PHILIPPINE RADAR FORUM

[paradiselost]

Connectivity Problems Affecting Us All

Welcome back, Uncle John! Yes, I do hope we EB sometime...

F-RPVM2 is also back on line, but intermittent connection plagues us. Apparently not an ISP problem, so it must be our setup. FR24 Support and I are still working on it. Anyone with similar problems? Here is a screenshot of our feeder's availability...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5380[/ATTACH]

FR24 Support says we have a connectivity problem and not an overheating problem as we thought previously. Notice especially the short 20-30min blackouts... Anybody with similar problem?

Gerry
F-RPVM2

I think we all are experiencing the same 15-25 sec gaps. The simple answer, like FR24 Support told Gerry, is a connectivity problem between us and the MLAT server at wro.fr24.com, half a world away.

If you use the ping program builtin to your operating system to ping -t wro.fr24.com you will see what the firmware in the receiver is experiencing when trying to call home to the MLAT server. After an few failures the firmware tries to heal itself and reconnect until it succeeds in pinging the MLAT server.

Unfortunately, since we all have the same transit to the server, our latency (ping time) is close to 500 ms in the best of times.

The MLAT server is not the same server as the one ads-b traffic is directed to from your receiver. Pinging the ads-b server at IP 83.140.21.89 has timeouts also.

It's just my humble suggestion that FR24 custom upgrade the software in our receivers to call home to the Australian servers which were put in place to overcome problems like these in Australia and New Zealand. Our routing goes through Australia anyway.

If you have updated the software in your receiver, you may have noticed that the build date reported in the log is not what you thought it should be after updating. There are builds in August, October and December. The act of rebooting the receiver either through the Status Page or a brownout rolls back the version to the August build.

Also the seeming non-fatal error libcommon read_config failed - /etc/fr24feed.ini is common during the update process.

This is all I know so far..which isn't much..but I humbly don't know everything.confused.png

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

[Mike]

We are moving more and more Asian data to an Asian server so we hope to have less network issues in the future.

[paradiselost]

MLAT Connectivity In ASIA FIXED!

Thanks to the FR24 team we have two new servers in Singapore! This like the timeout problems didn't occur overnight but due to the forward thinking of FR24, they have been working on getting servers closer to us in Singapore on a direct pipe to Europe.

The new MLAT server is sin.fr24.com and the ping -t times from the Philippines is about a steady 80 ms....WOW since the old server was about 500 ms away with timeouts. While the ADS-B traffic is still going to Europe, a new server in Singapore for that traffic is being tested. In the interim for a while it is possible our status page will show a few gaps due to the ADS-B traffic still going to the old server through Australia but since about noon UTC our receivers firmware/software has began calling home to Singapore. A variant of the November build is now loaded into our receivers and when the Singapore ADS-B server is verified another variant of the November build will be loaded with the new IP for ADS-B traffic to call home to Singapore.

We can now get ready to provide tracking of the Pope!

Thanks Olov, Mike and Muazzam for your fine work.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

[North Borneo Radar]

Thanks to the FR24 team we have two new servers in Singapore! This like the timeout problems didn't occur overnight but due to the forward thinking of FR24, they have been working on getting servers closer to us in Singapore on a direct pipe to Europe.

The new MLAT server is sin.fr24.com and the ping -t times from the Philippines is about a steady 80 ms....WOW since the old server was about 500 ms away with timeouts. While the ADS-B traffic is still going to Europe, a new server in Singapore for that traffic is being tested. In the interim for a while it is possible our status page will show a few gaps due to the ADS-B traffic still going to the old server through Australia but since about noon UTC our receivers firmware/software has began calling home to Singapore. A variant of the November build is now loaded into our receivers and when the Singapore ADS-B server is verified another variant of the November build will be loaded with the new IP for ADS-B traffic to call home to Singapore.

We can now get ready to provide tracking of the Pope!

Thanks Olov, Mike and Muazzam for your fine work.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

Interesting... a very quick update and expansion from Mike's post. Thanks John.

[paradiselost]

Thanks to the FR24 team we have two new servers in Singapore! This like the timeout problems didn't occur overnight but due to the forward thinking of FR24, they have been working on getting servers closer to us in Singapore on a direct pipe to Europe.

The new MLAT server is sin.fr24.com and the ping -t times from the Philippines is about a steady 80 ms....WOW since the old server was about 500 ms away with timeouts. While the ADS-B traffic is still going to Europe, a new server in Singapore for that traffic is being tested. In the interim for a while it is possible our status page will show a few gaps due to the ADS-B traffic still going to the old server through Australia but since about noon UTC our receivers firmware/software has began calling home to Singapore. A variant of the November build is now loaded into our receivers and when the Singapore ADS-B server is verified another variant of the November build will be loaded with the new IP for ADS-B traffic to call home to Singapore.

We can now get ready to provide tracking of the Pope!

Thanks Olov, Mike and Muazzam for your fine work.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

The alias for the Singapore MLAT server is T-MLAT5 which now includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Taiwan. For those wishing to set a bookmark use radar T-MLAT5.

Asia used to be lumped in with Europe and the server was located in Sweden.

T-MLAT is now for Europe exclusively.
T-MLAT2 is for the U.S. and South America.
T-MLAT3 is for Australia and New Zealand.
T-MLAT5 is presently just showing aircraft in Indonesia, Malaysia, Southern Philippines and Taiwan.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

[Kailrusha]

Im Wondering if its ok to Put Both Fr24 and Other ADS-B Receiver in One OutDoor Enclosure. or its much better to separate

[Olov]

Im Wondering if its ok to Put Both Fr24 and Other ADS-B Receiver in One OutDoor Enclosure. or its much better to separate

Why would you ever need more than our receiver?

[paradiselost]

Im Wondering if its ok to Put Both Fr24 and Other ADS-B Receiver in One OutDoor Enclosure. or its much better to separate

Theoretically, it is possible but the FA receiver is a low tech device and heat doesn't have as much effect on it since it only calls home about every five to eight seconds. Clock drift doesn't affect it as much as the FR24 receiver that has to have precise timing within hundredths of a second for MLAT to work and additional heat in the enclosure could affect clock frequency.

Most of the heat generation comes from the power adapters which in an enclosed box will build up.

Since your FR24 receiver is already in an enclosed box you will discover that the cables supplied with the FA receiver are longer when connected together with the lightning arrestor allowing the receiver to be placed lower on the tower. As a practical matter, I would use separate boxes.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

[Kailrusha]

Week ago i told Olov, about asking another FR24 for my Uncle when i go to Tacloban. or maybe i my self host there event since i already have a house there. but the address for shipping is here at my Address in Southern Leyte. I just wondering if its ok i place temporary both ADS-B in same box cause i want to configure it first before mounting to Tacloban.

as you said it would be better to use separate Boxes

Right now my FR24 and AIS is Offline we haven't finish Mounting the AIS to its permanent position.

[paradiselost]

Pope Francis just took off from Columbo Sri lanka on flight ALK4111 an A340 aircraft. Follow his flight if interested.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

[paradiselost]

It looks like a 60/40% chance Pope Francis might have to cancel the Tacloban visit. The storm bearing down on Bichol and Tacloban looks similar to Ruby and will have heavy rain.

PAL Express has had extra flights this afternoon from Manila to ferry in dignitaries. By tomorrow morning landing will be difficult at Tacloban into the face of the storm.

F-RPVM1 and F-RPVO1 can track the Pal Express down to about 3,000 ft leaving us wonder what is happening on the ground. Stay close to the FR24 map and local network television to keep informed.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

[Kailrusha]

He Can always go to Cebu and Stay there for 2 Days. then have a special flight from Cebu to Tacloban

[AircraftSpotterPH]

Was The flight of Pope Francis to Tacloban visible on FR24?

[paradiselost]

Was The flight of Pope Francis to Tacloban visible on FR24?

Look for RP_C8618 that is the Popes escape flight from Tacloban. It is on the runway now. 13:07.

It is PAL not PAL Express.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete

[paradiselost]

RPC-8221 is taking off right behind.

John
F-RPVD1
Dumaguete