Aussie Feeders

[YSWG]

Anyone near NBN Wireless towers? I've noticed a 50% drop in range, not to sure when it happened but it was fine in May (June has been busy, haven't been able to look).

I've rebooted the FR24 receiver but no improvement, so will take a look at the equipment once my shoulder injury has healed, hoping it's something simple and not frequency related.

Once I've done my own problem solving but have no solution, I'll then contact FR24 support. At this stage, not much we both can do ATM.

Edit:
Doing some digging in the logs, everything was fine on the 16th June (before a rain event) but post rain event (19th June) the signal range decrease is noticeable. I'm thinking that water has got into the join of the antenna and the cable or into the holes made by the Cockatoos in the cable, the self amalgamating tape may have contracted and expanded (allowing water to ingress, causing the signal loss ) with the very cold mornings but mild days we had before the rain. Early in the week, I'll inspect the antenna and the cable.

[Ressy]

Anyone near NBN Wireless towers? I've noticed a 50% drop in range, not to sure when it happened but it was fine in May (June has been busy, haven't been able to look).

I've rebooted the FR24 receiver but no improvement, so will take a look at the equipment once my shoulder injury has healed, hoping it's something simple and not frequency related.

Once I've done my own problem solving but have no solution, I'll then contact FR24 support. At this stage, not much we both can do ATM.

Edit:
Doing some digging in the logs, everything was fine on the 16th June (before a rain event) but post rain event (19th June) the signal range decrease is noticeable. I'm thinking that water has got into the join of the antenna and the cable or into the holes made by the Cockatoos in the cable, the self amalgamating tape may have contracted and expanded (allowing water to ingress, causing the signal loss ) with the very cold mornings but mild days we had before the rain. Early in the week, I'll inspect the antenna and the cable.

To find out if your near "a" tower, you can use http://www.rfnsa.com.au/nsa/search.cgi

The freqs currently in use are 2.3Ghz , even with imaging, I cant see it affecting you, even if its right next door, they also claim (but this is lying filfth that is the Australian Govt, so take it with a gain of salt) that they comply with all EME safety requirements as required by ARPANSA.

[YSWG]

Malebo Hill, Bomen and Gumly NBN towers are within range, Malebo Hill has a microwave (link) dish pointing right at me to another tower. Though I would expect my dongle to have a drop as well (not as much as the FR box though) but seems to be unchanged.

F-YSWG1 maximum distance
21 June: 160nm
22 June: 125nm
23 June: 127nm
24 June: 126nm
25 June: 107nm
26 June: 105nm
27 June: 97nm*

T-YSWG2 maximum distance
21 June: 106nm
22 June: 105nm
23 June: 105nm
24 June: 107nm
25 June: 108nm
26 June: 108nm
27 June: 99nm*

* not complete 24 hour figure.

Old F-YSWG1 range, with the current range (darker [black] opacity).
Screen Shot 2015-06-27 at 8.37.40 PM.png

[rodeo]

Malebo Hill has a microwave (link) dish pointing right at me to another tower.

Last time I worked at Malebo was about 8 years ago - putting up a microwave system. If its the same one, it points over to Mt Flackney. It may or may not be in service still and others may have been added since then. Malebo site belongs to NSW Police though it sounds like they are using it for the NBN now as well.

Cheers

[YSWG]

Yeah, it's on the police site. The microwave link connects to the Gumly tower (which I think is the tower that connects to the fibre backhaul).

[rodeo]

Looks like there is a lot more up there than what there used to be!! The stuff I used to work on is now licensed to Digital Distribution Australia - there was three microwave links, one across to Flakney, one to Collingullie (the Crown Castle (Vodafone) tower) and one into the council chambers in town.

[YSWG]

Well it's looking like a water issue, range (184nm) and message rate (peak at 7am) was back to near normal between 6-8am (20:00-22:00 UTC) but has dropped back off again (so far only up to 99nm and message rate well down on this mornings peak). Temperature at the airport was -1.2c though where I am it would've been around -2c. Will be looking at it tomorrow.

Screen Shot 2015-06-29 at 3.45.08 PM.png

[YSWG]

Problem found and it isn't good. Cockatoos have taken a large piece from the rubber capping on the antenna. So both T-YSWG2 and F-YSWG1 is offline. T-YSWG2 will be back sometime in the week (weather and time permitting).

Now to contact support.

[Ressy]

Problem found and it isn't good. Cockatoos have taken a large piece from the rubber capping on the antenna. So both T-YSWG2 and F-YSWG1 is offline. T-YSWG2 will be back sometime in the week (weather and time permitting).

Now to contact support.

Nasty, now you can take the opptunity to grab a bunch of white plastic ties, do them through cardboard or plastic at various angles, so it ends up being like a porcupine, and glue that on top, that oughta stop em

[YSWG]

Wished that would solve it but these cockatoos are smart. :/
PSX_20150630_174626.jpg

[airnrail]

Queensland feeders down

While it goes without saying that all feeders are important and the more we have the better the coverage, their location is critical. More than a few in Oz provide the only coverage over their respective patches. When one or more goes down, it can leave vast inland areas with nothing but T-EST coverage. There is an example visible right now in north west Queensland with both F-YBMA1 Mt.Isa and F-YLRE1 Longreach down. Two of the most reliable feeders in the country for years, YBMA has been up and down for the last few months and YLRE has had also had a couple of breaks. If F-YEML1 Emerald were to also go down there would no coverage over inland Q’ld north of about Roma (another place where FR24 really needs a local feeder).

Given that YBMA and YLRE are both FR24 feeders that more than likely are hosted by their respective airports judging by their ground coverage, I wonder if FR24 could consider placing a second apparatus at each location? This seems to have been done at places like Broome and Ayres Rock to good effect.

Q’ld has also seems to have lost a couple of other good feeders in remote locations in the last six months in T-YLLE1 Ballera in the far south west corner and F-YBAM1 Bamarga, right at the tip of Cape York. Another very useful one, although not in Q’ld, that is currently missing in action is T-YBHI2 Broken Hill. I expect there are others too that people find particularly useful.

[North Borneo Radar]

Queensland feeders down

While it goes without saying that all feeders are important and the more we have the better the coverage, their location is critical. More than a few in Oz provide the only coverage over their respective patches. When one or more goes down, it can leave vast inland areas with nothing but T-EST coverage. There is an example visible right now in north west Queensland with both F-YBMA1 Mt.Isa and F-YLRE1 Longreach down. Two of the most reliable feeders in the country for years, YBMA has been up and down for the last few months and YLRE has had also had a couple of breaks. If F-YEML1 Emerald were to also go down there would no coverage over inland Q’ld north of about Roma (another place where FR24 really needs a local feeder).

Given that YBMA and YLRE are both FR24 feeders that more than likely are hosted by their respective airports judging by their ground coverage, I wonder if FR24 could consider placing a second apparatus at each location? This seems to have been done at places like Broome and Ayres Rock to good effect.

Q’ld has also seems to have lost a couple of other good feeders in remote locations in the last six months in T-YLLE1 Ballera in the far south west corner and F-YBAM1 Bamarga, right at the tip of Cape York. Another very useful one, although not in Q’ld, that is currently missing in action is T-YBHI2 Broken Hill. I expect there are others too that people find particularly useful.

very detailed observation... hopefully those who are in Queensland and are interested will respond from reading your post. Coverage always is key.

[YSWG]

Replacement coax cable and antenna arrived in to the country today, so should arrive early next week. Depending on how busy I am, F-YSWG1 will be back online not long after it is delivered.

[YSWG]

Arrived yesterday morning but I had uni all day and was hoping to get it mounted today, weather says otherwise (raining all day). Have another opportunity tomorrow morning, fingers crossed it is a better day!

[bhaal]

Just for those who might not have been watching the forums, there is a new version of the fr24feed for Raspberry Pi (only) available now which also does MLAT. It would be great if all the people with Pi's could get this new version going, as it creates much better MLAT coverage, especially at lower altitudes. Also as you might have noticed, there are now new MLAT radar numbers on the FR24 live feed, T-MLAT7 for Australian Raspberry Pi MLAT feeds... Below is the forum post link:

http://forum.flightradar24.com/threads/9132-Beta-test-new-Flightradar24-MLAT-software-for-Raspberry-Pi