New Zealand Radar

[North Borneo Radar]

F-NZGT1 is still offline while we clean up after the fire.

FR24's equipment was spared (it's in a separate structure some distance from the solar shack) but power is still down until new batteries and other gear can be flown to site.

I'm really missing my ADS-B fix.


Gary

Hi Gary,

Oh gosh there was a fire? Sorry to hear about it. Must be quite stressful sorting things out. We were wondering what happened to your feed. The other observatory equipments ok? Hope things will slowly get back on track.

[Oblivian]

You had a fire up there? EEEEEK!

[BPO]

New batteries should be installed this week, weather permitting. (These are huge flooded cells, not itsy-bitsy GELs, so there's quite a bit of work involved.)

[North Borneo Radar]

You had a fire up there? EEEEEK!

Fire fighters might reach there a bit late! EEEEKK indeed!

[North Borneo Radar]

New batteries should be installed this week, weather permitting. (These are huge flooded cells, not itsy-bitsy GELs, so there's quite a bit of work involved.)

Wish I could go over and help... would be a good learning experience.

[BPO]

Fire fighters might reach there a bit late!

It's not even worth dialing 111.

Wish I could go over and help... would be a good learning experience.

Cheers anyway.

[North Borneo Radar]

I know the FR24 guys probably suspect I've sold their gear on eBay, but rest assured it'll be back in action soon. In fact, it would have been online today, were it not for the helicopter having to make an emergency landing. Yes, that's right: A fire, and then an emergency landing. Worst. April. EVA.

Anyhow, today the new 600 Ah battery banks passed their deep-discharge tests and are on charge ready to go to site, along with the new 250 Watt solar modules. Power... Powwwwerrrr!

So to Mike, Antonio and the gang, thanks for not reporting me to the cops. Yet.



Gary
BPO

Hi Gary,

Just wondering about the solar modules and their wiring. They run on DC I presume? and also on 12v? or 24v? So no inverter is needed? Correct? And the solar modules is the black one? umm... Monocrystalline i think? So the module supplies power to all your equipments? from the FR24 receiver to all you weather/astronomy kits?

Hope the heli will deliver its goods soon. The new tower you mentioned before I believe is already up?

[BPO]

Hi Gary,

Just wondering about the solar modules and their wiring. They run on DC I presume? and also on 12v? or 24v? So no inverter is needed? Correct? And the solar modules is the black one? umm... Monocrystalline i think? So the module supplies power to all your equipments? from the FR24 receiver to all you weather/astronomy kits?

Hope the heli will deliver its goods soon. The new tower you mentioned before I believe is already up?

Two 24V banks in parallel, and one 48V bank. Both the 24s and the 48 drive large inverters, but also carry some direct (24VDC and 48VDC) loads. The FR24 is powered via one of the inverters.

The solar modules are polys: It's an ideal site, as it's always above the low cloud and often above any medium stuff, so the average annual insolation rating is very high. Max. summer temp is rarely above 20 C, and usually much cooler. (Winters get down to -25 C, excl windchill.)

And the tower still hasn't been raised. I've been a little distracted recently...

[North Borneo Radar]

Two 24V banks in parallel, and one 48V bank. Both the 24s and the 48 drive large inverters, but also carry some direct (24VDC and 48VDC) loads. The FR24 is powered via one of the inverters.

The solar modules are polys: It's an ideal site, as it's always above the low cloud and often above any medium stuff, so the average annual insolation rating is very high. Max. summer temp is rarely above 20 C, and usually much cooler. (Winters get down to -25 C, excl windchill.)

And the tower still hasn't been raised. I've been a little distracted recently...

a little is definitely an understatement... bet you have been working very hard to get things back on track.

Ah right so that's how the modules are set up and also why the polys is chosen. cool stuffs... thanks for the info!

[BPO]

Ah right so that's how the modules are set up and also why the polys is chosen. cool stuffs... thanks for the info!

The Polys are what our supplier had!

Previous and existing Polys performed very well, and, since budget is always a major consideration, there wasn't a lot to be gained with Monos.

[dimsim]

Hi All - new here and wondering why I can no longer see aircraft in/around Hawkes Bay? I live on the flightpath for the WGN/CHC to NAPIER flights and was sure I could see them a couple of days ago. How does one find out if there is a receiver located in the bay somewhere? I have applied to FR24 for a receiver so will see what happens if no go, is a USB stick and reasonable alternative for a newb such as myself?

[Oblivian]

Yeah USBs are fine for the most part.

Theres receivers in AKL, WLG, New Plymouth, Napier. So should see a bit. But only those with ADSB enabled. And if Napier is offline you may not. Sometimes MLAT works and you see a few of the older 737s and ATRs/Dash8. But its up and down a bit

[dimsim]

Yeah USBs are fine for the most part.

Theres receivers in AKL, WLG, New Plymouth, Napier. So should see a bit. But only those with ADSB enabled. And if Napier is offline you may not. Sometimes MLAT works and you see a few of the older 737s and ATRs/Dash8. But its up and down a bit

Thanks for clearing that up..

One question with the DBV-T USB sticks are the standard freeview units available here all compatible with 1090mhz?

Does anyone have a good working example (hardware/software) that I could follow? I was thinking of dedicating a laptop to the task so it would have a battery backup in case of a power outage to maintain a 24x7 connection.

[YSWG]

You'll need to look for the ones that have the RTL2832U R802T (or RTL2832U E4000 [older]) chip, you could find some cheap ones on eBay but could wait for a little while if it's sent from overseas.

[Matt_R]

Does anyone have a good working example (hardware/software) that I could follow? I was thinking of dedicating a laptop to the task so it would have a battery backup in case of a power outage to maintain a 24x7 connection.

I've got a Raspberry Pi with a cheap R820T mini stick off ebay, with an antenna from www.1090mhz.com (you can buy the DVB stick from there too). Ther are plenty of guides around for setting up a Pi+DVB with fr24 (start here). Mine's a little more complex than most, as I used Power over Ethernet to let me put the whole thing outside under the antenna mast (to minimise cable length).

The most important thing is having a good location for the antenna. Indoors doesn't really work, it needs to have a good view of the sky with no close obstructions (buildings, trees, etc).