FlightAware ADS-B

[Oliver Gigacz]

It looks like FlightAware has finally started crowdsourcing ADS-B data...

http://flightaware.com/adsb/

You can now supply FlightAware with your own feed direct or via PlanePlotter. Then with your stats you can compete and collaborate with others.

It seems a few people are already supplying FlightAware from Australia, but no one from Victoria or Central Australia.

http://flightaware.com/adsb/coverage

Of course FlightAware's coverage of Australia is already comprehensive, but having a backup ADS-B seems like a great idea.

[Geoff G]

I've just set up my unused secondary feed from Planeplotter to send to FlightAware...
Central Australia (YBAS) should be online soon......

[Oliver Gigacz]

FlightAware are now requesting feeders from Melbourne and Cairns. If become a feeder, you will get a complimentary Enterprise Account.

http://flightaware.com/adsb/

[Oliver Gigacz]

Looks like Carins now has a feeder. Melbourne is now the only major city not to have a feeder, if anyone in Melbourne has an ADS-B feed you may want to look at the link below.

http://flightaware.com/adsb/

[Noel White]

Melbourne now back on line with a feeder to Flightaware

[Grahame Hutchison]

Hi Noel, I started to feed FlightAware on the 16th November 2013, and have moved up the global rankings from 195 to 140 place in 6 days (the rankings are based on a month). From the transmission data we receive, I think that around 50th place is where I will end up after a month.

[Noel White]

Grahame, I see you have been located at Palm Beach. Somehow I have two entries, most likely because had to changed PP sharer code due to PC rebuild.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Hardly an aerodrome Noel, YPLB is just a wharf at Palm Beach for the DHC Beavers and Cessna Caravans to pick up / unload passengers after landing in Pittwater. However it is closer to home than YSSY and YSBK.

[Grahame Hutchison]

After 18 days I have now moved to 85 place in the FlightAware ADSB rankings, and the 3rd largest feed from Australia. Guessing that I will end up around 50th in the global rankings - hard to compete with the number of movements in Europe and the USA.

http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/FlightAware 20131203B.JPG
http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/FlightAware 20131203.JPG

[Oliver Gigacz]

Wish we had someone like you feeding down in MEL.

[Grahame Hutchison]

I just moved into 72nd Place on the FlightAware ADS-B global rankings, and am now the largest Australian feeder of ADS-B data for FlightAware.

Final ranking should be in the 50s, as there is still another week of ADS-B data to add, before I have a full months data supply for a more accurate average.

http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/FlightAware%2020131209A.JPG
http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/FlightAware%2020131209B.JPG

[Grahame Hutchison]

After 30 days of feeding ADS- B data to FlightAware, it looks like I should sit at about 54th in the global rankings, and the largest Australian contributor.

http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/FlightAware%2020131215A.JPG
http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/FlightAware 20131215.JPG

[Mark T]

Not for long Grahame ;)

After 30 days of feeding ADS- B data to FlightAware, it looks like I should sit at about 54th in the global rankings, and the largest Australian contributor.

http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/FlightAware%2020131215A.JPG
http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/FlightAware 20131215.JPG

[Grahame Hutchison]

Hi Mark,

Are you listed twice in the FlightAware rankings (63rd and 169th places) ?

You look like ending up in the forties position wise, but like me, it will be hard to move forward from there with all the European and US competition.

[Mark T]

Hi Graham

Yes they are both me. The second one is the laptop which only gets out occasionally.

Yes, we will never be able to compete with the Europeans or the US (or Middle East/Asia for that matter). It is a similar problem to the QF problem - we are at the "end of the line", so to speak :-)

Still, a lot of fun - I may speak to you about your DPD if you don't mind as we are having a loft extension planned and I would like to upgrade.

Cheers
Mark

[Grahame Hutchison]

Happy to answer any questions you have Mark.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Well done with the FlightAware rankings Mark, looks like you may get down to around 40th Place. The low 50's is where I look like ending up.

[Mark T]

Thanks Grahame. Look forward to catching up on Friday afternoon.

[Henning S]

Hey guys,

I just saw your posts about FlightAware and am now feeding to it as well. Have you already created a feeding crew team that I could join?

[Mark T]

Hi Henning

Not as yet, but might look to do so in the next few days, so will post here once set up.

Cheers
Mark

[Henning S]

Hey guys,

I have created a flight crew with the name "YSSYForum" today. Let's see how high we can get in the crew rankings together!

Just search for the Flight Crew "YSSYForum" on FlightAware and join the group.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Just joined up Henning

[Noel White]

Thanks Henning. Also joined up.

[Henning S]

Hey Noel, I have accepted your request in the morning. The three of us (Grahame, you and me) are already on place 4. Let's see where we end up once Mark accepts my invitation to the team.

[Mark T]

Hey Noel, I have accepted your request in the morning. The three of us (Grahame, you and me) are already on place 4. Let's see where we end up once Mark accepts my invitation to the team.

There you go Henning - we are now #2 :)

[Henning S]

We need more people. Currently we're only #4.

[Noel White]

Notice also that the individual Sydney feeders are slipping down in the ratings. I think that it's not that we are seeing less a/c rather there are more O/S feeders in busier areas joining the ranks of FR24.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Hi Noel, My problem is the feed theough PlanePlotter dropping out - I am down to 22 days, rather than a full month, which really impacts my ranking. I have had to reset PlanePLotter sharing several times. Looks like I need to reset it again as I am not showing as LIVE FlightAware.

[Noel White]

Grahame, I see you are back on and your rating is on the up side of the ledger. Were you able to sort out PP or is it an on going problem?

[Grahame Hutchison]

I dont really have a cause for the drop out Noel, so at this stage I just stop PlanePlotter, disable Sharing, select Flightaware again as the secondary sharer, enable Sharing again and start PlanePlotter. All my other 24/7 systems running on this laptop have no problems at all with continuity of data sharing. FlightAware seem to take about 3 days to let you know the data feed has stopped.

There is a new version of PlanePlotter just released (received email notification the other day), so I will update and see how it goes.

The FlightAware numbers for my feed should be back to normal in about 7 days.

[Mark T]

Hi Grahame

That may explain my large drop off in numbers as well. I will have to download the new version as well.

Now, on another topic, how is the "SBS Project" coming along? Would be nice to try to do some MLATs again if we can get you feeding from the SBS.

Cheers
Mark

[Grahame Hutchison]

Hi Mark,

The "SBS Project" slipped off the radar (no pun intended) over the Chrishmas break, but I did think about it last week, and have it on my task list. I will let you know how I go.

[Mark T]

Hi Grahame

Sounds good. Please do let me know as I will contact PP to ensure that Master User status is still correctly setup. We had some good MLATs about 18 months ago but then dropped of as I think some sharers stopped sharing. It is great in the UK and I think better in in Melbourne. It might allow us to see a lot more GA.

On another note the latest version of PP seems to be more stable for me.

Cheers
Mark

[Grahame Hutchison]

I installed the latest version of PlanePlotter last night (V6.4.1.4), and noticed that they have changed the setup in "Sharing".

There are now standard Sharing tick boxes for FlightRadar24, FlightAware etc, with an option for one Custom sharing feed. A little more flexible than before.

[Henning S]

I had really bad problems with my TPG internet connection for about 10 months. Meanwhile I'm out of that contract and have a Telstra cable DSL connection now which runs fast (35MBit/sec) and extremely stable.
During the 10 months I wasn't really able to share my data as my connection dropped out every few minutes. But now I am sharing 24/7 again from my SBS-3. So maybe that will slightly improve the MLATs already.

[Matt R]

I finally got my ADS-B receiver mounted on the roof. It's a PoE powered Raspberry Pi with a USB DVB-T stick mounted in a weather-proof box mounted just under the roof, with a 1090mhz.com (http://h2204566.stratoserver.net/SmartStore.NET/de/pcb-1090-mcx-antenna-for-ads-b-usb-dongle#.Uu319bT09JM) antenna mounted a couple of metres above the roof. Location is near Long Bay beach, Auckland. I've got hills basically all aroudn me, but I'm still surprised at the coverage I'm seeing.

RPi in enclosure (https://www.dropbox.com/s/pfo0n1vx7qwshhm/2014-02-02%2010.43.41.jpg) Roof (west) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/qbu80qxfy6w52sr/2014-02-02%2010.45.10.jpg) Roof (north) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/m14mpb40d6no8ap/2014-02-02%2010.45.25.jpg)

I'm feeding to both FR24 and Flightaware.

[Henning S]

Hey Matt,
I have just approved your request to join the YSSYforum team on flightaware. Welcome :-)

[Matt R]

We need more people. Currently we're only #4.

We should move into #3 in a day or two. But we'll soon be overtaken.

[Mark T]

Good evening all

I have my PP working again at apparently full capacity so I am hoping we will see some MLATs again. I will ask John at PP if he can turn on Auto MLAT again for the Sydney area, so would appreciate if Henning, Kurt, Noel and hopefully Grahame (and anyone else) can share their raw data this weekend to see if we can see a few MLATs.

BTW, Henning what is your approx location?

Cheers
Mark T (sharer EW)

[Henning S]

Hi,

I am feeding 24/7. So I will also be feeding this weekend.
My approx. location is Coogee.

(sharer zA)

[Mark T]

Thanks Henning - will look out for your feed :-)

[Noel White]

Mark, just to confirm I'm "GP" and sharing non curfew hours. Location lower Hills District. Seeing plenty of your "EW" plots this morning. :-))

There were a few MLATs about earlier, so things are on the improve.

Grahame if you need some help with your SBS project (BaseStation & PlanePlotter) to get it up and running, don't hesitate to give one of us a call.

That goes for any of the other PP sharers in the Sydney basin who want to get on the MLAT bandwagon.

[Steve McGinley]

Guys I am the SMU for Sydney area (vP), and based on stats from yesterday we had 69 auto mlats, normally its been under 10, if any at all, for a 24 hour. So something has improved heaps.

Steve

[Mark T]

Hi Steve

John at PP advised that he had lost your link, so you may not have been sharing, so he has temporarily made me SMU, but happy for you to be SMU if you are running 24/7. Let me know.

Cheers
Mark

[Steve McGinley]

Hi Mark

If you want SMU by all means you can have it. But it looks like I still am. This morning I am seeing Sector MU raw reports almost up to 1,000, whereas recently it was down to a couple of hundred, which generated 0 fixes.

I have been online 24x7 except for a blue screen (bloody USB server) which happened the other day when I was at work. I have also resorted to restarting PP every morning, due to some recent postings about SMU connection problems.

Would be good to see a map, which you can read, exactly where the SYD feeders are.

We are generating mlats this morning.

Steve

[Steve McGinley]

Something is working well now, in the 4 hours since 6am, we have had 127 auto fixes.

Steve

[Mark T]

Hi Steve

Great to see this improvement - now just need a few more sharers. Also I have just sent you a PM.

Cheers
Mark

[Noel White]

Good to see the auto MLATs are up and working well.

Thanks to those who are participating in the project. It's been a long time to get this up and running so well. Thanks especially to the Sydney SMU, whether it's Steve or Mark.

[Steve McGinley]

Noel

It appears its both of us at the moment, not sure how that works, not sure how all this auto mlat stuff works under the hood, but something is working well at the moment.

Lets hope it stays that way.

Steve

[Matt R]

Would be good to see a map, which you can read, exactly where the SYD feeders are.


Not a map, but you can build a map with it.
http://g4est1.no-ip.org/MyWeb/g4est/sharerdb/phpscripts/sharer_db_published.php

[Donald H]

That 'mapping' appears to be very inaccurate judging from my own position. Of course there are good reasons for not giving very accurate coordinates.

PPs own GPX overlay is good enough to see where approximate positions are & give sharing status as well (SMU,GS etc) if you look at the sharer's map.

http://www.coaa.co.uk/sharerlocations.php

http://www.coaa.co.uk/pp-user-charts.htm

[Donald H]

I take that back! It seems I needed to restart GE before getting an 'accurate' fix (I changed settings to Decimal Degrees which in the past seemed to be instantaneous). In any case it is about on par with PPs own maps & GPX overlay.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Hi Mark, We are running neck and neck over the last 30 days on the FlightAware global rankings. Interesting that we are both so close on Aircraft Seen, but I seem to be reporting four times more aircraft Positions (maybe I am tracking each aircraft for longer?). Our YSSY Forum Flight Crew is currently ranked 5th in the world.

Do you have the Mode-S codes for the YSSY vehicles ?

http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/FlightAware 20140425.jpg

[Col H]

YSSY Forum[/B] Flight Crew is currently ranked 5th in the world.


Hello all.

I'm new to this forum. I have recently started sharing my ADS/B data on Flightaware. I'm located in Western Sydney and my aspect to the east towards the coast is not great but I do pretty well to the N/W with the home-brew antenna I'm using.

How can I join the YSSY Flight Crew? My username on Flightaware is hadoman.

Thanks.

Col

[Col H]

I have been experimenting a fair bit with the antenna setup but I think I can average around 950 aircraft each day from my main site.

[Donald H]

Hello all.


How can I join the YSSY Flight Crew? My username on Flightaware is hadoman.

Thanks.

Col

Look here...message #21. http://yssyforum.net/board/showthread.php?t=9535&page=3 .

[Nigel C]

Do you have the Mode-S codes for the YSSY vehicles ?

Which vehicles were you after Grahame?

[Grahame Hutchison]

Some ground vehicles now show up nicely on FlightRadar 24 but with no ID - ARFF and Safety would be nice Nigel, if that is permitted.

[Col H]

Thanks Donald.

I have submitted an invite request.


Col

[Nigel C]

Some ground vehicles now show up nicely on FlightRadar 24 but with no ID - ARFF and Safety would be nice Nigel, if that is permitted.

Here's just a few from what I can see around the place. There are a lot more than these, and I'm sure someone else has a list going somewhere.

7CF452 - Car 4
7CF44E - Car 5
7CF441 - Car 9
7CF447 - Car 11
7CF449 - Car 66
7CF45C - Truck 39
7CF45A - Tractor-1 (slasher)
7CF459 - Tractor-2 (slasher)
7CF47E - Mower 4 (ride-on)

I'm not sure about the ARFF ones.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Thanks Nigel, much appreciated.

[Mark T]

Hi Nigel

How doe the Car numbers work? Are they assigned daily, weekly? I have seen letters on the cars eg:

7CF450 Car L
7CF452 Car B

Cheers
Mark

[Easton S]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here on the forum and I set up an ADS-B feeder less than a week ago with an RTL-SDR USB dongle. I'm using the dongle's stock antenna next to the window at my house in the southern suburbs of Sydney.

Unfortunately, the neighbours' houses block my line of sight to the NW and SE as the antenna's not up high enough, and there's a slight ridge for the 180 degrees in between those two compass points also. Between the other 180 degrees, however, my range is quite good, and I get reception out almost to Parkes, Young, Canberra and Moruya (around 275 km/150 nm). I'm surprised that the tiny bundled antenna pulls in signals from so far away. I've attached a screenshot from Virtual Radar Server with my range plot – each circle is 30 km.

My next step, hopefully, is to get the antenna onto the roof so that I can get unobstructed views in all directions. Unfortunately, getting a higher gain antenna is out of my budget at the moment.

I'm currently sharing in Planeplotter as 'jn' and on Flightaware as 'eastons'.

[Easton S]

Would be good to see a map, which you can read, exactly where the SYD feeders are.

I have made a map using Google Earth (see attachment). :)

If anyone knows who ed, vl or xz are, I can add them to the map.

[Robert.M]

I'm not in Sydney but share ADS-B from Wagga.

I host a FR24 receiver (F-YSWG1) which has a great range for it to be located in a valley (~190 AMSL) and also picks up GND AC on the runway and on the taxiway (from the runway to around the disused control tower). I can't share the FR24 box data.

With FlightAware (YFDN), I've brought my RTL2832U/R820T USB dongle (using a DIY coax collinear antenna) back online with the use of a laptop but soon to be Raspberry Pi. The range is less (north is worse), a lot slower as well and doesn't pick-up GND.

[Mike C]

If anyone knows who ed, vl or xz are, I can add them to the map.
I am vl.

[Nigel C]

Hi Nigel

How doe the Car numbers work? Are they assigned daily, weekly? I have seen letters on the cars eg:

7CF450 Car L
7CF452 Car B

Cheers
Mark

Hi Mark,

Sorry, I missed seeing this until just now.

Each car was assigned a letter a few years ago, but when the Vee-Lo's were introduced, the cars were then assigned a specific car number. The Vee-Lo that pumps out the code for, say Car 66, is only found on one vehicle (Car P from memory). Car L is Car 72, Car B is Car 11 (I think).

The newest cars (new livery) have been allocated a car number, clearly seen on the side of the car and bonnet. However, if one of these cars goes off-airport for maintenance, we do have spare pre-programmed Vee-Lo's which are attached with magnets and powered off the 12V car charger points. This will be the only time when the Vee-Lo won't correspond with what car you're visually looking at, although you will see there's two Vee-Lo antenna on the roof of the car.

Hope this helps
Nigel

[Easton S]

I am vl.

Hi Mike,

Sorry, I missed your post until now. I've updated the map to show your name. I've also filled in 'ed'. Only 'xz' remains unknown.

Edit: The thumbnail doesn't seem to load for me for some reason, but the full image works if you click on it.

[Easton S]

Flightradar24 have sent me one of their receivers which I've now put on my roof. Even with only a few hours of runtime so far, I have significant coverage improvement compared to my DVB-t dongle.

I've had some hits in excess of 450 km (240 NM) away. My range now gets out to around Nambucca Heads, Port Macquarie, Armidale, about 100 km beyond Tamworth, about 50km beyond Narrabri, Coonamble, around 100 km beyond Dubbo, Condobolin, West Wyalong, Temora, Junee, Wagga Wagga, Tumut, about 50 km beyond Canberra, Jindabyne, Bombala and Eden.

My range out to sea isn't so good though - only about 250 km - as I have hills and high-rises blocking my view towards that direction. I don't have anything in the south-east yet either, but I think that's just because there haven't been any flights there yet. I am also getting ground coverage - I'm under 10 km from the airport.

I've attached an image of my range after a few hours of running the receiver. The rings are 50 km apart and the outermost ring is 450 km.