Aussie Feeders

[fungus]

Who said 'T' feeders dont have an important contribution to FR24

With apologies to F-YWLM1 (Williamtown).

Here's my one aircraft contribution;

T-YSSY4.jpg

This proves that 'T' feeders can snavel aircraft off the 'F' feeders. At least, after midnight.

Regards,
Gregg

[vk2tv]

FR24 depends on the goodwill of the feeders to use their private or company internet connection and thier power to host the radars - whether they be T- or F- radars. This distributed source of data is the opposite of CDDB, if FR24 upset to many feeders by restricting access - I would expect many would just switch off as a matter of principle if they don't like what FR24 did (of course FR24 could ask for the kit to be sent back at FR24's expense)

Stomping by big brother - F- radars receivers out perform T- radar receivers and due to that and that alone take precedence on the FR24 page - we have to accept it (F- radars decode the signals in hardware, T- in software .. the F- radars are just so much quicker, they cost more and they get what they pay for *shrug*).

Flying Doctor ... Might the other service know the position by M-LAT (multiple receivers working out the position between them) - FR24 can do this but need a receivers working together to provide the info to do the math - presently this works in Europe and parts of North America.

I tend to get suspicious when an organisation that is relying heavily on volunteers (until it establishes its own infrastructure!) seems to maintain a cloak of secrecy. So many questions asked here that are not answered, emailed questions that are not answered; you get the picture.

Hardware decoding isn't necessarily quicker but in this case you are correct. In Packet Radio (Amateur Radio digital transmissions) there are some brilliant software decoders emerging that tromp all over hardware but this is narrow bandwidth compared with adsb and that counts a lot.

[vk2tv]

With apologies to F-YWLM1 (Williamtown).

Here's my one aircraft contribution;

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3084[/ATTACH]


This proves that 'T' feeders can snavel aircraft off the 'F' feeders. At least, after midnight.

Regards,
Gregg

That fellow was a bit too far west for me, I peg out at Armidale at the moment. When I move to a gain antenna at greater elevation there'll be an improvement. Demolishing the top story of a brick school building would help even more; any volunteers to help me <grin>

[peterhr]

Explosives, far more spectacular ¡

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[fungus]

That fellow was a bit too far west for me, I peg out at Armidale at the moment. When I move to a gain antenna at greater elevation there'll be an improvement. Demolishing the top story of a brick school building would help even more; any volunteers to help me <grin>

I'd love to help out but could do with a bit of that here too. Look forward to seeing you with the better antenna and taking all 'my' aircraft. It's great to have some 'competition' as it helps us improve our own setup. Peter's suggestion may be the way to go.

BTW when I started on FR24 there were only 2 of us here in SYD, a little different now but great to see those at the airports with ground cover.

Regards,
Gregg

[vk2tv]

I'd love to help out but could do with a bit of that here too. Look forward to seeing you with the better antenna and taking all 'my' aircraft. It's great to have some 'competition' as it helps us improve our own setup. Peter's suggestion may be the way to go.

BTW when I started on FR24 there were only 2 of us here in SYD, a little different now but great to see those at the airports with ground cover.

Regards,
Gregg

Explosives make to much noise and you have to walk further to pick up the bits.

Already my presence is 95% achieving what I set out to do which is grab aircraft that fall below Sydney and Brisbane radar as they pass through the Kempsey area. I'm seeing aircraft landing at Kempsey to about 150ft (it's that school again) and for Taree, Coffs and Port Macquarie it's to about 2500/3500ft. I certainly want to see ac on the ground at Kempsey and very close to the ground at Port. A gain antenna at twice the height will help and moving the antenna to the house might just let signals squirt through a gap between two school buildings. I see the aircraft shuffle on many aircraft as the feed changes between Brisbane, Williamtown, Sydney and here. Earlier in the week I saw radar at Coffs with ac on the ground but the system seems to not always be there; have seen it once since. I didn't notice if it was T or F but instinct says T.

Regards
Ray
VK2TV (my Amateur Radio callsign)

[nomad77]

I doubt that there is any conspiracy at FR24, without the support of its feeders there would be nothing of value. For the most part they do an outstanding job
but they certainly fall down on communications skills. There appears to be some arrogance when it comes to explaining decisions and certainly inconsistancies
between decisions. eg no we cannot change the Radar Alias once allocated well F-YMHU1 was changed to F-YBSU1 so clearly they can change these. As I've said
before you may well have valid reasons for denying requests for changes but simply saying no and not explaining why does not win friends. Another example, I asked
why when I was receiving postion reports at 280nm on a regular basis, did my plot show nothing greater than 225nm. The answer included antenna position varying
weather conditions and absolutely nothing to answer my orginal question, perhaps my question was lost in translation, who knows. Organisations that rely on volunteer
support rarely survive if they do not respect their volunteers contributions I hope we do not go down that path.

Thanks to all of you who provide feeds with little in the way of recognition.

[vk2tv]

In the short time I've ben involved with FR I've become quite familiar with the lack of meaningful communication to feeders. Lots of basic questions appearing here (R prefixes, e.g.) and no comment from those in the know yet they are able to find the time/incentive post about other things - a possible feed from Lord Howe Island being an example. A "technical" FAQ for feeders would be quite a useful addition and as it collects more data it may save questions here. Some feeders would probably be in a position to contribute to such a FAQ.

Lost in translation? Perhaps, but given the correctness of the grammer in written responses/postings I think not. Is the task of responding to big a task for one person? That's a possibility.

Ray
VK2TV

[airnrail]

With apologies to F-YWLM1 (Williamtown).

Here's my one aircraft contribution;

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3084[/ATTACH]

This proves that 'T' feeders can snavel aircraft off the 'F' feeders. At least, after midnight.

Regards,
Gregg

G'day Gregg
You're not doing too badly this morning - just saw QF515 at Singleton, JST814 at The Entrance and an Air Ambulance near Wyong all on Y-YSSY4 at the same time. Just keep on pluggin' away mate. John

[vk2tv]

Gregg's doing very well, here's QFA517 NE of Tamworth at 11.45
Screenshot-31.png

This my measly lot <cheesy grin>
Screenshot-30.png

As someone with a 60 year interest in radio, I have an interest in anomoulous propagation whereby a radio signal can extend well beyond its normal range, out to thousands of km, thanks to Mother Nature. I expect that in time, and especially because I'm close to the coast, I will see adsb signals from planes nowhere near here.


Ray
VK2TV

[fungus]

I do try hard but it's you guys that keep me needing/wanting to improve my setup. Thanks to Delcomp and the 1090SJ (I've ditched the discone and use it for comms via the scanner) I've ended up with a pretty good setup. Next year I'm hoping for another 10' extension to the antenna- if it can pass the 'missus' test (it's a 20 footer on the ridge capping at present). Thanks to you all. Without all the contributors we'd have little coverage with holidays and computer breakdowns etc, not forgetting that I lost a mast last year to a storm.

BTW Ray, some of 'mine' I cant claim up there as I tend to lose them north of Tamworth (on some tracks) or they are just 'spots' but the software 'projects them' as if I still had them, if not on another receiver at the time. I can get a few clear shots up north but not on all tracks.

I get a lot into SYD from over Canberra as well but there's so many feeders down that way I can no longer get a leg in that direction. Can also track them to about Merimbula down south but the same applies there too as is west out past Parkes.

Regards,
Gregg

[vk2tv]

I moved into town from a 25 acre site where I had a 30ft and a 50ft tower. I don't miss the grass slashing and my knees don't miss the 50ft tower, but it was nice for radio.

I have this very old saying that goes "it doesn't matter how high the hill is, there is no substitute for antenna height above that hill". Get that antenna as high as you possibly can.

I understand what you're saying re the projection delays. It's interesting to look at Lat/Long from dump1090 and compares those figures with FR.

Ray

[fungus]

I moved into town from a 25 acre site where I had a 30ft and a 50ft tower. I don't miss the grass slashing and my knees don't miss the 50ft tower, but it was nice for radio.

I have this very old saying that goes "it doesn't matter how high the hill is, there is no substitute for antenna height above that hill". Get that antenna as high as you possibly can.

I understand what you're saying re the projection delays. It's interesting to look at Lat/Long from dump1090 and compares those figures with FR.

Ray

Ray,
I was offered a 50 footer but that'd never pass the 'missus' test. Plus the electrons would probably get lost half way down the mast (I can only use LMR195 which is just small enough to tuck under the roof tiles. Any bigger and I'd have a leaking roof). You're 100% right about that saying though, elevation is king with antennas so long as you can use the best available (and cost effective) cable for your individual setup.

Regards,
Gregg

[vk2tv]

Gregg,

I've always had a tower of some sort so there was never a domestic over towers and antennas. The cable run from the top of the tower to the radio room in the house was 150ft but it was all LDF4-50 (1/2" Heliax) that I'd recovered from radio sites we dismantled at work. My highest frequency in use was 440MHz where the loss is 1.45dB/100ft. Even at 1000MHz the loss is only 2.22dB/100ft and height gain would generously offset that. I planned the installation and provided two, 90mm ducts through the floor slab into the radio room. I'll never have that luxury again, sigh. I currently have about 15ft of RG213 between the antenna and the dongle but when I elevate tha antenna the RPi and dongle will be at the antenna. I still have some Heliax but it's much easier to run cat5 and 12V and, 100mm sewer pipe makes a great, weatherproof housing. The PVC is also transparent to RF - not all PVC pipe is transparent and if it isn't it acts as an attenuator if the antenna is also enclosed. For the edification of others, the microwave oven trick is a good way to assess PVC suitability. Place a piece of PVC pipe and a glass of water in the microwave (frequency=2450MHz) and zap it for a minute. If the PVC stays cool it's ok to use.

Ray
VK2TV

[peterhr]

Will the Pi be OK temperature wise in the sewer pipe or might it cook?