South Africa

[HermanZA]

Greetings fellow Forumites,

Although I knew about FR and used it before, only yesterday did I discover its actually very much a community/member driven platform with many private receivers and feeds into the system. This makes me bring the question to you: How many South African station are active on the system? Being new here, I am not sure where to look for that information, if it is visible.

Then also slightly off-topic: Radar Station Codes, like T-FAJS8, F-FAGC1, T-FACT4... is there a place where one can look it up to see where the radar is thats covering the plane, or what area it services?

Happy PlaneSpotting!

[attigliano]

Then also slightly off-topic: Radar Station Codes, like T-FAJS8, F-FAGC1, T-FACT4... is there a place where one can look it up to see where the radar is thats covering the plane, or what area it services?

Hi wellcomme

The F- and T- refers to receiver type. The next 4 letters is the ICAO code for the nearest airport. ex FACT is Cape Town International Airport. The number at last is just a "serial number".

This link http://airportnavfinder.com/ you can type in the ICAO code and find the airport. There may be other sites as well.

There are no information on the real positions of the receivers.

Poul

[HermanZA]

After spending a lot of time on the forums and reading, I found a map showing locations of feeders. Seems we only have Cape Town and Grand Central (Johannesburg) and then Swakopmund, as active stations in the Southern part of Africa. Wondering if those feeder operators are live on here? Interested to hear from them in terms of typical coverage radius, influence from weather, etc.... afterall in Soush Êffrika things not always work as they should. Strange we dont have Durban and PE or EastLondon feeding.

Attigliano: Difference between F and T receivers? So if and when I do start feeding data, my code would be something like *-FAKM ?

[attigliano]

Attigliano: Difference between F and T receivers?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that F- means it is the FR24 receiver type and T- is other mostly the USB receiver stick. If I'm wrong, I hope someone will correct me.

So if and when I do start feeding data, my code would be something like *-FAKM ?

If Kimberley is the nearest airport to you? It's correct.

Poul

[FR24support]

IT- is other mostly the USB receiver stick.

The "T" prefix is (typically) anyone feeding data from their own receiver - SBS, Beast, microADSB, RadarBox, DVB-T etc.

[SoCalBrian]

HermanZA,

Some of the South Africa feeders are part of this Africa forum. Might try making contact with them.
Just sign up and check the full forum out.

http://www.radarbox.co.za/index.php

[Anmer]

Some of the South Africa feeders are part of this Africa forum. [/url]

Looks to have one member and just two posts.

[airnrail]

Welcome HermanZA. I'm another southern hemisphere newbie on here but I'm in Australia. I occasionally watch on FR24 the SAA A340 that flies into Perth from Johannesburg most afternoons - it is one of very few A340s we see in Oz because none of our own airlines ever bought them and most of the foreign airlines that do have them, like Emirates and Singapore, send B777s and A380s down here.

You certainly don't look to have very many feeders at all anywhere in Africa. I guess that in many places access to affordable broadband internet could be a limiting factor as it is in many remote and not so remote parts of Australia where it would be great to have more coverage (satellite only in many places and I wouldn't like to pay for that 24/7). Happy spotting.

[HermanZA]

I ordered the USB dongle thingy .... now the anxious wait for it to move through the postal services and hopefully arrive here before the end of the month. Then, if all goes well, there might just be another feeder that pops up on the site, to fill in the blank space in the middle of South Africa.
My major concern however is the quality of the antenna that comes with it, and what options one have to "upgrade" that. But we'll see once its here, what kind of reception it gives. Somehow I foresee myself on the roof at night again!

-> AirNrail: Unfortunately Africa is technologically disadvantaged in more ways than one. Even here in South Africa, internet is relatively expensive and overpriced (compared to the rest of the world), but I believe that the kind of data one would transmit to FR24, is not megs, but rather a constant dribbles of a few KB. Very similar to what I am doing with my personal weather station over here. However, I have worked with folks from countries up north from me, and the problem lies not with the availability of infrastructure, but more the reliability factor. Both in terms of how reliable the infrastructure is (up time) and how reliable the person is in taking care of the equipment by making sure its "always on". Mindsets differ muchly in parts of the world, and I have come to see that even you are dealing with a good businessman and good person, sometime its a case of "dont care that its not working now".

Unfortunately I am one of those "annoying" people who believe a thing should work, as it should, always. Even if it means climbing ladder or roof at night, to replace power supplies or antenna or cables... It makes me happy to get things back on the 24/7/365 expectancy! :-)

[HermanZA]

-> Anmer : Very well protected board, it seems. quite a few members on there, after I registered.

[Birdie]

I ordered the USB dongle thingy .... now the anxious wait for it to move through the postal services and hopefully arrive here before the end of the month. Then, if all goes well, there might just be another feeder that pops up on the site, to fill in the blank space in the middle of South Africa.

My major concern however is the quality of the antenna that comes with it, and what options one have to "upgrade" that. But we'll see once its here, what kind of reception it gives. Somehow I foresee myself on the roof at night again! :-)

Make sure you DON'T install the USB Drivers that come with the CDROM.

If you do so, you wont be able to get the dongle working to feed FR24.

That tiny antenna can give you some short range - maybe 50 - 100 Km.

Best is to upgrade to a Colinear Antenna.

[HermanZA]

Birdie,

Notice taken. Need to download the specific package that is available on FR24 to get the right drivers to work (and not get limited to radio and TV only).
Am also looking for antenna supplier locally already. Got a good pointer from a fellow forum member to take the dongle and antenna outside (with some kind of water proofing), as that will greatly improve the range. Colinear in this case, is exactly what? NOT a dipole, I guess?

[peterhr]

Collinear is amost like a vertical stack of dipoles. Do a google for
collinear ads-b
You'll get a link to www.balrad.net on how to make one and theres a youtube to watch too.

Mine doesnt have the resistor at the top, and is in a 22mm pastic tube from the plumbing section in the local diy store (sold as overflow pipe) held in by a plug of hot melt glue at the top and bottom. Total cost eas about 3 british pounds. Most awkward item was to get an adapter from tv arial style coax plug to the tiny socket used by the tuner dongle. Got it from ebay, but theres always a wait for delivery.

Sent from my GT-P5110 using Tapatalk 2

[airnrail]

-> Anmer : Very well protected board, it seems. quite a few members on there, after I registered.

Yes there are some good people who post here and they are largely more polite and helpful that some on other (unrelated) boards that I participate in. I understand what you are saying in your previous posts and thanks for the explanation. Keep up the good work in SA.

[HermanZA]

I see radar station T-FAUP1 (Upington, Northern Cape) came online again yesterday. Awesome coverage that station gives, around 350km from what I have seen.
Wonder what the equipment setup is there.... or how high that antenna is? Possibly on that little hill outside by the Fire Station?