Naïve question?

[magnum]

As long as they are not too close, it should not be an issue.

I have my antenna indoor in my home office under the roof. Right beside my house there's another one with same height.
But neither in this direction nor in the other one (where the signal has to pass my house and the neighbour) i have any issues.

Play around with it, you will find out. You might want to build also a DIY antenna once you're not satisfied.

[Dutchyb]

Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately I cannot put my antenna on the roof. The owner won't allow it. I mounted my antenna on the outside stander of the balcony. Even that might be a problem, but so far so good:0
From my balcony there are some trees and a two higher buildings. One in about 300 meters and the other one > 1 km.

I figured out myself that the buildings would obstruct, but could not figure out why I see some planes and cannot see others. Guess it is what you all said here, it depends on altitude, did not think about that. ( Still learning)


Will start to working with the Opensky network script.

[wiedehopf]

My view to the S and E is not obstructed. In the north direction, the reception is bad, but that is because of the way I had to mount my antenna. I added a screenshot form planefinder as well

Well that's just not true, there are obstructions.

The view toward Saarbruecken is clearly obstructed as you have less range in that direction.
Towards Mainz it's the same thing, obstructed.

So in those directions you won't be able to see low flying aircraft around Duesseldorf.

There is a very narrow area in between those two directions where you see further, but it's just very narrow.

Make a picture on your balcony towards Duesseldorf and i can probably tell you what is obstructing you :P

My guess would be the trees on the other side of the river.
Also the high buildings at the intersection of Marsweg and Leo Majorlaan.

To the southeast it's the sister building that's in the way, yes?

Put the antenna on the roof, then we are talking unobstructed view towards Duesseldorf
(The one highrise building at the intersection will still create a blind spot)

[Anmer]

Unfortunately these plots don't allow for selected altitudes.

Although they show coverage over Dusseldorf, these may only be aircraft at high altitude.

You could try setting an altitude filter on the FR24 website and then compare with your Skyview map.

[Dutchyb]

Good morning all,


thank you for the help and the explanations.

I do not feed to the OpenSky network yet. Will search for their script and install it. Same for Radarbox, though I read some "not so good" reviews in this forum about them.



Screenshot 2019-08-05 at 10.52.04.png
Polar Plot screenshot from this morning in FR24


My view to the S and E is not obstructed. In the north direction, the reception is bad, but that is because of the way I had to mount my antenna. I added a screenshot form planefinder as well
[ATTACH=CONFIG]11000[/ATTACH


Since I used my "new" antenna the reception is better than before. ( The jetvison small antenna)

[elljay]

Plane finder has a nice, zoomable, rotatable 3D visualisation: pfc.png

You get trails if you leave the Aircraft mode running: pfca.png

[Anmer]

Question: Are you feeding Radarbox or Opensky-Network as well?

They have some nice areal views which they create based on the data you send.

How about your FR24 Polar Plot and Skyview Coverage Graph?

Do these show less coverage towards Dusseldorf?

My location has rising ground to the west and this blocks traffic from that area, as you can see in the attached.

01.jpg

[magnum]

Friend of mine does have the same problem.
He's located in Vienna, not far away from VIE airport. However he's not able to see any aircrafts below a certain level of altitude due to his bad environment. His range should be towards Budapest, but it's simply not working.

Same for me, i am located west of Frankfurt (one of the busiest airports as you know) and i cannot see aircrafts approaching FRA from the east. Only if they are coming from west, they pass my environment and i can register them.

Believe it or not, the tracking is very fragile based on the environment, the devices, the setup and finally on the max range based on your geographic location.
Question: Are you feeding Radarbox or Opensky-Network as well?

They have some nice areal views which they create based on the data you send.
It doesn't mean that this is your range, but it's the result from aircraft positions your receiver caught.

RBRange.jpg

[wiedehopf]

So the terrain is not the problem, but are there houses or trees in the way?
The website only knows about hills.

(is your balcony really 14 m high? If it is i would expect neighbouring houses to be just as high?)

Direct line of sight means direct line of sight.

If you had a better view towards Duesseldorf, you would probably also see planes higher up to further distances in that direction.

[Anmer]

Ah. I think I now understand what you're asking.

"Why do I not see traffic on Skyview in the Dusseldorf area?"

It depends on your antenna and it's location? And possible obstacles between it and aircraft over Dusseldorf, espcially for ones at lower altitude.

[Anmer]

What are you viewing for FR24?

Is it the website? That's what it appears from your screen capture.

In which case, assuming no filters set, you're seeing traffic from the FR24 server. You're implying your locally tracked flights, as displayed on FlightAware's Skyview, shows more planes than the FR24 website. Or am I missing something?

[Dutchyb]

I checked the site and added a screenshot.

I know the greater the distance is the less I can see, but seeing my graph I have a feeling I should be able to see somewhat more. Düsseldorf is around 100NM
Screenshot 2019-08-04 at 20.40.25.jpg

[SlashbNL]

The greater the distance from your receiver, the higher the minimum altitude is on which you can see planes in that area.

[wiedehopf]

Check out this thread: https://forum.flightradar24.com/thre...ange-I-can-Get

You need a direct line of sight to a plane.

Seeing airplanes in a particular direction at 40 000 ft at a certain distance is not the same as seeing them at 20 000 ft.
You range will be much much lower for planes that fly lower.

[Dutchyb]

I am not aware of any filters I could have set.
Using:
Raspberry Pi 3B+
Rtl-SDR dongle
This antenna https://www.ebay.com/itm/183717378846, hanging outside by balcony, not 100% "free"
Installed Flightradar, Flightaware and Planfinder