sounds like an intermittent connection somewhere.

miller745 · 9 Apr 2017 at 17:04

Must be, but I've got continuity on the antenna and connector no matter what I do to it

shrek2 · 11 Apr 2017 at 05:42

Is there any way of listening to UK ATC? The yanks allow it and we know how paranoid they are about security.
I don't see why we don't.

Scuzi · 11 Apr 2017 at 06:20

shrek2 said:
Is there any way of listening to UK ATC? The yanks allow it and we know how paranoid they are about security.
I don't see why we don't.

Wireless telegraphy act makes it illegal. The benefit for us is it's nice to know a recording of our voices and actions won't end up on the Daily Mail website being misinterpreted.
On a personal level I have no problem with the general public listening in. In fact, there's a couple of YouTube videos with my voice on it. If there was a middle ground where it was okay to listen in but there were restrictions on recording and publishing, I and most of my colleagues would be fine with that.

Feek · 23 Jul 2017 at 14:52

I've built a new receiver for this, a Raspberry Pi3 mounted in a box with a Pro Stick Plus receiver and an additional FA bandpass filter with the FA 26" aerial. It's mounted 10m up on the top of my main radio mast and in the total clear. It's fed with a length of CAT6 and PoE so there's no coax involved with the associated loss.

Currently receiving around 350 aircraft using it - About 80 more than my receiver in the loft.

neodude · 23 Jul 2017 at 18:14

Scuzi said:
Wireless telegraphy act makes it illegal. The benefit for us is it's nice to know a recording of our voices and actions won't end up on the Daily Mail website being misinterpreted.
On a personal level I have no problem with the general public listening in. In fact, there's a couple of YouTube videos with my voice on it. If there was a middle ground where it was okay to listen in but there were restrictions on recording and publishing, I and most of my colleagues would be fine with that.

I have a second Dongle in the same RPi I use for ADS-B that I use for airband reception.

Speaking of YouTube videos with your voice on them...

I'm the GMC Controller on that vid

Feek · 25 Jul 2017 at 23:09

Just spotted a 7700 squawk. Normally these are receiver errors and clear within a few seconds but both my receivers were reporting it.

It's supposed to be going to Norway but it's diverted - Looks like it could be heading for Amsterdam.

Em3bbs · 25 Jul 2017 at 23:14

Am I missing something here, you can get all of this info on flight radar websites/apps and there are often (interesting) 7700 squawks to watch which you can get alerts for. Is it just the element of picking it up directly on your own equipment?

Feek · 26 Jul 2017 at 10:44

There's a few factors in it for me. Firstly, it's radio. I like radio, I enjoy playing with radio. I'm also interested in aviation so this brings the two together. I like the fact that I can receive aircraft signals from well over 200 miles away using even just a small aerial in the loft (see earlier in this thread) but that I can also take it to the next level and mount a receiver outside at the top of my mast and although this doesn't increase the overall range very much, it increases the number of position reports I receive massively.

It's also about experimentation, building more efficient systems to receive.

My latest receiver is mounted in a box along with a Raspberry Pi3 at the top of the mast in my garden.

(I've edited out the main aerial on the mast as it detracts from the receiver).

This is fed with CAT6 and PoE so there's no signal loss due to a long coaxial cable run between the aerial and the receiver.

Supplying the main online providers with data also means free premium membership to their websites as well. That's a nice bonus.

nst68 · 26 Jul 2017 at 12:37

Feek said:
I've built a new receiver for this, a Raspberry Pi3 mounted in a box with a Pro Stick Plus receiver and an additional FA bandpass filter with the FA 26" aerial. It's mounted 10m up on the top of my main radio mast and in the total clear. It's fed with a length of CAT6 and PoE so there's no coax involved with the associated loss.

Hi Feek

Are these the filter and aerial you use?
https://www.modmypi.com/electronics...hz-ads-b-antenna-66cm--26in/?tag=flight aware
https://www.modmypi.com/electronics...090mhz-band-pass-sma-filter/?tag=flight aware

Feek · 26 Jul 2017 at 12:50

Yes, exactly those two. The Pro Stick Plus receiver has an internal filter but because mine is so up in the air and in the open, I figured that an additional filter was probably a good idea. I'm not short of signal strength so the slight loss associated with it isn't a problem.

neodude · 28 Jul 2017 at 20:27

Em3bbs said:
Am I missing something here, you can get all of this info on flight radar websites/apps and there are often (interesting) 7700 squawks to watch which you can get alerts for. Is it just the element of picking it up directly on your own equipment?

As well as Feek's reply, there is also the fact that you get a free FR24 Business account if you feed them data

Em3bbs · 28 Jul 2017 at 20:40

Fair enough, I see the attraction on the whole now, thanks for explaining Feek and neodude.

Feek · 28 Jul 2017 at 20:44

I'm uploading to PlaneFinder as well, mainly because I really like the heatmap they generate

This shows the area I receive signals from.

The aircraft I spotted on diversion earlier this week was a medical emergency - I found out the next morning through Twitter.

miller745 · 25 Sep 2017 at 16:29

Moved my setup to the loft, and to say the results are amazing is an understatement! Delighted with it, doubled what it's receiving. After previous aerial issues I got one from a guy called Phil in Wales I think it was, £24 and it's great.

FL630 · 26 Sep 2017 at 17:28

Impressive equipment! I guess you must see a whole lot more than FR24 and the likes filter out? Military activity etc? Does it only pick up on ADS-B signals or all transponders?

Honestly I think flight tracking is one of the coolest things to have happened in years, to think you can watch what aircraft do, how fast, how high etc all so easily, it's great! With that said I'm surprised it's not encrypted to stop people watching, with how paranoid the industry is. Makes a mockery someone can see exactly where a flight is to such accuracy on the internet, yet OFCOM blocks online broadcast of ATC!

neodude · 27 Sep 2017 at 15:35

It picks up and plots ADS-B but also plots standard Mode-S transponders by using MLAT with other nearby receivers (similar idea to our crappy radar that I was telling you about today

).

I'm now feeding to FR24, FlightAware and 360Radar. 360Radar is quite good as it doesn't filter anything out, I suspect the guy that runs it, Phil, is the same guy that provided miller745 with his antenna

My receiver is also publicly available here... https://radar.clanlawrence.co.uk