PHILIPPINE RADAR FORUM

[paradiselost]

Power-Rolling Brownout Mitigation Schemes to Keep the Receiver/Modem UP

At some point all of us will experience power interruption due to calamity or scheduled maintenance. Yesterday and days to come we are advised by government that today and in the future power will be rationed by rolling brownouts. Due to our/FR24 redundancy, yesterdays scheduled brownout only affected Noel (RPLL2) and Aran's (RPLL5) coverage but RPLL1 and RPLL4 being in diverse areas of the Manila metroplex continued on. Perhaps RPLL1 and/or RPLL4 are in buildings with generator back-ups.

Some of our ISPs/TELCOs/CABLE PROVIDERS have battery back-up that supplies some of their services up to a point. Our receiver and modem need power to use their services during an interruption. Is the data we provide MISSION CRITICAL? Perhaps if we are in a location collaborating with other hosts through MLAT the answer is YES.

Any solution requires planning for WHAT IF.

The circuit the receiver/modem are on needs to be dedicated so the source may be switched. The total wattage of the connected adapters needs to be doubled in order to determine the peak power needed.

The computed value watts/amps is the minimum size of the various solutions you could consider.

You could consider a UPS with an external battery or a solar panel/inverter or a generator.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

[paradiselost]

Some If Not All Were Surprised by the Automated Support Email Saying We Were Offline

I returned from a busy day in town to see the Offline email. Troubleshooting I discovered none of the FR24 webpages would load but the Basestation program VRS still showed my FR24 receiver tracking planes.

Using Tracert to attempt to show an active route to FR24 I discovered transit problems starting in France making FR24 inaccessible for the receiver calling home and loading any webpages. Rebooting the receiver successfully bootstrapped the functionality of tracking planes locally. The bootstrapping was verified by looking at the receiver log but the second phase of downloading and installing the flavor of the day software didn't occur so the receiver didn't know how to call home for both ADSB and MLAT.

Aran reported the similar circumstances.

To make a long story short the transit network outage was repaired and we are back. If using tracert to troubleshoot and you encounter time outs 5 or more hops beyond your computer these are beyond your control so have patience. The receiver will remain vigilant and do what it does automatically when conditions resolve themselves.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

[gquejada]

I returned from a busy day in town to see the Offline email. Troubleshooting I discovered none of the FR24 webpages would load but the Basestation program VRS still showed my FR24 receiver tracking planes.

>> snip<<

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

Hi, Uncle John!

I received such an email yesterday and I thought it was our ISP that was having issues. What time was your FR24 Receiver offline? Our receiver was offline from 02:53 until 16:20 UTC.... Was this because of the connectivity problems you say? So we have no control of this black-out, or was it just a brown-out? 😊

Gerry
F-RPVM2

[paradiselost]

Hi, Uncle John!

I received such an email yesterday and I thought it was our ISP that was having issues. What time was your FR24 Receiver offline? Our receiver was offline from 02:53 until 16:20 UTC.... Was this because of the connectivity problems you say? So we have no control of this black-out, or was it just a brown-out? 😊

Gerry
F-RPVM2

Transit providers from the are Philippines are Telstraglobal to Europe. When the spigot is turned off in France due to a mishap or router failure our ADSB data to Sweden has no place to go and likewise other services that use that same routing don't work. Hotmail/Outlook quit working also. When this occurs don't worry when the circuit is restored your receiver will reconnect automatically and resume data without any human intervention.

John

[SirJhayPhee]

Hello everyone, F-RPLB1 Feeder here.

Location: Olongapo City, PH
Max range:
From Pangasinan to Coron, Palawan. I still can't get Manila area due to high mountains, but I can get South China Sea and sometime Aurora area.


Untitled.jpg

[SirJhayPhee]

My device status.

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[paradiselost]

My device status.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5810[/ATTACH]

SirJhayPhee could I call you JP? We share a common first name.

Noel (F-RPLL2) in Cavite City started this forum and it has grown into a fraternity. F-RPLC1 in Angeles City came online for a brief period but for some reason that receiver has been offline. Two receivers are north of you on the Lingayan Gulf, F-RPUB1 in the Dagapan area and F-RPUS1 in San Fernando. In the Manila area there are 4 well placed receivers, Noel and Aran at Imus City F-RPLL5 and F-RPLL1 and F-RPLL4. Your coverage overlaps their coverages allowing some MLAT5 tracking of Mode-S only transmissions from aircraft.

JP, using your coordinates and GPS elevation from your sensor noted on your status page I entered into a new panorama showing your theoretical receiver range. The results are below with the Visibility Cloak turned off and Up in the Air enabled.

f-rplb1.jpg

Logging in to the FR24 map page you are allowed to configure the map and include radar filters which I suggest F-RPLB1 and MLAT5. Your receiver is tracking more than appears on the map since so many stations overlap you but you will see aircraft tracked by you when other receivers tracking the same contact are out of coverage. Tracking representation on the map is very fluid so you may only catch a glimpse of contracts actually tracked by you.

Getting back to your receiver status page I notice you are not using a basestation program as noted by the RAW FEED [30334]....Connected: 0

I would suggest installing either ADSBscope or Virtual Radar Server to use the port 30334. The basic instructions for VRS are here. These programs record in realtime the aircraft your receiver is tracking and provide a historical view of the range plot. See the demo in my signature.

PJ welcome to this motley group. icon6.png

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

[SirJhayPhee]

SirJhayPhee could I call you JP? We share a common first name.

Noel (F-RPLL2) in Cavite City started this forum and it has grown into a fraternity. F-RPLC1 in Angeles City came online for a brief period but for some reason that receiver has been offline. Two receivers are north of you on the Lingayan Gulf, F-RPUB1 in the Dagapan area and F-RPUS1 in San Fernando. In the Manila area there are 4 well placed receivers, Noel and Aran at Imus City F-RPLL5 and F-RPLL1 and F-RPLL4. Your coverage overlaps their coverages allowing some MLAT5 tracking of Mode-S only transmissions from aircraft.

JP, using your coordinates and GPS elevation from your sensor noted on your status page I entered into a new panorama showing your theoretical receiver range. The results are below with the Visibility Cloak turned off and Up in the Air enabled.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5813[/ATTACH]

Logging in to the FR24 map page you are allowed to configure the map and include radar filters which I suggest F-RPLB1 and MLAT5. Your receiver is tracking more than appears on the map since so many stations overlap you but you will see aircraft tracked by you when other receivers tracking the same contact are out of coverage. Tracking representation on the map is very fluid so you may only catch a glimpse of contracts actually tracked by you.

Getting back to your receiver status page I notice you are not using a basestation program as noted by the RAW FEED [30334]....Connected: 0

I would suggest installing either ADSBscope or Virtual Radar Server to use the port 30334. The basic instructions for VRS are here. These programs record in realtime the aircraft your receiver is tracking and provide a historical view of the range plot. See the demo in my signature.

PJ welcome to this motley group. [ATTACH=CONFIG]5814[/ATTACH]

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

Yes, you can call me JP . Thanks for the welcome on this FR24 PH Group. I already noticed that radar feeders when I always check for aircraft on Philippine airspace and they are the one who tracked the specific plane. I wish someday we could all meetup.

I already installed Virtual Radar Server, but it seems it can't detect the aircraft on my feeders.

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[SirJhayPhee]

Update:
I already fixed the problem and now working

Untitled.jpg

Here is also my other receiver from PlaneFinder.net

geplugin 2015-03-26 09-26-24-30.jpg

[SirJhayPhee]

These are the images of my receivers.

IMG_0898.jpgIMG_0899.jpgIMG_0900.jpgIMG_0901.jpgIMG_0903.jpg

[paradiselost]

Update:
I already fixed the problem and now working

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5818[/ATTACH]

Here is also my other receiver from PlaneFinder.net

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5817[/ATTACH]

JP for the PlaneFinder the port number you use for VRS is 30054. The IP address is what your network has assigned for that receiver. Remember to TEST THE CONNECTION to see if it can connect BEFORE clicking the OK.
Once both are working use the MERGED FEEDS to plot on the same map.

Name the receivers with a short name like FR24-Sub and PFinder-Sub which can be displayed in the List area showing which contact is being tracked by which receiver and also can be selected to show the callsign, route and receiver if desired on the map.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

[SirJhayPhee]

PJ for the PlaneFinder the port number you use for VRS is 30054. The IP address is what your network has assigned for that receiver. Remember to TEST THE CONNECTION to see if it can connect BEFORE clicking the OK.
Once both are working use the MERGED FEEDS to plot on the same map.

Name the receivers with a short name like FR24-Sub and PFinder-Sub which can be displayed in the List area showing which contact is being tracked by which receiver and also can be selected to show the callsign, route and receiver if desired on the map.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

I'm getting Bad Messages for Plane Finder receiver using the port you've said.

Untitled.jpg

[SirJhayPhee]

New merged receivers website for the whole Philippines.

paradiselost and I managed to create a new centralized website for all the feeders in the Philippines.

right now we have:

FR24-SUB - Olongapo City, PH
FP-SUB - Olongapo City, PH
FR24-DGT - Dumaguete City, PH


you can visit it here: Radar Center

[North Borneo Radar]

These are the images of my receivers.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5828[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]5829[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]5830[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]5831[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]5832[/ATTACH]

Very nice. It looks like your place is quite clear of obstructions. Welcome to the forum btw!

Hi davaospotter,

Just to say your POC should hear back from FR24 today already for the 2nd step. He should know already if he checked his email.

Noel,

Enjoy your upcoming vacation.

NBR,

Application for FR24 Box for review and pending for approval as per advice by POC. Hope this can be escalated by higher ops.

Thanks

Hi Davaospotter,

Just to update you, FR24 is waiting for your POC to complete the 'more information' step. Olov himself has emailed the applicant but I have no idea what they have discussed. We hope to see a receiver or two at Puerto Princesa soon hope your POC complete the 2nd step when he is able and we await some good news for coverage over there.

[SirJhayPhee]

Very nice. It looks like your place is quite clear of obstructions. Welcome to the forum btw!

Thanks for the welcome